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Great Albums to download

Hey whats up guys,

Recently got my hands on Ruckus (Free legal music for college students, absolutely phenomenal!) and I wanted to know some great albums to download to broaden my musical exposure, as well as get to know some of the most well known albums for bass players. Growing up I only really listened to like, CCM, and some rock, but this year I've gotten to listen to some bela fleck, mayer, muse, marcus miller, etc.

What are some of your favorite albums that would really be essential in your opinion for a developing bass player? (I've been playing for about 8 years, but am only now getting more serious with it) Particularly looking for some great jazz, blues, blues rock, soul, funk. It doesn't matter if its solo bass or not. I absolutely love john mayer's bluesy stuff.

Thanks,
Joash
 
Sailing the seas of Cheese - Primus
School Days - Stanley Clarke
Jaco self titled

Find the Silver Rain album from Miller if you can too. but im sceptical about the free downloads thing...

already have silver rain, its sweet.

most of my friends use ruckus, its an awesome program. it's not p2p, it comes from the ruckus.com website. very professional and organized, excellent user interface. you need a school email address to use it too.
 
Parliament-Mothership Connection
James Brown-Love, Power, Peace
Jaco Pastorius-The Birthday Concert
Coltrane-Giant Steps
Miles-Milestones
Charlie Parker-Yardbird Suite
Mingus-Mingus Ah Um
Weather Report-8:30
Maceo Parker-Life on Planet Groove
Donny Hathaway-Live!
Freddie Hubbard-Straight Life
Sonny Rollins-Tenor Madness
Cannonball Adderly-Mercy, Mercy, Mercy (anything is good)
also definitely check out some Duke Ellington of any sort.
 
check out nicole atkins and the sea's new album "neptune city"...might be my favorite album of last year

here are some other great discs to check out:

u2-the joshua tree
the arcade fire-funeral
portishead-live in NYC
rolling stones-sticky fingers
jeff buckley-grace
radiohead-the bends
marvin gaye-whats going on
curtis mayfield-superfly
talking heads-stop making sense

those are just a few favorites that come to mind
 
Please explain exactly what you mean by this.

I remember hearing about this a few years ago. Apparently the way that CD's are recorded compresses the music (cuts some of the highs and lows) whereas the vinyl record format gives much more of the full spectrum of how the music was recorded and supposed to sound. It's like compressing an image into the .jpg format compared to the .tif, which allows the best image quality. (for all you literate graphic people out there):) Actually I believe this, because if you listen to the same recording on vinyl and CD you can hear a difference.
 
I remember hearing about this a few years ago. Apparently the way that CD's are recorded compresses the music (cuts some of the highs and lows) whereas the vinyl record format gives much more of the full spectrum of how the music was recorded and supposed to sound. It's like compressing an image into the .jpg format compared to the .tif, which allows the best image quality. (for all you literate graphic people out there):) Actually I believe this, because if you listen to the same recording on vinyl and CD you can hear a difference.

There's definitely a difference, but I think it's less to due with the medium and more to do with the recording/production process. But I'm not in the business so my opinion isn't based on any great experience.
 
The Rippingtons- Live in L.A. Anything Rippingtons is unreal.
Anything Jaco.
Steve Vai - Passion and Warfare
Saga - Pretty much anything
Any Rush Album
Any Yes Album
Theres more but I'd sit here for days.
 
Well, for those who talk about compression on music and vynils, yes analog recording is a bit better in sound quality (i studied it at my career):it's just because it takes directly the sound waves and puts it on the disc, while cd's sound have to be compressed for being digitalized. However, with low levels of compression, nobody can hear the difference, and the advantage of digital sound is that it sounds great today and after 20 years, and you can't say the same about vynils .