Your Vinyl Transfer Workflow (sharing best needledrop practices)*

Hello guys.

I want an opinion from the experts. So far I digitized 3 of my records. In the following link there is a zip with 3 songs each one from each record I digitized. I'd love that you listen and tell me what I did wrong or if it is ok or what can be improved.

MEGA

Thanks

 

Before:



After:



...and the processed album will be here soon (still uploading).

 

Very nice job. I'm not familiar with those cuts but they sounded very good to me.

 

Really? Thank you! Sometimes I think I could make a better job on the Machine Head record but don't know why or how. Despite that I compared with the spotify version and my vinyl version sounded so much better.

By the way this was the tutorial I followed

 

Thanks. I understand now that the dB was the level you chose for the De-Noise reduction.

 

That sounds really good. I see the DR is 11. Is that for a single song or the entire album? I recently did a needledrop of I Robot. It wasn't a reissue but from the original release. Picked it up in a used record store. Great album.

Nice work on that.

 

Thank you. The dynamic range is for the entire LP. I prefer too the original releases.

I think this 2017 reissue is a bad pressing/mastering. Low dynamic range and sibilance in some songs. I have old vinyls from '70 - '80 with dynamic range 14 or even 15 and no sibilance!

 

Here's a new example of my last needledrop. Gojira - The Way Of All Flesh. I'm sharing because I would love to ear feedback in what I did wrong and where can I improve. Thanks

MEGA

 

That sounds about as good as it gets. Excellent job.

 

I agree nice job. I like how you are using noise reduction. What are you using if RX what are your settings.

It was a nice long sample. It has been the suggestion to keep samples to 60-90 seconds a possible copyright issue. Just saying, used to be the post your needle drop thread was very active and they moved it and all but killed it.

 

For noise reduction what I do is I select some samples from the beginning of the file before music starts and I click learn so the software can understand how is the noise easily then I select all audio and apply.

Basically I follow this tutorial

 

That's what I do, too. But, it gets tricky because the beginning of an album side often has more noise that the rest of the side, and often a different noise pattern on the second side. Two sides, two different stampers. Sometimes, the two sides have two different cutting engineers.

 

This is true. I made this mistake to clean the whole LP with the lead-in grooves pattern from side A. After restoration, side B sounded muffled. But LPs with two different cutting engineers, side A and side B, are quite rare. Usually these new RE, RM records are made industrially, by different persons. Just an observation, the old records have greater dynamic range and better sound; the old mastering/pressing school.

 

On the contrary, they used to be made on an industrial scale in the past. Sadly, now it's more like a cottage industry.

 

Whatever, 2,000 workers and pressing of 25 millions vinyl records per year don't seems to be a "cottage industry".

In the groove: Czech firm tops list of world's vinyl record producers

The only their problem is the quality of their records. They have made me give up buying new vinyls and just look for old vinyls on flea markets.

 

To be fair, the article you linked says that 400 of GZ Media's 2000 employees actually work in the music division. More importantly, in the 1970s the total amount of shipped records (including singles) was something like over 500 million copies annually in the USA alone so compared to that it's small scale industry nowadays, in my opinion. But I'm glad that it still exists as a business anyway.

 

That is why it is a good pratice for each side use a file and not a file which includes all audio.

 

I CAN DO A NEEDLEDROP 2 WAYS.....

1. Turntable (full album) to a blank CDR in Tascam CD Recorder. I find the loudest part of the record and set the REC level (then back it off a fraction). RECORD.
When finished I finalise the CDR and then download into my (computer) NCH software, separate tracks and clean up, then burn to another CDR as finished product.

OR (for audiophillic (??) purposes....

2. Turntable (full album) to a blank (Gold) CDR in Tascam CD Recorder.
I find the loudest part of the album and set the REC level (then back it off a little).
I record each track separately (stopping the CD recorder with the PAUSE button).. this then enables track numbers (Table Of Contents). I don't touch the REC level.
(of course you need intimate knowledge of the album and be aware of the duration of the gaps between songs. If two tracks are joined, they will appear as ONE track on the CDR, or the LP will be recorded using method #1)
Recording starts AFTER the stylus is placed on the record so you gotta get the timing right!
When the album is finished I FINALISE the disc.
The result is a perfect clone of the vinyl record.... the track NUMBER may possibly show 1 or 2 seconds (on your CD player's LED display) before the track actually starts. Listening volume level will be same as the LP.

When I record 45's the REC levels are (obviously) done individually.

 

I record both sides as one file, but isolate the sides for different noise processing if they both have different noise properties.

 

If one side sounds muffled, you are overdoing your NR.

 

I saw in spectrogram in the rumble area <40Hz, the signal is stronger at the beginning of the record side and fade to the end. Same thing on the other side of the record. Any record. I suspect this is the die cast aluminium platter resonance. The hum is in the 50-60Hz area and it is constant. What is the best practice and removable materials to dampen the platter?
Not a problem at all, because I can remove this noise when I process the needle drop, but just to know. Thanks.

 

I use a cork platter mat.

 

I agree with Grant if you can minimize this noise at the source it will be much better than processing it out.
I had a lot of problems with platter hum when my TT was new. For me it was motor hum traveling through the belt. The two main things I did was to put pieces of 1/2 inch window foam under the feet of the motor and got a Herbie's TT mat. Turntable Mats

What level do you use denoise at? I thought I saw a post that you used a level of 50 that seems high to me. Using it at all on the music is new to me. So far I have been using level 25 and have not noticed any artifacts. I may just not know what to listen for. Anyone have a sample of artifacts caused by high denoise setting?

 

The 50Hz signal removal is another guy, not me. I remove the TT noise in the entire LP, all frequencies, with the learn pattern applying 36-40Hz reduction. It's about noise under -90 to -120dB. The record looks transparent after.

The Rega TT makers recommend to run a new TT belt motor 48 hours continuously (with the belt off), to "break-in" and auto-fix any problems with the motor and the spindle bearing. My TT outputs three kind of noise: the hum (50-60Hz), the motor/spindle bearing noise (0-25Hz) and the platter resonance. The platter resonance noise has many harmonics. The nude platter resonance sounds like the AC/DC "Hells Bells" when hanging and is banged with a tea spoon. Not a problem, I can remove these type of noise in the needle drop processing. The speakers doesn't affect the needle drop because I record at low volume level, just to find out the recording is on.

I replaced the stock heavy rubber mat (5mm, 400g) with a Tonar cork+rubber mat (3mm, 136g). Electrostatic removed but the weight difference increased the platter resonance. Maybe a 260g clamp will fix this problem. I think this change is good too for the spindle bearing and for the replaced cartridge (SRA increased a bit). The tonearm now looks parallel along the TT plinth.

 

Very basic question (I'm a newb) for Izotope RX7:

I'm using a Mac, but can't select my USB DAC as an audio output device for RX7. It will play sound through the MacBook speakers, only. Other system sounds play through the USB DAC, no issue. When I go into RX7 preferences for Audio output, my only choices are: "MacBook Pro Speakers" or "No audio device".

Sound plays through MacBook speakers, no problem.