[PlanetCCRMA] Ripping vinyls

[Jan Depner]

On Sun, 2008-10-26 at 12:13 +0100, Bengt Månsson wrote:
> Hi
> I am about to rip some of my old vinyls to cd.
> I want a simple process that separates the individual tracks and
> removes dust/scratch noice when needed.
> 

    I don't know of a simple way to separate the tracks.  I use Audacity
to split them if I don't record them one at a time.  I use GWC to remove
noise but that is far from automatic.


> What experience do you people have with this?
> What sw would you propose to use?

    I use a stereo mic/line preamp (I can either use my Art TPS or a two
channel Behringer mixer [$59 US]) coming directly off of my phono outs
into my sound card.  I then use JACK to route them to JAMin using the
RIAA EQ (you either have to do this or have some form of RIAA EQ
preamp).  I turn off the compressors and boost in JAMin so that I don't
affect the sound.  I leave the lookahead limiter on but I try not to hit
the limit because I don't want to change the dynamics of the original
recording.  I route the JAMin output into an Ardour stereo track (this
is probably overkill since you could use any JACK enabled recorder but I
use Ardour all the time so it's easier for me that way).  I have found
that recording at 96KHz allows me to clean up the pops and scratches
much better in GWC.  Now, for the big secret ;-)  A friend of mine had
some old 45s of her husband (he had passed away) and she wanted digital
copies made so that she could listen to them more easily.  The 45s were
in terrible shape so I did all the normal things - washed them with warm
soapy water, rubbed them dry with a clean cloth, tried some commercial
cleaners, etc.  I also tried recording them with the records damp and
that helped a little but there was still a ton of noise.  Finally, in
desperation, I put a thin film of standing water on the record surface.
When it spun up to 45 RPM it actually sort of piled up a bit at the
edges.  When I recorded it most of the noise was gone.  Of course I had
to clean and dry the needle and cartridge really well afterwards but it
worked like a champ.

    I have recorded quite a bit of vinyl to digital and have found that
the results can be much better than what you would buy (in some cases).
As an example, a friend of mine had an old LP with Jimmy Page, Eric
Clapton, and Jeff Beck (I think the name was something like Guitar
Boogie).  He wanted digital copies made of it so I did the above
(without the standing water - I hadn't discovered that yet).  The
recording sounded great.  Not too long after that I found a "remastered"
CD in a used CD store and bought it.  My vinyl recordings sounded much
better than the CD.

Jan

-- 
Jan 'Evil Twin' Depner
http://www.thecfband.com


"Microsoft has a new version out, Windows XP, which according to
everybody is the 'most reliable Windows ever.' To me, this is like
saying that asparagus is 'the most articulate vegetable ever.'"

Dave Barry