Any crate diggers here?

condra

Hey guys.

Just wondering if any of you guys collect and sample old records?
I like my cheapy deals from charity shops and the likes. I mostly look for soul/funk but also some ethnic stuff, jazz, progrock etc.

I hit up Georges Street Arcade regularly. Also Phibsboro Dublin 7, which has 5 second-hand shops

Anyone know any good spots?

Diamondmaker

I have dug my way out of Dublin to the other side of the world !

Yeah Phibs is excellent with the 4 or 5 in the 1km sq area there. Dun Laoughire has a few too. Personally I found some of my best purchases for a Euro in Charity shops.

Try car boot sales and markets, I remember buying some serious LPs off a poor guy selling his lifes collection as he was broke.

There was also a regular fare in the Marine Hotel Dun Laoghaire, good buys here, but no bargains as the vendors obviously know the true values.

You cant go wrong with e Bay but you gotta know exactly what you are looking for. I used to take day trips to London also, SOho is great, especially for soul and funk and Nottinghill had some great places where I found Originals of the likes of Stone Roses Fools Gold and Blue Monday. Not sure would these ones still be there but the Soho ones are..

There was a period where I was buying dozens of records a week where I would basically drop into HMV, Virgin or any 2nd hand shop that I happened to be passing. If you are ever in a foreign city or down the country, dont forget to check out the local talent there.

My most amazing discovery is a a box of about 40 LPs in my mates basement since I moved here, his GF wants to chuck them, but he is just keeping them and wont accept any offer from me. ( serious offers )

The case has the Stones, Santana, the Who and a whole host of mint condition LPs of that era including every single Beatles LP, original in, Im assuming what is an even more rare, Australian pressing.

Thats a treasure chest that one is.

I have recently posted elsewhere here, as I am getting into sampling and have reacquainted my self with, what I must say so myself is a well rounded and well stocked collection and the excitement that sampling is bringing to me has given me a new lease of life.
PLus nothing looks better on a book case than a huge vinyl collection rather than an i Pod full of soon to be lost to all music or some tatty Cds in cracked cases. :pac:

oootini

"sampling from records"

dirty words around here boss!

lots of lads on here don't have a very expensive record player and will castigate you severely for suggesting you sample from a record.

condra

Diamondmaker wrote: »

I have dug my way out of Dublin to the other side of the world !

Yeah Phibs is excellent with the 4 or 5 in the 1km sq area there. Dun Laoughire has a few too. Personally I found some of my best purchases for a Euro in Charity shops.......

Hey Diamondmaker, thanks for the reply. I must check out Dun Laoghaire some time. I go to the Blackrock market about once a month anyway, so it would be handy.

Charity shops are also my favourite. There are a few around Finglas and Dorset Street, but they rarely have much wax. Same with the charity shops in Faiwview. I don't know but for whatever reason, Phibsboro is a real treasure chest. I might check out Rathmines or other Southside areas some time.

oootini wrote: »

"sampling from records"

dirty words around here boss!

lots of lads on here don't have a very expensive record player and will castigate you severely for suggesting you sample from a record.

oootini, with all due respect, you have 38 posts. Unless you have more than one boards.ie ID, I doubt you are qualified to tell anyone about the general consensus of the hundreds of people who use this section of boards.

Though some people are flat out against all forms of sampling, I assure you "sampling from records" are not dirty words around here in a general sense, and I don't anticipate being castigated by "lots of lads on here". (hint: not everyone does mnml tek house)

Besides, my post was not about the "ethics" of sampling. If you would like to discuss that, please feel free to create a new thread on the subject, and I'll gladly contribute objectively and respectfully.

Regarding the "very expensive record player" comment. I'm not sure what your point was there. I sample my records from a Vestax Handytrax which I bought for 50 quid, and I rarely spend more than 2 or 3 euro on any vinyl record.

jtsuited

condra i think you missed a blowup around here a few months back about sampling kick drums from vinyl. ootini's only takin the piss.

condra

jtsuited wrote: »

condra i think you missed a blowup around here a few months back about sampling kick drums from vinyl. ootini's only takin the piss.

Hey Jeff. I did miss it, and it now appears my humorous sarcasm detector was left off when reading his post.

Oootini, sorry for the misunderstanding.

ArmCandyBaby

I did a bit of this around Dublin before all the record stores started shutting down. Was a bit more interested in CDs because the selection was much cheaper and eclectic. Went crate digging over in America and it's a different world, the volume and variety was incredible! It's like taking your gambling from some grubby roulette table in the Colossus and going to Las Vegas. Think I just grew bored with it after I came home having seen the light.

condra

Hey ArmCandyBaby. Yeah I've seen the videos with DJ Shadow and other diggers around New York, and it's mind blowing, especially if you like to dig for soul and funk.

Back in the day when they were into all sorts of cool stuff in USA, the records that were selling here were things like James Last and Engelbert Humperdinck, which is a depressing thought.

Still, my digging is a hobby onto itself, and I enjoy the challenge in finding good records for sampling. I'm not just into soul and funk though. I've sampled all sorts of stuff from choir boys to prog rock.

My favourite things to find though are obscure library records or strange spoken word stuff. I found a great old record in Phibsboro recently called "God Is For Real, Man". It was made in the 60s and has a load of different American ghetto kids talking about how they interpret The Bible.

oootini

condra wrote: »

Hey Jeff. I did miss it, and it now appears my humorous sarcasm detector was left off when reading his post.

Oootini, sorry for the misunderstanding.

hahahaha! no worries. sample on horse!

ArmCandyBaby

condra wrote: »

Back in the day when they were into all sorts of cool stuff in USA, the records that were selling here were things like James Last and Engelbert Humperdinck, which is a depressing thought.

Very true and I alway's thought it was a bit too expensive here for the tat they were selling. Never went the charity shop route but I imagine it's a struggle. If I was to get into it again I think I'd take pot shots at random collections on advert/buy and sell.

Here's a good little website site for some virtual crate digging. It's a pity the "Spoken, Comedy and Oddball" section is down because the stuff in there really was bananas!

Diamondmaker

jtsuited wrote: »

condra i think you missed a blowup around here a few months back about sampling kick drums from vinyl. ootini's only takin the piss.

Yeah whats all this about ? Is there a debate that sampling is ethically bad as opposed to creating your own beats ?

I thik the beauty of old hip hop is that it was built piece by piece from existing tracks. The remasteded instrumental versions that the likes of Kanye just jibber jabber over etc is no way the same thing.

This idea of just stripping the vocals and adding a drum break to an exisitng classic is a far cry from building a track DJ Shadow style / old skool hip hop etc..from samples from 100s of tunes.

A few that grate on me:

1. Kanye ( the Daft Punk which is him sampling a sample they did
2. oh hell, probably anything by him
3. Dr Greene, sampling a sample again, and just blabbering over it Dub be good to me. SOS BAnd / Beats international ( the latter a firm fave of mine )

On an aside Public Enemy are tourng the entire Fear.. album at the minute, this could be a good show and I am catching Maseo from De La Soul this w/e so Im quite excited about these 2 legends.

Oh yeah what is the relevance of the expensie turntables ??

seannash

Diamondmaker wrote: »

Yeah whats all this about ? Is there a debate that sampling is ethically bad as opposed to creating your own beats ?

I thik the beauty of old hip hop is that it was built piece by piece from existing tracks. The remasteded instrumental versions that the likes of Kanye just jibber jabber over etc is no way the same thing.

This idea of just stripping the vocals and adding a drum break to an exisitng classic is a far cry from building a track DJ Shadow style / old skool hip hop etc..from samples from 100s of tunes.

A few that grate on me:

1. Kanye ( the Daft Punk which is him sampling a sample they did
2. oh hell, probably anything by him
3. Dr Greene, sampling a sample again, and just blabbering over it Dub be good to me. SOS BAnd / Beats international ( the latter a firm fave of mine )

On an aside Public Enemy are tourng the entire Fear.. album at the minute, this could be a good show and I am catching Maseo from De La Soul this w/e so Im quite excited about these 2 legends.

Oh yeah what is the relevance of the expensie turntables ??

it was basically someone asked how to get a certin kick sound.a few people said sample a vinyl record and a few others thought this would be an expensive way to do it if the op didnt have a turntable needles etc.that was it.
nothing to do with ethics of sampling

oootini

dance music stands on the samples of giants. there is no ethical dimension to it. simple as.

ICN

Déjà vu happens when they change something in the Matrix.

Diamondmaker

oootini wrote: »

dance music stands on the samples of giants. there is no ethical dimension to it. simple as.

Nice quote Ill remember that one, credited to any one of note ?

Not that you are not of note,:pac: should you be the author

oootini

Diamondmaker wrote: »

Nice quote Ill remember that one, credited to any one of note ?

Not that you are not of note,:pac: should you be the author

erm, Isaac Newton.

Diamondmaker

see I did not even tweak that quote in its original format until now, but the real beauty of it was the paraphrase, or sampling and reworking of it, to suit another purpose, quite apt in that manner I think!

oootini

Diamondmaker wrote: »

see I did not even tweak that quote in its original format until now, but the real beauty of it was the paraphrase, or sampling and reworking of it, to suit another purpose, quite apt in that manner I think!

ha, there ya go.

Lukasz.

Yo,

Im a crate digger,been making instrumentals for a while now and dig every weekend in dublin and sometimes in a small record stall in Bray.
I use an MPC for making beats after digging,
I go to All City records,Beatfinder records (when it existed),Freebird,CityDiscs and sometimes more mainstream stores.

Have also been "crate digging" for other music,more contemporay stuff rather than the usual Soul and Funk diggs I used to do.
As we all know,you could find a sample literally anywhere,you just never know."old" or "new" music,who knows,you may find a loop,break.

Where are there places in Dun Laoghaire?
I never knew about that.....Any other suggestions of places to dig?

condra

Hey Lukasz! Glad to know I'm not the only sample miner around Dublin.



Lately, I'm all about the 1 euro crate in Georges Street Arcade, but I'm always open to finding new spots.

Lukasz.

Hey condra,its great to see some crate diggers still "keepin' it real" ha.
I love to just have a dig in some crates or vinyl fairs and just see what I can find,its great when you can listen to them before you buy,especially when you have to intention of making good instrumental beats.

On that note,ive talked to lads who say dublin is s**t for digging and the records are crap etc etc,but,ive made a beat tape with over 40 beats on it,and am currently working on another one at the moment and i can honestly say I like dublin,for digging and theres plenty of stuff out there for the monent.
Im not sayong it has everything,theres store in the UK and the States with crazy vinyl basements and whatnot.
But,its working out for me.

What do you use again for making beats? or do you just collect tunes?

condra

I think Dublin would be below par for diggin if all you wanted was soul and funk records, but I also use ethnic stuff, disco, lounge etc, even prog rock or choirs, so I'm happy with Dublin. In saying that, I've found some brilliant jazz funk records in charity shops, Patrice Rushen, The Counts, National Youth Jazz Orchestra etc.

I already have more than enough records than I would ever need, but it's a hobby and an obsession, and hey, it's a cheap day out.

About my setup- I use Ableton Live and a handful of plugins. I had an MPC for a while but couldn't get into it. Live is great for choppin up samples and jammin out.

I love taking part in the Beat Battles on Crate Kings.

I'd be interested in hearing your stuff. Feel free to PM me.

Lukasz.

Hey,I hear you.

As regards the selection in Dublin,as you say,there is some other options some soul is there though....have found AllCity tends to get in some good soulful,funk stuff every few months.
been getting that kinda stuff a lot there.
Some of that prog rock stuff is ridiculous for some really f**cked up sounds.

Havnt competed on CrateKings yet...tho.


Pm'd you details of where to hear my beats and what im up to,just have most of my beats up on FB now.

iamstop

ArmCandyBaby wrote: »

I did a bit of this around Dublin before all the record stores started shutting down. Was a bit more interested in CDs because the selection was much cheaper and eclectic. Went crate digging over in America and it's a different world, the volume and variety was incredible! It's like taking your gambling from some grubby roulette table in the Colossus and going to Las Vegas. Think I just grew bored with it after I came home having seen the light.

I'm kinda the same.
Plus I've a huge back log of records I bought in Chicago to still mine for samples.
That and the 2 boxes of school library records I go while I did some volunteer work in what used to be a school.

condra

I've a ton of records at this stage but I'll always keep diggin, it's a great hobby.

Recently bought this DVD+CD:



Dublab sent out 4 producers to buy 5 cheap records and flip them.
(J Rocc, Nobody, Ras G, Daedelus)
They made a short film out of it too.

Really fun, and inspirational stuff.

Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT-3EHaZVss

iamstop

yeah, heard about that before and saw the clip, then forgot about it. Cheers.
I have beat kings which is a DVD about hip hop producers that is also dope.

ro_chez

Check this guy out! Gotta be the ultimate digger!!

http://vimeo.com/1546186

iamstop

Hate to nit pick but there is a difference between a collector and a digger.
Collectors amass huge collections of all types of records, diggers look for the little snippets of music gold like rare drum breaks etc.

iamstop

Picked up some audio gold in my local thrift shop today. Ha, feels great.