What Was The Last Vinyl You Bought?

Yeah, that’s often an issue with coloured vinyl, patterned vinyl etc I usually avoid the marketing and get the regular black version.
As its Blue Note it might be worth seeing if you can source a US pressing. I recently paid more to get the US pressing done at RTI of Charles Lloyd & The Marvels Vanished Gardens, better than the EU pressing.

That reminds me…

The Music on Vinyl reissue of Mike Westbrook’s Metropolis is currently available from a few places for just over a tenner. The title track alone is utterly sublime.

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Yes, I’m not a fan of coloured vinyl either, although I did succumb to a picture disc of Alex Harvey “Live”, which I found in used record store quite a few years ago.

Lol, just got two colour releases: green Vinyl Me Please for Van, and blue for Imperial. Luckily, both seem OK.

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I’ve been lucky too. Not had trouble with coloured vinyl which is fortunate because they are becoming more and more prevalent.

Maybe I’m being an old curmudgeon, coloured vinyl has always been around but they were usually genuinely limited collectables, there is a trend now (it seems that nearly all mainstream releases are on coloured vinyl these days) for coloured and patterned “splatter” vinyl, which I think is aimed at trendy hipsters who want something to pose with, hang on the wall or play frisbee with. In my view Its reducing vinyl to a novelty gimmick instead of demonstrating or educating (sorry if that sounds patronising) people new to vinyl why it’s still a top quality format when pressed and mastered properly.
Bah!
:wink:

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I agree.

Pats Yellow vinyl copy of yellow brick road, and hides mulicolour psychedelic sampler from Island records.

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Actually I recently bought Fat Freddys Drop Special Edition Part 1. Taking the record out to put onto the gramophone I found it was transparent purple vinyl! Aaaaaaargh!
It does sound ok though in this instance but it’s one of the occasional exceptions in my experience.
Clear/transparent uncoloured vinyl is the opposite exception though and usually sounds good sometimes better than the normal Black.

I’m growing a beard! I’ve also ordered some “skinny” jeans, a Tank Top and a selection of checked shirts!
:+1:

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Black vinyl matters.

I may form a protest group.

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SQ aside, I dislike coloured vinyl as it’s hard to cue, and hard to spot problems. Clear is a nightmare for cueing - always fooled by seeing the other sides’ tracks.

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I said exactly that in an earlier thread.

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We agree then! Good.

Mind you, isn’t pure vinyl clear? So the added carbon (?) to make black…

Dammit.

Back in the 80’s coloured vinyl had noticeably inferior sq compared to the black version and I avoided it at all costs. More recently my experience has been that I have not noticed any degradation in sound quality on coloured vinyl- my understanding is that the tech has improved such that there is now no difference at all. In contrast picture discs are still terrible- I have one Chet Baker picture disc album and it’s almost unplayable

I ordered purple, got black.

My Tool Chris Bellman-cut picture discs of Lateralus are very good. Thankfully.

And my Aladdin Sane picture disc is good, but I’ve never had a standard to compare against.

But I remember Curved Air’s picture disc from way back. Not good!

Generally, I avoid picture discs unless I want to frame them - cough - The Dead’s Aoxomoxoa being a case in point.

I still have a p/d of a Jessie Rae 45, but it has gone all brown, sadly. A great single.

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SQ wise I think more important than vinyl of colour is weight. I’ve been buying vinyl for 50 years and some especially in the 70s were so thin I think they were made on the same machine that puts the chocolate coating on digestives. New releases are generally and reassuringly heavier at 150/180 and even 200g. I have no actual evidence because there are so many other factors involved but they seem to sound better and are certainly less likely to warp

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Weight of vinyl is not IME a guarantee of quality. I have fantastic sounding lightweight vinyl and some rubbish “heavy” vinyl.
Yes, some vinyl in the seventies was very poor but less to do with the thickness, but due to the oil crisis, using cheaper poorer quality and/or recycled vinyl.
Unfortunately for some companies sticking a hype label on the sleeve of a crappy pressing proclaiming “pressed on 180g vinyl” is often just another marketing gimmick. The quality of vinyl compound used and the standard of the mastering and pressing process is more important IMO.
Another consideration is that record presses have to be properly set up for a given weight of vinyl. It’s no good trying to press 180g for example on a press intended for 120g.
I find a common problem these days is dishing with heavier weight pressings that aren’t done right.

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If anyone interested theres a video of Michael Fremer taking a tour of GZ Media on the Analogue Planet YouTube site.
GZ specialise in coloured vinyl picture discs etc.
@steviebee the problem with picture discs as I understand it, is that the picture is actually a transfer that is pressed on to the vinyl so in effect your not actually playing the vinyl but the transfer on top.
I have an old Cimarons 12" pressed on translucent clear vinyl with a Red,Gold&Green band accross the diameter. Sounds good if you dont mind the clunks every half rotation as the stylus passes over the band :joy:

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All vinyl matters

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Gonna have to break out the Okki Nok…

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