Vinyl to digital, software

Yes, You Too Can Be An Audio Expert has been the top sticky for a few years. I believe it is the only sticky on that forum open for posts. I would read the section on 78s. There is mention of how to clean vinyl before you capture the music. It was unintuitive but makes sense when you think about it. I thought there might be more but I didn't look at the sticky until after I posted my message.

 

lol.. well.. it's the old rule eh?.. garbage in garbage out.. just plugging in a usb turntable and expecting perfect cd quality results ain't going to happen..

Best turntable you can get.. good amp with riaa eq .. plus a good 16 band graphic and good speakers.. so you can hear what you are getting.. Make it sound superb first before trying to capture.. I just use avidemux and then play with the filters on the pure wav file.

I have a classic "test" lp.. Ogdens Nut Gone.. mono.. first press.. nothing at all except hiss and crackles above 10k and not a lot but rumble below 60hz.. so what's the point capturing all that garbage and then trying to filter it off??

People also forget that quite a lot of vinyl was compressed at the mastering/cutting stage to avoid the groove walls being too thin (Zep 2 is a great example of this.. check out the horrid thin remastered "green/orange" against the first issue "plum" .. it's a different experience, plus there aren't any dj gaps between the tracks) or even collapsing.. It's why to this day there are "direct cut" vinyl issues.. Anybody remember the DBX lp's of the early 80's? .. compression/expansion.. looked hopeful but wiped off the map by cd's .. I do DBX tapes for my home listening.. being lucky enough to have the Technics tape deck with it built in... makes those horrid little boxes sound almost vinyl..

It's a simple rule.. make the source as good as possible and then results can be even better than the cd release (if it exists) ..

 

Put it that way it is pretty funny. My old turn table has a massive platter to smooth out any imperfections of the synchronous motor. It has a 'grid' or design on the platter which should be stationary while playing an LP while being lit with a florescent bulb using 60 Hz electric cycle. You could see if your speed was off or god forbid irregular probably by even a few hundredths of a percent (via more pattern). You can add or release pressure to the arm in 5 mg increments. The cartridge costed in 1960-70 dollars what a USB turn table costs in 2015 dollars.

I don't know if I have the first Of Nut Gone (it has the booklet) pressing of that disk or not. I captured it many years ago and now its owner has reclaimed it. I like the tune Black Sabbath on the album Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath. The recording of rain and thunder at the beginning is unmatched in any recording I have ever heard. To hear the lowest thunder you need insanely good speakers. They are more felt than heard.

 

Software is the least of your issues. Freeware like Audacity is perfect. Hardware is the issue. Most people are using garbage. This problem seems to be inconceivable to those who grew up in the digital age as dream ' s response demonstrates. Vinyl has different rules than digital music.