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Old 05-17-2014, 06:40 PM
bryantm3
It's Written In The Book!
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: alpharetta
Posts: 1,101
challenge: what if the UW albums were released before CDs and cassettes?
CDs, and less so cassettes, put a huge mark on recordmaking. before the late 80s, most albums had to fit in a vinyl format, ~25 minutes maximum for each side, and only two sides were available for most releases. occasionally, groups would release double albums, but these were 90-100 minutes, not the 70-80 minute range that most UW releases fall into.

if UW had to abide by these rules, the albums would completely change.

first of all, you couldn't have one "long" song following another— this means banstyle couldn't have followed juanita (unless juanita was the last song on side one, and banstyle was the first on side two).

some bands did have some albums that got close to 30 minutes for each side. but the maximum you could fit on one side without severe degredation is about 30 minutes, so if banstyle and juanita were on one side, there would have to be nothing else on that side, and the sound quality would be somewhat reduced.

secondly, the albums would all either have to be shorter or longer— dubnobasswithmyheadman, for example, was 72:53. it *was* printed on double vinyl, but in the pre-CD era, the record company most likely would not have allowed such a waste of extra space, since dubno could have easily fit on three sides without reducing sound quality.

so what they most likely would have requested is that the album either be shorter— around 45-55 minutes— or long enough to justify using two records— around 90-100 minutes.

your task is to rearrange the albums as if these standards applied.

for some bands, i actually find this really effective, because when CDs were first introduced, it often made bands fill up the extra space rather than having a really solid 45 minutes. a good example of this is the smashing pumpkins' siamese dream, which starts out pretty solid but becomes extremely tiring by the end of the record. had the album been around the 45 minute mark, it would have certainly been a better album.

on the other hand, longer albums often need a 'break' between the two halves. some underworld records, as enjoyable as they are, can get kind of long near the end. imagine underworld records as double records (or double CDs), with a good closer for each side, and a break period between the two records.

so create your 'vinyl version' of the album by creating either two or four sides with around ~25 minutes of music on each side. you will either have to add or cut songs.

good luck!

Last edited by bryantm3; 05-17-2014 at 06:42 PM.