Your Vinyl Transfer Workflow (sharing best needledrop practices)*

For the most part I am very happy with RX4. I have posted about quirks I have been have, some I worked out others not so much.


More than anything else (now) I wish there was a way to make the spacebar pause playback. Looks like there may be a way to program it under preferences keyboard but I can’t see how to do it. It would make declicking easier.


Next I like to drop markers I use as track marks as I’m declicking. If I export as a wave file the markers are transferred and if I export as a flac they are not. Most records it’s not a big problem to drop them again in sound forge.


On my wish list I wish the process buttons where at the top of the windows. This way once you have it setup you could leave it buried below the waveform and click process at will. Now you have to drag into and out of view for every process. I mentioned this to Izotope support along with the spacebar assigned as a way to pause play. They never got back about that.

 

+1

 

I've been using RX since version 1 and the spacebar has always controlled playback start and stop! I don't recall ever having to configure it.

Go into Preferences>Keyboard and assign the spacebar as the keyboard shortcut for Transport.PlayOrStop.

 

Not stop/start, we want pause without resetting the playback position at the last start mark.

 

Ah ok. That's simple, just press Ctrl+R to toggle the Transport.TogglePlayHeadReturn.

 

That was easy

 

Here’s an interesting effect. I have been muting frequencies below 25Hz. I would do that first then declick the whole file (single-band at level 0.7) I left it expanded and the screenshot shows what seems to happen. I’m going to change my order of processes but man is that strange. I guess it goes to show you thing you might not expect are happening when you process a file, most likely a nonissue.

pc screenshot

 

technics sl1800 ShureV15MR Lounge LCR phono preamp tascam700CDR recorder

I've tried many methods but this yields best sound and is straightforward:

record a full album side onto disc via CDR700. Then insert disc into laptop and rip to WAV (I like WAV over Flac - feels it sounds more better)

for 'on the go'. I then load them to a card and onto a sansa FUSE or clip and it sounds amost as good as my turntable straight. I use $30 soundmagic e30's. I've tried about 50 headphones from $20-$1000


PS. I've tried 2 dozen carts, a dozen preamps, and a dozen CD recorders. there is a lot of substandard gear out there but this stuff is awesome. best sound in 30 years we're gettin' now.....

 

I tried it aint happen today. Thanks for the info.

 

So it's been awhile since i posted. but I have now a vinyl transcription mastering process I think sounds good. on close ABing between the source and master, there is no discernible difference other than less noise, sounds more dynamic, and its easier on the ears.

I'd like to share a before/after. what is the most I can get away with legally as a before/after clip in terms of duration? I understood there was and academic excpetion to copyright but I'd rather be dure. if someone has some info and can post a n official citation that backs it up that would be awesome, if you know if off hand. if not I will look it up. then I can post and explain the process.

 

I'm pissed off! I was looking forward to doing some needledrops . My installation of Audition CS5.5 has a Runtime error and won't open. So, not being able to resolve the issue, I uninstalled it and reinstalled it. However, I can't find my serial number. I thought I had it written down, so I didn't feel the need to copy it from the program before I switched hard drives. So, now, if I can't resolve the problem with Adobe (no proof of purchase after all these years), i'll have to reinstall the old hard drive and hope it boots up so I can check. And, that only helps if I can resolve the damn Runtime problem!

The problem is that my EQ settings are all gone. Somehow, when I uninstalled the program, it took out my presets, and, yes, I told it to save them. I even backed them up! It took out the backups! C'mon now, Adobe! Are you that paranoid of theft? I refuse to subscribe to a program I have always owned.

 

Grant, the old serial number may still be in your Windows registry if you look around in there. I'm not near my pc with Audition right now but if you open regedit (type regedit.exe in the Run box on the Start menu) then do a search in the program for Audition, you may find something. One you do, look around the different entries for something that looks like a serial number.

 

No such luck. My next step is to contact Adobe.

 

When I've done this, I'm very careful to keep things as neutral as possible. It can be very tempting to alter the original sound when you have all that power just a few keystrokes and clicks away.

I use a Denon DL-300 on a Pioneer PL-550. That's fed to a TEC preamp, which the line output from is fed into my laptop. I record into SoundForge 9. I use both the preamp's level control and my soundcard's line in level control to set the best, cleanest levels possible, without overmodulating.

I record Side One and Side Two as complete .wav files at 44,100. I use SoundForge's Click and Pop removal tool at it's standard settings, one pass. I then chop into tracks, muting in-between-track silences. Sometimes I'll work a little with the fade tool if there's too much crackle left in-between tracks. Then I burn the CD.

I feel the less manipulation of the .wav, the better.

 

Here is a sneek peak at my vinyl transcription restoration mastering process.

 

Actually IIRC, when you log into your Adobe account, your serial numbers are available with the information about your orders or purchases. Do you still have your login info?

 

Got it! Thanks! I had to go through a few layers to get to the right page.

Now, if I can just fix this runtime problem.

 

I am still tweeking my mastering set up for vinyl. I think I have it tweeked. just bouncing out right now. with the noise reduction it take about 4x real time. one thing I was thinking about while listening to some of the output to compare it to the original file, was how quiet it was. i kind of missed the vinyl noise. so i created an artificial vinyl noise floor that can be added into the noise reduced output. its generated by a vinyl noise generator. and since the reason for this is to hear some vinyl noise, its not needed in louder parts. so i added in a ducking amp to duck out the noise as the sound gets louder. i tweeked it so that it faded down to about -70dB when things were loud. i set the idle noise floor at about peaking -50dB which is about as good as the best vacuum cleaned vinyl can sound based on my 40 years listening to vinyl. its subtle but you definitely hear the space filled in with... something. there is the occasional light click and a bit of record warp too. So I can now bounce out a clean and re-noised version. I am not sure I would. it was just something to try to see how it would work. its pretty effective. and I can control the noise floor. maybe there are some records I wouldn't mind it on...

 

What RCA to Jack cable do some of you use for connecting amp to soundcard?

 

That sounds a bit convoluted to me. I would just leave the record's original noise floor in rather than de-noising a risk losing some of the music. A 20 hz cut should be sufficient for removing mechanical noise.

 

While having virtually no knowledge of electronics recently fabricate my own cables. TS x RCA



Work very well for me. I have recommended the brand Monster cables but by here in my city are not achieved

 

I am having a problem with low dBs in the 15-18k range on my needledrops. I made a thread about it but hope someone could help me here with it. Here is a screenshot of Genesis' Eleventh Earl of Mar, on the left is from the 1994 remastered CD, on the right is my needledrop from a 1976 LP.
After 15k, my needledrop's dBs fall off way quicker than the CD version and I notice this to a usually greater extent in all needledrops I do. Do I just have a bad cartridge, is my preamp doing something weird, any ideas? I am using a Audio Technica cheapo AT-LP60USB player into a ART USB Phono Plus Amp into my computer via the USB interface.

 

Hi

I saw your other thread on this. Based on my experience with vinyl and CDs, the reduced treble response on the 1976 vinyl might be normal.

Before you go too far down this rabbit hole, my advice would be to find some modern vinyl that has an equivalent digital version and compare those.

 

Thanks for replying, I did do a modern vinyl comparison at the end of that thread and the results were even worse. I don't want to clutter up with too many pictures but on a new release that is heavily compressed on CD(Epica's The Essence of Silence, released last year), I got these results.
CD @10KHz = -40dB, LP @10 KHz = -49 dB, difference of 9
CD@15KHz = -48dB, LP@15KHz = -60dB, difference of 12
CD@17KHz = -51dB, LP @17KHz = -68dB, difference of 17
CD@20KHz = -62 , LP@20KHZ = -77dB, difference of 15

I seem to get reduced treble on everything around 17KHz, I am wondering if that can be attributable to the compression used on the CD, a poor cartridge or something else wrong in my chain. I get similar results with other new vinyl where the vinyl and CD master are the same. The problem is a real A/B test is hard to do due to the huge compression done on CD nowadays.

 

I don't think you should compare it to a CD. You don't LIKE the sound of the CD, right? that's why you're going through this. What you're discovering is what engineers have known for decades--vinyl is not a good delivery system for recordings if by "good" you mean accurate. All that should matter here is that the needledrop sounds like the vinyl playback. Done at 24/96, it should. Even if you end up reducing it to 16/48.

If you're under the impression that vinyl is the more accurate delivery medium, let me stop you there--as someone who has mixed and had things mastered for vinyl, cassette, CD, AAC, and 24/88 FLAC over the years--I can promise you vinyl isn't in the top two in terms of accurately delivering what left the studio. But, what's accuracy in art? Right? If you dig the sound of Genesis on vinyl--the needle drop from the system you like it on should be virtually indistinguishable from it. That should be the goal of your recording.