It's been a while, but its all a matter of time.

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John Landon
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It's been a while, but its all a matter of time.

Post by John Landon »

Nothing like laying down in the garden and looking up at the night sky with a big fat hairly spliff and this coming out of your headphones... :lv

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Maybe not tonight though, There's 3" of frozen snow in my back garden at present.. :tk Proper summer last year, proper winter this year ! What's going on ? ... 8)


Ill be back in North Africa in a few days all being well... :br


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Re: It's been a while, but its all a matter of time.

Post by A-Four »

Have always noticed you're a great fan of Elton John, truly beautiful music. I always remember Funeral for a Friend, Grey Seal and the many others. In the early years, him and his mate lived first in Notting Hill Gate, then when the money started to roll in, they moved to Kensington High St. Sometimes on a Saturday he would play the piano on the roof garden at BiBa's, formally Derry and Toms Department Store on Ken High Street.

In the very early 80's I was in Nice, South Coast of France, when they filmed part of the video for the song I'm Still Standing. Elton John loved that town in those days and often gave impromptu concerts there, I remember attending one that cost me nothing, with only a few thousand people there, of course most of them paid. I do remember seeing Diana Ross in the late 70's at the old long gone Birmingham Odean, that cost about £3-50, and I was part of an audience of around 1,500. Today such modern day stars charge a fortune in a massive audience at either the NEC or the O2 at the Millennium Stadium.

Incidently, Nice is not at all expensive, unlike many would have you believe, and when summer ends in England, there is at least one further month of it there. Westminster Hotel very old and expensive. Hotel Swiss modern and good value. Eat out very good and cheap, Wine, to die for. :wi :wi :wi .
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Re: It's been a while, but its all a matter of time.

Post by John Landon »

I'm still standing. A great song, I Must admit, That video was so ironic though, as Elton is the least gayest..
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Been a fan since I was about 9 or 10, when I first heard Your Song, then Daniel.
My Old man would not buy me the album Yellow Brick road which contains those songs you mention. Funeral for a friend is mind blowing when you hear it for the first time on headphones with the lights out..
Though on the 24th June 1974 he did come back and give me the album Caribou on tape...

I found Bernie Taupins lyrics as captivating and interesting as Elton's Melodies, and when I first heard the song I Posted " Can you feel the love tonight" I thought Bernie had written the lyrics, but infact they were penned by Tim Rick, who
is more famous for his partnership with Mr Lloyd Webber.

Aida was also an Album written by Elton and Tim, one I have in my collection.

I have only been to France once, and that was passing through Charles de Gaul Airport, from Rome to Manchester. Though I did stand under a mini Eiffel tower in Hammermet port last year.. Close enough.. :wi

Music is a great education, and rather like Apollo in many respects..
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Re: It's been a while, but its all a matter of time.

Post by A-Four »

It's Nice to see you on here John, and I know you come and go on this site these days, but I have a request on downloading music that certain members of my family think is a good idea for me. You and the likes of Keefy are wiz-kids when it comes to computers and down loading.

my question is this, I have a load of vinyl music, about 10%, the rest is CD and quite big collection. This year I will sell my London home, and the senior members of my family suggest I get rid of the lot and down load my music from the Internet. According to form, they can get it all for free from the Internet, and then it can all be put up in a so called 'cloud'. The problem is, many would say that a 'cloud' is not yours for ever. I have also heard that any downloaded music is now only available for a limited period, so it is never your, even when you pay.

My question to you is this, Is that collection that they can get me for nothing (so they say the younger members of my family) and belong to me for ever ? I know you do not know what the future is for the Internet, but what is your best advise ,...........Many thanks.
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Re: It's been a while, but its all a matter of time.

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I am working on a reply A-Four, hopefully if work does not get in the way, I will be able to post it by close of play today... :up
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Re: It's been a while, but its all a matter of time.

Post by John Landon »

I will attempt to summarise my answer at the end, but first, please indulge me while I ramble on and answer the question and discuss some of the points raised.


I would suggest that you enlist the assistance of the "tech savvy" members of your family and take them up on their offer to download your music collection for you.
This would be my first pre requisite before I consigned my albums and CD's to the bin. ( but perhaps this is not necessary. )

If you have the time, do your research and then put your collection up for sale online,
you may be able to make a few quid out of the people who love nostalgia.

For me, one who has seen the light and realised that nostalgia aint what it used to be, and that the good old days were infact the crap old days..
As mankind moves forward and you have the eyes to see, things are on the up and up... but that's another story.

Now, back then, I loved the old 12" Albums and still have many at home, I loved the holistic experience of owning an album,
Having the decorated cardboard cover, reading the credits and lyrics, and of course that big black 2 dimensional replica of the sun that emits those wonderful sounds once it is set into rotation
and the stylus is placed at the edge to work its way inwards.. But it had its limitations..

CD's were a massive move forward, as the sound quality improved significantly, they were more portable and the music on the CD was much more navigable.
There was no chance of the CD wearing out through general use as there was no physical contact between the diamond stylus and the less durable vinyl.

My car has a CD player, so many of my CD's reside there, but of course I can now connect my phone to the car audio system and play music stored on my phone into the car audio system.

The Nay sayers will say that music did not sound the same once CD's came out and that it was cold and sterile.

Utter C0ck, the clarity of digital music is far superior to that analogue sound produced by vinyl, and a laser beam can read and transmit far more information than a tiny diamond tipped stylus ( being dragged along what looks like an extreme close up of a rocky canyon ) can ever produce.

Now we have digital music that exists in individual named files, the most common being MP3 format.
A LOT of this digital music will have initially started life on A CD or even a vinyl record and been encoded into this format onto a computer.
The beauty about digital information is that nothing is lost during the copying process, so a copy that has been derived over many generations will be identical to the original.

A typical album track of medium quality would occupy about 3MB of disk space, so lets say 10 tracks per album which = 30 Mb / Album.
that " medium" quality is still good quality by any standard, but you can record tracks with much higher quality if you so desire.
The file size may increase by 50 % or more, but I challenge you to be able to tell the difference once the audio quality gets above 160kb ( more on that in a moment )

Most MP3 recording software allows the user to select the bit rate to use when recording.
The lower the bit rate, the more information the encoder will discard when creating the file.

Bit rates range from 96 to 320 kilobytes per second (Kbps).
Using a bit rate of 128 Kbps usually results in a sound quality equivalent to what you'd hear on the radio today, not those old transistor radios of our youth..
Many music sites and blogs urge people to use a bit rate of 160 Kbps or higher if they want the MP3 file to have the same sound quality as a CD.

The beauty of digital music files is that these days, most devices like mobile phones, tablets, PC's, laptops and even your TV can play them back to you.

Even a cheap set of headphones attached to a mobile phone, tablet or laptop ( laptops will soon be a thing of the past too, so beware before investing in one of those ) can produce excellent sound quality from a digital file on a simple device.

A Decent set of headphones is they key. even those ear buds can have a good sound quality, but the traditional over the ears headphones are probably the best.
I have some Dr Dre "BEATS" Bluetooth headphones, and the sound quality is in another dimension. Way beyond what my old man's PYE music system and Wharfdale speakers could ever reproduce.


Creating or choosing the digital music.

If you create your own files from your existing collection, bearing in mind that Vinyl can be reproduced into MP3, but it will not improve the quality of the sound given the limitations of the original medium itself, so it may be better to download those in MP3 format or record them from the CD version.


Storing your music.

for me, its a no brainer, a decent sized USB Pen drive ( 16 - 32 GB ) can hold hundreds of albums, and once you have your entire collection on a pen drive,
This can then be copied onto another pen drive as a backup and or your computer.
Of course, you can transfer the files to your tablet or phone by copying the files to a micro SD card, that most tablets and phones will either already have or have a slot in which to insert one.

If you have a gmail account, you will also have a G Drive attached to that account,
This is a virtual hard drive that resides on the cloud or the internet if you prefer to use that name. this will be about 15GB of storage on the cloud. You can upload your music to that drive as well.

1GB would equal sufficient storage for about about 30 Albums recorded at 160kbs. ( Good Quality )

Now if one night you find yourself in some dingy motel in the arse end of nowhere, you can fire up your tablet, log into your Google account, then go to your G drive and start playing your music from there..
(The G Drive can also be used to store your photos and documents in the same way as a normal hard drive).
ALL my photos and files these days go direct to my G Drive, so whenever I get a new phone or tablet, I log into Google and all my stuff is there in an instant.

People whinge about privacy, but they are going to have to learn a few lessons about that in order for us all to move on in this world, I have no such concerns, as I do not keep anything that I would not want anyone else to see or hear on there anyway.
No brainer really..

These music files will not expire, though there may be some paid for music services that will give you access to music files for a limited amount of time, depending on the subscriber level. But any file that you have on your device is yours and will be forever.

Youtube now have a service that allows you to buy the videos that you watch and download them to your phone, tablet etc... for a monthly subscription fee.
Youtube is a great source for music and the videos that accompany them, some people have created some great artwork in music videos that compliment or even enhance the musical experience.
You can watch old favourite performances and concerts too ! its all there !

Google Play Music and YouTube Red cost about 10 UK pounds a month, you get added benefits of not having to see adverts on Youtube once you take out this subscription.

As you start to buy in new music files, remember to back them up also..

So to summarise.

You can record and or repurchase all your existing music and maybe procure them for free with some help from the tech savvie relatives.
Once you have everything you need, you can then decide what to sell and what to chuck out and what to keep.

It just may be possible that you have some vinyl 12 and 7 " that may be worth a few quid, and if you have the time to research and separate the wheat from the chaff, you could make a few quid.

The music quality will be far superior to the Vinyl recordings, and I suggest that you take up this challenge and compare some music to hear for yourself.

Therefore it may not be necessary to have your vinyl converted into MP3, but that is up to you and your personal preference to that particular music. Yes, there was a certain charm to the analogue sound and those clicks and bumps, but is it really better than what can be reproduced to day digitally ?

Your CD's can be quickly converted to MP3 File format on any PC, I can assist of you do not have anyone to show you how, but at the very least you will need a PC or laptop with a CD drive and Windows 7.
I can talk you through that quite easily. Allow about 10 mins per CD to convert them to said MP3 file format, so those files can be copied off the PC and onto your pen drive.
A lot of software will even put the album cover with the MP3 files and store the CD music in its own folder of the album name.

Get all this music into one place, an SD card or USB Pen drive, then copy it so you have a backup, and remember to refresh your backups as and when you add to your music collection.

upload your favourite music to your Cloud storage such as G Drive, ( If you don't have GMail or Google account, There are plenty of ways of getting hold of free cloud storage and it costs very little if you need to expand.)

decide how you are going to access these files, such as phone or tablet. You can copy them from the USB Pen drive to your phone or tablet via a computer and USB lead.

Set yourself up with a couple of sets of headphones, one decent set for home use and another set for travelling.

Enjoy the music whenever you want, and do not forget to keep backups, I cannot stress enough how important backups are.

I hope that helps, its always a pleasure A-Four... :br
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Re: It's been a while, but its all a matter of time.

Post by A-Four »

John, many many thanks, sorry only got on here so late, the four junior members of the family have been here this evening, all of them so called 'wiz-kids' , some what rather surprised that I am going ahead, though they can not believe that I have sought the full info from someone other than them, but of course they all totally agree with you, even one who works as a computer 'wiz-kid' for Bank of America in Canary Wharf.

I don't know if I should write this on a forum but, between them they can get almost 90% of my collection down loaded for nothing which says a lot really. I do feel a bit sad though selling my old collection, being that I am sure most of us would see it as part of our lives, the actual holding something that reminds us of happy times past when we first dashed out to buy them. Now we just look at all those CD's that cost at least £13-00, and that was ten years ago in Virgin Records, now long gone from the High Street. Incidentally I remember when that store had a branch in City Stars Shopping Centre up in Heliopolis Cairo, but surprisingly the prices were about the same as the U.K.

Once again John, thanks very much for the independent advice especially from a person I know values good music much more than even I ever would. Sorry could not put all this in a P.M., unfortunately I do not have that facility.

Best wishes as always, A-four.
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Re: It's been a while, but its all a matter of time.

Post by John Landon »

Happy to be of assistance, and if you can get 90% of your existing collection for free, then all the better. :up

I could probably ditch most of my collection, though I do have an Album my wife bought for me back in about 1980.
But then I have to ask myself. "What use is it now " ? I have no means to play it and its not exactly the sort of thing you can carry around without the risk of getting damaged, should I end up on my own, God forbid...


Time and tide wait for no man A-Four, and the times they are a changing..
Enjoy the Electric digital revolution, you will be surprised at what it can and will replace..... Its the future... :br
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