Is your Prog Collection too big?

Surrealist wrote: Music edited on a computer has zero interest to me.  I like to feel the music in a more human way.. original.. not homogenized with preconceived plugins, digital filters and quantitizing of rhythm tracks.  The compressed digital formats are even worse to my ears.  CD's are horrible.. MP3's even worse.  My collection is 100% vinyl.  I listen to every record I own from time to time.  My search for music is much more focused upon finding better copies or better pressings of the great stuff the real prog legends left behind for us to discover and enjoy.  The golden age was very prolific, and there is a lifetime of stuff to listen too if you know what to look for and where to find it. Most of the new prog I hear is either just rehashing of the old stuff, ideas and concepts.. or over produced computer manipulated garbage that dies on my ears faster than I can switch to a different recording. I don't want to have to question the honesty of a recording.  Pre digital age I don't have too.  Most all the modern vinyl releases have been simply dumped from Pro Tools onto the vinyl format.  That makes about as much sense as serving a frozen pizza at a 5 star restaurant.  I prefer the age of quality over the age of convenience.  GPS to me stands for too lazy to learn celestial navigation and topography.  Generation lazy followed by generation head down.

If you are not listening to a live performance the experience is completely inorganic and you should hang your head in shame as you feign enjoyment of a disingenuous reproduction. All recording is artistically impotent compared to the live experience. Its like auditory masturbation and makes me want to puke.

AND I'LL BE DAMNED IF THEY ARE GOING TO TAKE MY LICENSE AWAY....NOW GET OFF MY LAWN! 

Tapfret wrote: Surrealist wrote: Music edited on a computer has zero interest to me.  I like to feel the music in a more human way.. original.. not homogenized with preconceived plugins, digital filters and quantitizing of rhythm tracks.  The compressed digital formats are even worse to my ears.  CD's are horrible.. MP3's even worse.  My collection is 100% vinyl.  I listen to every record I own from time to time.  My search for music is much more focused upon finding better copies or better pressings of the great stuff the real prog legends left behind for us to discover and enjoy.  The golden age was very prolific, and there is a lifetime of stuff to listen too if you know what to look for and where to find it. Most of the new prog I hear is either just rehashing of the old stuff, ideas and concepts.. or over produced computer manipulated garbage that dies on my ears faster than I can switch to a different recording. I don't want to have to question the honesty of a recording.  Pre digital age I don't have too.  Most all the modern vinyl releases have been simply dumped from Pro Tools onto the vinyl format.  That makes about as much sense as serving a frozen pizza at a 5 star restaurant.  I prefer the age of quality over the age of convenience.  GPS to me stands for too lazy to learn celestial navigation and topography.  Generation lazy followed by generation head down. If you are not listening to a live performance the experience is completely inorganic and you should hang your head in shame as you feign enjoyment of a disingenuous reproduction. All recording is artistically impotent compared to the live experience. Its like auditory masturbation and makes me want to puke. AND I'LL BE DAMNED IF THEY ARE GOING TO TAKE MY LICENSE AWAY....NOW GET OFF MY LAWN!

Now THAT was a good post.

In answer to the main question, no, not even close. There's so much music from the last 45 years out there that I want to get a hold of it's unreal, and thats before you take into account the new music being released. I've found that no matter how good a band or album is, if you keep listening to the same things over and over again you run the risk of burning out on them. There is always something good out there that I/you've yet to come across and whether it's better or not that my old favorites is beside the point as long as I can get some kind of enjoyment from it. New worlds to discover and all that.   

^My first listening to Triumvirat's Illusions On A Double Dimple in the spring of 1985 was an unforgettable, and transcendental experience for me.

I always have a great chuckle at vinyl snobbery.  I grew up in the vinyl and cassette age. 8 tracks and reel to reels were out there but fading fast when I became a prog nut.  I'd always copy my albums to cassette to preserve the vinyl and get the portability.  Vinyl scratches and nothing takes away from the music experience like a record scratch.  I also used dbx for the cassettes, which would make a copy that sounded as good as the LP, unlike dullby.  In addition to recording whole albums, I'd also make assortment tapes.

When CDs came out they were a godsend, even despite the fact that in the early days they'd often just put the LP master on the CD and not master for the CD format, a big no no.  On a funny note, my first CD version of Marscape was actually transferred to CD by playing an LP, you can hear the needle noise at the quiet parts.

I eventually quit buying LPs and making cassettes.  I lost all my cassettes and a bunch of LPs I was going to sell in the flood of 2009.  I still have two boom boxes that can play cassettes but nothing to play in them.

Along comes the age of the MP3 or digital music files.  I was reluctant to embrace it at first.  I got my first player because it would be a great way to take my music collection with me on vacations.  I used to spend inordinate amounts of time figuring out what CDs to load into my carrying case.  Having my entire collection accessible on computer and on a portable player (currently use a Zune) is a wonderful thing.  And I can still sit down and listen to the CD if I want to enjoy the music that way.  So there, vinyl snobs.

I should also add that something else is bringing back the you have to sit down and listen or watch and listen and that is the DVD and surround sound.   I have built up a good collection of live stuff and had already built up a good VHS collection, which I have transferred most of to DVD.

On a final note anyone remember quad back in the '70's?

For those that care my collection is holding steady for a while at
1522 CDs (discs and/or titles if box sets have discs in separate jewel cases I give each disc a number)
175 DVDs and or VHS copied to DVD
172 Keeper LPs



Edited by Slartibartfast - June 03 2013 at 04:19

I grew up on vinyl and cassettes and then moved into the age of CDs, which is when I stopped buying LPs. I didn´t hop on the MP3 train immediately when it started out, but at some stage gave in, mainly for travelling purposes. Due to moving countries and continents I sold  or gave away all my LPs, however kept the CDs (ca. 500).

Now living at the southern tip of Africa I stopped buying CDs altogether and resorted to downloading new releases via itunes, band camp, etc..  As you will not find for example the lastest Spock´s Beard or Phideaux in a record store down here and ordering the disc from overseas is very expensive and will most likely get “lost” in the South African postal system, MP3 kind of remains my only way of getting my hands on Prog.

So over the last years my purchases have been predominately digital downloads, so the issue of space is not really a problem for me. I have a 160 GB iPod which hosts all my music and still has some free space left. The problem is just the quantity of music and the time left in a 24 hour day after work and family time. Why should I buy more and more and more if I even haven’t managed to listen to some of my favourite albums in over a year?

I also think the number of new Prog Bands releasing albums have just exploded over the years (something also mentioned by Andy Tillison from The Tangent in a different context). Oh, by the way, The Tanget, I actually like them but when last did I listen to them?

Just looking at the most popular artist over the last 24 hours on PA confronts me with a multitude of unknown bands: Willowglass? Dynamo Bliss? Unreal City? Nemrud? The Inner Road? Sound of Contact? Never heard of all those bands. I feel my “musical” life will not be poorer if I don´t go out and explore them and get their stuff. I rather sit down and dust off my ELP CDs which I probably haven’t touched in two years and for a change give them a spin again.

I have also over the last years developed a more critical stance against consumerism. This whole buy, buy, buy rat race is getting to me. As I don´t feel compelled to constantly go out and buy the newest phone, the newest car, the newest cloths, etc to achieve happiness, I feel I don´t need more and more music.

Edited by King Manuel - June 03 2013 at 05:54

^I feel much the same about almost everything - apart for my music that is

TheGazzardian wrote: A bunch have ended up in the closet because I ran out of space on my 'display' shelves (which is a ridiculous idea in the first place, because nobody I know has ever browsed my collection but me XD)

King Manuel wrote: I grew up on vinyl and cassettes and then moved into the age of CDs, which is when I stopped buying LPs. I didn´t hop on the MP3 train immediately when it started out, but at some stage gave in, mainly for travelling purposes. Due to moving countries and continents I sold  or gave away all my LPs, however kept the CDs (ca. 500). Now living at the southern tip of Africa I stopped buying CDs altogether and resorted to downloading new releases via itunes, band camp, etc..  As you will not find for example the lastest Spock´s Beard or Phideaux in a record store down here and ordering the disc from overseas is very expensive and will most likely get “lost” in the South African postal system, MP3 kind of remains my only way of getting my hands on Prog. So over the last years my purchases have been predominately digital downloads, so the issue of space is not really a problem for me. I have a 160 GB iPod which hosts all my music and still has some free space left. The problem is just the quantity of music and the time left in a 24 hour day after work and family time. Why should I buy more and more and more if I even haven’t managed to listen to some of my favourite albums in over a year? I also think the number of new Prog Bands releasing albums have just exploded over the years (something also mentioned by Andy Tillison from The Tangent in a different context). Oh, by the way, The Tanget, I actually like them but when last did I listen to them? Just looking at the most popular artist over the last 24 hours on PA confronts me with a multitude of unknown bands: Willowglass? Dynamo Bliss? Unreal City? Nemrud? The Inner Road? Sound of Contact? Never heard of all those bands. I feel my “musical” life will not be poorer if I don´t go out and explore them and get their stuff. I rather sit down and dust off my ELP CDs which I probably haven’t touched in two years and for a change give them a spin again. I have also over the last years developed a more critical stance against consumerism. This whole buy, buy, buy rat race is getting to me. As I don´t feel compelled to constantly go out and buy the newest phone, the newest car, the newest cloths, etc to achieve happiness, I feel I don´t need more and more music.

King Manuel wrote: TheGazzardian wrote: A bunch have ended up in the closet because I ran out of space on my 'display' shelves (which is a ridiculous idea in the first place, because nobody I know has ever browsed my collection but me XD)    .... but I enjoy it when some vistitor once in a while brouses through my "display shelves" and comments: "Strange, I don´t know any of those bands"

I live for that kind of thing.

My dad comes to visit fairly often (he lives here in Atlanta too), and he always browses through my collection for something to borrow, or sometimes I'll give him something I think he'd like.  It's inside a walk-in closet with concrete walls in the basement, so it's not the most inviting place in the house, but I think that makes it that much more mysterious.

King Manuel wrote:  .... but I enjoy it when some visitor once in a while brouses through my "display shelves" and comments: "Strange, I don´t know any of those bands"