Scott Dolan

Wow! That is an outstanding list! I have to admit that I neglected the whole Bill Evans Village Vanguard thing until just a few years ago, and I went ahead and got the box set of the complete recordings. LaFaro...holy shit... What a fucking monster! My first time through the box I found myself concentrating almost exclusively on his playing. The cat truly had a style all his own. What a grievous loss to the Jazz community.

Respect not being given where you demand it isn't disrespect. Let's leave those kinds of diametrical opposition charges to Christians.

I'm sorry. His point was: no one is entitled to respect. people earn respect. Correct? And if he proved that point, then your response looks rather silly. You, on the other hand, seem to think certain people are entitled to respect. Forgive me for being the bearer of bad news, but that's not how it works. There is no irony in his statement, only your disconnect from reality.

If he did, doesn't that make your reaction a wee bit foolish?

That's right! Thanks for the correction! I had forgotten that was a combo jack. Same as the one on the Apple TV unit. I remember that now because I had to put the extension on my Toslink cable in order for it to work. Great catch! As for Audacity, it's usable. That's about all I can say for it. There are a lot of tutorial videos for it on Youtube, which can be incredibly helpful as the interface isn't the most user friendly.

I kicked physical media years ago, outside of a box set here and there. So, welcome to the dark side. iTunes has been offering "digital booklets", liner notes, etc. with a lot of their downloads in recent years. Though I doubt any of the Jazz classics have them. But, at least they offer it even if in a limited fashion. At first I thought I'd miss the physical packaging and liner notes, but the feeling soon passed. And that's coming from someone who would sit down and read liner notes before even putting the album on!

All of that is correct, with the lone exception that neither Airport Express or Apple TV have analog outputs.

Yeah, I've never heard a USB turntable, but I can't imagine the quality is very good. Not compared to the set ups most of you LP cats tend to have. As for getting them to your stereo, I guess it would depend on the inputs you have on your preamp. I personally do it wirelessly using my Apple TV unit wired into my DAC via an optical cable. That way I have a direct digital link straight into my system. Would that be an option for you? There are several different ways to go, but knowing what input choices you have are key. And is your computer a desktop, or laptop? *edit* mjzee and I were posting at the same time. Sorry for the redundant info.

The one that speaks the most to you. This isn't a competition.

My guess would be no, but I'm not 100% sure of that. You may need to import the files to your PC, then run them through a converter like Foobar2000. You can try to hook it up via USB and see if iTunes will recognize it, but I've honestly never tried anything like that before. Have you looked into a USB turntable? You could likely find one for less money than the Tascam and just import the LPs directly to your PC. That way you could cut a link out of the chain to help insure the most direct transfer possible, unless you're using a high end turntable and don't want to lose that quality.

Unless they're playing more than 44,100 notes per second, file sizes will be the same as any other genre. They'd have a hard time fitting a full piece on a CD were that the case.

BTW, did a little research and ALAC files are right around half the size of a .wav file. That would make a full length CD rip about 300MB. So 1000 ALAC rips would end up in the 300GB range. So if you've got a 500GB HD, or larger, you're in fine shape.

*edit* That should read 500GB, not MB.

Hmm... That's an interesting question, as I'm not entirely sure how many ALAC rips I have on my iMac. But, I would think 500MB would handle 1000 rips without a problem. That's what I have, and still have 154MB of free space. What size HD do you have? I wouldn't think it would be any smaller (my machine is 5 years old. 1TB a standard starting point these days). Though, you always have the options of using an external HD if you find yourself running out of room.

That's interesting. Why would you go with an outdated codec?

I use ALAC for archival purposes. It's far more supported than AIFF. Both are lossless formats, so it'll give you piece of mind that it is identical to what you've got on CD. Now, I personally hear no difference between ALAC and 256kbps AAC, but even I rip into ALAC. Most likely out of habit, I suppose. That said, if you don't plan on getting rid of your CD copies and are limited on hard drive space (though I can't imagine that happening this day and age) you can always rip to AAC at either 256 or 320kbps. I wouldn't recommend any lower than that as you will start to notice a small difference in quality. Especially at the high end (most notably on cymbals).

As an addendum to this, if you have more music in iTunes than your phone can handle, make sure you uncheck "entire library" and check "selected playlists, artists, etc..." If you don't, it will give you an error message saying that you don't have enough memory on your phone for the library. Then you can choose exactly which albums you currently want to have on your phone. And, should you ever download anything from the iTunes store to your computer, it will show on your phone's music app automatically, but you'll still need to actually download it to your phone either via your computer, or your wireless service. I'd also highly recommend on your phone summary page in iTunes, choosing the option "convert higher bitrate songs to" and select 256 AAC. That will help save a ton of room on your phone, affording you a lot more space for music.

Seriously?! What was the gist of their argument?

Some write poems and publish them in books. Others write poems and release them as music albums. They are either both literature, or they are both not. You can't start picking gnat shit out of pepper to strengthen your personal narrative. Reality doesn't work that way.

Yeah, as I noted earlier, I could make an argument for every '65 Coltrane album as being my all time favorites. Hell, two of them are my top two!

I guess live poetry isn't literature either. I mean, what with all the inunciations, inflections, and even physical mannerisms...

Not only a great list, but an interesting twist on the subject. I'm too lazy to check to see if each of these are post 2000, but: Painter's Spring - William Parker The Peach Orchard - In Order To Survive NY Midnight Suite - Dennis Gonzalez's NY Quartet Surrendered - David S. Ware Other Dimensions In Music - Other Dimensions In Music

It doesn't have to be. I was simply making a point that sometimes lines are drawn between two contemporary heavyweights. It's far more pronounced between Stones and Beatles fans, not to mention the Brian Wilson accolytes who think the Beach Boys crush both of them, but I have also noted it between hardcore Coltrane and Rollins fans. I, myself, am heavily in the Coltrane camp, for example. And I've always found Rollins' playing to be a half notch below Coltrane's. So if someone made the argument that Rollins was the superior player, well (!!!), I simply wouldn't stand for it.

CJ is feeling very antithetical!

ArtSalt, thanks for posting that article. I pretty much agree with every word.