Does anyone out there know of any ways to get the dirt out records? I have been given a whole heap to copy onto cd but some of them really need cleaning and my usual method of windex and a lint free cloth doesn't get all of it.
Just don't put them in the dishwasher.
You'll need to flood them with a lot of water & mild soap, like baby shampoo, rubbing if necessary with a product like this:
Joe's suggestion is the common one; I haven't had a lot of luck with it. Give it a shot and see what happens.
What method are you using to digitize them? If you use something like Goldwave and record them and then CD them, Goldwave has a hiss and pop filter that actually works quite well.
Audacity is another good choice, but GW has a better filter for old records.
Don't use window cleaner since the blue dye leaves a solid residue. Use dishwashing liquid and warm (not hot) water, and rinse with distilled.
I use Sony sound forge 8 to digitize it, it has a audio restoration tool. But I prefer to start with as clean a sound as possible to make it a bit easier.
I've heard that a mild solution of Dawn dishwashing detergent is about as good as you can get. Warm, not hot water and a quick rinse (don't know if distilled water is necessary, if you don't have a lot of alkali in the tap water, and dry them gently. When I was transferring some really tacky LPs to CD, I used to flood the surface of the record with clean water and let the stylus plow through the water as it played, and it seemed to mute some of the scratchiness (not actual ticks though). But you can do most of this electronically with an editing program. For editing, I use Cool Edit 2.0, which I like a little better than Sound Forge. If you have bad ticks, they show up graphically on the image of the sound, and you can snip them out without hurting the music. If you spend the time to learn it you can even take a phrase with a bad spot, find out if the music has another exact same phrase in it, and replace the bad phrase with its replacement, fitting it in its place exactly! It's fun.
Nick Bourne wrote in news:4851decc$1 @dnews.tpgi.com.au:
Non-chlorinated spray brake cleaner. The stuff is amazingly effective. Don't put the nozzle on the spray head.
DAMN! A heavy hitter!
When we made a CD last year, the studio was using Sound Forge.
YIKES!!! NO!!!
I wouldn't bet on all non-chlorinated brake cleaners being made of the same chemicals, and some spray cleaners, even one that was made especially for records, can dissolve vinyl records just enough to cause audible defects. The only safe chemicals for vinyl records are water, hand dishwashing (automatic dishwasher detergent can be very alkaline), and isopropyl or ethyl alcohol.
Yeah, I had the same reaction, my chemistry spider sense went all tingly at that to.
yeah well I prefer to be the one taking the gun to the knife fight.
"larry moe 'n curly" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@r37g2000prm.googlegroups.com:
This panicked response to my post prompts me to test my suggestion myself in a more-or-less, somewhat scientific manner.
The guinea pigs: I) A Jane Siberry 45 record from 1984. It has "Mimi on the Beach" on the "A" side, and "Dancing Class" on the "B" side. It was quite dusty. II) An Asia 45 from 1982. This has "Only Time will Tell" on the "A", and "Time Again" on the "B". It too is very dusty. Neither have been played since the late '80s, and I have both "A" songs on CD anyway, so if I wreck the records, I don't much care.
The cleaner: "Certified" brand non-chlorinated brake cleaner as sold by Canadian Tire in Canada. This potion contains hexane, isopropanol (that's isopropyl, you know) and carbon dioxide. I assume the CO2 is the propellant, with the other two being active ingredients. Cannot find an MSDS.
The method: Take records out of sleeve, find most polluted section, take photographs with Olympus digital camera though microscope. For this experiment, microscope is equipped with 6x element up top, and 10x elememt below. Lighting is provided obliquely by hand-held fluorescent garage lamp. Mark section photographed by making index scratch at record perimeter, so as to re-locate to microscope bed after cleaning. Take Asia record to back yard and shoot with brake cleaner. Take Siberry record to kitchen and wash as if it were a dish. Wave both vigorously by hand in attempt to displace/dry as much moisture as possible. No drying by cloth or paper, to minimize particulate contamination.
The conclusion: Neither brake cleaner nor water seemed to have any effect of any kind on erosion, softness or scratchability of record surface. An abrasive device (my fingernail) applied as consistently as possible to all three surfaces effected identical scars. There appeared after several tests to be somewhat less dirt present on the hand-washed/air-dried sections of record than there were on the brake-cleaner cleaned sections of the records. Neither brake cleaner nor water damaged the records during brief exposure to those solvents.
Surprising discovery: It was difficult to find sections of the records that actually had any dirt at all IN THE GROOVES. Just about ALL the dirt was either on the surface of the vinyl, or it was in the lead-in grooves at the perimeter of the record. In fact, the lead-in grooves had pretty much ALL of the embedded dirt. My microscopic observation is that most of the dirt particles were simply too big to fit in the grooves.
Photos are here:
LOL! That's for sure!
This was a BIG mistake! ;)
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