Getting together with old friends
Last winter I finally got around to a project that I had been promising myself for several years that I would complete. Over the past 45 years, like many persons of my age, I had collected a fairly robust collection of records. Not CDs, tapes, cassettes or even mp3 files, but real grooved platters fashioned of black vinyl. Some even had a large hole in the center. If you don’t know what that means, ask someone over the age of 45.
In my case, some of the records had been re-released in CD format, but most were not available and I am a cheapskate at heart. For example, my favorite Christmas album of all time was one done by Stan Kenton and no longer available except for some astronomical amount on eBay. Some other classical piano albums actually recorded by Arthur Rubinstein were also not available on CD. Even though we still do have a turntable connected to our stereo, playing one record at a time was just too much of a hassle. So the records were stacked in a corner of the basement gathering dust and some other crud associated with benign neglect storage.
If you find this scenario ringing true for you, I may have a solution. You can easily make CDs or MP3 copies of your records with little effort and some inexpensive software. All you need is a working turntable, a computer that has a CD burner installed and some software.
I used software from DAK www.dak.com. Don’t let the garish web site discourage you. The software really was easy to use and made very good copies of the records. It even had settings to get rid of scratches and other imperfections on the records. There is one setting that allows you to identify each blemish and clean it up one by one. This was a real hassle and I soon opted for the automatic version. The latter does cut down a bit on the audio fidelity, but it provided a clean, clear copy of the vinyl record. For about $70 you get a pre-amplifier/mixer that you can plug into your computer and the software needed to make your copies. If you need a turntable, there is one available at extra cost. I can’t recommend the turntable since I did not purchase one from DAK.
There are other companies like Hammacher Schlemmer www.hammacher.com that have stand-alone copying machines. They are pricey, i.e. $400, but they do a good job. Since you most likely will do this task only once, unless you are a collector of vintage records, I question why someone would spend so much on a single purpose machine.
If you don’t want to do it yourself or you only have a few records to copy there are services that will do this for you. Locally, DLFmusic will provide this service for prices starting at $14.00 for each copy. www.dlfmusic.com. I have not used this company and from looking at the web site I would think it is most likely based in some basement. So I don’t have an opinion on the quality of their work. You might ask for references or just try one record first.
One of the by-products of doing it yourself comes in the fact that you have to play each album as you make the copy. It was really fun to listen to some music that I had not heard in many years. For example, I have one of the early Simon & Garrfunkel albums when they were performing under the moniker Tom & Jerry. Last January and February, each evening I would choose an album to copy and in about one hour, I had a CD version and some good memories.
So next fall, why not get reacquainted with old musical friends and invite them into the digital age?
In my case, some of the records had been re-released in CD format, but most were not available and I am a cheapskate at heart. For example, my favorite Christmas album of all time was one done by Stan Kenton and no longer available except for some astronomical amount on eBay. Some other classical piano albums actually recorded by Arthur Rubinstein were also not available on CD. Even though we still do have a turntable connected to our stereo, playing one record at a time was just too much of a hassle. So the records were stacked in a corner of the basement gathering dust and some other crud associated with benign neglect storage.
If you find this scenario ringing true for you, I may have a solution. You can easily make CDs or MP3 copies of your records with little effort and some inexpensive software. All you need is a working turntable, a computer that has a CD burner installed and some software.
I used software from DAK www.dak.com. Don’t let the garish web site discourage you. The software really was easy to use and made very good copies of the records. It even had settings to get rid of scratches and other imperfections on the records. There is one setting that allows you to identify each blemish and clean it up one by one. This was a real hassle and I soon opted for the automatic version. The latter does cut down a bit on the audio fidelity, but it provided a clean, clear copy of the vinyl record. For about $70 you get a pre-amplifier/mixer that you can plug into your computer and the software needed to make your copies. If you need a turntable, there is one available at extra cost. I can’t recommend the turntable since I did not purchase one from DAK.
There are other companies like Hammacher Schlemmer www.hammacher.com that have stand-alone copying machines. They are pricey, i.e. $400, but they do a good job. Since you most likely will do this task only once, unless you are a collector of vintage records, I question why someone would spend so much on a single purpose machine.
If you don’t want to do it yourself or you only have a few records to copy there are services that will do this for you. Locally, DLFmusic will provide this service for prices starting at $14.00 for each copy. www.dlfmusic.com. I have not used this company and from looking at the web site I would think it is most likely based in some basement. So I don’t have an opinion on the quality of their work. You might ask for references or just try one record first.
One of the by-products of doing it yourself comes in the fact that you have to play each album as you make the copy. It was really fun to listen to some music that I had not heard in many years. For example, I have one of the early Simon & Garrfunkel albums when they were performing under the moniker Tom & Jerry. Last January and February, each evening I would choose an album to copy and in about one hour, I had a CD version and some good memories.
So next fall, why not get reacquainted with old musical friends and invite them into the digital age?
posted by Jack Dominic at 9:56 AM
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