Kind of a Reverse making Records Blog Post...

 A few Christmases ago the kids gave me a USB turntable. It's a handy item if you have a bunch of old records like I do. It hooks to a port on a computer, drop the needle on the groove, click a button on a pretty simple program and the next thing you know that big spinning 12 incher is a digital file. 

That set up including the computer is nothing special. The lap top in the photo is the one I used for work before I retired. It's a Dell ebay refurbished job and not too speedy but it takes care of business and I was able to put the audio directly to a zip drive. That's handy as I already have probably 5000 songs on this little computer and there's no sense in just clogging it up because I can. Speakers are not too loud but with a plug in chord to my bluetooth speaker that I broadcast from my phone or an analog to and I have a fine monitor for a little system that all told probably comes in at a price tag well under three Franklins. I've paid more for fun but not lately. 

You could get technical as I think there are some editing programs out there that eliminate all the pops and hiss of a record but that might get complicated. 

In the time I've owned this turntable I have recorded records to digital in starts and fits and this started as a project to record an old band record for a classmate. It's hard to record symphonic music. There are lots of dynamics, pauses between movements and so on that fool the software into thinking a single piece might be more than one track. 

A rock record is easier to record. It's pretty straight forward. They crank it up and keep it up all the way through. At least they do on a clean record. Those records that might have slid across a dorm room floor back in the late 1970s might have some scratches that hang things up. 

Which is funny as I have a lot older records I have collected up from used stores, thrift stores and flea markets that are in much better shape than the rock records of the 70s. I collect in the categories of dixieland, big band, polka and exotica. I think these kind of listeners just took better care of the records and played them on better equipment like big old consoles that had sturdy built in storage. 

As for the old band records they don't seem to have faired as well. They date to the early mid 70s and have not been played all that much but seems like manufacturing might not be the same standard as the big labels. The techniques to record a symphonic band in an auditorium might be pretty primitive compared to what is available today.  

Cathy is back to work after her hip replacement this week and as she winds down to retirement when the labor and delivery night shift is not busy she will come home on call. Last night she came home early to find me at my digitalization station with a stack of old Joni Mitchell and Chicago records. She said:

"What you do when you are by yourself is worse than I imagined."  

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