Some Vinyl Oldies

I got a new record player, and it's called an American Audio TT Record.

It plays records like normal but it's also got a USB plug in and copies a record (LP or 45) directly to an MP3 file. Then you plug the memory stick into your computer and you can do what you want with the files.

I got it yesterday and have done a number of tracks, including a five-LP set of oldies from the '60s (for the most part). Fairly short albums since it was 52 tracks all together. They sounded pretty good since the records were in very nice condition.

Today I did several 45s, getting some B sides off of some of them, since for a lot of A sides I have a CD track. However, many of the oldies off the five-LP set were ones I have on CD, but I had different thoughts about it yesterday. At this point I'm seeing it as time consuming when they're clearly the same songs. Another however: There's kind of a charm in hearing even a tiny bit of surface noise back there.

For a lot of these I was running them through another program to cut them into tracks with quiet beginnings and endings. Then all the tagging. This stuff becomes time consuming. So for the one I did today, for the most part, I just recorded them directly and skipped worrying about the beginnings and endings. That cut down some time. Also if you forget taking pops and clicks out, unless they're extremely egregious, that saves time.

The record player has limited controls. One button stops the turntable spinning, instantly. That's nice. One button is the record button and you push it again to stop recording. I can't give a full review, but I've been thinking about it. I think it'd sure be nice to have a remote for this, so I'm not always pushing buttons right on the thing. Because some little bit of sound is picked up when you touch it.

It doesn't have any controls for changing the kbps. I saw it was 192-256 in the place I bought it, Amazon. But when I started using it I was wondering how I was supposed to get 256. It turns out you need to go to their website and download a 256 update, which you install by plugging it in the USB port. They have instructions. The player comes with a USB memory stick, which for some unknown reason would not work to do the update. It just sat there stuck in some kind of flashing light loop. But I tried a different memory source, a flash card for my camera, and it updated in about five seconds. This whole process, taking a half hour, caused me some anxiety, but I was glad when it was accomplished.

I have another source of anxiety, which is the skipping record. The first album I tried skipped like a schoolgirl. And I thought, Oh no. But everything else has been pretty good. Some skips, of course, but I believe it's the record's fault. Because some of my records skipped in the same places on my old record player. But on this one it makes it through most of the bad places.

Still, if you're not monitoring it fairly faithfully, one can slip by. And you'll discover it on your iPod somewhere down the line.

I was ambitious and wanted to record my vinyl copy of Hendrix's "Electric Ladyland." I have one that looks beat, the cover, like it's had water damage and I don't know what all. It looks like it's been through several gang fights. But the records are somehow in pretty clean, very clean condition. I listened to it a couple times late last year or around January on my old record player and it didn't skip, which I expected it to.

So today I started it, recording whole sides rather than sitting there trying to parse it out into tracks. (It does make some small noise when you're trying to do that.) I did Side A, then Side D, then Side B, and it skipped right at the beginning of Side B. I picked it up and examined it and didn't see anything, kind of rubbed the spot lightly. Then tried it again with the recording function off, and it made it through. So I recorded it, without further incident. (I still might be surprised down the road, because I left the room a few times, once for close to four or five minutes, so I have no way of knowing yet if the whole thing made it.)

When listening to this LP earlier on, though, it sounded better than the CD, like grainier in a nice way. So I now have it on my iPod, not spaced in tracks, but as four LP sides. I listened to Side C, my favorite, and it sounded great. Rich, with a few charming bits of surface noise, including a few tiny crackles toward the end. No skips though.

I'm happy with the record player so far.