2018-12-03 00:31:19

So I'm looking to get a turntable for christmas, I already picked up a few records, some classic Hip-Hop, a breakbeat 45 and a couple of comedy LPs. Was just curious of people's experiences from a blindness perspective. Besides being a complete noob on actual turntable operation (aside from the general basics, i've never used one in my life), the one i'm planning to buy isn't actually assembled, and I didn't want to cheap out and get a college chick's bluetooth turntable. I've searched the forums and I couldn't really find much of anything on this topic.

NevEd.NDO#4838
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2018-12-03 00:40:42

Lol, I couldn't agree with you more on bluetooth turntables. It's such an oxymoron.

I can't really help you with assembling them. I've always had a sighted person do that for me. As for operation, what questions do you have specifically? You can, of course, get fully automatic ones, so you just press a button and the tonearm moves and drops for you, and returns by itself once the record is finished. I personally am not a huge fan of those, since I prefer to place the needle on the record myself, but everybody has their preference when it comes to that.

The glass is neither half empty nor half full. It's just holding half the amount it can potentially hold.

2018-12-03 00:47:21

Well, To be a little bit more specific, would I just place the needle on the rite side of the record if I wanted it to start from the beginning?  The one i'm getting isn't automatic, it's direct drive though. I don't even know why they still make belt driven turntables, honestly.. For the looks? Also, have you ever had to align a cartridge before?

NevEd.NDO#4838
My community discord:
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2018-12-03 01:07:03

I love vinyl, and have an ever growing collection myself. Even though mine is automatic, i taught myself how to place the needle, as long as you have a toan-arm lift, which most players should have, you should be fine. For the record, this one is a belt-drive table, and it sounds great, and i have never had a problem with it. Good speakers are a must for good sound.

2018-12-03 01:10:42 (edited by NevEd 2018-12-03 01:12:45)

What about labeling and organization? I was going to grab the labeler and have my brother read them to me and just label them abbreviated and stick them on my shelf, but maybe some of you guys do it a different way. Also, the reasons I got direct drive is because if I were to get into DJing with timecoded vinyl, it'd be better for scratching, and the belts do ware out eventually, i'm sure they're good for most people who don't care about all that.

NevEd.NDO#4838
My community discord:
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2018-12-03 04:38:32 (edited by magurp244 2018-12-03 11:47:26)

I've noticed a pretty cool resurgance of vinyl over the past few years, specifically for indie game sound tracks. There's a bunch of records available over on [iam8bit] for things like Rez Infinite, Psychonauts, XCom, even Battletoads, heh.

Edit - Found a bunch more retailers for vinyl game tracks:

[Discogs VGMs on Vinyl]
[Discogs Unofficial VGM Vinyls]
[BlipBlop Vinyls]

And an article [here] listing a few other retailers.

-BrushTone v1.3.3: Accessible Paint Tool
-AudiMesh3D v1.0.0: Accessible 3D Model Viewer

2018-12-03 08:32:05

I gotta say I'm a fan of belt driven turntables myself, but then, I'm not interested in DJ-ing, so it would make sense why you'd want a direct drive for that.

As for placing the needle, this is what I do. I use my left hand, and place my thumb against the side of the record. I then lift the tonearm and bring it over so that the end of it touches my thumb. I know at that point that I should be good to place it at the beginning of the record.

The glass is neither half empty nor half full. It's just holding half the amount it can potentially hold.

2018-12-03 10:52:08

@turtlepower17
I also like to lift and place the tonearm on the record myself, it is almost like a kind of ritual to prepare yourself for the listening.

When it comes to setting it up, such as setting the weight of the cartridge and stuff like that, I haven't found a blind friendly way to do that, so I had to use sighted help for that. I don't think there are talking gram scales with 0.1 gram precision either.

I have most of my record collection labeled with braille.

2018-12-03 12:49:38

Huh.. Well, that sounds simple enough. I kinda have to rearrange part of my area to hold records on a shelf, i don't have the biggest room in the house, I have a desk, with my stereo, DJ midi controller, a drawer of random cords and a random reel-to-reel tape, some blank blu-rays on top of one of the speakers, and an entertainment center to the left of the desk, next to a mic on a stand. It's a shame theirs no accessible way to set up a turntable though.
What specific turntables do you guys use? Did you buy them or were they ones older family might've had?

NevEd.NDO#4838
My community discord:
https://discord.gg/2duutDtGFa

2018-12-04 15:49:02

I'm using Audiotechnica at-pl120. It has a direct drive, but the cartridge and stylus are not suitable for scratching. It has elliptical stylus, which is better for listening, but conical/spherical is more suitable for application you specified.

2018-12-05 00:32:56

Rite, I seriously doubt this'll be my permanent turntable. Once I get a steady paying job i'll save up about $400-ish for audio technica, eventually get two of them and a mixer. I wonder if theirs any accessible software out there that works with timecoded vinyl. I'd get a couple of 1200s if I could but those are too expensive, at least the listings i've found.

NevEd.NDO#4838
My community discord:
https://discord.gg/2duutDtGFa

2018-12-07 02:29:36

hi. I've been collecting records for about 4 years, and I'm using a Rega belt driven turntable. I'm loving that thing. I used to have one of these all in one turntables, but I ended up hating it, because if I played newer vinyls on it, the needle would just skip the grooves where there was too much noise. At least that's what my theory is anyway.

I live in darkness, forever in darkness.

2019-01-28 15:52:09

So I've been living with my turntable for the past month or so. It's a Crosley C2O0a direct drive turntable. Everything's stock except the slipmat, which I replaced with a cork one because it was a fiber shedder. I'm actually really enjoying the process of buying records, opening them up and throwing them on and listening to them, without the distractions of a computer. Not to mention them being an actual physical piece of music as opposed to bits on a hard drive, which is 99% of my music, but still. Am I the only one that has a bit of trouble cuing up 45's though? Sometimes it takes a couple tries to get it rite at the beginning and not in the middle of the intro of the first song.

NevEd.NDO#4838
My community discord:
https://discord.gg/2duutDtGFa