Does anyone else do this?

[NAD613]

There's a website, www.last.fm/music, that has music you can listen to, but not download. Well, since I have several recording decks & my computer is plugged into my NAD C 340 Integraded Amp, that really isn't an issue.

What I do is record onto minidisc because I usually have to do some editing. There's a lot of dead space space while the songs are trying to download, i.e. buffering, etc. Once I record onto minidisc, I can edit out all the dead space.

Anyway, after I edit I record the music onto cassette. Let me tell you, as I'm sure you all know, analog really adds to the bass/mid-bass tones on the music; it doesn't sound nearly as thin & has a much fuller sound. Several weeks ago I recorded Steve Winwood's "Arc Of A Diver" album from last.fm onto minidisc. Last night I recorded "Spanish Dancer' and "Night Train" onto a Fuji DR-I cassette. The improved sound on the cassette is very noticeable; much fuller sounding, excellent bass. I can't wait until I get those TDK SM-X 30 minute cassettes; those songs should sound awesome on those tapes.

[Des-Lab]

There's a website, www.last.fm/music, that has music you can listen to, but not download.

There's a lot of dead space space while the songs are trying to download, i.e. buffering, etc.

Ok so I'm confused. You can or can not download? What is it like a streaming audio as opposed to individual files?

If you do that, you know that analog gives the greatest possible shot at a workaround, right?

If you can rig an RCA cord from the speaker output of your PC directly into your system (such as an auxilliary IN), you can record directly and then edit what you want on a subsequent generation, right?

[NAD613]

Ok so I'm confused. You can or can not download? What is it like a streaming audio as opposed to individual files?

If you do that, you know that analog gives the greatest possible shot at a workaround, right?

If you can rig an RCA cord from the speaker output of your PC directly into your system (such as an auxilliary IN), you can record directly and then edit what you want on a subsequent generation, right?

Yeah, it's pretty much a streaming audio kind of thing. You can't download the file, only play them, so you can't put it in your WMA, Real Audio, etc... I have my computer set up like a tape deck, with the output & inputs hooked into my int. amp. So I just record from my computer (deck 2 on my Realistic Tape Control Center) onto my minidisc (deck 1). Then, once I've edited it, I record from minidisc onto my NAD 613 (deck 3). Simple!

Just think, a lot of folks don't have any kind of stand alone recording decks anymore & can't record anything unless it's burned from a file on their computer onto a CD-R or MP3. Not very flexible, IMHO. I'm glad I had enough wisdom to hang onto all my recording gear. It was pretty much a no-brainer; I had no intention of ever getting rid of my cassette decks.

[NAD613]

Ok so I'm confused. You can or can not download? What is it like a streaming audio as opposed to individual files?

If you do that, you know that analog gives the greatest possible shot at a workaround, right?

If you can rig an RCA cord from the speaker output of your PC directly into your system (such as an auxilliary IN), you can record directly and then edit what you want on a subsequent generation, right?

Yeah, it's pretty much a streaming audio kind of thing. You can't download the file, only play them; so you can't put it in your WMA, Real Audio, etc... I have my computer set up like a tape deck, with the output & inputs hooked into my Realistic Tape Control Center. I record from my computer (deck 2 on my Realistic Tape Control Center) onto my minidisc (deck 1). Then, once I've edited it, I record from minidisc onto my NAD 613 (deck 3). Simple!

Just think, a lot of folks don't have any kind of stand alone recording decks anymore & can't record anything unless it's burned from a file on their computer onto a CD-R or MP3. Not very flexible, IMHO. I'm glad I had enough wisdom to hang onto all my recording gear. It was pretty much a no-brainer; I had no intention of ever getting rid of my cassette decks.

[niklasthedolphin]

There's a website, www.last.fm/music, that has music you can listen to, but not download. Well, since I have several recording decks & my computer is plugged into my NAD C 340 Integraded Amp, that really isn't an issue.

What I do is record onto minidisc because I usually have to do some editing. There's a lot of dead space space while the songs are trying to download, i.e. buffering, etc. Once I record onto minidisc, I can edit out all the dead space.

Anyway, after I edit I record the music onto cassette. Let me tell you, as I'm sure you all know, analog really adds to the bass/mid-bass tones on the music; it doesn't sound nearly as thin & has a much fuller sound. Several weeks ago I recorded Steve Winwood's "Arc Of A Diver" album from last.fm onto minidisc. Last night I recorded "Spanish Dancer' and "Night Train" onto a Fuji DR-I cassette. The improved sound on the cassette is very noticeable; much fuller sounding, excellent bass. I can't wait until I get those TDK SM-X 30 minute cassettes; those songs should sound awesome on those tapes.

Why not just record it digitaly on the fly through Lame or as WAV files.
Many programmes do the trick.
CDex is good for this.

Copy is never better than original.
Not even when converted from digital to analogue.
You might give the recording your favourite colouration and warmth but that is not true to the original file and therefor not better.

A lot of people think their gear is best because this colouration is suited their own hearing and mind.
Fine with me.

Another point is that if you store it digitaly first, the files are editable so all drop-outs and waiting for next song to load can be removed and the level can be normalized, equalized, panorized or whatever you like.
Doesn't really matter; the quality level of music from streaming on the web is never quality in the league of good analogue sources.

After that you can burn it on CD or record it on MC. Whatever you like.

"dolph"

[NAD613]

Why not just record it digitaly on the fly through Lame or as WAV files.
Many programmes do the trick.
CDex is good for this.

Copy is never better than original.
Not even when converted from digital to analogue.
You might give the recording your favourite colouration and warmth but that is not true to the original file and therefor not better.

A lot of people think their gear is best because this colouration is suited their own hearing and mind.
Fine with me.

Another point is that if you store it digitaly first, the files are editable so all drop-outs and waiting for next song to load can be removed and the level can be normalized, equalized, panorized or whatever you like.
Doesn't really matter; the quality level of music from streaming on the web is never quality in the league of good analogue sources.

After that you can burn it on CD or record it on MC. Whatever you like.

"dolph"

I figured it out how to record from that website onto my computer. What I had to do is plug the computer output into my aux. instead of my tape monitor control box. I can't record from the same monitor loop the playback is coming thru.

[niklasthedolphin]

Don't forget to shut down all eqipment while connecting PC to stereo and if needed you put galvanic seperation between.

"dolph"

[NAD613]

Don't forget to shut down all eqipment while connecting PC to stereo and if needed you put galvanic seperation between.

"dolph"

My computer is already plugged into my stereo. I'm just going to go back to the way I was doing it before. It was much easier just to record directly from my computer to minidisc, edit, & record to cassette.

[qubeular]

i usually bust out the md recorder when a band decides to stream a new album.

i did this with spoons ga ga ga ga ga

and when reznor decided to stream year zero.


when i had to time to spare i used to record pirate radio streams to md or hifi vhs and copy over the good songs to tape for playback in my car.

hifi vhs was good, but most decks had agc, which made the music sound slightly lifeless.

pro hifi vhs decks could work well for this if they have switchable agc.

six hours of fm modulated stereo audio with about 80db of range isnt bad in itself tho.

[Marc Hugo]

NAD, Howzit.

Last FM is excellent, there's no doubt. It is also a place to find some extremely hard to find music, or music you would not find elsewhere. It's a social music scene where members can post their favourite lists of artists and songs. Neat indeed.

Marc

[Marc Hugo]

Why not just record it digitaly on the fly through Lame or as WAV files.
Many programmes do the trick.
CDex is good for this.

Copy is never better than original.
Not even when converted from digital to analogue.
You might give the recording your favourite colouration and warmth but that is not true to the original file and therefor not better.

A lot of people think their gear is best because this colouration is suited their own hearing and mind.
Fine with me.

Another point is that if you store it digitaly first, the files are editable so all drop-outs and waiting for next song to load can be removed and the level can be normalized, equalized, panorized or whatever you like.
Doesn't really matter; the quality level of music from streaming on the web is never quality in the league of good analogue sources.

After that you can burn it on CD or record it on MC. Whatever you like.

"dolph"

Philisophically and theoretically this is true But in actual fact what you cannot do is "add improvement" during the copying process. What you can do, (once you have the recording/file) is filter out problematic elements which ultimately will have a positive effect. For instance one can eliminate the majority of odd order/masking distortion prevalent in varying amounts in digital music with analogue op amps - such as the Philips OP 0435 which is sometimes used as a record head op amp by high-end manufacturers. The effect is quite noticable in clarity, especially in the midband where human hearing is most sensitive. This is without any tweaking of eq or using pan effects as might be applied with a Rane set-up.

I fully concur with you - streaming music is almost always sonically lacking and can't fairly compare with analogue.

Cheers - MH

[stuwee]

Great *headache* I can barely use this mega powerfull machine thingie I'm typing on and ya'll are teasing me with stuff I can't even comprehend how to do, with threats that I can have great music if I just tried a little harder -noteeth- *fit* I wanna play *fit*

[NAD613]

I fully concur with you - streaming music is almost always sonically lacking and can't fairly compare with analogue.

Cheers - MH

True, the quality of those songs is hit & miss on last.fm. At least I can warm them up a little by recording them in analog. Some of the stuff doesn't sound too bad. It's a cheap alternative if you just want to listen to a song but not neccessarily buy it.