Record collecting

mookystains

Chairman Kaga sez, "Dakis-san's the one who's goin
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I love records. Here is some of my collection. The little boxes are 45"s
records.jpg
 

mookystains

Chairman Kaga sez, "Dakis-san's the one who's goin
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I have a few turntables but the one pictured to the right is a USB turntable. Its GREAT, never really got into downloading music, plus alot of the stuff I listen to is not available on iTunes or anything like that, makes putting whatever I want on my iPod a BREEZE
 

mookystains

Chairman Kaga sez, "Dakis-san's the one who's goin
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I'm looking at the shelves buckling and I'm wincing thinking of the day that whole unit falls apart.


Yea but its the Velvet Underground so who gives a fuck
/pretentious

The shelves where actually like that when i got it. Its SOLID wood, no particle board crap.
My buddy actually owned that Velvets acetate. He ran a rare record store in Oakland called Saturn Records way back when.
 

mookystains

Chairman Kaga sez, "Dakis-san's the one who's goin
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I had a cheap particle board shelf a few years ago that broke, i came home to 1000+ records FUCKED. Almost cried
 

El Maricon Loco

Galford's Poppy Trainer,
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Sweet mother of Christ, there's nothing wrong with particle board as long as you don't put a 1000+ fucking records on it.
 

OrochiEddie

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I had a cheap particle board shelf a few years ago that broke, i came home to 1000+ records FUCKED. Almost cried

holy shit that is terrible. I had bought a big shelf for my records a few years ago that hard particle board shelves. Swapped them for solid wood which was a must as the shelves were buckling like mad.

Last summer I was moving to a new apartment and after crating my records I attempted to tip the shelf to move it and the whole thing collapsed.

I have a new shelf being built as I go back to my parents now and then. I'm really excited for it, as I designed the shelf myself. Has a an additional vertical piece in the middle that acts as a 'spine' to support the unit so no excessive weight in the middle with no support. Once its done I'll post photos.
 

potetoboy

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alot of the stuff I listen to is not available on iTunes

^this.

I have a new shelf being built as I go back to my parents now and then. I'm really excited for it, as I designed the shelf myself. Has a an additional vertical piece in the middle that acts as a 'spine' to support the unit so no excessive weight in the middle with no support. Once its done I'll post photos.

sounds awesome. would like to see how this custom shelf looks. i just use the IKEA Expedit shelf for my vinyl and it works great. the squares are useful for dividing genres or making sections and its pretty solid. they recently discontinued the line tho, but have a new shelf that's similar called the KALLAX.

-3.jpg
 

OrochiEddie

Kobaïa Is De Hündïn
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^this.



sounds awesome. would like to see how this custom shelf looks. i just use the IKEA Expedit shelf for my vinyl and it works great. the squares are useful for dividing genres or making sections and its pretty solid. they recently discontinued the line tho, but have a new shelf that's similar called the KALLAX.

View attachment 12856

The design is similar, just narrower which while it can't hold as many records, it is much easier to transport
 

OrochiEddie

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Maybe dumb questions, but how long before you replace your needle? Also what do you all do for record maintenance?
 

max 330 mega

The Almighty Bunghole
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i use Gruv-Glide with the 2 muffs it comes with and just a stylus brush on the stylus between each record i play. works wonderfully.

question for you guys that rip records via USB, i have done this a few times but have never figured out a fast easy way to separate each track from one another. ive only used Audacity as it was provided free with my audio technica AT LP240 table (which is an absolute beast of a USB capable table.)
is this possible in Audacity? or do i need a different program?
 

potetoboy

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not sure if there's a "fast and easy" or automatic way to do it (if so I want to know abt it as well). the way I go about it with Audacity is recording tracks one at a time and saving them individually, or recording a whole side and then going back and selecting each track and saving each by selection. I find Sound Studio on Mac is pretty good, and slightly easier for this.
 

Joe T.

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I used to have thousands of records. I still have a ton that I left at my parents' house since I don't have the space, but I sold a good chunk of them. Lots of old detroit stuff, glitch, weird electro, and synth shit too. I used to record everything using Sony Soundforge and an external sound card. Soundforge was great for slicing up tracks for sampling purposes or making my own edits of tracks, especially when I DJed a lot using Final Scratch or Traktor. Now that I have a Mac I don't really know of a software equivalent to Soundforge, unfortunately.
 

fluxcore

Another Striker
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I think the most recent LP I bought was the Aphex Twin - SAW85-92 repress (which I spy in some pics above, very nice!). Actually no, I picked up Michael Jackson - Thriller at a garage sale for $1. I have what I'd consider a 'decent' collection, but ran out of storage space so haven't really bought anything recently.

Setup is 1200 mk2 w/ AT95E through a Nad PP2. Cheap but cheerful.
 

mookystains

Chairman Kaga sez, "Dakis-san's the one who's goin
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i use Gruv-Glide with the 2 muffs it comes with and just a stylus brush on the stylus between each record i play. works wonderfully.

question for you guys that rip records via USB, i have done this a few times but have never figured out a fast easy way to separate each track from one another. ive only used Audacity as it was provided free with my audio technica AT LP240 table (which is an absolute beast of a USB capable table.)
is this possible in Audacity? or do i need a different program?

I use a program called EZ Vinyl Convertor. It came with the USB Turntable. There is basically a CUT button that you press between songs. It still means that you have to listen to the whole record. The only drawbacks are: I get distracted and forget about a song ending, and the quality isnt amazing. There is a little buzz due to the player not coming with a grounding wire/an input for one(WHHHY???)
 

ebinsugewa

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Maybe dumb questions, but how long before you replace your needle? Also what do you all do for record maintenance?

Safe guideline for needle replacement is a year. This obviously depends on your listening frequency, but if you have stuff on the decks every weekend say, a year is about right. As for maintenance, brush/clean each time you put an album on, and don't stack albums horizontally. Besides that, don't treat them like shit and you're good.
 

Neo Ash

NG.com Audiophile, Club Member,
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Maybe dumb questions, but how long before you replace your needle? Also what do you all do for record maintenance?

There are many variables that impact longevity of the stylus. The lifespan hour ratings vary wildly from manufacturer. I believe Ortofon gives a rating of 1,000 hours. In contrast, Van den Hul cartridges are rated at 3,500 hours. What you have to keep in mind in that any of these hour rating have to take into consideration user error and less than ideal maintenance. In order to have a long lasting stylus, the records must be kept clean and cleaned prior to each playback, the turntable properly setup, and the stylus itself cleaned. Additionally, there are different material types that can be used to make the tip of stylus, including diamond, some last longer than others.

Abuse, poor maintenance, and records in bad condition really impact the stylus life. I recall once I was at my local hifi shop waiting on them to finish up a custom cable build for me. A couple of guys new to turntables were auditioning a turntable. The owner left them to go off and take care of other needs/customers. One of the guys wanted to change songs. The next thing everyone in the store heard was a series of loud thumps, cracks, pops, and scratching sounds. Everyone nearly shat their pants. The owner jokingly shout....thousand bucks. Thankfully it was just any entry level setup and probably only has a $150 cartridge mounted.
 

fake

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Just got Thrice'd Identity Crisis.
 

max 330 mega

The Almighty Bunghole
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sooo... im guessing just eyeballing the stylus and seeing that it does not appear worn down is not good enough as far as knowing when to replace my stylus? :/
maybe i am reaching the time to replace.....
 

max 330 mega

The Almighty Bunghole
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I use a program called EZ Vinyl Convertor. It came with the USB Turntable. There is basically a CUT button that you press between songs. It still means that you have to listen to the whole record. The only drawbacks are: I get distracted and forget about a song ending, and the quality isnt amazing. There is a little buzz due to the player not coming with a grounding wire/an input for one(WHHHY???)
maybe you should take a look into the turntable i have? it has grounding and basically is a solid higher end non-audiophile turntable within itself without even worrying about the USB bonus capability.
audio technica AT LP240
 

ki_atsushi

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not sure if there's a "fast and easy" or automatic way to do it (if so I want to know abt it as well). the way I go about it with Audacity is recording tracks one at a time and saving them individually, or recording a whole side and then going back and selecting each track and saving each by selection. I find Sound Studio on Mac is pretty good, and slightly easier for this.

It's easiest to go open up the big file and eyeball the start/end of all the songs. There's a program called goldwave that's free to use, and you can create cue sheets with the track names and song positions if you enter them in. You can even split the entire file into each song using the cue sheet afterwards, with the file names being the names of the tracks you specify in the cue sheet. It's pretty easy.

Goldwave is a good, solid audio editing program. You can use it to convert files to any audio format you have a codec for as well.
 
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ebinsugewa

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sooo... im guessing just eyeballing the stylus and seeing that it does not appear worn down is not good enough as far as knowing when to replace my stylus? :/
maybe i am reaching the time to replace.....

You'd need to look under a microscope to know, unless the stylus is visibly bent or broken.

In general:
1) If you get a used turntable, replace the stylus
2) If you listen around once a week, you're probably good for about 3 years to be safe
3) If you hear muffled playback over multiple albums
a) remove lint/etc from stylus by placing it into a magic eraser and removing, going directly up and down and not side to side
b) if a) fails, replace stylus
 

max 330 mega

The Almighty Bunghole
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going to look into that goldwave program definitely. also my playback on my needle (which i installed when i bought my table new about 2 years ago) still sounds good so ill wait about 1 more year then replace. thanks for the info guys!
 

ebinsugewa

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To clarify - it's less about sounding good than about fucking up your albums. Since every time you play a record it degrades, you want to prevent the loss as much as you can. If it sounds bad, that's a pretty clear indicator of replacement, however it may need replacing and still sound fine. This also depends on if you're playing like garage sale/flea market stuff or things you really care about. All up to you.
 

max 330 mega

The Almighty Bunghole
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i only have a few highly valuable records, or at least ones i consider higher value ($50 or more) currently, and i clean all of my records before they ever get played on my table. i listen to it for about 4 hours tops per week and have done that since getting this current table 2 years ago. trying really hard not to become too protective of my records. especially when i see two of my best friends throw theres on tables they got at thrift stores and never even bother to clean records or replace the stylus in the unit. i think im doing alright for now. thats the good thing about listening to nothing but punk primarily. for the most part the records are $25 or so at most.
 
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