How do you listen to what you find?

[Deleted]

Percy's recent thread about where we find the music we listen to got me thinking about another related but separate question: how and where do you listen to said music? The other thing that got me thinking was that I've just upgraded my computer speakers, and I do listen to an awful lot of music through the PC, as I tend to be on it a fair bit anyway. On the other hand I enjoy lying in the dark with a good quality CD/record as much as the next man....

Then of course, there's where? Do you all carry iPods around, is your car stuffed with CDs? (or tapes perhaps?!) When you download an album, do you make a CD of it? (I have just started doing it because upstairs in my room I'm on a somewhat feeble wireless connection, so I download on the family PC downstairs and get burning. It is actually rather nice to get it onto a player rather than being dependant on a PC/iPhone/iPod).

Course, some things work wonderfully in certain situations. Lying in the dark, I'd probably choose some Pink Floyd or John Coltrane. Walking though town, Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited takes some beating. On a long train journey I like Solid Air (John Martyn, but then you knew that) or some Ray Lamontagne. Just as examples of course

[robn]

"Live 365" through laptop plugged into Marshal AS50R amp. I just pick the channel acording to my mood. Today's radio channel is "Bluegrass Highway" in the workshop. So expect those fast pickin' country licks to be built into the guitars I'm setting up today ;D

PS - I forgot to mention that "Bluegrass Highway" is pretty much a Jerry Douglas, Rob Ickes and Josh Graves dobro fest - one of the three of them must be the session musician or just about every other track!

[SoloBill]

Mostly Cds in the car because I spend more than 12 hours a week driving.

Secondly, vinyl or CDs on the HiFi in my living room, in which case that is what I concentrate on, it's not playing in the background; listening is what I am doing, nothing else.

I do also have some as mp3 files on a portable mp3 player that I take on the rare occasions when I'm travelling on public transport just to give me an option so I can alternate between listening and reading something.

[percythewonderant]

In the car - CD's - nearly all compilations that I have put together - often for specific journeys. I do have one of those radio devices for the ipod but never use it though it was going to be essential when I bought it! Around and about a 'classic' ipod set on shuffle. All comforting rootsy stuff, - modern acoustic blues, country blues, bluegrass and folk , classic 50's 60's electric blues bits of dixieland and hard bop and a smattering of psychedelia and soft rock like Stephen Stills and Colvin Quarmby.

Day times, I am usually to be found in my 'cosy' studio/workshop, (the indoor shed) along with the vinyl, A pair of 1970's wardrobe sized speakers driven by an even older valve amp, & turntable, a second hand G4 mac that I rescued from being dumped, a rather lime scaled kettle & my own dedicated enamel tea pot! -there isn't much room for anything else certainly no space for a DAB radio, but its home! - In an ideal world I would smoke a pipe too.......

[Michael Messer]

In the car >CDs - mostly compilations, but all kinds of stuff. I listen to a lot of music in the car. In the house >CDs & Vinyl through ancient valve (tube) hi-fi equipment. Also in the house, stuff I download and record into iTunes on a MAC, mostly WAV files as I am not very into mp3 format, plugged into the hi-fi, or if I am not near it I use a guitar amp and sometimes a little X-Mini speaker which I think is really good. I also use a pair of M-Audio BX5 studio-phile monitors which I find good enough for home mixing & editing.

The X-Mini speakers are amazing for a little travel speaker.

Live 365 sounds interesting. I like to keep up with as much new music as I can, so I listen to the radio quite a lot too.

Shine On
Michael

[honeyboy]

In the house



Wireless Squeezebox Duet into a venerable old Mission/Yamaha 7.1 Surround sound system.

I love listening to FLAC through this system - especially 96khz/24 bit. It is audiophile quality.

It streams music all over the house, and also high quality Internet radio, which I find I'm listening to more and more in bed at night... Now I can enjoy Radio KXLU at the weekends..

In the car



VW Touchscreen navigation connected to 320 gb USB pocketdrive with my entire 280GB music collection on it. Every song I have ever bought/composed is on here. Also plays music from 16gb SHDC cards, but currently doesn't support the FLAC format

I use this as my main mix checker - if something sounds OK on this system, then it is finished. I heard all the stories about Ry Cooder running out of Ocean Way studio with a cassette tape/cd (depending on who tells the story) and listening to a mix as a final check using the factory installed radio in his Toyota pickup. There was method in his madness...

In the (home) Studio



Pro-Tools/Ableton PC with 5.1 Bi amped KRK powered monitors and an M Audio 192Khz/24 bit soundcard. I spend a lot of time in here - too much time...

I'm currently re-ripping my entire CD collection to FLAC, replacing the MP3's, but it is a long process. (This is the big advantage of buying CD's rather than just downloads). Just working through my complete John Fahey collection currently..

[Michael Messer]

I forgot to mention FLAC files, they are excellent and I am getting more and more of them.

Nice machines Honeyboy. I am happy with my Quad system, but that doers look good.

Shine On
Michael.

[oldmanblue]

i listen through computer to 365 grits & gravey ,classic blues through an ipod to tracks that i down load from itunes also c.d's that i burn from that also ,then there is my hi fi system .o.m.b.

[ken1953clark]

At Home: iTunes on my PC in my (yes, my) cellar (Logitec speakers with sub woofer, OK but not great). iTunes informs me ..."4965 songs 14.3 days", and that's a small put of the collection. I rarely play CDs upstairs at home now, the telly's always on.

Out and about, iPhone (magic, how did I ever manage without it)

In the car: Copies of CDs, I don't let real CDs near the car, fed up with them getting ruined by the auto-loader. Also iPhone through a transmitter device so the radio can pick it up.

[Deleted]

hi Michael and Honeyboy

increasingly intrigued by this FLAC format. What players do you guys favour? I have stuck with iTunes for sometime, maybe tme for a change?

[honeyboy]

I use Winamp as a player (since it has a very low memory footprint). I only use an old, outdated version (2.81 since I have some custom plugins I have written for myself that won't work in a newer version, and it isn't encumbered by the kind of privacy invading crap that has been inserted into the newer versions ). Most version of Winamp play FLAC straight out of the box (and always have done).

You can find old versions of software here. (I wouldn't normally condone using old software because of the security issue, but some of the intrusive 'features' added to later 'free' players are intolerable, IMHO).

Also, if you have plenty of memory and a fast processor Mediamonkey is an excellent free player. Very good also at keeping your files tagged with artwork and title/artist tags in shape. Also plays FLAC straight out of the box. (It struggles slightly when your music collection gets beyond 250 gigabytes unless you are running a 64 bit version of Windows). It also can handle syncing directly to your ipod, so you can delete iTunes from your computer completely (Yay !!! ;D )

I use iTunes replacement software from Red Chair Software, and have done so for years (from before Mediamonkey existed). (I wouldn't have iTunes installed on any computer I own, because (in its Windows incarnation) it is so buggy, bossy and inflexible).

Exact Audio Copy is the best solution for ripping CD tracks to FLAC format. Can be slightly tricky to set up, but full details can be found on the FLAC website.

[Deleted]

Thanks Honeyboy,
Feeling somewhat impulsive, I already went ahead and downloaded Songbird as an experiment in FLAC listening. I know what you mean about software often getting bloated and pushy, so if it turns out irritating I will follow up your tips
[songbird can be found here: getsongbird.com/]
thanks again
LR

[Deleted]

Just a quick note to thank honeyboy once again for the nudge towards winamp. Really very good, and as it turns out you don't have to have the annoying privacy invading stuff in the latest version ;D. Can't yet face FLACing my collection, but from here on my recordings will be going into FLAC.

p.s. Songbird is irritating, needs more power than I have and wants to control all your audio files. If you've got a more powerful machine and want to avoid iTunes, it probably makes some sense. For me not