(author) Not sure, I still haven't finished cataloguing everything yet! I might make an addendum to the post once I've finished that process with a more detailed breakdown of what's included in the collection.
That was a Big Lebowski joke - Los Angeles, stolen car, missing music.
Good luck with your collection, though I hope that somehow those records can be reunited with their rightful owner.
Maybe someone wrote something on a sleeve or left some price stickers on some of them, etc. that can be used to identify it from all the other potential claimants that just want to get the music from you for free.
Oh haha, I still haven't seen The Big Lebowski yet! I suppose I should give it a try sometime.
Re: returning to the rightful owner — I certainly plan to look through them, but so far I'm thinking that most of them came from a record shop (many have little generic price stickers still on them), of which there are dozens in LA. Additionally, since they're vintage they've probably changed hands many times, and it's also unclear how long ago they were stolen.
All that said, if by happenstance I do get an opportunity to return them to their rightful owner, I'd be happy to.
You might take a look at Discogs (https://www.discogs.com/) if you're wanting to catalog everything. I had a few friends with large vinyl and CD collections that use the site as their database.
Name and shame the car company - this must have been a hyundai or kia (KN).
Those companies have been in the news for having easy to steal cars due to leaving out cheap and completely standard on all other brands anti theft stuff just to save a few bucks.
(author) It was indeed a Hyundai, and I'm guessing its vulnerability is what motivated the thief to steal my cheap car instead of any of my neighbors' six-figure cars parked next to it.
From the second I read the headline I knew that it was going to involve a Kia or Hyundai. It is utterly reprehensible that these companies were selling new cars without immobilizers as recently as last year! No layperson buying a new car would have any reason to suspect that this was the case especially when you consider that my Honda Fit (hardly a luxury ride) was equipped with one way back in 2010. Their choice to save pennies during manufacture has directly led to a staggering amount of damages to people whose only mistake was trusting a car manufacturer to do the right thing. I hope they get sued and I hope that they get taken to the cleaners.
Dunno about other countries, but in Poland they steal either total shitboxes (below 2000 PLN - around $500 AFAIR in value) or luxury cars. My friend's parents had their week-old SUV stolen from them. Then they bought another one from insurance money and it was stolen as well. Of course, no traces of the thieves...
I had a recent opportunity to overnight in Warsaw and decided against it on account of many stories like this one. Having a vehicle stolen when you're near your home is bad enough, but whilst on a trip it is on another level entirely.
But the police have demonstrated on many many many occasions that they generally cannot be bothered to return stolen items to their owners or even, given the location of a stolen item to reclaim it from the thief.
(author) Agreed. I wonder if it was motivated by them not wanting to deal with the paperwork and the (potentially impossible) investigation to try to find the original owner and return them. If I ever do find out who the original owner is (and they can prove it) I'd be more than happy to hand them back over.
I’m gonna try to condense a very long and very funny story down to a few paragraphs here.
A friend of mine is a realtor. He once was selling a house that was empty. A random package showed up at the address (correct on the package). He asked the owners if it was theirs they said no so he threw it in the back of the trunk and forgot about it for months.
Randomly while grabbing something in his trunk, he found it and was like “I should try and mail this back to the sender.” It didn’t have any return info on it so he opened it to see if there was any info inside. There was another box inside full of loose coffee beans and inside that was a metal tin. Now curious he opened the tin and found it packed full of little vials with powder in them.
He called the non-emergency police line in a bit of a panic thinking he should report what he found but they blew him off saying he should file a police report online. Not wanting to be in possession of drugs he drove it to a police station where the cop at the front desk was SO confused about what was going on and basically told him to get lost.
Finally he just decided to call it a day and threw it away in a dumpster.
And yet there are many, many people serving a decade or more in prison for possession of less.
There is no case to avoid drug law reform, disagree on the nature of what is required but /something/ needs doing. This bullshit where there is nothing like the rule of law and equality before it has to go. It's a cancer that eats away at society and however bad you think it is, it's actually a lot worse.
> Do you have evidence people are doing 10+ years where their only crime is possession of recreational amounts?
"only crime", a minor one at that, and three serious crimes don't match up, and is possession of recreational amounts a serious crime in any jurisdiction?
Yes. The whole point of three strikes laws were to make low-level drug offenses punishable by life in prison. It would be cruel and unusual punishment to do it for the first offense, so they made it happen after three, and the courts OKd it.
I'm going to need more than that as when I checked yesterday it was only felonies and what most people would think are actually serious crimes that were counted as strikes. The closest I could find to a "minor" crime was Rummel v. Estelle[1] where the offences totalled $230 of fraud, but the offences were felony fraud, so I couldn't find any sympathy for said fraudster, it actually reduced any possible sympathy - if you're going to do something that risky it should be for a big reward.
> If it's not a distribution-level amount of drugs I think police just don't give a fuck, especially in larger cities.
As someone who has a record over an ounce, lol.
Cops LOVE weed being illegal. Claiming to smell weed provides an easy path to justifying a search that vanishes when it becomes legal.
There are also a lot of states that have a laughably low threshold for personal use and anything above that is is legally considered to imply intent to distribute. This then opens the door for all kinds of seizures of vehicles, computer equipment, and most importantly cash in a backwards "guilty until proven innocent" scenario where the person doesn't even need to be charged with a crime to lose their property.
Not him but my friend has a record that he got last year over 0.06g (0.002116438 of an ounce, according to Google) of weed. At that amount it's less than an average breadcrumb but it was good enough to lock him up for a day and have his entire house searched.
How I explain US federalism to Germans: in 2014, an amount of marijuana that could be purchased in a nice, state-regulated shop in Colorado by anyone over 21 years old could have gotten you a $100 fine in New Mexico, and up to 6 months in jail and a $2000 fine in Texas.
The cops were doing your friend a solid. Much to the chagrin of HN, cops aren’t dumb, but can’t tell you it’s no big deal.
If they acknowledge the issue and take the stuff, there’s now a record that Mr. Sharkweek’s realtor friend surrendered a bag of heroin or whatever.
That can jam you up in a few ways. A decade later you apply for a federal job, you’ll be explaining this story to a suspicious investigator. Some jackass prosecutor or person up the chain may decide it is a big deal after all, etc. Or… they pretend not to understand you and you (and the problem) go away
If they acknowledge the issue and take the stuff, there’s now a record that Mr. Sharkweek’s realtor friend surrendered a bag of heroin or whatever.
Only if they choose to make a report saying so. However, it's easier just to shrug instead of doing any paperwork or taking on any responsibility whatsoever, so that's the action they choose.
> It didn’t have any return info on it so he opened it to see if there was any info inside.
Before reading this, I think curiosity would have gotten the better of me were I in the same situation. But the story is a good life lesson: when you come in possession of a package with no return address, there’s probably a good reason why the sender didn’t want anyone to know who sent it.
Exactly it doesn’t make sense. They are someone’s property and in my experience police follow a defined process and which would not include giving the car owner the records. Perhaps the author is omitting a crucial detail to make the story more mysterious?
(author) This was my thought as well — honestly it's still kind of my thought. The best explanation I can come up with is that the records are stolen and can't be traced back to their owner, so they can't be returned? I'm not sure. If I found out who the original owner was I'd be happy to give them up.
I don't know what standard of proof they use. Maybe it's too high and indeed impossible to be certain about the owner.
But otherwise it just looks like they don't even want to try. In a normal small community police or you would try to find out who it belongs to, not just give up. :)
It's Los Angeles police; they're lazy, and anything that involves them not doing paperwork (as they'd have to catalogue every individual record there) is right up their alley. Homeless people defecating on the Metrolink right in front of an officer? Not an eyelash batted. I see this daily.
Which is why I'm baffled when people make laws to make it harder to defend oneself, because you can "just call the police." But there's a solid chance they won't get there in time or at all, due to a variety of reasons including the above.
If you were required to catalogue hundreds of records, taking many days, instead of being out catching criminals, would you? Just on the off chance that someone wants them back?
What are you supposed to do about people who haven't got anywhere else to go to the toilet?
If you place them in custody, you might as well provide them with some basic housing that costs less than jail. They have literally nothing to lose from fines, court dates, tickets, probation. They don't have a toilet, what else are you going to take away from them.
The police are correctly judging that the need to defecate is not a criminal problem.
The question was not 'what do you do if you need the toilet?' but 'what do you do about people who haven't got anywhere to go to the toilet?'
By definition, if there is a public toilet accessible to you, or you are welcome in a restaurant toilet without paying, you have somewhere to go to the toilet.
I suspect the cop either had to keep them (and catalogue each individual record as evidence) or just let them walk and shrug his shoulders if someone can to claim them.
As others have said, it's largely all "junk", at least as far as value per record is concerned. So all they have is some stuff that _might_ have been stolen, with no knowledge of where they came from or who put them there.
So what are they to do? Put a huge stack of records in the evidence locker with no crime actually attached to them (just vicinity to another crime)? Could suck if somehow someone else could identify them and want them that was also a victim of theft, but it really would just be stashing them and hoping by rare chance someone stumbles into the lost and found.
Personally I'd rather the stack of stuff sitting in the guarded, expensive to maintain evidence locker is stuff actually tagged to a crime and relevant to solving it
i had a reply typed up about how the contents of a car shouldn't necessarily go to the police, and it would make sense that all the stuff found in a recovered car is assumed to be the posessions of the owner.
but then i re-read the article and see "and then they grab a few of the thief’s personal items from the car as evidence.". so it's not like the cops were following some policy that all the stuff in the car should be returned to the car's owner. just the stuff they don't want to deal with
(author) I'm also curious about this, which is part of why I was hesitant to accept them at first. Many of them have price tags on them and look like they have changed hands several times, which makes me believe they are indeed stolen. My best guess is that the reason they gave them to me is because they don't know who the original owner is, and being in LA there are many, many potential candidates.
Based on the age and condition, I highly doubt they're stolen -- they're probably just trash. Maybe they were stolen from someone else who was trying to sell trash records, but I doubt they were stolen from anywhere legit unless it was from the dollar bins that a record store uses to make a little bit of money off of essentially trash. You may find some that are nice to have/listen to, but you probably won't find anything valuable (to a record store).
I've picked up crates of much better condition records as trash before, with many great records that could have been sold for OK prices, if the person throwing them away knew where to sell them and wanted to bother with it. But a lot of people/places just don't want to even both with it. Best prices come from selling them one by one on a site like like discogs, but that takes a lot of time and effort. If you bring them into a record store that buys used records, they'll either take a few they think they can sell (paying you a fraction of what they intend to sell it for) and tell you to keep all the rest, or they'll take the whole thing (again paying just a fraction for the few they want) and treat the others as bargain/dollar bin stuff or just throw them away.
(Some of my favorite things I've found in crates of thrown-away records: some Sergio Mendes records (some were bland, but some were awesome), various new wave 80s records by people I'd never heard of but were fun to listen to, LOTS of good classical recordings.)
Ah, makes sense. I do music production on the side, so I'm really hyped about these even if they do mostly turn out to be trashy — "it's not low-quality, it's ~~vintage~~". Plus, the unplayable ones make great wall art!
I'm very excited to find some unique pieces to chop up! I don't work with samples too often, so I guess this is the universe's way of telling me I should start doing it more!
The cops gave you a problem. They gave you something that was not theirs to give.
If it had been me then I would have said "great, now I have to go and get legal advice". I would have refused them.
But at the same time what am I supposed to do? Unload them in the impound lot and drive away? That'd piss off the cops, who could possibly fine me for flytipping.
It's a shitty position for the cops to put you in.
Presumably they could ask the car thief where the records came from if they caught him, but it seems likely that the police found the car but have no idea who stole it. In which case, the records are just random objects with no identifiable owner.
(author) They actually arrested the record-dealer out of the car, so they do know who was selling them. Still possible that the seller got them from a middleman or a chain of middlemen though.
Have you considered posting on Craigslist (or Facebook or similar) to see if anyone in the area just had a bunch of records stolen -- and could name some of the ones not obviously pictured in your blog post?
Sure, they might objectively be junk, but they also might be somebody's junk, and returning it to them may make them very happy.
Legal specifics or requirements aside for the moment, I for one would not feel obligated to contact anyone who stole my car to deal with these records. There are risks here that I would not be comfortable with in this scenario. I would not initiate or consent to any meeting with this person or their representatives.
Wild guess: there's just too much stuff that they get back that they don't have the time nor the storage to handle them while original owners might never show up to get them back.
> blows my mind that a screwdriver is all it takes to bypass the lock and ignition of a car made in 2016. c’mon, is that really the best we can do?
It’s not. Ignition interlocks have been very common for at least 20 years. But there’s apparently a lot of money to be made cutting a few corners and under pricing competition by a couple hundred dollars.
(author) Yeah, as I understand it my car (a 2016 Hyundai) represents the low end of security. My original statement in the post was more intended to mean "why isn't this better regulated in 2016"
That's good. I really also hope they shook up their designs at the same time.
I probably still wouldn't buy a new one for a few years. I'd imagine thieves either don't know this, or do but can't tell model years apart clearly. Meaning there's a good chance your car may be broken into still, just not driven off with.
I wouldn’t worry about this situation in particular. Most thieves still just want to steal stuff out of your car which is still easy no matter what you drive.
I mean, pretty much every other consumer product has even worse locks. In the physical security world, locks are really only a deterrent on their own. There will always be some exploit that’s the lowest hanging fruit for thieves.
Cars are pretty dang expensive already, and in terms of benefit to society, there’s probably a lot more bang for the buck in requiring safety features that protect human life before we start worrying about property.
Ignition immobilizers have been required in Germany/UK/other European countries since the 90s and Australia/Canada in the 2000s.
It's just the US that has that regulation gap, probably because the US market in the 90s sorta self-regulated to include it on everything so mandating it's requirement after the fact might've felt silly.
I guess the moral of the story here is there's always a corporation willing to break norms for profit.
The US lacking basic regulation that Europe has had for decades sadly does not surprise me in the least. There are a lot of things I love about living in the States, but this kind of thing is not one of them.
US resident visiting the EU at the moment. It’s indeed enjoyable to be in the highly-regulated EU in many ways. I think it makes their typical crowded city more practically livable than the equivalent in the US.
But I also like being back in the states where the government doesn’t seem to meddle with daily life quite as much.
Collectively, the EU is probably better, especially in crowded cities. Individually, it’s not so clear.
As two examples: it could easily be collectively more convenient if individuals had fewer rights and less privacy.
The US right to free speech is inconvenient at times for the collective. (I have no interest in hearing pro-Nazi speech. I have even less interest in living under a government with the power to ban that speech or other unpopular speech.)
When I lived in Germany, I had to register my address with the local government and update it quickly if I moved. In the US, I can move without reporting it to the local government. I’m sure there’s some collective benefit to the local police having a fairly accurate record of where everyone is regularly sleeping. Individually, I’m not interested in being obligated to share that information.
I believe the US approach is better, but I acknowledge that’s in large part because I was raised/indoctrinated to believe that.
Well, neither of those are local government which the parent comment referenced. Even if we did report moving to our local government, the IRS or USPS won't necessarily get that information.
The IRS gets our address because most people are required to file their tax returns, and we put our address on those forms.
The USPS doesn't need to find anyone. They just deliver to the address on an envelope. If the person isn't there, it's the sender's problem. You can however voluntarily tell the USPS you've moved, and they'll forward your mail for a period of time.
You are actually supposed to notify the USSSS (for the draft) within 15 days if you are a man between the ages of 18 and 27, but I assume most people don't.
I'd say a significant majority of people do, but inadvertently.
Only 8 states don't require USSSS registration before obtaining an ID/driver's license and would automatically register (CA, CT, IN, NE, OR, VT, WA, WY), and of those, Washington and Indiana still automatically register unless there is an explicit opt out.
It's also a requirement for consideration of financial aid or in-state tuition for college, so many public universities won't allow application without proof of USSSS registration first and also helpfully auto-register on application or during enrollment.
My experience in CA is public high school would refuse to even award a high school diploma if you're 18 by graduation and didn't register and would also auto-register on your behalf if no explicit opt out was given. Funnily enough, mine registered me in the 30 days _before_ I turned 18.
The EU as a whole has different priorities with their regulations but they’re not always more strict. It depends. Last time I was over there I was surprised by a couple of the things I saw that would be ADA, fire code, health code, or OSHA violations back home.
They weren’t anything too substantially significant, but neither is a Hyundai ignition key.
Random Springsteen fact: Hungry Heart was sped up slightly so he sounds higher-pitched. I've heard a bunch of different reasons why it was done, not sure if there's a confirmation anywhere.
(author) Yeah! I didn't know what those were, but my mom was able to identify them when I FaceTimed her to show her the collection. I might eventually try to find a way to play them.
Judging by the condition of the records shown in the picture, and by the description of the records as "late-70's to mid-80's", a not particularly collectible vinyl era that produced mass amounts of low-grade (thin) vinyl, I would bet these records are not worth much. You would be lucky to find any gems in those crates.
(author) Most of them are in pretty rough shape, too. Covers disintegrating, warping, dust, etc. A couple are even cracked. That's why my current plan is to hang on to them, catalogue them, maybe give a few away to friends and family as birthday presents — and of course, if the rightful owners are ever found, return them. Selling them just seems like a really big hassle, honestly they'd have to be worth a few bucks apiece for me to consider dealing with all the logistics of it.
Wound up being ~1200 bucks because they had to fully replace the lock, the ignition, and the battery. Also because they charged me 120/hour for labor, but what can I say—LA repairs for LA prices! I also didn't spend time getting competing quotes from different shops, so it's totally possible they charged me way more than market rate, but at the end of the day I have my car back and I am fortunate enough to still be able to pay my bills so it all worked out in the end.
so it's totally possible they charged me way more than market rate
At $120? Any software dev in LA with any experience is probably at $75/hour, and they don't have to outfit an entire shop with compressors, lifts, and pricey alignment racks. At $120 in Southern California, you ought to be crowing about the deal you got.
It reminds me when I was a pro mechanic years ago, and the biggest whiners about the hourly rate were doctors and lawyers. Excuuuuse me, Mr. Bills-at-Twice-the-Rate-I-Do?
At the end of the day, I didn't care too much about price because they did good work, were friendly, and got me my car back! You're right, highly skilled labor like mechanics work has the right to command higher rates.
I am trying to compare them. I know the software dev might not be as high, but it is directly comparable and can be expressed in USD for easy comparison.
My dev machine was about 5k, and I will build another one in another 3-4 years. My tablet was 1.5k. My phones for dev purposes are numerous and run 5-800 each. These get replaced every year or three. My primary laptop was 3k, I will buy another in another 3-4 years. My secondary laptop was 1k, it will probably last 4-5 years. My monitors were 1.5k each. I’m sure I’ll use those for 6-7 years. I have three. My test server was 5k. I will probably build a new one in 5-7 years. My sit/stand desk was 1k, my chair was almost 1k. Etc, etc… All of my tools are expendable on a much shorter time table than your mechanic tools.
dallas / ft worth you pay about $125 an hour for shop labor.
lot's of places have a placard with a $200 rate, but they never charge that much. (replaced headlights, they broke a wire, spent all morning on the car, cost was $250 in labor).
at least my experience, dealing with independents. i am sure a dealer has no shame on the rate and the hours.
I would go so far as to say it isn't worth your time to catalog them. If you can find a 2nd-hand record store that will take them, accept whatever they offer. Otherwise, throw them out. Don't hoard them in your home beyond the point where the novelty of it wears off.
The novelty is still pretty darn strong for now, so I'm planning on keeping them for a bit. I also do music production as a hobby, and am really looking forward to finding obscure/lesser known records and sampling them in my own songs! I figure eventually I'll get rid of most of them one way or another, but I'm not in any rush.
If they even make an offer. When my dad died a few years ago, I combed through his considerable music CD collection for stuff I wanted (not very much), then tried selling the rest to a 2nd-hand store. They didn't even make an offer---the guy said "This is, hands down, the worst CD collection I've ever seen." He refused to let me throw them away in the nearby dumpster. Ouch.
There's a company called Seamzeazy that sells adhesive sleeve repair patches, but they're fundamentally just creased cardstock with double-sided tape.[1]
Discogs is a decent and easy-enough resource for checking if any of them are notable. There are often etchings in the runout (the inner groove near the label) that you can search for on Discogs to identify specific pressings. You can also sell through Discogs, but it sounds like you're leaning toward keeping them and LA is full of local shops that would buy or take them.
A record clamp can mitigate warping without costing a ton, though it won't work miracles.[2]
There's also always using the long-gone ones as wall art.[3]
So there is no info or post-it notes on any of the record sleeves that indicate the original owner? No markings or perhaps labels indicating where the records were purchased?
I'm guessing maybe the police didn't want to deal with storing all these boxes, taking up space while waiting for someone to claim them.
(author) I think your guess is probably correct. So far I haven't found any traceable ownership markers, but if I do, I will make an effort to return them. I suspect that the records may have been stolen from multiple sources given the high variation in preservation. I also feel it's probable they've been stolen for some time now because of how poorly they appear to have been treated — disintegrating covers, melted records, cracks, etc.
Assuming you've made a good-faith effort to find the owners of the records, congrats on the haul! Takes a bit of the sting of the theft out I hope.
Some advice for you is to sell off those records you know you don't like and use the proceeds to fund a basic record washing machine. That will make a big difference to your enjoyment of the albums you keep. That lot looks old and gnarly and you'll want to get the dirt out before it gunks up your stylus. Brush alone won't do it and you have too many to comfortably do by hand.
Otherwise I assume you've followed the steps to set up your turntable properly and balance the arm rather than just plugging it in and using it? Get that (badly) wrong and you can really make a mess of the records.
(author) I've only tried out a few records so far, and that was last night when I set it all up for the first time. I didn't think to re-calibrate the turntable because the seller told me that it had been serviced by the previous owner, but it's probably a good idea to double check anyways.
Many vinyl aficionados are horrified that I use dish soap. They'll recommend some super-expensive formulation. The dish soap and a few seconds rubbing with your fingertips will take the grease, dog hair, mold, and other nasty stuff right off.
(I mean liquid dish detergent, meant for handwashing dishes. The powder stuff will scratch.)
You'll still need to pick the fuzz off of your needle now and then. I make a little brush for that by tearing the corner off a sheet of paper.
It's like that Special Magic VHS Head Cleaner Fluid. I sniffed it, and it smelled just like isopropyl alcohol. I've been refilling it with iso alky ever since, and it works great.
I use iso alky on a cotton ball to clean the scanner all the time, too.
It absolutely is IPA. The pro stuff is usually especially high-purity (99.8%+) but nothing all that special. The only special thing worth getting for tape heads, capstans, transports, and CD/DVD laser lenses is a lint-free swab with a more square head than a q-tip.
Dish soap is fine on vinyl records, but use distilled water. The "residue" is more likely to come from unfiltered tap water than soap. And let them air dry completely before re-sleeving them because they can and will grow moldy, especially if the records are put away wet with paper sleeves.
You don't need a fancy brush for cleaning the stylus, but a polyurethane gel pot is even easier to use (just dip the stylus tip in it), more thorough, and trivial to clean.
And a cartridge/stylus upgrade, which for this setup probably doesn't need to be anything more than an $80 Ortofon Red and could easily be less. AFAICT this Pioneer has a replaceable cartridge.
I think the cartridge on my turntable may have already been replaced, but I'm not sure. The previous owner said it was her ex's and that he'd serviced it when he owned it, and the current cartridge is a Grado, which I understand is a reputable brand? I've still obviously got a lot to learn about vinyl haha.
I don't soak them. The only time I've had a problem with a label is some really old ones from the forties where the ink may run.
I just wet it under the kitchen faucet, put a drop of palmolive on it, rub it in the direction of the grooves with my fingertips, rinse it, shake the drops off, lean it against something vertically to dry.
Nobody believes it's that simple, but it is. I've cleaned many hundreds of used records that way. It's just a piece of plastic.
I believe ya, was just trying to visualize how to do it without ruining the label. Too bad 33s don't have a nice place for a finger like 45s and CDs do.
I have lots of stuff that I have ripped from vinyl to digital because they never made the just to digital. I am not a purist, so keeping the vinyl and playing it from vinyl isn't my preference, just saving some of my favorite albums so I can keep listening to them.
I'm no purist, either. But I'll buy a box of old vinyl for a pittance now and then, just to spin them up and see what's on them. I've been well-rewarded with some real gems, like Maurice Andre's Trumpetissimo. It's so beautiful it gives me chills. I never would have expected that.
I was 22 when CD first came out and didn't get a player or any CDs until I was 25. I've still got a bunch of vinyl I bought before that. What would it take to digitize those?
Obviously, I'll need a turntable. Can I simply get a turntable that has L and R line out, connect that to two of the line in inputs on my audio interface (a PreSonus AudioBox iTwo) and record L and R from the turntable as two tracks in any handy DAW (probably GarageBand), split those tracks up to match the song splits on the LP, mix corresponding L and R (with the L track panned all the way left and R track panned all the way R) and export those?
From what I've read, the only potential gotcha here is that you might need to add in a phono preamp in between the turntable and the audio interface. But I am very much a beginner so don't take my word for it!
My dad bought a USB turntable which worked great with Audacity. I'm not sure which model or brand it is, but there are lots available. He didn't bother splitting the tracks as he is happy to just listen to whole albums, but that would probably be fairly easy to automate if you had a lot to do. Will that audio interface you have keep the two inputs as separate channels? Seems more likely it would mix them into one mono channel (on my similar interface the left and right outputs are the same unless you have a stereo signal coming from USB).
They're from a short film [0] I made a while ago — I made up an alternative alphabet to use in part of a scene and had it taped to the wall in another, and then I just never took it down!
I had my car stolen from an apartment complex garage in like 1991. Sure it sucks to have my car stolen but the only irreplaceable thing was 36 mix tapes that were in the car. Guess that's an issue that no longer exists :P
Don't let these guys bully you into thinking you need to play Shirlock and solve the case of missing junk you didn't steal. No good deed goes unpunished and all that. Enjoy the tunes.
I used to buy/sell junk stuffs in nyc. I would doubt this is a stolen collection from the pics posted.
Looks like a classic dump of the non-valuable lps from a larger collection. Maybe a dealer already bought the good stuff and the relatives of a deceased family put it on the curb, maybe a record store dumped it on the curb, maybe someone even drove by skid row and offered it for free because it was discarded.
Wash Your Hands! And clean the records and sleeves thoroughly. The ripped and torn sleeves look like they've been chewed by mice... (in the biz we called it "rodentia scarring" or something equally fanciful)
If you haven't owned speakers like that before, you should also try connecting a computer or phone to the Tape1/CD input. An RCA to 3.5mm jack cable shouldn't cost more than $5.
There are also devices to connect to that input which you can stream to, with Bluetooth or Wifi or similar. I have two Chromecast Audio things, but Google discontinued them.
Ooh, will have to give this a whirl. The guy who sold them to me was very enthusiastic about how well they'd served him over the years so I'm excited to get them wired up once my wire arrives tomorrow.
Another thing to consider: head over to your local Goodwill and snag a cheap-ass CD player and a few CDs. I don't know your experience with audio but I used a similar set of speakers for years to stream music through Spotify, and the difference in audio quality between streaming and a CD blew me away. HQ audio files that you have locally will work just as well.
Another upvote for Discogs - just be aware that there are many pressings of the same record so you will want to actually look at the matrix and runout codes in the "dead wax" which is the innermost smooth part of the vinyl. Anything that you want to salvage can be deep cleaned with a "spin clean" or like I do, with an ultrasonic tank cleaner.
A warning - this can actually become a hobby. Don't get wrapped up in high dollar modern pressings unless there is something you absolutely have to have. The world is still bursting at the seams with old records that are new to you and can be had for $1-$5 each. If you decide to get a cleaner you can bring many of them back to life and you'll be surprised how good they can sound. Mostly just have some cheap fun!
Don't worry, there's only one pricy modern record I can think of that I "have to have" — John Powell's How To Train Your Dragon score — and I've just ordered it secondhand, so I should be good for a while :) Thanks for the advice and the tip about cleaning!
>there's only one pricy modern record I can think of that I "have to have"
for now. then, you'll get that record. you'll enjoy that record. then the need for a new record strikes. a friend of mine and i started a small niche record shop in early '00s and made a go of doing online. it was so niche it never really did much more than supplying us and our friends with direct access to distributors for that niche music. eventually, we stopped and with that the weekly/twice-weekly vinyl delivery stopped. it felt like going cold turkey. it took a while to readjust.
Not gonna lie, did not expect to see someone looking for this soundtrack, but it's straight up amazing. "Romantic Flight" and "Test Flight" on that album are some of my all-time favorite soundtrack pieces, and the Jonsi track is also excellent.
Agreed! Powell is my favorite modern composer mostly for his work on the trilogy. I've listened to the soundtrack for years and remembered an Instagram post he made about it being pressed to vinyl a while back, so it was the first thing that came to mind when I realized I have a fully-functional record playing set up now!
Romantic Flight and Test Flight are indeed spectacular, though I think my personal favorite is probably Forbidden Friendship!
Also, yes! The Jonsi track is great. I'm also a fan of the songs he made for the second and third movies. Really cool that they got him to collaborate on the whole trilogy.
Yeah, the first movie will always be the best one, but despite 2 and 3 being not as good, they were still really good! "Dragon Racing", the intro track from the second film, is quite fun, as well as "Flying with Mother". "Stoick's Ship" reliably makes me tear up though so I can't listen to it too often. The third movie has a ton of new musical ideas in it, and there are several tracks from its score that I like including "Third Date", "The Hidden World", "Once There Were Dragons", and "Together From Afar".
Thanks heaps for the track recommendations, I will revisit both 2 and 3 ASAP!!
I agree Dragon Racing was fantastic, but that was the only track that initially grabbed from 2 or 3. Gosh this makes me wish I knew more people with the same music tastes as me lol!
I hope the vinyl is everything you're hoping for mate! If it's not too tough to explain, I'd be interested to know what properties of it are appealing to you. I go for 12-bit FLAC for everything where I can get it, and I tend to notice compression artifacts more than most other people I know. I'm far from an audiophile though.
> Gosh this makes me wish I knew more people with the same music tastes as me lol!
I know your pain! It's very weird having my music taste, because it's not like it's "underground" or anything—there are plenty of folks who enjoy film soundtracks! Yet the odds of bumping into someone who does on the street are still low, and even lower still that you'd find out about it.
I was about to say the same thing. I get decent albums in somewhat not great condition at flea markets in the $5 range, but most record stores aren't selling anything that cheap these days. Everyone has discogs and can see what things are selling for and set their prices accordingly. And I'm okay with that. Everyone needs to make a buck.
Try charity shops and annual rummage sales. I can always find a bunch of good records there (classical mostly, but other stuff too) here in the Netherlands between the dozens of boring records for prices going from €2 down to €0.50. I like the serendipity of getting some record that looks like it might be nice for a few cents.
The Dutch charity shops have a lot of immemorable stuff though, as you said - a lot of classical (dime a dozen), Dutch artists, German stuff, and the well known pop artists. But never anything rare.
You don't find anything rare because the volunteers at those charity shops get first dibs on everything (officially or no), and the shops themselves do; they will pick out the good record and either flog them on ebay or whatever, or move them to a more upmarket shop where the name changes from a charity shop but a vintage or antique shop.
I never expect to find anything valuable or collectable at a charity shop anymore. I mean besides the staff, there will always be people scouring it at all hours of the day looking for collectibles.
The other one there is house clearings; in some cases, when someone dies with no relatives or nobody interested, they'll hire a house clearing service, who also get first dibs on anything valuable or collectable. The rest is sold in either their own shops or sent to a charity shop.
It's not always that bad (though often); it depends on the shop. Rummage sales are better: the people organising them tend to not filter out books or records as a rule (church rummage sales in particular are good), because those things were donated explicitly for the purpose of selling them for some benefit, and reselling second hand stuff isn't their core business anyway.
Still waiting for that chance… It's niche enough that it won't automatically be taken out, like a Beatles record, but still famous enough that a lot of folk would grab it and head over to the volunteer manning the cash tin, red-faced with shame and stammer: “So uhm, €0,75 / 50p / 75¢ per record, right?”.
I would be looking over my shoulder all the way home to make sure I got away with it. :)
I don't think you're missing anything except for maybe that (1) I'm in the Netherlands, (2) a million of these were pressed, many of them low quality (this is fairly common with high volume records, essentially there was a strong incentive to run the negatives past their 'best before' date to meet production quota spending as little money as possible because the occasional million seller was a real money maker for the record companies), (3) that what lists VG/VG may not be the same thing once you get your hands on it and that sending records of unknown audio quality or issue internationally is always a bit of a gamble. So I was very happy to find a very good quality early pressing for pennies. The state of the sleeve left me doubtful about the state of the record but it is as good as it gets.
Interesting tidbit I had held on to a record player for years to be able to digitize LPs, finally got rid of it (and the nice audio card that I used because it was no longer compatible with recent motherboards) and sure enough, within a year I find a whole slew or extremely rare Dinu Lipatti LPs and EPs (which have since gone to a pianist who also frequents HN because I think his is by far the better home for these) and that Wendy Carlos record as well as some other really nice ones. So I doubt I will ever play it, but still I'm super happy to have found it.
Looking at the Discogs offering now, I must say that I do see a surprising number of sellers in the Netherlands for this specific record, a number even offering near-mint condition. I did expect the usual problem of "$X plus $35 shipping and lots of annoyances with customs", but it seems to be much better than I expected.
Possibly remastered (so different sound), possibly much later negatives made from the positive (positives wear too, a positive master for a million seller is a very precious thing (see below)). Far less valuable. Usually much thinner than the earlier ones so more prone to warping if not stored very nicely.
And if you're very unlucky it was made through an intermediary set of positive/negative.
I like to collect music and have been building a library of certain genres. I had been buying a lot of vinyl over the last few years but recently I’ve been getting back into CD’s in a big way because of how cheap they are second hand. Like you say, a couple of decades ago one could pick up a stack of second hand vinyl for next to nothing and the current market for second hand CD’s really reminds me of those days. For example, I picked up a recent album I’d been after on CD, second hand, for less than 10% of its price on vinyl (again, a second hand copy). The disc arrived in excellent condition with detailed sleeve notes and photos, plus it was a remaster so probably sounded better than the vinyl copy anyhow and is potentially more durable. I get the aesthetic appeal of vinyl of course, but gazing at that disc as I slotted it carefully into the player, made me think what a fascinating artefact a compact disc is too.
> ... made me think what a fascinating artefact a compact disc is too.
They are!
And compact disc have a great thing going for them: 16 bit 44.1 kHz stereo is basically where it's at. Sure some are going to say you need 88.2 / 24 bit or whatever but IMO the creation of the CD audio format in the late seventies / early eighties was a stroke of genius. 16 bit 44.1 kHz stereo is my endgame. I'm totally fine with it since my first "portable" CD player (was weighting a ton) in the late eighties up until today. And it's going to be sufficient until my last days.
I don't need "more" than that.
Nowadays I don't listen to my CD directly: I rip them to FLAC and listen mostly to my FLAC files (my car takes WAV or mp3, not FLAC though, so I convert my FLAC to mp3 for the car) and, rarely, I listen to a CD (weirdly enough my car still has a CD player).
I'm stockpiling on CDs while they cost nothing. And I don't care if they start failing: I legally own bitperfect archives.
I love to own my music.
I still cannot believe that the first documents describing the CD format came out in 1980... That's 43 years ago.
I'm with you regarding CDs, but 16 bit 44.1 kHz is only sufficient if you have good playback hardware (like a good DAC).
If not, a lower-end DAC can give more accurate audio reproduction just by throwing more data at the problem. For people who don't own/store their music but just rent/stream it, going to higher that 16 bit 44.1 kHz makes sense.
Think like screen resolution and text: displaying text shouldn't be that different in 1080p vs 4k. However, due to the algorithms use for scaling that also smooth the pixels at the border of each letter like ClearType (https://www.howtogeek.com/28790/tweak-cleartype-in-windows-7...), the higher resolutions get an advantage unless you use an old fixed-size font.
It's roughly the same with audio: if you use CDs as a source for your FLACs, get hardware a good DAC and the difference is unlikely to be perceptible. Use your ears and experimentation.
I'd honestly just hold onto them for at least a few months and periodically post on various forums and Reddit to see if the rightful owner can be found.
If anyone tries to claim them it should be fairly easy to verify if they are the rightful owner by asking them the names of at least 10-15 of them.
Also contact the police of nearby counties as well, your own county's police is probably too lazy to see if there is a theft case elsewhwere in the state.
Also dig through them to see if there are any notes, in case any of them might have been gifts, there might be some clues as to who the rightful owner is.
That sounds exaggerated to my ears; The shape these records are in suggests they were dumped on the street after having spent years in an attic… Having OP discover them and discovering vinyl in the process is surely the best thing that could have happened to them.
(author) I suspect they tailgated in behind someone, waited for the garage to be empty, hijacked the car, then idled until someone left so they could tailgate out.
I used to work at a music shop buying and selling used CD's, vinyl music and DVD's. It was pretty common for us to deal with stuff that was obviously stolen.
We had a couple (man and woman) who would come in the day of releases with like a dozen DVD's of high selling releases. It was so obvious so if we thought or knew stuff was stolen, we'd completely low ball them in effort to dissuade them from coming back. After a while, my manager said he wouldn't take this couples stuff any more - which lead to a heated conversation before my manager told them he wasn't an idiot, he knew they were stealing shit for their drug habit and they should stop coming here to sell their stuff.
Anyways. . .
One day some teenagers come in with two huge CD carriers of CD's. All very eclectic stuff. My manager was spotted some really rare stuff like Pearl Jam bootlegs, and some other stuff. He was looking through it and it was clear we were both seeing the same thing. He told me to tell these kids we'll go through it and come back in like 20 minutes because it will take a bit to go through it all. My manager pulls me into the back and is like, "Clearly this shit is stolen. This isn't just a random box of CD's either man, this is someone's collection. Some of the stuff in there is ultra rare, some of the stuff I would love to have in my collection. We have to do the right thing here man."
Kids come back and he he gives them like $30 for the collection, it was like pennies on the dollar for everything. These kids, they don't care, they got $30 to blow on whatever. My boss tells me he's going to put an ad in the local alternative paper about the collection to see if he can get it back to the rightful owner and to set aside in the meantime, its not even going into our inventory. Two days later, gets a call. My manager tells him to come in. Says if he can identify the case and five of the CD's in the collection, he'll give it back. Dude not only told him the five, he listed the entirety of one of the cases. It was pretty obvious it was his.
We did this a few other times and were successful, so it kind of made up for some of the other stuff we were expected to do. So many stories working there, it was as close to working at a pawn shop as you can probably imagine.
(author) This is a great story. Thank you for sharing! Others have suggested I should put up a post on Facebook/Craigslist/community forums to see if I could find the owner (presuming they are stolen, which I still don't know yet). I might give it a go, but my gut tells me the odds of it working are low living in such a densely populated city where there are probably records getting stolen from people and stores on a daily basis. Still might be worth a shot though.
A long time ago in a history far far away (early 2000s), friends of mine stopped into a used record store on the off chance that maybe there might be something they like. They go digging and come across a trove of a specific type of sound in what looks to be a fairly well curated collection. A few were well known and out of print. They divvied up between them and went to check out. That's when they learned that some girl had come in to sell the whole lot of vinyl for $1. Everyone agreed that it was a pissed off girlfriend/ex of some DJ. For a moment, there was almost a shared "is this bad karma" before that quickly dissipated.
Vinyl collections all have stories around them. Some of the stories of how they were lost, some are how they were collected, and some are intertwined!
you must not have known many DJs. they're kind of like drummers. what do you call a DJ without a girlfriend? homeless.
some girl probably got tired of taking care of the guy, kicked him out, and in lieu of being paid back for all of the food, utilities, gas, etc she had shelled out for him over the course of the relationship and then on top of not coming to collect the damn crates after 3 months, would not qualify as theft by anybody's definition. the fact the transaction was for $1 just makes it worse. this whole back story is 100% made up and is just supposition on our parts, but it is 100% believable. it also just adds to the legend of one's own collection. "oh that one, yeah, let me tell how i got that one..."
if you've ever lived with someone with a vinyl addiction, you know exactly how much space crates of records can take up. you also know how heavy they are. if you've never known anyone with this affliction, count your blessings.
I don't have the affliction (yet) but between the new cabinet and the 9 crates of records, my studio apartment is already feeling a bit on the cramped side ;-)
have a cat? cats love sitting on the top of crate of records. it looks/feels just like that scratching pad you so desperately want them to use. they also love the height of having a couple of them stacked on top of each other. at least, mine do. i just so happened to have a bit of wood left over from a project that is 95% the width of the crates that i place on top. now, it is the perfect cat ledge, but now the stylus is the only sharp pointy thing that comes in contact with them.
Taking something that doesn't belong to you and selling it is theft and sale of stolen property no matter how much you dislike the theoretical person you invented for this comment.
possession is 9/10 of the law. good luck getting any cop to actually take a report on a situation like this. not really sure why you're trying this hard on a story that has clearly been stated as made up back story. talking about trying to kill a vibe with missing the tone of the room
> what do you call a DJ without a girlfriend? homeless.
I just love jokes that are a hard truth from a world I don't know well. A favorite along these lines: "What does a stripper do with her asshole before she goes to work? Drops him off at band practice."
I’ve seen it way way more than three times and never seen this scene. I should’ve watched the deleted scenes on the DVD I owned while I still owned it, maybe it was in there.
You know what though, I think it's not so uncommon among vinyl collectors.
Many years ago, I helped my brother in law move to a new house. He found a stack of records (4 or 5 crates, maybe) in the attic and said he didn't want them anymore. I tried to convince him not to get rid of them but he insisted, and then carried them out and put them on the sidewalk next to the trash.
I decided that this could not be allowed to happen, so I grabbed them, put them in my car and took them home. A few months later, never having touched them again, we decided to participate in a neighborhood garage sale in our ritzy area of downtown Chicago. I pulled out all the records and put up a sign - $5 each or 5 for $20. Did a pretty brisk business, except one guy was thumbing through them and pulled one out, took it out of the sleeve, examined it in various angles of the light, etc. And then told me to put it away and not to sell it, it was too valuable. Apparently the very famous producer/masterer/somebody? "signed" it with a sharp object near the center of the record (not sure how exactly that works). If I remember correctly it was a Boston album. Still in my closet, too.
And it definitely wasn't John Cusack, I would have recognized him.
As far as I know, the "signed" thing is something else.
The music from tape will be scratched to a template for the press. This template is called (in DE) "Mother". The first run on this "Mother" is signed by the guy who is in charge for the press. These records get hand signed. "Highenders" go for these if they can, because they have the best quality. (as far as I know)
They really do have the best quality. The pressings get progressively worse until a new negative is cut if the record has enough success for a second run. They simply wear a little bit with every pressing. Not enough to notice over the first few hundred but after many 1000+ pressings you can definitely tell the difference. If you have access to an early copy and a late one compare the really high notes, that is where it will show up first.
Typically a set of dies lasts only 1500 pressings.
If you're into vinyl: halfspeed masters and Japanese pressings tend to be a step up.
I appreciate the replies. I went into the closet and found it. It is indeed Boston's debut album from 1976. There is some information inscribed into the center area on Side 1, including a (serial?) number and what looks like a signature. "Wey" or "Wly", most likely. No idea. Some quick internet searching didn't get any hits.
Oh yeah, the original shrink wrap is still there, just opened on one edge so the record can come in and out. The shrink wrap has a large sticker on it with a Rolling Stone blurb printed on it, letting me know that Boston is a great new band and reviews of a couple songs on the album.
None of it is in great shape, so I doubt that it is worth much of anything.
That scene was definitely “in the movie” when I saw it, or at least one of the times. (Possibly some Australian regional edit? Possibly even perhaps the local cinema release edit?)
As much as I like the original movie (and the book), that remake was _great_. Zöe Kravitz was fabulous, and the soundtrack for the whole series was awesome. Very highly recommended from me.
how could you tell what songs they were from the shitty youtube compression? if those free songs on youtube sound anything like that video clip looked, you can keep your free bullshit, and I'll take the vinyl everyday of the week and twice on sunday.
395 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 413 ms ] threadGood luck with your collection, though I hope that somehow those records can be reunited with their rightful owner.
Maybe someone wrote something on a sleeve or left some price stickers on some of them, etc. that can be used to identify it from all the other potential claimants that just want to get the music from you for free.
Re: returning to the rightful owner — I certainly plan to look through them, but so far I'm thinking that most of them came from a record shop (many have little generic price stickers still on them), of which there are dozens in LA. Additionally, since they're vintage they've probably changed hands many times, and it's also unclear how long ago they were stolen.
All that said, if by happenstance I do get an opportunity to return them to their rightful owner, I'd be happy to.
Those crates really tie the room together :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bG9q1JqjS4
Those companies have been in the news for having easy to steal cars due to leaving out cheap and completely standard on all other brands anti theft stuff just to save a few bucks.
Surely, if the records are themselves stolen, the original owners would be entitled to have them back.
If they weren't stolen, does the thief forfeit ownership of them through the mere act of putting them in a car they stole?
But the police have demonstrated on many many many occasions that they generally cannot be bothered to return stolen items to their owners or even, given the location of a stolen item to reclaim it from the thief.
A friend of mine is a realtor. He once was selling a house that was empty. A random package showed up at the address (correct on the package). He asked the owners if it was theirs they said no so he threw it in the back of the trunk and forgot about it for months.
Randomly while grabbing something in his trunk, he found it and was like “I should try and mail this back to the sender.” It didn’t have any return info on it so he opened it to see if there was any info inside. There was another box inside full of loose coffee beans and inside that was a metal tin. Now curious he opened the tin and found it packed full of little vials with powder in them.
He called the non-emergency police line in a bit of a panic thinking he should report what he found but they blew him off saying he should file a police report online. Not wanting to be in possession of drugs he drove it to a police station where the cop at the front desk was SO confused about what was going on and basically told him to get lost.
Finally he just decided to call it a day and threw it away in a dumpster.
There is no case to avoid drug law reform, disagree on the nature of what is required but /something/ needs doing. This bullshit where there is nothing like the rule of law and equality before it has to go. It's a cancer that eats away at society and however bad you think it is, it's actually a lot worse.
Not saying you’re wrong, Im just surprised to hear this and am curious about the extent
"only crime", a minor one at that, and three serious crimes don't match up, and is possession of recreational amounts a serious crime in any jurisdiction?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rummel_v._Estelle
As someone who has a record over an ounce, lol.
Cops LOVE weed being illegal. Claiming to smell weed provides an easy path to justifying a search that vanishes when it becomes legal.
There are also a lot of states that have a laughably low threshold for personal use and anything above that is is legally considered to imply intent to distribute. This then opens the door for all kinds of seizures of vehicles, computer equipment, and most importantly cash in a backwards "guilty until proven innocent" scenario where the person doesn't even need to be charged with a crime to lose their property.
If they acknowledge the issue and take the stuff, there’s now a record that Mr. Sharkweek’s realtor friend surrendered a bag of heroin or whatever.
That can jam you up in a few ways. A decade later you apply for a federal job, you’ll be explaining this story to a suspicious investigator. Some jackass prosecutor or person up the chain may decide it is a big deal after all, etc. Or… they pretend not to understand you and you (and the problem) go away
That's just not true
Only if they choose to make a report saying so. However, it's easier just to shrug instead of doing any paperwork or taking on any responsibility whatsoever, so that's the action they choose.
Before reading this, I think curiosity would have gotten the better of me were I in the same situation. But the story is a good life lesson: when you come in possession of a package with no return address, there’s probably a good reason why the sender didn’t want anyone to know who sent it.
But otherwise it just looks like they don't even want to try. In a normal small community police or you would try to find out who it belongs to, not just give up. :)
LA is one of these places.
If you place them in custody, you might as well provide them with some basic housing that costs less than jail. They have literally nothing to lose from fines, court dates, tickets, probation. They don't have a toilet, what else are you going to take away from them.
The police are correctly judging that the need to defecate is not a criminal problem.
Find a public toilet or use a restaurant/shopping mall toilet.
By definition, if there is a public toilet accessible to you, or you are welcome in a restaurant toilet without paying, you have somewhere to go to the toilet.
So what are they to do? Put a huge stack of records in the evidence locker with no crime actually attached to them (just vicinity to another crime)? Could suck if somehow someone else could identify them and want them that was also a victim of theft, but it really would just be stashing them and hoping by rare chance someone stumbles into the lost and found.
Personally I'd rather the stack of stuff sitting in the guarded, expensive to maintain evidence locker is stuff actually tagged to a crime and relevant to solving it
but then i re-read the article and see "and then they grab a few of the thief’s personal items from the car as evidence.". so it's not like the cops were following some policy that all the stuff in the car should be returned to the car's owner. just the stuff they don't want to deal with
I've picked up crates of much better condition records as trash before, with many great records that could have been sold for OK prices, if the person throwing them away knew where to sell them and wanted to bother with it. But a lot of people/places just don't want to even both with it. Best prices come from selling them one by one on a site like like discogs, but that takes a lot of time and effort. If you bring them into a record store that buys used records, they'll either take a few they think they can sell (paying you a fraction of what they intend to sell it for) and tell you to keep all the rest, or they'll take the whole thing (again paying just a fraction for the few they want) and treat the others as bargain/dollar bin stuff or just throw them away.
(Some of my favorite things I've found in crates of thrown-away records: some Sergio Mendes records (some were bland, but some were awesome), various new wave 80s records by people I'd never heard of but were fun to listen to, LOTS of good classical recordings.)
https://philipjeck.com/
Alas deceased (which was a bit of a shock when it happened).
Jeck's thing was a sort of live analogue sampling.
If it had been me then I would have said "great, now I have to go and get legal advice". I would have refused them.
But at the same time what am I supposed to do? Unload them in the impound lot and drive away? That'd piss off the cops, who could possibly fine me for flytipping.
It's a shitty position for the cops to put you in.
Sure, they might objectively be junk, but they also might be somebody's junk, and returning it to them may make them very happy.
Well, they could, but I don't think his lawyer would advise him to answer that question.
Unless you like bad advice from someone whose interests are at best orthogonal and typically actually against your own.
It’s not. Ignition interlocks have been very common for at least 20 years. But there’s apparently a lot of money to be made cutting a few corners and under pricing competition by a couple hundred dollars.
Unsure if they've finally done anything about it now that they're well known for it.
I probably still wouldn't buy a new one for a few years. I'd imagine thieves either don't know this, or do but can't tell model years apart clearly. Meaning there's a good chance your car may be broken into still, just not driven off with.
Amateurs. They could have just used a USB cable instead of hacking at it with a screwdriver like animals: https://www.thedrive.com/news/how-thieves-are-stealing-hyund...
Cars are pretty dang expensive already, and in terms of benefit to society, there’s probably a lot more bang for the buck in requiring safety features that protect human life before we start worrying about property.
Ignition immobilizers have been required in Germany/UK/other European countries since the 90s and Australia/Canada in the 2000s.
It's just the US that has that regulation gap, probably because the US market in the 90s sorta self-regulated to include it on everything so mandating it's requirement after the fact might've felt silly.
I guess the moral of the story here is there's always a corporation willing to break norms for profit.
But I also like being back in the states where the government doesn’t seem to meddle with daily life quite as much.
Collectively, the EU is probably better, especially in crowded cities. Individually, it’s not so clear.
The US right to free speech is inconvenient at times for the collective. (I have no interest in hearing pro-Nazi speech. I have even less interest in living under a government with the power to ban that speech or other unpopular speech.)
When I lived in Germany, I had to register my address with the local government and update it quickly if I moved. In the US, I can move without reporting it to the local government. I’m sure there’s some collective benefit to the local police having a fairly accurate record of where everyone is regularly sleeping. Individually, I’m not interested in being obligated to share that information.
I believe the US approach is better, but I acknowledge that’s in large part because I was raised/indoctrinated to believe that.
The IRS gets our address because most people are required to file their tax returns, and we put our address on those forms.
The USPS doesn't need to find anyone. They just deliver to the address on an envelope. If the person isn't there, it's the sender's problem. You can however voluntarily tell the USPS you've moved, and they'll forward your mail for a period of time.
Only 8 states don't require USSSS registration before obtaining an ID/driver's license and would automatically register (CA, CT, IN, NE, OR, VT, WA, WY), and of those, Washington and Indiana still automatically register unless there is an explicit opt out.
It's also a requirement for consideration of financial aid or in-state tuition for college, so many public universities won't allow application without proof of USSSS registration first and also helpfully auto-register on application or during enrollment.
My experience in CA is public high school would refuse to even award a high school diploma if you're 18 by graduation and didn't register and would also auto-register on your behalf if no explicit opt out was given. Funnily enough, mine registered me in the 30 days _before_ I turned 18.
They weren’t anything too substantially significant, but neither is a Hyundai ignition key.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doz1QJ7LwjA
Sounds pretty good, though not exactly like Springsteen :)
Not to Dolly Parton range though!
I'm really glad you got your car back, too. Hope the repair costs aren't a big drain.
At $120? Any software dev in LA with any experience is probably at $75/hour, and they don't have to outfit an entire shop with compressors, lifts, and pricey alignment racks. At $120 in Southern California, you ought to be crowing about the deal you got.
It reminds me when I was a pro mechanic years ago, and the biggest whiners about the hourly rate were doctors and lawyers. Excuuuuse me, Mr. Bills-at-Twice-the-Rate-I-Do?
I mean, you’re not seriously trying to compare capex between an automotive shop and a software dev are you? :-)
My dev machine was about 5k, and I will build another one in another 3-4 years. My tablet was 1.5k. My phones for dev purposes are numerous and run 5-800 each. These get replaced every year or three. My primary laptop was 3k, I will buy another in another 3-4 years. My secondary laptop was 1k, it will probably last 4-5 years. My monitors were 1.5k each. I’m sure I’ll use those for 6-7 years. I have three. My test server was 5k. I will probably build a new one in 5-7 years. My sit/stand desk was 1k, my chair was almost 1k. Etc, etc… All of my tools are expendable on a much shorter time table than your mechanic tools.
Your 10k of snap on tools are good for life.
lot's of places have a placard with a $200 rate, but they never charge that much. (replaced headlights, they broke a wire, spent all morning on the car, cost was $250 in labor).
at least my experience, dealing with independents. i am sure a dealer has no shame on the rate and the hours.
Wheels took, Producer shook, Got car back Made a track.
Discogs is a decent and easy-enough resource for checking if any of them are notable. There are often etchings in the runout (the inner groove near the label) that you can search for on Discogs to identify specific pressings. You can also sell through Discogs, but it sounds like you're leaning toward keeping them and LA is full of local shops that would buy or take them.
A record clamp can mitigate warping without costing a ton, though it won't work miracles.[2]
There's also always using the long-gone ones as wall art.[3]
1: https://www.yoursoundmatters.com/how-to-fix-split-seams-on-r...
2: https://www.turntablelab.com/products/turntable-lab-record-c... - Turntable Lab is just a solid shop in general for new vinyl and accessories.
3: https://mingoaudio.com/product-detail.html?id=733813497923
I'm guessing maybe the police didn't want to deal with storing all these boxes, taking up space while waiting for someone to claim them.
Some advice for you is to sell off those records you know you don't like and use the proceeds to fund a basic record washing machine. That will make a big difference to your enjoyment of the albums you keep. That lot looks old and gnarly and you'll want to get the dirt out before it gunks up your stylus. Brush alone won't do it and you have too many to comfortably do by hand.
Otherwise I assume you've followed the steps to set up your turntable properly and balance the arm rather than just plugging it in and using it? Get that (badly) wrong and you can really make a mess of the records.
I clean them with a drop of dish soap. It works miracles.
(I mean liquid dish detergent, meant for handwashing dishes. The powder stuff will scratch.)
You'll still need to pick the fuzz off of your needle now and then. I make a little brush for that by tearing the corner off a sheet of paper.
I use iso alky on a cotton ball to clean the scanner all the time, too.
Dish soap is fine on vinyl records, but use distilled water. The "residue" is more likely to come from unfiltered tap water than soap. And let them air dry completely before re-sleeving them because they can and will grow moldy, especially if the records are put away wet with paper sleeves.
You don't need a fancy brush for cleaning the stylus, but a polyurethane gel pot is even easier to use (just dip the stylus tip in it), more thorough, and trivial to clean.
The only "fancy" vinyl accessories that've really provided a lot of value for me are a grounded anti-static brush: https://www.turntableneedles.com/grounded_carbon_fiber_lp_br...
And a cartridge/stylus upgrade, which for this setup probably doesn't need to be anything more than an $80 Ortofon Red and could easily be less. AFAICT this Pioneer has a replaceable cartridge.
I just wet it under the kitchen faucet, put a drop of palmolive on it, rub it in the direction of the grooves with my fingertips, rinse it, shake the drops off, lean it against something vertically to dry.
Nobody believes it's that simple, but it is. I've cleaned many hundreds of used records that way. It's just a piece of plastic.
https://www.amazon.com/KARIUS-PEDERSEN-WALLWZ-TRUMPETTISSIMO...
I used to play a trumpet, and have no idea how a mere mortal could make it sound like that.
Obviously, I'll need a turntable. Can I simply get a turntable that has L and R line out, connect that to two of the line in inputs on my audio interface (a PreSonus AudioBox iTwo) and record L and R from the turntable as two tracks in any handy DAW (probably GarageBand), split those tracks up to match the song splits on the LP, mix corresponding L and R (with the L track panned all the way left and R track panned all the way R) and export those?
[0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg_D_RJHHho
Wash Your Hands! And clean the records and sleeves thoroughly. The ripped and torn sleeves look like they've been chewed by mice... (in the biz we called it "rodentia scarring" or something equally fanciful)
There are also devices to connect to that input which you can stream to, with Bluetooth or Wifi or similar. I have two Chromecast Audio things, but Google discontinued them.
Either way, enjoy the new setup!
I discovered this playing with old records in the basement well before you were born and I'm pretty sure I drove my mother insane with it.
Also, the person on your substack who suggested Cat Stevens is very correct.
If you are curious to catalog them, or see value of them, discogs.com is a great site.
A warning - this can actually become a hobby. Don't get wrapped up in high dollar modern pressings unless there is something you absolutely have to have. The world is still bursting at the seams with old records that are new to you and can be had for $1-$5 each. If you decide to get a cleaner you can bring many of them back to life and you'll be surprised how good they can sound. Mostly just have some cheap fun!
for now. then, you'll get that record. you'll enjoy that record. then the need for a new record strikes. a friend of mine and i started a small niche record shop in early '00s and made a go of doing online. it was so niche it never really did much more than supplying us and our friends with direct access to distributors for that niche music. eventually, we stopped and with that the weekly/twice-weekly vinyl delivery stopped. it felt like going cold turkey. it took a while to readjust.
like I said...for now ;-)
Romantic Flight and Test Flight are indeed spectacular, though I think my personal favorite is probably Forbidden Friendship!
Also, yes! The Jonsi track is great. I'm also a fan of the songs he made for the second and third movies. Really cool that they got him to collaborate on the whole trilogy.
I wish so badly that 2 and 3 had more of the same thematic material, but perhaps it's simply not possibly to improve upon.
I agree Dragon Racing was fantastic, but that was the only track that initially grabbed from 2 or 3. Gosh this makes me wish I knew more people with the same music tastes as me lol!
I hope the vinyl is everything you're hoping for mate! If it's not too tough to explain, I'd be interested to know what properties of it are appealing to you. I go for 12-bit FLAC for everything where I can get it, and I tend to notice compression artifacts more than most other people I know. I'm far from an audiophile though.
I know your pain! It's very weird having my music taste, because it's not like it's "underground" or anything—there are plenty of folks who enjoy film soundtracks! Yet the odds of bumping into someone who does on the street are still low, and even lower still that you'd find out about it.
You don't find anything rare because the volunteers at those charity shops get first dibs on everything (officially or no), and the shops themselves do; they will pick out the good record and either flog them on ebay or whatever, or move them to a more upmarket shop where the name changes from a charity shop but a vintage or antique shop.
I never expect to find anything valuable or collectable at a charity shop anymore. I mean besides the staff, there will always be people scouring it at all hours of the day looking for collectibles.
The other one there is house clearings; in some cases, when someone dies with no relatives or nobody interested, they'll hire a house clearing service, who also get first dibs on anything valuable or collectable. The rest is sold in either their own shops or sent to a charity shop.
I would be looking over my shoulder all the way home to make sure I got away with it. :)
Interesting tidbit I had held on to a record player for years to be able to digitize LPs, finally got rid of it (and the nice audio card that I used because it was no longer compatible with recent motherboards) and sure enough, within a year I find a whole slew or extremely rare Dinu Lipatti LPs and EPs (which have since gone to a pianist who also frequents HN because I think his is by far the better home for these) and that Wendy Carlos record as well as some other really nice ones. So I doubt I will ever play it, but still I'm super happy to have found it.
And if you're very unlucky it was made through an intermediary set of positive/negative.
They are!
And compact disc have a great thing going for them: 16 bit 44.1 kHz stereo is basically where it's at. Sure some are going to say you need 88.2 / 24 bit or whatever but IMO the creation of the CD audio format in the late seventies / early eighties was a stroke of genius. 16 bit 44.1 kHz stereo is my endgame. I'm totally fine with it since my first "portable" CD player (was weighting a ton) in the late eighties up until today. And it's going to be sufficient until my last days.
I don't need "more" than that.
Nowadays I don't listen to my CD directly: I rip them to FLAC and listen mostly to my FLAC files (my car takes WAV or mp3, not FLAC though, so I convert my FLAC to mp3 for the car) and, rarely, I listen to a CD (weirdly enough my car still has a CD player).
I'm stockpiling on CDs while they cost nothing. And I don't care if they start failing: I legally own bitperfect archives.
I love to own my music.
I still cannot believe that the first documents describing the CD format came out in 1980... That's 43 years ago.
> I don't need "more" than that.
> I'm stockpiling on CDs while they cost nothing
I'm with you regarding CDs, but 16 bit 44.1 kHz is only sufficient if you have good playback hardware (like a good DAC).
If not, a lower-end DAC can give more accurate audio reproduction just by throwing more data at the problem. For people who don't own/store their music but just rent/stream it, going to higher that 16 bit 44.1 kHz makes sense.
Think like screen resolution and text: displaying text shouldn't be that different in 1080p vs 4k. However, due to the algorithms use for scaling that also smooth the pixels at the border of each letter like ClearType (https://www.howtogeek.com/28790/tweak-cleartype-in-windows-7...), the higher resolutions get an advantage unless you use an old fixed-size font.
It's roughly the same with audio: if you use CDs as a source for your FLACs, get hardware a good DAC and the difference is unlikely to be perceptible. Use your ears and experimentation.
Walk in on the last day of the sale, an hour before close, "fifty bucks for what's left of the records", walk out with six crates of vinyl.
If anyone tries to claim them it should be fairly easy to verify if they are the rightful owner by asking them the names of at least 10-15 of them.
Also contact the police of nearby counties as well, your own county's police is probably too lazy to see if there is a theft case elsewhwere in the state.
Also dig through them to see if there are any notes, in case any of them might have been gifts, there might be some clues as to who the rightful owner is.
We had a couple (man and woman) who would come in the day of releases with like a dozen DVD's of high selling releases. It was so obvious so if we thought or knew stuff was stolen, we'd completely low ball them in effort to dissuade them from coming back. After a while, my manager said he wouldn't take this couples stuff any more - which lead to a heated conversation before my manager told them he wasn't an idiot, he knew they were stealing shit for their drug habit and they should stop coming here to sell their stuff.
Anyways. . .
One day some teenagers come in with two huge CD carriers of CD's. All very eclectic stuff. My manager was spotted some really rare stuff like Pearl Jam bootlegs, and some other stuff. He was looking through it and it was clear we were both seeing the same thing. He told me to tell these kids we'll go through it and come back in like 20 minutes because it will take a bit to go through it all. My manager pulls me into the back and is like, "Clearly this shit is stolen. This isn't just a random box of CD's either man, this is someone's collection. Some of the stuff in there is ultra rare, some of the stuff I would love to have in my collection. We have to do the right thing here man."
Kids come back and he he gives them like $30 for the collection, it was like pennies on the dollar for everything. These kids, they don't care, they got $30 to blow on whatever. My boss tells me he's going to put an ad in the local alternative paper about the collection to see if he can get it back to the rightful owner and to set aside in the meantime, its not even going into our inventory. Two days later, gets a call. My manager tells him to come in. Says if he can identify the case and five of the CD's in the collection, he'll give it back. Dude not only told him the five, he listed the entirety of one of the cases. It was pretty obvious it was his.
We did this a few other times and were successful, so it kind of made up for some of the other stuff we were expected to do. So many stories working there, it was as close to working at a pawn shop as you can probably imagine.
Vinyl collections all have stories around them. Some of the stories of how they were lost, some are how they were collected, and some are intertwined!
some girl probably got tired of taking care of the guy, kicked him out, and in lieu of being paid back for all of the food, utilities, gas, etc she had shelled out for him over the course of the relationship and then on top of not coming to collect the damn crates after 3 months, would not qualify as theft by anybody's definition. the fact the transaction was for $1 just makes it worse. this whole back story is 100% made up and is just supposition on our parts, but it is 100% believable. it also just adds to the legend of one's own collection. "oh that one, yeah, let me tell how i got that one..."
if you've ever lived with someone with a vinyl addiction, you know exactly how much space crates of records can take up. you also know how heavy they are. if you've never known anyone with this affliction, count your blessings.
I just love jokes that are a hard truth from a world I don't know well. A favorite along these lines: "What does a stripper do with her asshole before she goes to work? Drops him off at band practice."
Edit: just watched this. Boy, is Clark going to be pissed!!!
Many years ago, I helped my brother in law move to a new house. He found a stack of records (4 or 5 crates, maybe) in the attic and said he didn't want them anymore. I tried to convince him not to get rid of them but he insisted, and then carried them out and put them on the sidewalk next to the trash.
I decided that this could not be allowed to happen, so I grabbed them, put them in my car and took them home. A few months later, never having touched them again, we decided to participate in a neighborhood garage sale in our ritzy area of downtown Chicago. I pulled out all the records and put up a sign - $5 each or 5 for $20. Did a pretty brisk business, except one guy was thumbing through them and pulled one out, took it out of the sleeve, examined it in various angles of the light, etc. And then told me to put it away and not to sell it, it was too valuable. Apparently the very famous producer/masterer/somebody? "signed" it with a sharp object near the center of the record (not sure how exactly that works). If I remember correctly it was a Boston album. Still in my closet, too.
And it definitely wasn't John Cusack, I would have recognized him.
Typically a set of dies lasts only 1500 pressings.
If you're into vinyl: halfspeed masters and Japanese pressings tend to be a step up.
Oh yeah, the original shrink wrap is still there, just opened on one edge so the record can come in and out. The shrink wrap has a large sticker on it with a Rolling Stone blurb printed on it, letting me know that Boston is a great new band and reviews of a couple songs on the album.
None of it is in great shape, so I doubt that it is worth much of anything.
EDIT - The signature is "Wly" https://gloriousnoise.com/2017/vinylology-101-how-to-buy-bos...
I did not even know that this show existed. Having only recently signed up to Hulu, I'll have to dig this up.