[clug] Digitising vinyl records (linux Digest, Vol 170, Issue 9, Msg. 2)

[Miles Goodhew]

>
> Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2017 18:51:13 +1100
> From: Mike Carden <mike.carden at gmail.com>
> Message-ID:
>         <CAJ+Dxuox+_Pya50AJaYYJ6ZWc_8fVw-0rDDgKaA7_ipW48sy1A at mail.
> gmail.com>
>
...

> I have a small collection of vinyl records that I'd like to listen to.
>
> Where can I buy a reasonably good turntable with decent speed control, a
> pretty good cartridge and stylus and a roughly OK calibrated counterweight?
>

Crash,
  Not to let a perfectly good dead horse go underflogged, I think you'll be
horrified to learn I took the option of buying a $50 USB turntable (Still
in shed). The sound quality was awful, with weird dynamic range and lots of
noise.

  Then I put the recordings through Audacity with various filters to remove
background hiss, dust/scratch noise and add range-compression. It even let
me fix the play-rate of a 78 (turntable's only 33/45).
  In all but one case the result was a resounding success, giving "Early
noughties MP3-ish" quality results. The one exception started out in awful
condition, having spent a lot of its life out of its sleeve and lying flat.
Nevertheless Audacity still managed to remove the loud crackling from a
zillion little scratches on the record. It wasn't able to restore what the
noise was masking, but the recording was still quite listenable and much
easier on the ear.

M0les.

-- 
Miles Goodhew,
Executive Computer Scientist