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Cleaning old Records?

2K views 21 replies 11 participants last post by  eMacMan 
#1 ·
Don't know how many of you still use real vinyl records, but his is my query:

Dug a few old LPs out of Mom's basement that I want to transcribe to the computer. In the good old days I could drop by Radio Shack and for a couple of bucks get a carbon filament brush and a lubricant which together allowed me to deep clean the grooves and get the record to play as cleanly as possible, would even suppress minor scratches.

Any suggestions for DIY solution that won't damage the records?
 
#2 ·
I have lots of vinyl, and still buy quite a bit of it. I'm not sure of any home remedies so would be curious to see if anyone has any as well. I do the same thing you're doing, rip the vinyl to MP3.

What I've always used is a system called "discwasher" I haven't purchased it in awhile but I believe that last time I bought any I purchased it from Future Shop. I also don't know exactly what's in the solution but I know Isopropanol (alcohol) is in there, and that may be all it is. The solution itself wasn't expensive.
 
#4 ·
Best method by far is this: Nitty Gritty, Inc. - home

Rather than buying one you might call around vinyl merchants to see who has one and ask them how much they would charge you per disc.

I still have roughly 3000 albums.
Yikes a bit out of my price range for 20-30 albums.

Sadly pretty isolated out here so the borrow bit won't really cut it.

Will check into the Disc Washer a bit later. Right now the snow shovel is beckoning.:ptptptptp
 
#13 ·
We've never had to clean our records with anything other than the Decca record brush. I think the secret is to not let them get dirty in the first place - no kids, handle only the edges, put them away right away. Many of our LPs were in the 'collectible' range even when we bought them (Peter Green playing Black Magic Woman, anyone?) so we've always treated them with respect.
 
#14 ·
True but some of these belonged to my sister. Whatever her virtues may have been, proper care of vinyl LPs was not one of them.:rolleyes:
 
#15 ·
... Dug a few old LPs out of Mom's basement that I want to transcribe to the computer. ...
You've had lots of advice on cleaning the old vinyl. First though, are you sure you want to bother?

I've gone through the route of digitizing old LPs and it generally isn't worth the effort. First, you can't record faster than real time and it takes time to set up each album side on the turntable and it is critical to get the peak level set properly. Maybe there is better software now, but I had to look over the tracks and guess which one I thought would have the highest peaks. Then audition it--maybe more than once--checking levels. Finally, I could lower the stylus and start the recording (hopefully at the right point). Then you probably want to run something to repair clicks and pops and maybe do other post-processing. Finally you're ready to split the tracks, save to your destination format and add meta-data--again I hope you find some software that makes this less of a pita than when I tried.

Besides, you said your source albums apparently weren't handled that carefully. Software can make some problems less obvious (clicks, pops) but it just 'smooths over' the damaged bits: it doesn't magically recreate the exact sound that was destroyed. If there are more than a few scratches, you are not going to end up with a very true result.

So, unless these albums are unavailable in digital format, or you have an awful lot of free time, I'd just repurchase the ones you are most interested in.

Craig
 
#17 ·
Glad you are swimming in cash. I am retired and on a fixed income so blowing three or four hundred dollars for what I already have is not gonna fly with the better half.

Beyond that I have gotten some pretty amazing results. Unlike tape recorders full peaking is not necessary, The occasional pop is easily removed usually with no audible effect. Forget special software select only the pop at a greatly expanded scale, 1:8 is perfect, and hit the interpolate filter. Problems come when there is a lot of static. AFAIK no good solution for that. Hence the need to clean some of these albums.

Of course not everything is available on iTunes. A good example is Pete Seegers Carnegie Hall album. Probably just too seditious in todays New McCarthy era. Would have gladly just replaced this one as it took more than the usual clean up effort. Still even when an album is available, starting from an uncompressed AIFF track is usually as good or better than a direct rip from a CD and audibly better than starting from a compressed file.

Yes it takes awhile but for the most part I can just walk away during the recording process. The time I spend after that is not a lot different than what I spend on an iTunes purchase. I still crop unwanted leaders and trailers, and normalize each track. This gives me consistent volume levels when burned to CD and played in the car.

Will pick up some white glue tomorrow and let you know how that works. The whole concept intrigues me. A couple of minutes to apply the glue then ignore it for a day. Certainly have a couple of prime candidates for experimentation. Does anyone really want an old New Christy Minstrels album?????
 
#18 ·
Here is what I did, in order to sell my modest collection of 350 LPs for top dollar, over the past year:

I went to the local specialty store that buys LPs (in order to sell them at a nice profit to the serious collectors who pay for them). I got their advice on cleaning. I followed that advice. Then I sold that store my Lps, over the year - I only hauled in what I could carry when I went to Fisgard Market once a week to buy veg). They paid me more than I paid for the LPs in the first place, because they have clients who value their (second-hand) products. I value intermediaries who treat both suppliers and consumers well.

That specialty store is in Fantan Alley, south of City Hall Victoria, off Fisgard. (NB Not Lyall's Place on Yates - go to Fantan Alley!)
 
#20 ·
Difference between peaking and clipping. First few tries I tried to peak at about -2db to avoid clipping. Discovered I could be quite a bit lower than that with no increase in back ground noise. Once they were normalized I could not hear any difference from the original. Since then I just make sure to keep things below the clipping point. A lot easier than trying to determine the "perfect" level for each track.

On a side note: I have purchased several iTunes tracks that were more than 12db below peak. Again once they were normalized all was well. Come to think of it the only iTunes tracks I have purchased that did not require at least some amplification were a few classical recordings and the Beatles 1 album.
 
#22 ·
Just recently, I ran across a good article on the 'Loudness War":...
These guys are a real pain. Kind of like the TV commercials that run entirely at maximum output

Usually I drop the output level 2 or 3db, so they will play about the same as other tunes on mixed CDs. Have some others with extreme dynamic range. Since my car adds a fair bit of background noise I tend to try to push them a bit past the 0db mark so I can hear the quieter passages. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Have to listen to the entire track very attentively to be sure there is no audible clipping. Some frequencies can go past 0db and some cannot. I am not a huge fan of dynamic compression but will very infrequently resort to that solution as well.
 
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