[Dixielandjazz] Converting LP to digital

[Phil Wilking]

Equiment you will need to do a good job: a good turntable with a tonearm you
can adjust for "tracking force," which is how hard the stylus tip presses
into the groove. Set the tracking force as instructed by the
cartridge/stylus maker. Crystal turntable speed control is nice too.

Then be sure your stylus is in good condition. Even a diamond will wear over
time.

Then you will need a computer which can read the signal from the cartridge.
I use a PC type, the Apple people may have convincing arguments to cause you
to go that route. My experience is that most new computers (prefabricated or
self-assembled) have good enough hardware built-in that you don't need an
auxiliary sound card. If the turntable output is RCA plugs, you will need a
"Y" connector which has left and right channel RCA female connectors and a
male stereo plug which fits the audio input jack of the computer.

You will need a large hard drive. Plan to use WAV files, any other audio
file type involves compression, and that is distortion by definition.

While the off-the-shelf computer hardware should work for you, the bundled
software probably will not be good enough. You should get an excellent
dedicated audio editing program. There are several; I have been pleased with
Adobe Audition. This program also will be useful later when you are copying
old tape recordings.

Once you get the physical plant together, the finicky stuff starts.

Clean the record before you ever play it. There used to be a product called
"Disc Washer." It was a brush with directional bristles and it came with an
anti-static solution. It worked OK, but not really better than clean water.

Since you specified LP's, you don't have to worry about the material from
which they are made - they all are waterproof.

Get several large rolls of extremely soft paper towels. Don't skimp on the
paper towels, they are cheap compared to rare LP's.

Run cool water over the side of the record you intend to play. Most of the
water will run off leaving beads behind. (You can't do this with old 78's.
Some of them were made of sheets of recording material pressed onto a
cardboard core - water soaks into the cardboard and destroys the record.)

Using a wad - that's right, wad some up, not flat sheets - dry the record
surface. Use a circular motion starting at the hub and working out to the
edge. Use several circles. The stylus follows the opposite path as the
record is played; and you are trying to remove any dirt it has packed into
the groove. You are not going to get it all - accept that.

Blot the backside of the record dry, but don't scratch it.

Place the record on the turntable and prepare to play it. Most good
turntables have a tonearm lift lever; USE IT.

Start your audio editing program and play the record while you adjust the
recording level. Keep the peaks well below maximum to avoid clipping the
signal, I find a peak level of "-6db" works well for me for the basic
recording. I have the computer display a continuous graph of the recording
as it happens as well as play what it is recording through the sound system.
That way I can hear the difference between a drum beat which will clip and
crackle if recorded too strongly, but which I want to preserve, and a bad
dirt click which I am going to edit out anyway.

Once you get the levels adjusted, you can stop the recording process,
discard the adjustment tracks, and restart recording of your first record.

You will have to decide for yourself how to handle several tedious details.
A few are: do you want to record an entire side and split it up into
discrete tracks later, or do you want to cherry pick only certain tracks
from a record side? At how high a level do you want your final tracks to be
recorded (the tracks which will be the source for your CD burning program)?
Again stay away from the edges of the envelope, I find that 88% of maximum
for the loudest parts works well. How much time do you want to devote to
click removal and groove hiss reduction? Etc.

If you are going to copy the other side of the record, wash it before you
do. Always wash each record surface before you copy it, each time you take
it from its sleeve.

Enough already. You are going to find out what works for you, which will
vary from what works for me.

Phil Wilking

Those who would exchange freedom for
security deserve neither freedom nor security.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Coleman" <optiguytom at yahoo.com>
To: "Phil Wilking" <philwilking at bellsouth.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2010 7:15 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Converting LP to digital


> Any tips on best way to convert LPs to digital keeping highest fidelity?
> Not
> sure I want to invest in the equipment it may take, but maybe looking for
> a
> service? Anyone out there do this? I also have many old original Dixieland
> tapes, but I need to go through them, mostly my Dad's jazz festival stuff.
>