Retro Darkroom Music

nickandre · Aug 25, 2009

So although I have found myself a fan of the darkroom meditation without music, the 3 minute process of every color confirming strip is seeming longer every time and it's high time for some music in the darkroom. So I think this change comes in stages but after moving into archaic color processes I've now felt the need to play LPs in the darkroom. What do you find necessary darkroom music equipment? I have been a fan of the iPod but I feel the mood and pace of an LP would more closely match the darkroom. Does anyone else of the younger generation use LPs or even listen to them in the darkroom? I was shown a music store with LPs of modern artists (most even include MP3 downloads) and have been accumulating a stack ever since...

Uncle Bill · Aug 25, 2009

I listen to the Craig Charles Funk and Soul show online on BBC Radio 6 and just crank the speakers plugged into my laptop louder in the next room.

dpurdy · Aug 25, 2009

You could get a harmonica....

Chris Lange · Aug 25, 2009

I generally use my iPod, but also have a CD player in my darkroom at home, the turn table/stereo system is too far away from the darkroom to be used, but I do listen to my records while I'm at the light table in the other room...

ic-racer · Aug 25, 2009

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Rick A · Aug 25, 2009

Sirius sattellite w/docking station and deep tracks, sometimes outlaw. At this moment outlaw. Sometimes when the mood strikes I break out Peter Gabriel, Frank Zappa, or some other '70s rock.
Rick

Stan160 · Aug 25, 2009

I've been enjoying the Proms season on Radio 3 over the last few weeks. My radio charges off the mains but runs from batteries, with the display illumination and power LED off. Ideal for the darkroom
Ian

Sirius Glass · Aug 25, 2009

I prefer to stick with classical music:

Joplin, Hendrix and Creme.

Steve

eddie · Aug 25, 2009

I wouldn't play LP's in the darkroom. Too much opportunity for getting some chemicals on the records. Also, the 20 minute play time is a bit short. Do you really want your stylus circling the label, while you need to tend to a print?

Mark Fisher · Aug 25, 2009

I think i have the best system I could imagine for my darkroom. I use an older iPod Mini in a remote control/dock (monochrome LCD!) with an small, old NAD receiver powering an old Polk bookshelf speaker. This was all stuff I had laying around. The receiver is nice since it only has a small, red LED display easily covered by an electrical tape flag. LPs seem like they'd be too short and too prone to damage in the darkroom. The type of music depends on how I feel that day. I have pretty eclectic tastes.

mike c · Aug 25, 2009

Got a old radio and CD player(the cd player broke recently).So at nite I'll listen to Coast to Coast with Jim Norie,the rest of the time listen to the exhaust fan.Gotta get a new sound system.

Ektagraphic · Aug 26, 2009

A record player in the darkroom...now your talking! I have never thought about it. That sounds great!

Ross Chambers · Aug 26, 2009

Cruzingoose said:
I play my THEREMIN when processing film. It's certainly retro, (invented in the '20s), it works by moving one's hands near two antennas to produce music. The stainless Kindermann tanks and reels allow much greater working distance from the antennas and the tanks get nice even agitation.

Do the good vibrations help with agitation as well?

I've only seen one Theremin performance (more art than pop) and I couldn't really believe what was happening.

Regards - Ross

AgX · Aug 26, 2009

Well, there is `Music to be murdered by´ and seemingly music to develop by...

I hope that a company whose name I rather not state, but which is busy with photographic gadgets is not reading this thread and enjoy us with darkroom music.

removed account4 · Aug 26, 2009

clock radio or cheep "boom box"
black tape over the led and college radio
or npr ...
in boston it was easy, wzbc or mbr, or mfo was always
good and always on ... here it is ok but my reception isn't the best

Tony Egan · Aug 26, 2009

eddie said:
I wouldn't play LP's in the darkroom. Too much opportunity for getting some chemicals on the records. Also, the 20 minute play time is a bit short. Do you really want your stylus circling the label, while you need to tend to a print?

My father had a Pye Stereogram circa 1964 which allowed as I recall about 6 or 8 LPs to be stacked on a long spindle. As each LP finished the arm would retreat, the next LP would drop and the arm would move across again. Lo-fi and prone to mishaps but sometimes he wouldn't have to leave his lounge chair for hours as Louis Armstrong, Besse Smith and Billie Holiday wailed.

removed account4 · Aug 26, 2009

eddie said:
I wouldn't play LP's in the darkroom. Too much opportunity for getting some chemicals on the records. Also, the 20 minute play time is a bit short. Do you really want your stylus circling the label, while you need to tend to a print?

the "forced skip"
is as good as a metronome

youngrichard · Aug 26, 2009

Retro sound

Stan160 said:
I've been enjoying the Proms season on Radio 3 over the last few weeks. My radio charges off the mains but runs from batteries, with the display illumination and power LED off. Ideal for the darkroom
Ian

Me too - mid-July to mid September in UK is a great time to disappear into the cellar darkroom from 7.30 til 10 pm and listen to Proms whilst being creative. The darkroom is also a great place to run your hi-fi separates which have been banished by her indoors from the sitting room. So down there I have my Sinclair Project 60 with Z50 power amps, homemade Wharfedale Unit 3 speakers, an FM tuner connected to an FM aerial in the roof, and a cassette deck to record the Prom for later listening in the car (had to plumb in a Walkman to the car dashboard for that as cars these days only have tinny digital CD players). There is also a deck, Garrard SP 25, for vinyl 33s, as I occasionally buy LPs to record onto cassette for playing in the car, Out of Prom season I listen to Radio 3 or Classic FM, or Sounds of the Sixties with Simon Dee recorded back in the 80s on Saturday mornings.
I used to tape over the blue and orange LED displays of the tuner and tape player, but don't bother now as I couldn't detect any fogging; they aren't really anywhere near the critical areas.
Richard

Ektagraphic · Aug 26, 2009

My record player can be loaded with 6 LPs so if I had a darkroom I think it would be a while before I had to worry about flipping them. The record player is pretty automatic too. I would just have to flip them and pull a handle and it the needle would find the record itself.

Ronald Moravec · Aug 30, 2009

Bose speakers, Sony amp, and John Coltrane or Duke Ellington or most any other jazz artist.

Other speakers work so does my NAD integrated amp. When the system is updraded, the old goes to the darkroom.

John Kasaian · Aug 30, 2009

Gregorian chant on the boom box certainly helps my creativity in the dark room. Music on AM radio has nice a warm feel to it, especially blues, but unfortunately AM is all talk radio in my neck of the woods.

Anscojohn · Aug 31, 2009

Mozart in the darkroom.

Ektagraphic · Aug 31, 2009

I wonder if pros like Ansel Adams put any music on while in the darkroom.....

walter23 · Aug 31, 2009

Kraftwerk is perfect for the darkroom. Autobahn. I don't mess with LPs, even though I like them. I don't like touching things like that with wet hands.

tiberiustibz said:
So although I have found myself a fan of the darkroom meditation without music, the 3 minute process of every color confirming strip is seeming longer every time and it's high time for some music in the darkroom. So I think this change comes in stages but after moving into archaic color processes I've now felt the need to play LPs in the darkroom. What do you find necessary darkroom music equipment? I have been a fan of the iPod but I feel the mood and pace of an LP would more closely match the darkroom. Does anyone else of the younger generation use LPs or even listen to them in the darkroom? I was shown a music store with LPs of modern artists (most even include MP3 downloads) and have been accumulating a stack ever since...

Eric Mac · Sep 1, 2009

5 disc changer, Denon amp and a pair of B&W speakers push whatever I'm in the mood for. I am in the middle of a jazz exploration (Coltrane, Lester Young , etc.), but a little surf music ( Dick Dale, Spies who Surf) has made it into the mix.

Retro Darkroom Music

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