I'm suprised you have so many LPs with groove noise, especially ones that aren't noisy as the two often go hand-in-hand - are you sure it's not due to something with your set-up?
As more users seem to be recording these days I thought I would resurrect a post of mine from the end of last year where I mention that the track splitting seems to occassionally leave a slight 'tick' sound at the very end of a track. As then, it is still totally random and doesn't happen with every track. Anyone else experiencing this or just me? My unit updated last week to SugarCube 2.2-78-g4057c55b-20200611-2245-prod+sc2rec and it is still occassionally occurring.
Listen to the samples I posted near the start of this thread. Are your records worse than the sample and repaired audio of The Doors - The End? These machines are very good at what they do, don’t be discouraged!
Of course....but as we all know, cleaning doesnt fix groove wear. Boy...you guys are really pushing this Sugar Cube thingy......
Their method of NR is similar to how Izotope software's spectral NR works. It learns the frequencies in which the noise lies and removes it anywhere it is louder than the recorded content. Plus the SC allows you to hear only what is being removed in real-time (like their click removal) so you can dial it in. From my personal experience, most groove noise is under 2000hz, meaning its removal shouldn't affect the highs. Seriously if this is what you want it to do, I'd give it a shot. Their click removal has been a godsend in music listening for me. Buy one and see if it works. If not return it or sell it to someone who wants one.
I realize it was too obvious a question, but still must be asked given the context. A record with bad groove wear is IMO a record worth replacing if it’s a favorite. Scratches causing pops and ticks and today’s often noisy vinyl caused by lack of QC are easily taken care of by the SugarCube. But groove damage from the heavy arms of decades ago and play by worn stylus are another matter. Those of us pushing the SugarCube do so for the simple reason that it works. If the cost is off putting I get it. I wouldn't own an SC-2 without having gotten in at the beginning via the original indiegogo campaign. I only regret I didn’t also buy an SC-1 at the same time. If you’re looking for a version of the SugarCube's benefit at a lower cost you could always check out the Parks Audio Puffin Phono DSP. It’s a great digital phono preamp that now offers some noise reduction, though from what I’ve gleaned it’s not at the level of the SugarCubes. Although I own one, it’s on the other side of the country and I won’t be in a position to upgrade it’s firmware for a long time to come. You might check out the Puffin thread for more user comments on it’s noise reduction function.
Question for SC-2 owners. So far I've only recorded normal 33 and it's been great. I have a bunch of re-releases and anniversary albums that I haven't seen when I played around with the ID. How have people handled it? Thanks!
Hogues: For now the album lookup through Discogs feature is not working for me. Sweet Vinyl has been in touch with me and is working on a fix for the issue. So for now I enter the information manually. I go to the Recordings To Edit Screen and select the appropriate LP side off the list. I use the Edit Album Info button to bring up an edit window and I add the info there and call it a day. Since I don't get the track splitting data, I save the file onto my NAS drive and edit it with a Mac Program called Fission. I add some addition info manually, add a cover photo, split the tracks and save a copy of the file out as a Chapterized AAC file. Right now I have to do this for all LPs, but like you I am sure I have some albums that will fly under the radar. I have some albums that weren't in Discogs at all. Also I remember when the feature was working when I first started using my SC-2, there were a few albums it didn't find by Catalogue No. I had to Type the Album Name or Artist Name and Album Name. It didn't always work with my first attempt.
Thanks, Jim. Fetching from Discogs didn't work for me either, I had to do a factory reset and haven't upgraded since. The good thing is that it has worked since the reset. I'm hoping that the Windows program that they have said was coming can help with this. As of now, I'm not ripping any 45's because I don't have any post recording software but I'll look into it. The recordings for the 33's are great so far, though.
Totally agree. This has changed everything. I planned on using the SC-2 Mini to play and rip old used records in not so great shape. I hate licks and pops with a passion. They are the reason I went over to CDs right from the start. Now I find the SC works so well and it is totally transparent to my ears. I use it on every record. I am going to convert most of my albums to digital to be able to bring on the road.
@SweetVinyl just wondering if you have any more info on the windows "app". I'm curious as to how it will work and if it will solve some of the album ID issues. I love records but picking the correct version can be hard. Some albums have dozens of releases. Thanks!
I had only made about 25 or 30 needle drops prior to purchasing the SC-2 Mini. Now I have made another 350 or so in the last month. I started running into a new situation that I don't know how to handle with the information fields available in the Sugar Cube software or in Fission (my editing software). How do folks handle multi-disk box sets which consist of multiple full albums by one artist. For example: the Beatles Mono Box which is all of their Mono albums. There is not field for adding the name of the box set and I would like the individual albums to have their own cover art and Catalogue No. The best I have come up with is I add the disk number to the album name: "01-Please, Please Me" ; "02-With the Beatles" etc. How do other folks handle this situation? Thanks.
Not sure that I have ever referenced a Box Set as such, but for Mono LPs I would usually denote it as such in the Title. Therefore "Please, Please Me (Mono)" or if you prefer "Please, Please Me (Mono Box Set)". Stereo LPs are assumed so would not get notated. Or you can put as much information as you like in the Comment Tag. For the record my Discogs lookup doesn't seem to be working anymore either. I had a software update to version 2.2-78- .... last week. I am inputting all data and splitting tracks manually.
As an update - we found and fixed the bug that was preventing some users from getting the direct Discogs to work. Initially this was a certificate error that was blocking queries - then after more debugging there was a more persistent issue on some systems where browsers inserted non-ascii characters into the queries causing the Discogs system to reject them. There is a general fix being made to all SC-2 users now - if anyone continues having this problem and does not have the update (2.2-95) - please contact [email protected] and we can look into it.
Discogs lookup had stopped working for me. I have been running this for a couple of days now, and it is working as advertised for me.
Hey Dan! Quick question about the SC-1/SC-1 Mini updates---I just received the first 2.2 firmware update, and I'm curious what the update notes are for those of us with non-recording devices. The update file only mentions Sc-2 variant changes. Are you able to share any additional info about the most recent SC-1 updates? Thanks!
That Sugar Cube is one amazing piece of gear! I'm not a vinyl listener myself, but my father and two older brother have extensive LP collections and I'm sure they will be interested in buying a SC. Any dealers in Texas?
I can confirm that the Discogs lookup issue is resolved for me since my SC-2 received the v. 2.2-95... update a few days ago. Well done SV !!
Hello SweetVinyl, now that Brexit is confirmed are you considering to contract a dealer within the EU?
The latest from Sweet Vinyl Dear SC-1 Plus Purchasers: We wanted to send an update – we have had quite a few email requests and apologize for not responding immediately as we wanted to provide information when we hit a significant milestone. As we updated last time – the team has spent considerable time dealing with basic development system updates as the Linux platform we used was put eol on short notice. It is now stable and has been working well for all our developers for the last 45-60 days. We also moved the entire codebase that we are distributing to all SugarCubes to the latest Debian Buster release and had to update lots of functions that were not fully supported like networking interfaces we were using on the previous release. In addition we added a direct look-up to the Discogs database for SC-2 users and this took some time to make work for everyone as a faulty certificate server was blocking some queries and then a further bug having to do with non-ascii characters being inserted into queries had to be isolated and repaired. On the Plus development front there were two more revisions of the SVNR software that made it through the development cycle as final QA revealed usability issues for sampling lead in noise – crucial for best operation. We have the interface now done and have upgraded some SC-1 units (now known as SC-1svNR models). There is an update pending for the SVNR software for these units which will have documentation for use in the manual and is intended to be what ships on the SC-1 Plus units. The SC-1 Plus motherboards we received as prototype production builds were fully tested and revealed some issues that needed to be addressed in a board spin – this layout and dfm was finished and sent off for quote and fabrication last week – and we have ordered and paid for approximately 120 board fabs to cover the first production runs – we expect with the China Covid slowdown to see these in about 3-4 weeks. Assuming this all goes well we will do a first build of 20 units, test them and hopefully be able to qualify as the first production units. A significant outstanding issue remains and where we will focus for the next 30-60 days – this has to do with the ADC-DAC modes for the unit to be able to function as an external ADC for connected devices – like a PC running Audacity or Vinyl Studio. The SC-1 Plus is intended to be able to record at a variety of sample rates – and although the chips support this – a low level driver will need work to function correctly over USB. We don’t want to only support one mode – or rely on configuring the SugarCube manually – it should be able to be directed by the external computer. The documentation from the chip vendor states this is a supported mode – but as we were testing/verifying – it only works correctly with SPDIF. Although simple in theory – the software work to make it function and test and verify this will be a full time task split over two engineers. Our schedule is that when boards are ready to test after fabrication and assembly we will have an integration point with all this software and can provide an update as to actual manufacturing and shipping. Best, -Dan
Ok so I've never ever connected the wifi dongle for my SC-1 Mini. Where's the pair button? Am I missing something?
