Exactly! Very on-point and I totaly forgot about the real fact (the majority of consumers). Thank you PanzerMeyer

I wanted to say it's interesting to read someone's comments who knows the industry and who can actually play (apologies to Red2112 for not getting back to this sooner)...

Pic of Red2112 and a video of his playing on this thread...
https://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4540148/1

You really do look like a genuine Rocker! <we need a head banging emoji>!

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I had to go really clean cut for work. I miss my wife's 80's big hair (although this pic was very early 90's...way before digital, wish I had a bigger better one)...

80's fashion was still around in the early 90's to some extent. It took a while for it to finally die off! I clearly remember seeing women wearing blouses with those dreaded "shoulder pads" well into 1993 or so. lol

Lol. Yeah, love the 80's look in general, but not so much the shoulder pads [EDIT: wife is wearing them in above pic]...

LOL, yes those shoulder pads are still around in some family pics (sister)

No worries Mark, we all have our things to do, and thank you for the props! That was back in 2007 and I had just gotten back to playing (three months) after a 15 year break! Got a bit back to it 4 years ago and even got together a small home studio but life took a sudden turn (my dad died) and I wasent up for any playing to be honest. I was really into it in my teen years, had been in bands and all that but as I stated, when I got into the music business (90´s) I got discouraged to continue. The urge has been creeping lately, but it will be for my own enjoyment no pro-plan. Who knows, might be a star at my 60´s

But back to the topic, and while writing this up has come back to mind. Althought you could do home recording on PC (Cubase/Atari), or demo tapes (Tascam 4 track with ping-pong to 8) back in the 80´s, the concept of home studios DAW (Digital Audio Workstations) has really evolved a hella of alot these past two decades, not only that, it has become VERY affordable! If you add to it YT and all the info (instructional videos for playing and sound engineering) you get a busrt of musical ideas and talent never seen before!

Why? Well it´s ALOT easier now to learn all this, and a hell of alot cheaper too! There´s NO excuse now for being bad at anything of this. Back then music classes were very expensive, books were very expensive, Instructional VHS were very expensive, and good guitars and outboard gear was very expensive! Sure going to study at Berklee College of Music is still expensive, but at least now you can get away with it if you practise enough and dig into it because you now have all the tools at hand.

Which brings the next point and why I brought this up. Now you don´t need to go through a mayor label, you have the tools to produce your own record, manage your own band, self promote, and even decided how to manage your own royalties in a secure way! All together this gives todays youth the FREEDOM to make and produce whatever music they want and/or can play. Which in turn gives us ALOT of music to choose from today

Yes the big boys are still there and rule, but now at least you have a fighting chance if you want to!

Not everything in my last post is "gold" for music now days, there is a downside to all of this...

The same way it´s alot easier to produce music now days, it also throws a bunch of crap out too! You now have a kid with a some what tasteful taste for music who now puts together a few licks which happen to be on time, then loops them and adds some mad FX´s to the mix, and there you have it! The kid has a song and maybe even gets thousands of views on whatever medium he posted on, and God knows what it can evolve to! In other words, the easier it is to do things, the dumber you can be to do them!

If you follow the Motown days you will find out that the blues players of that era were very good because of one simple fact, recording hours were very expensive! So, in order for any session player to get a job as such, he/her needed to play his part perfectly in one take! This also applied to most musicians of the 60-70´s, you really had to know how to play! The same goes for sound engineers, they had little gear and really had to know how to make the best of it, along with all the theory behind mixing and mastering. In other words, they all knew their stuff!

Now you have voice correction pluggins, EQ preset pluggins for mixing and mastering, and even royalty free bass n drum loops, or paid for loop libraries with all kinds of stuff, and a long list of stuff I wont even get into! Like what you find with Unreal engine assets and game developers, same concept! So the talent and know-how is not as needed as before, which again in turn produces more junk, and less qualified musicians/producers.

In the end, it´s a double edge knife for good and bad, but everybody gets a chance if needed!

and to make up for the off-topic, sorry guys...





Red

Very interesting commentary, Red2112. I think Eddie would approve of a little OT (your top post of the last two reminded me of his interview on page 1, how he couldn't afford all the equipment he needed for the sound he wanted, so he had to be inventive).

Music today is a double edge knife for the consumer as well. Purchasing music was so expensive (at least to me it was) and making the perfect mix cassette tape from vinyl (33 LPs and 45 singles) was very time consuming (if you wanted one). The positive is that your collection (60 to 90 min. worth) would be so focused that it's easy to remember associated memories (in general and specific) to reminisce about years or even decades later. For dating, if you went through the effort of making a mix tape for your car or boom box, you could use it for years if you kept the same girl or found another with similar tastes.

I don't know if Europeans had such a strong teenage car culture, so they might not understand. Your wheels and tunes were everything, even if (as in my case) it was a total piece of crap or (in wife's case) was actually your mom's car that she let you drive to school and work.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I should have mentioned Black Sabbath earlier, another favorite of the Metal head kids (I like them enough for a Greatest Hits compilation).

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Nice videos. Bottom video says 1988, the first one I think was around the same time. Still doesn't seem real that he's gone, I didn't know he was currently in bad shape, just in remission.

Yes, alot of experimenting went on in those days and the years before, ask Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd about there wild sound inovations.

I was in the US till I was 18, so yes I know what you mean about cars and tape decks. My late dad gifted me a used Buick Apollo which was lime green! I had to put some of that tinted film they sold on both of the front side windows so they could not see me as I was quite imbaresed for driving a car with that color! Got over it though LOL. I had a Pioneer tape deck and a separate pre-amp with EQ with some two way speakers right under the front seat and a pair of three way Jensen speakers on the back try and would jam moving pictures for hours on a Friday night! I was pretty good at installing tape decks and stuff among my friends, so they would ask me to do so. As you can see, I still remember all that. Man, no one forgets his teenage years, and yes Van Halen was a big part of it

Making tapes for myself or friends was like a hobby for me. I enjoyed doing that alot, and even when tapes was not a thing, I still did that with min-disc for awhile. With records, well if I could I would not think twice on buying LP´s, again it was a hobby, and alot of fun. I would get paid on a Friday and that same day after work I would head on to my local records shop, buy a album for the cover or what ever, then play it at home while I spent an hour looking/reading the record sleeve for all the details. Some were a miss, some were a hit, It was all part of the adventure

Great times, and I think I would do it all again if I had the choice!



Red

Back in 1999/2000 when Napster first started, I don't think anyone really understood the profound changes that digital and later streaming technology would bring to the music business. Metallica was one of the few bands that really understood what was in store and they unfairly caught a lot of flak for it at the time. Heck, I completely understand that most people don't want to work for free.

Good documentaries, Red2112. I have the "MTV Rockumentary" somewhere in my VHS archives, but I don't recall the "The Sam and Dave Show" which I enjoyed immensely over lunch.

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Something I forgot to mention...thanks to my older brother who was into Hi-Fi, I had reasonably good components for recording vinyl to tape (mix and full albums), usually using a 90 min. chrome or metal tape. I cover the process on this thread (above DIO poster)...
My Top 100 All-Time Greatest Songs

Due to decent sound quality (compared to store bought tapes which were generally awful), I listened to cassettes way past their prime which is why the CD jewel cases in my earlier VH/DLR CD pic look different. The plain black cases were part of my early collection (VH 1 and 1984 were must-haves right off the bat), but the ones with writing are remasters that I later purchased to finally replace my tapes. I seldom played my LPs, enjoying the packaging while keeping them protected as my source.

My bigger collection was 8-tracks which I purchased at yard sales in the early-to-mid-80's, giving me a sizable music collection for cheap and often finding new music when buying a grab bag of albums.

To quote Al Bundy, "Let's Rock!"...

It´s funny how they cheat, and/or lie to us, and Iam talking about the industry and other´s in power we wont mention...

At first they told us that the transition to CD was basically because the medium was alot cheaper, and yeah you can buy a blank CD for a buck or so. The thing is that a recorded CD of a mayor band, and I´ll put Metallica as a example because funny enough they are never on sale! So, a Metallica album on CD will run from €12 to €15, which basically is what a LP would cost back when CD´s were still in the oven! In other words, CD´s are cheaper for them, not us! I´ll even take this further, lately I buy original music in FLAC format which is as close as the original or even better because you can buy a 24bit (Hi-Res) version, and either version is not a down grade like MP3 is. Prices are €9-10 for a 16bit (standard CD), and €15-17 for 24bit (Hi-Res) versions, you can also buy MP3 (320kbps) for €7-8 with the compression of MP3.

So as you can see, the profit is always towards the industry no matter how much they take away from the manufacturing process. I´ll put the FLAC example, there´s no CD, no cover, no physical shop etc. you buy from a online store, download your file which is usually a 1GB and done!

Now we have the comeback of LP´s again! With prices running in the €22-25 for none color vinyl and/or fancy double cover sleeves. In a time when we are supposed to transition into the electrical domain for transport due to climate change and the abuse of fosil fuel of which vinyl records are made of!

In a nut shell, it all dosen´t make any sense, well in a way yes because they really don´t give a flying s about anything that is not making money! Worst even, these LP´s which are supposed to be original are really not that original! Most of these new LP´s that are trying to have there comeback with today´s youth are pressed form digital (output) onto a vinyl format! In other words, they are not pressed from the original master TAPE recordings! Which is murder in the first degree at the price of a gem! And Iam sure some will argue, or even some might not even know they have been doing that. Poor kids and there hard earned money! Not saying all lables are doing that, but like all, you wont know unless you heard the original.

That´s why I try to buy used at flea markets or thrift shops, it´s cheaper and your sure it´s original. The problem now is that they know there´s a demand for LP´s now and have increased the prices of used LP´s!

So while Napster was dangerous they had a plan for the long tem, not to mention streaming with monthly payments. They always have a long term plan!

Edit:

I wrote FLAK, when I meant FLAC in my original post! Don´t know what I was thinking about

Wow. Well there goes my dream of one day going retro turntable (although I still want an '88 Fiero GT 5-speed w/t-tops and aftermarket Alpine cassette head unit).

EDIT: New car audio thread coming soon.

No worry go second hand (used), even with the sound system. I have two Sansui Hi-Fi amps, one from 1978, and another from 1981. Just keep an eye out at flea markets and such. Believe me, it´s harder to find these things used here in EU then for you guys in the US.

The problem is that I sold all of my possessions in '87 including my LPs to buy a dependable car and a stupid engagement ring! Lol. I'm joking...maybe...I do kinda miss my king-size waterbed (oh man, sleeping on heated water in the winter). So I'd also be buying used LPs which are probably scratched to hell, but I do like the idea of checking out flea markets. I haven't gone to one in a long time (although I do Goodwills and thrifts). Thanks for that advice.

If you go used, I recomend to get one of these...



Once you finish the cleaning fluid that comes with it, you can make your own (1% rubbing alcohol and the rest distilled water).

It works pretty good without going to the expensive vacum method, but it´s slow if you have a stack of records you just bought, as you can Imagen.

I remember those! My older brother (thus myself) used this (the liquid bottle slipped inside the handle)...



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If I could go back in time and do one thing differently, with a guarantee that I wouldn't somehow end up in an alternate reality, I would figure out a way to make this happen...

June 13, 1984.....Baton Rouge.....LSU Assembly Center

Setlist
==========
"Unchained"
"Hot for Teacher"
Alex Van Halen drum solo
"On Fire"
"Runnin' with the Devil"
"Little Guitars"
"Cathedral" and "House of Pain"
Michael Anthony bass solo
"Jamie's Cryin'"
"I'll Wait"
"Everybody Wants Some!!"
"Girl Gone Bad"
"Ice Cream Man" (John Brim cover)
"Summertime Blues" (Eddie Cochran cover)
"1984" and "Jump"
Eddie Van Halen guitar solo [and "Eruption", "Spanish Fly", "Little Guitars", "Women in Love..." and "Mean Street" (Intros)]
"Oh, Pretty Woman" (Roy Orbison cover)
"Panama"
"You Really Got Me" (The Kinks cover) [encore]
"Growth" and "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" [and "Happy Trails" (Roy Rogers and Dale Evans cover)]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_Tour

Sorry Alabama.

Just want to give one more shout out to the Atomic Punks VH (DLR-only) tribute band...
http://www.theatomicpunks.com/

Not a believer? Neither was David Lee Roth until he went to a show, as he wrote about in his book "Crazy from the Heat". The Atomic Punks have been around since the mid-90's and are on their fourth guitarist. DLR was impressed enough to nab two of them for his own tours, which to me is a pretty good endorsement. And of course, as in the videos I posted earlier, they apparently have a rapport with Mike and Sammy.

We've seen them twice (the second time with 5150, a Van Hagar tribute), and they seem to get top billing for tribute acts on those Rock cruises. Of course it's not the real thing but we're talking only ~$20.00 and without the hassle of arena parking and large crowds. Also small venues usually have good acoustics, sometimes great (the Fixx in the Manship Theatre sounded incredible).

These tribute acts assure that the music, faithfully replicated, lives on past the musician's and even our own lifetimes. Plus you always get a good show as a tribute isn't allowed artistic liberties (better play it right and remember those lyrics), nor can they walk out on stage so blasted that they can hardly perform. Appetite for Destruction Gn'R tribute, "Axl Rose" looked as if he was going to go off at any time, slam his mic down and walk off stage...just part of the show.