The posting I made kicking off this issue was written primarily for 
institutions with substantial LP collections facing disaster recovery 
situations.  Financial and time resources are always limited after such 
events.  Highest audio quality is a minor issue as compared with repertory 
coverage.  Recordings affecting the institutional mission take precedence. 
After that, in many cases, that involves teaching, in the case of learning 
institutions, local history with many public libraries, and oral histories 
with religious institutions.  Priorities related to commitments to donors 
will be an issue in some cases.

Private collectors are more concerned with dollar values of individual items 
than most institutions are.  And insurance is structured differently for 
private individuals.  It's a different game.

Steve Smolian


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Fine" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, September 30, 2005 7:18 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Disaster recovery- LPs


> By the way, regarding Karl's first point about removing ticks and pops -- 
> absolutely true. For my personal listening, I don't even bother with
> anything beyond moderately damaged LPs. My personal bugaboo is groove
> distortion caused by tracking with a dull or too heavy needle (ie a
> drop-and-drag record changer of yore). I don't even bother with those,
> because they cannot be made to sound good. Teeth-rattling distortion is 
> not
> fixable. Ticks and pops are another story. I believe the first and 
> foremost
> line of defense is proper cleaning of the disc. Then, after the transfer, 
> I
> go in and manually fix the worst pops and ticks. I can't afford SADIE and
> all the plug-in digi-filters I've experimented with (admittedly not the
> expensive ones) take out too much content for my liking. In Soundforge, I
> use the pencil tool to simply rewrite the pops and ticks as part of the
> intended waveform (I have other tricks but those are my secret sauce).
> People with very critical ears have liked the results. I don't do this
> except for the big problems. A little surface noise and occasional 
> pop/tick
> is a fact of life with LPs and if the content is compelling, even a 
> careful
> listener will not be bothered by it (if the content's not that compelling,
> why bother with the PITA factor involved anyway?).
>
> -- Tom Fine
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Karl Miller" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, September 30, 2005 9:18 AM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Disaster recovery- LPs
>
>
>> On Fri, 30 Sep 2005, Tom Fine wrote:
>>
>> > One final thought. People who are used to CD's lack of background noise
> and
>> > are critical listeners who are bothered by things like rumble, ticks 
>> > and
>> > pops to the point of not enjoying the content will NEVER like ANY LP, 
>> > so
>> > it's a fool's errand to try and "convert" them. I personally do not 
>> > like
> LPs
>> > very much but a lot of content I like was never released on CD's or was
> so
>> > poorly remastered that the LP sounds better, warts and all.
>>
>> To which I would add, in my limited experience, taking the noise (clicks
>> et al) from an LP can sometimes be quite a challenge. However, once done,
>> I find there can be some wonderful sound in those grooves. I am reminded
>> of a demo I did in one of my classes. We listened to the opening of the
>> Bernstein Kaddish (Columbia LP). The work begins with the chorus singing
>> pianissimo. As we removed the clicks, crackles, and then some of the 
>> hiss,
>> we could actually hear the entrance of the chorus at the beginning.
>>
>> Speaking of LPs that have never made it to CD, does anyone know if the
>> original tapes for the MGM Classical issues survive...and/or a contact?
>>
>> Karl
>
>
> -- 
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