[listening] The great digitisation project 2025

Maddz

Maddz

Demi-God
I'm going to put this as a separate thread, rather than clutter up the listening thread with boring stuff you guys probably aren't interested in.

The recording process is mildly involved:
  1. Clean, rinse & air dry records
  2. Place on turntable, check both channels working
  3. Fire up Quicktime on old iMac and select new audio recording. Make sure input volume is max!
  4. Record a short sequence, check both channels are appearing using Audacity (or do a test directly into Audacity).
  5. Delete test recording, start new one, restart LP.
  6. Record Side A, save as *Side A, turn over, record *Side B, save (into iCloud with new folder for each album)
  7. Open each file in turn in Audacity, mark the tracks (making sure the numbering for side B follows on from side A), save as Audacity project in same album folder.
  8. Open Audacity on MacBook Pro, edit album metadata, export the audio files from side A, repeat for side B.
  9. Import into iTunes, sort track names and artwork, tag the LTID in comments, update LT by changing the import tag to the iTunes tag. In iTunes, add the file to the Vinyl rip playlist.
  10. At some point, check the quality of the recording for the vinyl rip and yt-dlp playlists; if satisfied, remove from the playlist. Otherwise, delete and re-rip.
I'm using my old iMac to record because of the direct audio line-in (OK that involved a 10m phono lead) rather than fiddling around with adapters for the more recent machines (I'm not sure if the Griffin iMic will work with the Mini). After the service, steps 2, 4 & 5 seem to be redundant. I'm also not bothering with Audacity on the old iMac; I'm doing all the work on the MBP; especially as I'm archiving the files in iCloud once imported to iTunes (there seems to be issues with uploads from the old iMac not appearing).

My initial selections for digitisation were:
  1. Fingers Off!
  2. Focus
  3. The Shangri-Las: Greatest Hits
  4. Josef Krips conducting the Vienna Festival Orchestra: A Strauss Concert
  5. Eduard van Beinum conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra: Schubert Incidental Music to Rosamunde & Mendelssohn Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream
  6. Carlo Vanuzzi (Soloist), Ernest Mattison conducting the Vienna Concert Orchestra: Flute Concertos composed by Mozart & Boccerini
After ripping the first 2, I decided the amplifier was unhappy about things in general (not surprising, it's 35 years old and has barely been used since moving to St Ives 10 years ago). Luckily, one of the repair shops in town was happy to service it, and once I got things wired up properly (memo to self: don't let Paul do that again - he got the phono to iMac lead in the wrong output, and didn't wire the speaker cables properly), we were good to go.

There's still a bit of crackle but that's mostly down to the sheer age of the vinyl (and how it was treated in the past). My current set-up is a Pro-ject P1 turntable and a Musical Fidelity B1 integrated amplifier. Given the latter was in the budget section, it gives a surprisingly rich sound balance; as my collection is primarily classical and jazz, that's all to the good. My previous set-up was one or another Dansette suitcase players which I had when I left home after A levels. The first one died, and I found another. Still, I never played my albums to the death (unless it involved my sister leaving an album too close to a radiator grr...) so they at least play.
 
Fingers Off! was (probably) my earlier acquisition; I've owned it since new, and it's survived much playing at my flat in London using my old Dansette suitcase record player, and latterly better treatment on the Pro-ject turntable. Reminds me a bit of listening to Top of the Pops on a mono CRT with a portable aerial (watching was not so good because of the poor reception). It's lasted better than the Levis I got with it! If I recall correctly, the Levis got relegated to sailing kit before being cut-off and eventually chucked out when my Mum complained they were indecent.
 
Focus: Focus

I got this second-hand (the hand-written price label suggests that). Where I got it from and when I can't remember. I might have got it at uni (either Bristol 1976-1979 or Leeds 1982-1984), or when I was living in London, or when I lived at home after Leeds, or even after I moved to Cambridge in 1990... It's a compilation of shorter pieces (single length) with a few longer pieces, and dates from just before the original line-up split. It's pretty well all instrumental prog rock, ranging from commercial sounds to more prog pieces.
 
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The Shangri-Las: Greatest Hits

Another compilation (1984). I have a CD compilation - The Best of The Shangri-Las which has more tracks (17 vs 12) but only has 7 of the 12 tracks on the vinyl compilation. Very, very pop and mostly teen-tragedy songs - very reminiscent of of my teen-age years. Oddly, we didn't listen to much music at all, especially when my dad was away on a trip. We did have a couple of cheap and nasty transistor radios, one in the kitchen, one in the old playroom but that was it, apart from the Hamerlund valve radio we weren't supposed to touch (that was the radio that nearly got my parents arrested for espionage back in Cairo - luckily we only had the receiver not the transmitter). The family story was that it 'fell off the back of a Sherman tank'.
 
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Josef Krips conducting the Vienna Festival Orchestra: A Strauss Concert

This turned out to be scratched on both sides and the sound quality was very poor. I did some digging on Google/YouTube and actually tracked down the complete album under another name (otherwise it would have meant a Spotify subscription). A second-had purchase sometime after leaving Bristol; I suspect it was a charity-shop purchase given the condition.

Krips re-instituted the New Year's concerts in Vienna after the war; this album comprises various favourites from the concerts. It's the waltz-king himself; what more can I say?
 
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Eduard van Beinum conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra: Schubert Incidental Music to Rosamunde & Mendelssohn Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream

This one was a partial rip; 4 out of the 6 tracks (1 Schubert and all the Mendelssohn) were available on YouTube, so I only needed to rip Side 1 - Schubert. The first track (which was the one on YouTube) was pretty poor quality, but the 2 missing tracks were acceptable (those were on YouTube but as a 1940 live recording not the studio recording.)
 
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Carlo Vanuzzi (Soloist), Ernest Mattison conducting the Vienna Concert Orchestra: Flute Concertos composed by Mozart & Boccerini

As far as I can tell, these concertos have never been digitised at all; at least, I couldn't find them. Some crackle in the quieter passages, but otherwise decent quality.

I'm pretty sure this and the previous recording came from a charity shop after I moved to Cambridge.
 
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Procol Harum: Rock Roots

As far as I can see, this compilation has never had a UK CD release - only France & Spain. I may be a huge Procol Harum fan (they were one of the bands I saw live back in my student days in Bristol and I have all the original vinyl albums plus some singles), but I'm not paying over £30 plus shipping to get a CD. Listening to this has prompted me to buy a couple more Procol Harum compilations I don't have.

It's a mixture of their 7" A & B sides, with some album tracks, along with 2 unreleased tracks. The 2 unreleased tracks were included as bonus tracks on some of the Japanese and German CDs of the A Whiter Shade of Pale album, but not the UK release.

A nice, clean recording, probably helped because the LP was rarely played, and hence is pretty well near mint.
 
The Barron Knights: Night Gallery; Teach the World to Laugh; Jesta Giggle; Twisting the Knights Away; Live In Trouble

What can I say? I like their humour, and I have to say they did the best cover of The Smurfs Song ever. I don't think I've listened to these since the early 90s, and I must say some of the humour is now rather dated (if not mildly problematic to modern ears). How many kids these days have used a telephone box or knows what they sounded like (let alone smelt like)?

I do have some of their singles as well; I may end up digitising them as well as the releases are different, but that will have to wait until I switch the drive belt on the Pro-ject. That involves partially dismantling it...
 
And guess what did I see when I looked in at British Heart Foundation; that very record at the front of the vinyl bin. Checked it over, no scratches, one small scuff which may be some crud anyway. Grabbed it and it's sitting in the to be washed pile.
 
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