Kali Durga wrote:I love to rip from vinyl because I enjoy hearing the needle lift/drop and any snap/crackle/pops that are captured. But as I stated on the last page, splitting the tracks after I ripped the Charley Patton record was a pain in the freaking neck.
If I get something on vinyl I do have a preference to convert to digital for the car/commute, and I feel your pain when it's not clear where the tracks change, or the breaks are extremely short. I seem to take about 2, 3 or even 4 times the length of the album to get a usable version, even without cleaning the audio. My preference would by to split the tracks, but if the Document series is so difficult to split, is it not still worth converting to listen to the sides? I think I'd rather have the option of listening to the others on the move - committing to 22 minutes of Blind Willie McTell can't be that bad!
More generally, I think download cards should be a standard for vinyl these days. I'm not a fan of compressed music, so I even more prefer when vinyl comes with the CD, rather than the download card (e.g. Dylan's recent albums, or the new Primal Scream record) - as you can then rip the CD as well if needed. I doubt it costs very much, and I'd happily pay a wee bit more for the option. I also wish (rant starting) that vinyl buyers didn't almost always miss out on bonus material that's on CD special editions, etc. To make a sweeping generalisation, vinyl buyers are more likely to be the most passionate music fans, so why should they have to buy multiple copies of albums to get all tracks/digital versions? It's probably precisely because they are the most passionate that the record companies think that if they do withold some material that they'll profit more from double-dipping completists.
