The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hi,
I thought I would open up the subject of recording records. What is the best combination of quality and value for capturing your records to a digital format? I know there is acoustical recording or the use of a modern electric turntable. Of course, you may be just posting to this forum, putting on your ipod or creating a historic archive so I know there will be a variety of methods.

I've just started experimenting with an interesting method that meets the 'cheap' criteria if you have an iphone. I just downloaded the free app "italk" to my iphone. http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/italk

This app is pretty good for recording high quality mono. It records up to 44.1khz in AIFF format and then can transfer to your computer via wifi. It's pretty slick. I then brought it into Audacity (free) to convert to mp3. It's no substitue for a quality transfer but for board posting I think it will work. I need to experiment with recording distance, room etc but this is my first try just placing the phone 4' away from the horn of my C-150. http://www.box.net/shared/hasp56rd9h

I posted this file in the music section too and will do a few more soon. Tell me how you all capture your music.
Scott

Personally, I use a Gemini turntable (it's really nice for changing the speed/pitch) with optical out attached to the sound card of my computer. I use a Stanton 500 cartridge with various-sized custom styli. Any software cleanup (which I try not to use too much) is done with Dartech's Dart Pro. I also have one of those custom preamps with selectable equalizations but have never really used it.

On the previous home of this board (regrettably the thread has been lost until ProBoards comes through on their promise of providing our old content to John), I had asked about using modern equipment to record 78s, because I am interested in buying a turntable capable of playing 78s (in addition to 33s and 45s).

I have primarily been interested in Stanton’s offerings, largely because they offer S/PDIF and my computers and stereo offer digital in via S/PDIF.

Initially, I think I was looking at the Stanton T.80, but OrthoSean informed me that I will most likely want the S-shaped tone arm on any modern turntable I buy to enjoy better tracking.

So currently I am considering a Stanton ST.150.

I currently edit other audio in software, so I do not initially see myself buying much (if anything) in the way of hardware EQ, etc., although I understand there is benefit in having this if you are doing transfers or audio manipulation professionally.

Hopefully, though, we can continue some of the discussion that was taking place on our old home—a lot of members who know a lot more than I do about this subject.

— MordEth

The best way to record is to use a turntable with continuously variable speed and a cartridge with several custom styli. You don´t need to buy all 16 of them, if you play, let's say, mainly records from the 1920's (such as me) a 3.3 TE, a 3.5 TE and a 3.5 TC should do. (T=truncated, C=conical, E=elliptical).

The correct playback speed of 78's can vary quite a lot, from 65 rpm up to 90! Of course it can be corrected with software, but it's much easier to play a record and adjust the speed in real time until it sounds O.K. to you. Standard 78 rpm styli are usually 2.7 mil, and ideal for late 78's from the fifties. For older 78's the tip is too small. Custom styli are not cheap though, prices vary from $ 120 - $ 150. Conical shaped styli are best suited for vertical recordings or very worn recordings, laterals in V++ condition work best with elliptical styli. Most custom styli are truncated, so the stylus tip doesn´t reach all the way down to the bottom of the groove, which results in quieter playback. The best cartridge to use is a Stanton 500, also because most available custom styli are made especially to be used with a Stanton 500 cartridge. And they can deal with the high tracking force, needed to play 78´s (between 3 and 5 grams).

For a turntable I have a Rek-O-Kut CVS 14(a modified Technics SL 1200, actually) but there are several other DJ turntables available that will do the job. Make sure you buy one with an S-shaped tonearm, not a straight one. If money is an issue you can also buy a Lenco (G)L 75 or 78, one of those heavy turntables from the 1970`s. They have 3 or 4 speeds (16/33/45/78) and are continuously variable.

Now about the equalization. There are several ways to accomplish this. You can use a standard graphic equalizer to adjust to your own taste, you can get a device such as the KABSouvenir VSP (Vintage Signal Processor), or you can do it all on the computer. The big advantage of the VSP is that it has several filters (hiss, rumble, clicks, pops), several pre-set equalization curves, a vertical/lateral switch, and it converts the files to mono. Of course they are already mono to begin with, but 'cause you use a stereo cartridge to play them, the background noise is in stereo, which sounds a bit strange.

You can record with a standalone audio cd recorder amd rip the results to your harddics, or you can record directly to your computer. But make sure your computer has a good quality sound card and AD (analogue to digital) converter.

If you want to do some editing afterwards (record skips, fade in/out, click and pop filtering, etc) there are several software programs available. One (or, actually 2) that I really like are ClickRepair and DeNoise. They work very simple, the results are great (no strange digital artifacts, unless you set all filters to maximum), and they are really cheap, compared to programs such as Adoba Audition, DC Art, etc.

Hope this helps,

Bart

Bart,

Thanks for the advice on this—I think that I know what I am going to go with as far as a turntable, but the advice on styli is very good, I think.

I’ll definitely keep this in mind!

— MordEth

The Stanton turntable you have your eye on looks very suitable for the job, but I noticed it comes with a Stanton 680 headshell (p-mount) instead of the "standard" Stanton 500. I never owned any other cartridges than the 500, but according to the info I found on http://www.kabusa.com those custom styli (from Expert stylus) can only be used in conjunction with the Stanton 500.

bart1927 wrote:The Stanton turntable you have your eye on looks very suitable for the job, but I noticed it comes with a Stanton 680 headshell (p-mount) instead of the "standard" Stanton 500. I never owned any other cartridges than the 500, but according to the info I found on http://www.kabusa.com those custom styli (from Expert stylus) can only be used in conjunction with the Stanton 500.

Bart,

Thanks for pointing that out—I’ll make a note to look into that further. I still have no clue how soon I will get into doing transfers; I’d like to do it sooner rather than later, but I still have quite a lot of things that I should do (and on which I want to spend money), so...it’s all very tentative.

I have a lot of tape transfers that should be done (sitting in a stack on top of my entertainment center)...

...and there is a ton of work that I would like to do to add features and improve the experience of this board, also.

But to return to being on-topic...everyone here (both on this site and our previous home) have been very helpful and informative, and I definitely have a lot better idea what I will want to do now than I had before. Any additional advice is gratefully welcomed!

— MordEth

Speaking of turntables, bart mentioned the Lenco L 75. Here's my faithful old buddy, which I bought new many many years ago. The continuously variable speed control is the delight of life. It has a few design glitches...the tone arm balances on little rubber doo dads called V blocks which are getting increasingly hard to find.
Jim

That Lenco looks cool with that 12" Potato Head Columbia on it!

If anyone here is wondering how I did the tranfers I've posted here, here's the equipment I used.

Turntable: Homemade affair using a tonearm from an old Pioneer turntable; the motor is a Victor Induction Disc unit powered from a power transformer taken from a dead SAE amp from the 1970s; this lowers the voltage going into the coils of the motor to about 90. This reduces hum, rumble and flutter to the minimum, yet still gives just enough torque to keep it running at whatever speed under maximum (approximately)10 grammes force.

Cartridge is a Grado XF3E+ with a 3 mil 78 stylus for lateral items. On the headshell I have one of those old clip-on dust brushes acting as a shock absorber and stabiliser. (No, the Grado will not handle 10 grammes tracking force; the arm bears down with about that much pressure, and the brush pushes back, stabilising the tracking.)

Here's how this looks in action:



For the Edison items I used a P-mount version of the Stanton 500 (in suitable headshell adapter) wired out of phase. I don't have a special stylus for them....I used the regular .7 mil stereo stylus.

The preamp I used is a modified Crown IC 150A. The recorder is an Alesis Masterlink. Corrective EQ was in part done with the Crown, then extra refinements with the DSP inside the Masterlink.