From: John De Armond
Newsgroups: misc.rural
Subject: Re: Cleaning records
Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2006 23:22:25 -0500
Message-ID: <mdv4m215iskf5aeetnt1tbf5tqug4n3omt@4ax.com>

Run 'em through your dishwasher on the cold cycle (or unhook the
heater if it doesn't have one.  If your dishwasher is connected to the
hot water line, pour room temperature water into it before starting.
Just a touch of detergent.  Too much will pull the plasticizer oils
out of the vinyl.

I buy old vinyl by the trunk-full from flea markets and the like and
that's been the best way I've found to really clean 'em.

Another trick that I picked up off the net that really works is to
play 'em wet.  The purpose of my buying these albums is to filter
through what I like and digitize those.  Therefore I only need to play
the record once or twice.

I put a little alcohol in distilled water to break up the surface
tension and then spread a thin layer across the record.  As the record
dries out during play, I use a squirt bottle to re-wet the part that's
playing.

This has an absolutely remarkable effect on clicks and pops from dust.
Played wet and post-processed with a click/pop filter, the result is
frequently almost as quiet as a CD.

Once wetted like this, the record never seems to play as well dry so
this is a one-way process.  Once wetted, always wetted.

John


On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 21:50:41 +1100, "Farm1" <please@askifyouwannaknow>
wrote:

>Remember records?  Well, TV has been so dull of late that I've started
>to go through the old record collection and been playing them and some
>of them need a good cleaning.
>
>I've used the old fibre cleaner dooverlackie and it doesn't seem to be
>cleaning them properly.  I know I won't get the crisp sound I'm used
>to now from CDs (and each side goes by so quick!) but then I still
>want to hear some of the older gems in the collection so any hints on
>cleanign them?
>

From: John De Armond
Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.rv-travel
Subject: Re: iPod vs MP3 player
Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:02:40 -0500
Message-ID: <fvcnj3l5v3lri29sil8oni0r0lpavdjhbv@4ax.com>

On Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:23:44 -0700, Dean <roamer@firstinter.net> wrote:


>That's my strategy.  I have 3700+ MP3s from my CDs/old tapes/old
>records (I was amazed at just how well the old media copied and sound.
>Some scratchies but the memories come through un-abated).  Mostly
>50-70's R&R.

I've been fairly seriously digitizing vinyl for several years now.  The project
kicked into high gear after two lucky purchases.  I bought all of the Chattanooga
Library's vinyl collection for $100 (many still wrapped in the cello wrap) and I
purchased the commercial quality turntables from WTCI (PBS station) for $10 when they
went digital.

The turntable, a decent phono preamp and a Soundblaster Audigy external USB digitizer
compose my setup.  I use CoolEdit Pro (now owned and ruined by Adobe) to digitize and
de-pop and click.  I record a whole side to one file and then use MP3DirectCut to
separate it into songs. It's not the best nor the fastest cutter but it's free.  I've
looked at several software packages written for the purpose of digitizing vinyl but
so far I've yet to find one that works as well as CEP.

I've processed hundreds of albums but I still have a couple of chest-high piles of
LPs waiting for available round tuits.

I quite like the sound of digitized vinyl.  Many albums got completely hosed when
remixed for CD.  Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" is one of the more egregious
examples.  The pop and click filter in CoolEdit Pro is superb.  The graphical sound
editing interface is superb for finding and eliminating the ones that the filter
miss.

One of the tricks I've learned is to play the album at high speed and then digitally
slow it to normal speed.  I bypassed the RIAA equalization in the phono preamp.  I
play at 45 RPM, then digitally resample and RIAA equalize back to 33.33 RPM.  This
greatly speeds the digitizing process. An unexpected benefit is that much of the
noise ends up being outside the bandpass of the phono cartridge and so is discarded.
A record that is noisy at normal speed is much quieter when played at high speed and
digitally processed.

John

PS: I can't believe it.  Here it is Nov 14 and it's 65 degrees and a torrential
thunderstorm is underway.  Amazing!