Tranferring vinyl to digital - the utter beginner's thread

Running any click routine in automatic mode is going to leave you with less than optimal results

 

Yes. Thank you. I transfer records too but until I am retired or handicap with a bunch of extra money, I don't have time to transfer records all day on super nice setups making sure every cable, receiver, stylus, etc is top of the line.

 

I like to record at least 4 to 6 LP sides before I do any work on them. Then I will do track splitting for an hour or so while more LP sides are being recorded.

So there are always needledrop session material in various stages of completion needing worked on. I have a WD USB drive with tons of recorded vinyl waiting for my attention. 45s, 12" singles, stray tracks and album sides.

Recently I have been doing Warner Brothers Loss Leaders LP sets. These require more work than most because all tagging data must be entered manually. I grab song/artist info from discogs and copy/paste it all into the tagging fields.

 

I use the manual repair in Audacity and find it to work very well. Of course, it involves having bat ears and actually being able to see the click. That's relatively straightforward in quiet passages but can be nigh on impossible in loud sections. Hence my interest in ClickRepair.

I ran a particularly bad record through it using the default settings (50 I think). It fetched out a mass of clicks, which I expected, and also a couple of whole patches that sounded - using the Noise output function - like static. Reading the manual, it seems as though it was misinterpreting the bagpipes' (!) waveform as clicks and attacking it with a verve. Dropping the setting down to 15 stopped it doing that but I'm trying to find the right balance for a poor quality disc. The simpler solution may be just to look for a better condition copy!

 

This is great advice. Vinly restoration algroithims are only ever useful for very noisy discs where there is no prospect of obtaining a better copy, and for one reason or another you need to clean it up. The results will never be ideal. The odd pop on an otherwise good disc is best edited out manually.

 

I disagree with most every sentence in your post.

The best outcomes when declicking is used is for LPs with little to no play wear. Like LPs which got dust trapped in the sleeve and got stored away pressed against other LPs, leaving dust impressions all over an otherwise minty lp.

Sometimes ever new LPs unplayed are afflicted by ticks and clicks, but appear perfect.

Auto mode in ClickRepair is not going to do much harm and can be as effective as manual mode or even more so. It's case by case, and exoerience.

 

We will just have to respectufully agree to disagree.

 

I use the click repair in Vinyl Studio from time to time, but it does not seem to have a Bagpipe removal tool! I may have to check out Click Repair!

 

You're right. The passage, and I isolated it yesterday with two different recordings, is the low sound that pans slowly from left to right starting at almost exactly 5:30 on side one and ending at 5:50. Run that section through Clickrepair set to 15 and a/b it against the original. It really gets smashed.

 

New Order's drum intro on Dream Attack is another good example of not wanting to run any de-click, kills the thump

 

lots of stuff around. here's my take digitizing records »

 

Remove the MP3 note, and add flac and you'll seem more audiophile type of it matters to you.

Around these parts we're very anti lossy audiophile types. Please let's not derail the talk, and go on about MP3 vs FLAC, but most here after spending the time to do vinyl to digital go lossless.

 

I never do this.

 

Me either. If it's on the record, it's on the needle drop. Minus a few seconds of absolute silence here and there.

 

I don't even do that! Except in very rare cases, I preserve the gaps as there are on the record.

 

I don't agree with that at all and I know a lot of people say it. I run the automated mode in Adobe Audition in most things and the results are stellar.

Ed

 

'Nother question: is there any way to remove the noise of vinyl from quiet passages? I add digital silence to the start and end of tracks but, of course, one can't do that when there's musical information present.

 

About all you can do is use a click remover. If you go further, you'll compromise the ambient noise (i.e. room sound) in the recording itself.

Ed

 

In case anyone's curious, the katakana says "front panel" and "rear panel."

 

Not if you know what you're doing, have the right tools, and don't try to remove everything.

 

Do expand, @Grant

 

And if the Ops transfers are too clean, they can go here: Dust & Scratches | The Ultimate Vinyl Noise Machine »

 

I can't help but think that if you run restoration algorithms on vinly dubs as a matter of routine, then what is the point of vinyl in the first place. I'm rather indifferent to the sound of vinyl over digital, but I do enjoy the nostalgia. If your aim is to make your dubs sound as clean as digital, you might as well just buy CDs. As someone who is largely involved in broadcasting, I have only used restoration routines when wishing to add a song to the playout library that I have only been able to source on vinyl, and a cleaner sound than what the record was giving me is what would be expected in that situation.

 

I have plenty LPs that are not available and many others that just sound better than the CD. The en vogue attitude that clicks and pops are a part of vinyl's charm is just silly. I used impulse noise reduction back in the day and own an ultrasonic cleaner now. If I record an LP and it's got noticeable clicks, I will certainly give it some cleanup. It doesn't have to wreck the sound if done properly.

 

Yeah let's not turn this thread into a format war. Cleaned up vinyl is not only mastered differently but colored by the components that extract the music from it, giving it a unique sonic signature.

If you want to remove rumble and record noise, the Clickrepair program has a function for that also.

Since there's a lot of things that can contribute to noise during quiet sections, it's best to start by washing your records before recording them. I have a spin clean that is adequate, and have since upgraded to an Okki Nokki.