#maybe i'm biased because I BUY VINYLS

[number1wah]

can i be real for a second

Nina wholeass insulting asking Maggie not once but TWICE "Who even buys records anymore" was SO OUT OF POCKET

[wordbirb]

Music Blog: Why I play Vinyl

Maybe I should start by mentioning that I’ve never touched a CDJ. Are they still called that even though they’ve been replaced with USB’s by now? Anyway. That probably makes me biased towards vinyl. That being said, I still wanted to share a few words about this topic. The first time I saw a set of decks when I was around 12 in the mid 00s. My sister’s boyfriend was selling them and for a while they were stored at our house. He taught me the basics and encouraged me to mix but I refused because I was scared I might damage the equipment or his records. 

Before I knew what DJs actually did, I already had contact with vinyl. My dad has a collection. His taste is very different than mine. The only records I used to play were the red and blue Beatles albums. There just is something about putting that needle into the groove and hearing something even though the speakers are not on. To me its magical. And despite the fact that I have never touched a CDJ, I know I won’t experience the same.

Lately I've been wondering whether it was thanks to the Dj's who stuck to the wax in the 90s that vinyl is alive. It even had a comeback in the 2010s. It is true that there are many benefits to the CD. They're light, small and have great sound. With USB there is basically no chance of the record skipping. But in the end, vinyl just has something that out weighs the practicality and comfort of not having to carrying the weight of many records. Some people, including me, find it hard to organize digital files. When I'm thinking about which record to play next, I visualize the label not the name of the track. I don’t think I’m cut out for staring at the small screens scrolling through track names. Especially in a dark club. 

There's an another level to the vinyl vs. CDJ debate. Are they actually comparable when one of them demands more of an audio-visual input than the other? If you can see the BPM and the ‘landscape’ of your tracks, cueing becomes so easy that it can't be compared to someone knowing their tracks by heart and blending records accordingly. To me playing vinyl has a lot to do with feeling the music and muscle memory. Anyone can learn how to beat match within two weeks. What is challenging is to fix the blend before the tracks drift apart. Knowing which record to speed up or which tempo to adjust at what moment will make or break the mix. Where's the fun when the machine does it all for you?

If someone offered me a CDJ I would definitely not turn it down. I could play my own tracks, I could loop the ends of tracks or make edits. But would I ever buy one?  No. I’d rather keep on buying records (and needles).