I'm gonna try to get both Use Your ILlusions on vinyl. Not going to be easy.

I couldn't find much for Zevon in my last record store jaunt. Saw a ton of copies for Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School but nothing else.

Oh, this is different. This fits between your turntable output plugs and let's say the CD input on a receiver. It makes the proper signal conversions so your turntable looks like a CD player to your receiver. This is useful since most new receivers don't have a phono input.

From skimming the reviews I think (using the right cables and software) you can also input into your computer sound card and then convert to .mp3 files. Costco sells an all in one unit that is essentially a turntable with a USB port as output. This is more for people who want to convert an old album collection to files they can play on iTunes or an iPod or similar software/player and then perhaps pass on the turntable/converter to a friend.

In my case I eventually replaced almost all my vinyl music with CDs and/or mp3s so never went through this process.

~ Rick

PS As an aside my brother has about 5000 CDs that he's converted to .flac (a lossless file format that can be converted back to a CD or .mp3s etc). Now I'd like to see a thread on what to do with a huge collection of old CDs since it takes up most of my Mom's basement.

I've got a decent vinyl collection. Random fact, I was watching this interview : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RKbSi87J5Q
w/ nardwuar interviewing n.e.r.d. and pharell was amazed that he had a copy of carl sagan's cosmos album on vinyl... one of many records I've inherited from my parents' collections. not sure if it's actually rare or he was just high...

vinyl's the **** tho, it's so much fun to go to a garage sale or to a flea market and search through old crates and find **** that has been forgotten and nobody has bothered to upload to their blogs or whatnot.

Picked up 1984 and Rocks.

I still cannot find Appetite for Destruction and I've all but given up hope on finding Use your Illusion 1 & 2.

I know they make Appetite on vinyl new but something feels wrong paying $20 for a vinyl record.

I got into vinyl about 2 years ago and now have over 3000 records. I am very fourtnate to have a great record store right by my house that is very cheap at that. Once you get into to records really the only way to go is to buy a giant silver faced reciver, they were built to last and sound amazing.
Currently I'm running a sansui qrx with sansui speakers and a pioneer player, and it sounds great. Good luck with the record hunting.

Any chance you could see if that store has any GNR stuff next time you go in?

Any of you guys collect rare vinyl? I've think I've stumbled on some rare stuff but unsure. I found a vinyl near mint Patience/Rocket Queen single 12" with the Axl Rose interview. This seems like a definate buy.

It's like this:

http://www.musicstack.com/item.cgi?item=12054598

It even includes the original temporary tattoo it was packaged with. I think they wanted $8 for it.

http://www.snowrecords.co.jp/servlet...-GEF56T/Detail

Here is a picture of it. Doesn't seem too valuable.

You guys got some rare albums?

Yeah i can check next time im there, but also check this site, google euclid records they are another local record shop that might have something along those lines.

Got about 2000 vinyl records. Sold all my cd's about 10 years ago and never looked back. I don't like the sound of digital records and I like the way you have to manually change records, it's like meditation or something, a break from the fast-paced world of today. Listening to mp3's is kinda like doing (unpaid) work to me, all those computers and buttons and transferring files, the fast pace... that's what people do at work, it's not pleasurable at all. I listen to music when I have free time, time to do things slowly and enjoy life.

Changing from vinyl to mp3's would be like, dunno, changing a woman to a fake vagina and a tube of moisturizer.

hall, you want a couple great albums that sound great on vinyl: The Cars first album and the Cars' Candy-O.

You guys can probably identify with this type of story:

Pretty much anytime I'm spending time out of town (at least in a bigger city) I always want to hit the local record stores and do some vinyl shopping. I have a couple friends who dj and/or collect vinyl and if they're with me, we'll just go off on our own and go looking for some records. Often times though, I'll be with a group of friends where nobody but me is really into records and usually some one will be like ' oh yeah, I like music, I'll go record shopping with you. ' At which point I'll reply ' ok, you're welcome to come but I'm probably gonna take a while. I like to really dig through the old crates they have under the shelves and if they have stuff in the back, I wanna check through all that too. It's definitely going to take a while, so I'm just warning you now. This isn't going to be a short trip. ' They're obv always like 'yeah, no problem. I love music! let's go. '

So, fast forward 2 or 3 hours. We're in some sweet record shop that's just packed with vinyl. I'm maybe 1/2 way through the top shelves in the front of the store with 5 or 10 things picked out. My 'music loving' friend has already picked out 2 or 3 records and has long since been payed for them and is now disinterestedly browsing through some random section when they come up to me ' so... you pretty much ready to go there? looks like you've got some sweet stuff picked out... wanna go grab something to eat? go grab some drinks maybe? '

sigh.

I'm maybe 2/5 of the way through the store and they don't close for like 5 more hours, I'm not going anywhere and I ****ing warned them that this was likely to be an all day affair... so I reply kindly ' uhh, no I'm probably gonna be a while, this store has alot of stuff and I wanna get through as much as possible, why don't you just go and I'll meet up with you all later? '

Said friend is like ' ....ooook.... soooo..you'll just call us then?...' and walks out of the store with a look in their eye like I'm some sort of sick freak pervert who's diligently thumbing through a gigantic collection hardcore kiddy porn and then they walk out of the store with their Sonic Youth and 2 Dollar Guitar albums tucked under their incredulous arm...

Cliffs: some people just don't get it


Edit: For anyone else who's sick like me, any good suggestions for cities with good vinyl shops?

My hometown of Pittsburgh actually has a couple good stores, obv NYC has some really good spots. Also, Chicago, Nashville, and the Bay Area have some good spots I've found. What are some other cities with good record stores in the States?

Don't get a USB turntable. They have horrible preamps. For digitizing vinyl, it's infinitely better to go through a decent preamp and connect to your computer via line-in.


I got more than a thousand 12 inches. But they are so ****ing big. They're taking up a huge amount of space. And they're really heavy and a pain in the *** to transport (FWIW, 100 records weigh ~40-45 pounds).

I disagree. Changed to digital about 3 years ago and never looked back. Some stuff I bought again in flac or wav format (which is commonly available if your favorite genre is electronic music), and I digitized a ton of records.

I generally apply "Gruv Glide II" prior to digitizing. It removes dust and static. The record player I use is a Technics 1200MK2. I then digitize (enabling quartz lock on the Technics) using a professional 24-bit/96 kHz audio interface which features high-quality pre-amps and Cirrus Logic AD/DA converters. My preferred recording software is the (free) Audacity.

I record in 16-bit/44.1 kHz stereo. I don't do any click or noise removal since, imo, it does more bad than good. However, I do normalize the audio to remove DC offset. After normalizing, I encode the audio to FLAC format. I tag the FLAC using the (free) MP3tag software which can pull title/artist/genre/etc. information and covers off Discogs.

Works great for me. Hope the above is not too off-topic. But I think even if you love your records, digitizing is useful for backup/archiving purposes.

edit: the one thing I miss are the cool covers on my 12 inches.

2after909. I have a question about cleaning records as you said you applied a cleaner.

I was at the record store and saw the cleaning stuff but it was pretty pricey so I didn't want to buy the wrong stuff. I bought some unkept records for $1 a peice from the bargain bin and most play well but a few are just plain dirty/skip/repeat.

Will cleaning help a lot with repeating records or is that a scratch that you gotta fix otherwise? Where they skip the record looks like it has a scuff mark. It doesn't look so much like a scratch as it does as a big blot of residue.

Is there a guideline for cleanings or is it just a clean when it's dirty type of deal.

Wow! I just got a copy of the original Appetite for Destruction cover. Plus I found a copy for the current cover.

If anyone wants my extensive, valuable, and most awesome collection of early punk vinyl, just get yourself over to Haight and Cole streets in San Francisco, and start knocking on doors.

I'm sure all of the people who gave me 10% of what my stuff was worth at my patented "Heroin Sidewalk Sales" probably all still have them.

I especially hope they enjoyed the Misfits singles and the Damned albums and the Stranglers stuff on colored vinyls and my PIL Metal Box etc etc etc arg ARRRGGGGG!

Dope: it's NOT dope.

Thank you and goodnight.

ok a quick prelude before answering your actual question. maybe this is obv but here goes. proper tone arm setup is essential on turntables that allow for cartridge replacement (that includes virtually all dj turntables and many audiophile turntables). you must calibrate the counterweight properly, otherwise skipping or "hanging" may occur. similar goes for a anti-skate adjustment, if present (that's less common on non-dj equipment).

as for your question. afaik, there are three options for cleaning stuff (listed below from cheapest to most expensive):
1.) carbon brushes. cheap. help to remove dirt from records.
2.) cleaning systems consisting of fluid plus application pads. relatively cheap. remove dust just as carbon brushes do. act anti-static. i have good experiences with the aforementioned "gruv glide ii"
3.) record cleaning machines. i've no personal experience with those. supposedly, there are very good ones out there where the sky is the limit on prices.

Cleaned all my records with a brush and this stuff called D4+ from RCA. I'm a bit worried as I bought it from the record store and a vast majority of it approved of using it a few users say to never use it as it will damage records. Due to the fact I found more in favor of using it I figured I'd use it.

Anyone have a good site to teach me how to set my tracking on the arm? I've found a few websites but they all speak in advanced vinyl language that's just blowing my mind. Any very basic 100% thorough resources to find out how to properly set it?

I just don't want anything to get damaged.

You also need some Cheap Trick. And Kiss Alive!

Cleaning out my garage this weekend and I went through two giant tubes of records, concluding that I really didn't need to keep 90% of them, but The Cars was definitely in the keep pile. I have some great records, some from my collecting in high school and college, and some I picked up from the in laws. I consider vinyl album covers to be works of art, so it really pisses me off that while I have every Led Zeppelin album except for Coda on vinyl, half of them are ruined by my father-in-law writing his nickname in big black sharpie on the front.

Cheap Trick Dream Police, so you can hear Gonna Raise Hell, one of the lost classics of the era.

We just moved, I have two milk crates full of LP's. Jeebus, those things are heavy. Not sure what the count is.

Foghat Live is in there. Dom is correct, what an album. As Creem or one of those mags described it back in the day, "Foghat makes Kiss sound like a folk act."

Notable LP's I still have: The original Eat A Peach by the Allman Brothers, with the freaky artwork and image of Duane going up to heaven bareass, and ass-first.

My Led Zeppelin III has the "Do what thou wilt..." engraving on it.

Stones' Some Girls original with all the copyrighted images they were later forced to remove.

I have the White Album in white vinyl.

The original Styx albums with the Wooden Nickel labels.
I loved that band, and couldn't understand why they suddenly turned to suck (Cornerstone). At the time I blamed Tommy Shaw. Learned later that it was Dennis DeYoung all along, that he ended up winning the power struggle between prog rock and pure suck, which lead to John C leaving the band and DeYoung going on to produce Liza Minelli albums.

Most repeated dialog from my teen years:

1. Load up another bong hit.
2. Hey, your turn to get up and turn the album over.
3. You do it.
4. Bull****, I put that side on.

That's ok, Coda sucked

I got it too

There was a reason they'd never released that stuff

For those asking about cleaning vinyl, it has always been a heavily debated topic. Pretty much any liquid cleaner contains some chemical that is going to damage the vinyl to some extent. While it may not be noticeable after 1 cleaning, there is always some damage done to the vinyl from pretty much any cleaner I've ever seen. So, some people suggest using straight water but water can leave mold on the vinyl which is also bad.

I think the common most trusted method of cleaning vinyl is using a dry brush that's specifically made for vinyl but that just doesn't do the job w/ really old ****ed up records. I've talked to people who will dilute a cleaner or some type of alcohol w/ water and use that to clean particularly troublesome records one time and then just use a brush to keep it from getting too dusty from then on.

Also, here's a decent sight for whoever asked about setting up a turntable: http://www.soundfountain.com/amb/ttadjust.html


For those saying that going from vinyl to digital is blasphemous... you may be right on some levels but the convenience pretty much makes up for any of the audio quality disadvantages imo. Having thousands of records worth of music on a single little hard drive is amazing.

If I want to record one of my own records to my computer I run it from the table to my simple little DJ mixer into my Presonus interface into Soundforge and it sounds pretty good most of the time. If something needs cleaned up a little bit, it's not hard to make simple adjustments in Soundforge. This is not free though and I've heard pretty good things about Audacity but the biggest issue one will come across when attempting the free route is the sound interface. Running straight into the line in of a standard sound card can be pretty iffy.

I still have my old Discwasher setup. Fluid, too.

I cleaned all my records except for the banned GNR cover with the D4+ fluid and a brush. That's a good idea to just clean them once with it and from now on just dry brush it.