Audio Digitization workshop presentation 20150616

Audio Digitization and Preservation

John D. Lund 2015

Here is what we are going to do:

The basic umbrella of audio preservation

Focus on audio cassettes and lps (vinyl records)

Equipment and maintenance

Digitization

Resources


Temperature and Humidity

No more than 5% fluctuation within a 24 hr period+-


Sunlight (UV) and Heat

Thus far vinyl (lps) have proven to be the most stable of materials used in the manufacture of sound records.

However, that does not mean they are not affected by environmental conditions such as ultraviolet light and heat.

Vinyl discs are made primarily of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) with a stabilizer. The stabilizer prevents degradation for several decades however PVCs are inherently unstable.


Sunlight (UV) and Heat

Similarly, magnetic tape is affected by ultraviolet light, the tape will begin to degrade when exposed to UV.

Heat


Caring for your Vinyl

Remove any remaining shrink wrap. Shrink wrap will continue to shrink over time warping the record.

Do not stack your vinyl horizontally (flat): The weight of the records on top of one another can

exert pressure on the grooves and cause sound distortion.

Letting your records lean will cause the vinyl to warp.

Vertical storage exerts the minimum amount of stress possible.

Do not interfile records of different sizes: Smaller records may get damaged Larger records may be subjected to uneven pressure

causing surface deformations.



Do not store your vinyl records squeezed together. The additional pressure on the vinyl will lead to sound distortion and surface warping.

Keep your vinyl collection free of dust and other foreign deposits.

Wash your hands before touching the discs and avoid touching the playing surface.



When cleaning the surface of your records use a proper cleaning brush, i.e., carbon fibre brush.

Recommend Storing in polyethylene dust jacket and insert to reduce wear on record cover and record.

- Source: http://www.franksautographs.com/VINYL-RECORDS-PRESERVATION.html


Caring for your Audio Cassettes http://www.buzzfeed.com/perpetua/11-cool-things-made-from-old-cass

ettes


Caring for your Audio Cassettes Storage:

Fast-forward and rewind the tapes before storage- make sure that the tapes are correctly wound evenly and smoothly.

Store all tapes vertically in acid free boxes. Do not store on wood shelving, in a basement or attic.

Environment: Keep cassettes in a cool, dry, dust-free environment. Store away from direct sun & fluorescent light. Do not store near combustibles like wood or

cardboard.

Handling: Have clean hands and a dust free working area. Do not touch playing surfaces; handle the cassette

tapes by their outer casings.


Caring for your Audio Cassettes

Handling cont’d: Do not operate or store cassette tapes near high

magnetic fields or high vibrations.

Cleaning: Clean equipment (tape heads, guides, etc.) often and

thoroughly with isopropyl alcohol and cotton swabs.

Precautions: Fast forward to the end and back to relieve stress

before playing. Push out the small squares found at the top corners

of cassette tapes to prevent taping over the content.


Caring for your Audio Cassettes

Precautions cont’d: Play tapes through every few years to check their

condition and to minimize any sticky shed symptoms (tendency for the layers to stick together).

Tape recorders: Clean the heads every 100 hours to demagnetize

them. After 1000 hours of use have the recorder checked

for worn guides, worn heads, and proper tension. Tapes being “eaten,” arise when tape recorders

create poor tape guiding, speed variations, and poor tension.Source: Preserving Your Sound Recordings, Amy Kohlstedt and Sara Doyle,

for the Iowa Conservation and Preservation Consortiumhttp://www.iowaconserveandpreserve.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/AudioTipSheet.pdf


Repair & Maintenance

Let’s look at some available online resources, Note: Not all online help is equal, some is worse than

others.

Cleaning a cassette deck / tape recorder:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2LQr63X7lk



Splice & Repair

Tape Centre: www.tapecenter.com

Splicit: www.splicit.com



How to splice tape (1 min in): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaKBBZzU1zg

How to fix a cassette when tape broken off spool: http://www.dvdyourmemories.com/blog/how-to-fix-an

-audio-cassette-audio-cassette-repair-guide/

What’s wrong here?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oglmVcLIYK0

http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_6328625_repair-music-cassette-tapes.html



The Pros:

Richard Hess provides services for the restoration of magnetic tape (Reel to Reel, etc), (Toronto): ww.richardhess.com.

Graham Newton provides a full range of audio analogue transfer to digital services, www.audio-restoration.com. (Don Mills, Ontario)

For video, Kim Tomczak at V-tape: www.vtape.org (Toronto)

Ray Cook at Transit-Audio – www.skylightstudios.ca – for video and audio. (Toronto)


Scrub a dub dubGet your vinyl spic and span clean

Discwasher D4

In the GrooveNagaoka CL-152

Nitty Gritty VPI

Spin Clean

ClearAudio Dble Matrix Pro


Scrub a dub dub

So many options, here are some prices: Wood Glue, $8.00 In the Groove, $19.99 Nagaoka, $89.99 Spin Clean, Starter: $79.99, Full Kit: $124.99 Nitty Gritty, entry level: $399.00 VPI, $650.00 (Bundle: $800.00) ClearAudio, $3,999.00 Do it yourself – price varies

But what is the best option, the safe option?


Scrub a dub dub Since dust is usually held in place by electrostatic

attraction, dry wiping does not work effectively. Wiping will attract dust back to the surface.

Distilled water is commonly used because: Its precise chemical composition is known, It will not leave deposits behind, It is safe and non-toxic, It is inexpensive, It disperses static charges and counteracts the increase in

conductivity from the pick-up of salt deposits from finger prints.


Scrub a dub dub Water alone cannot, however, dissolve grease:

A surfacant additive is necessary, therefore, to break the grease surface bonds and to allow the water to penetrate and disperse the grease.

Discs are best cleaned by using a machine such as the Keith Monks, VPI or Nitty Gritty using a surfacant in distilled water. These machines evenly disperse the liquid over the surface of the disc and then vacuum clean the surface leaving it clean and dry. Records should be cleaned before each playback.

An airgun or aerosol of compressed air should be kept handy to blow light dust off surfaces.

Audiophiles favour carbon fibre brush before playing record.

Source: Audiovisual Archives: A Practical Reader, UNESCO: 1997


Digitization The purpose of digitization is to provide accessibility to

information found on old formats that are no longer easily accessible.

Digitization may be used as a backup to the original.

Digitization may be used to clean up audio and restore.

Digitization may be used as a conservation tool when the original format is of threat of degrading until no longer useable.

Digitization is not a replacement tool.

Do not get rid of your originals, especially if they are one of a kind and not a commercial release.


Digitization - Equipment Vinyl:

Turntable, preferably manual

Receiver with a phono input, or

Receiver and a preamp or

preamp (alt integrated preamp)

Audio jack to RCA Male cable Or Creative Sound Blaster

X-Fi Titanium PCI-E Sound Card

Cassette:

Cassette Tape Player

Receiver

Audio jack to RCA Male cable Or Creative Sound Blaster X-

Fi Titanium PCI-E Sound Card


Receivers

Used vs New

Onkyo TX-NR626 - $489.99

Used vs NewUsed Receiver $35.00 - $150.00


Preamps and Cable

Canada Computers: Behringer PP400$34.00

avshop.ca: Rolls VP29 Phono Preamp($77.00)

Available at The Source1.8M (6’) 3.5mm stereo male plug to two male RCA plugs$21.99


Integrated Amplifier

An integrated amplifier (pre/main amp) is an electronic device containing an audio preamplifier and power amplifier in one unit, as opposed to separating the two. Most modern audio amplifiers are integrated and have several inputs for devices such as CD players, DVD players, and auxiliary sources.

Integrated amplifiers commonly had dedicated inputs for turntables, AM/FM tuner, and tape recorders (cassette or reel-to-reel) back when those devices were more common. Except for the turntable, all of the inputs are line level, thus they are interchangeable.

The turntable also uses RIAA equalization.- Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_amplifier


Turntables & Cassette Players Turntables (preferably manual turntable)

Used should be able to get a good quality turntable for $150 or under.

New, introductory audiophile $350 - $400, under this price mark and quality is an issue.

The sky is the limit on what an audiophile will pay for a turntable.

USB turntables general rule of thumb are low quality.


Turntables & Cassette Players Cassette Deck

Yes, a new deck is possible:

TEAC W-890R http://audio.teac.com/product/w-890r/

at B&H - $250.00 – TEAC W-890RMKII

Used, anywhere from $25.00 to $100.00 - However they often come with a great need of

cleaning.


Hardware & Software Audacity

“Audacity is a free, easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems.”

It is Open Source Software It is relatively easy to learn how to use A reliable source to download from is Sourceforge:

- http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/



Hardware & Software


Hardware & Software

Some basic Audacity functions: Playing Recording Noise Reduction Click Removal Selecting a recorded segment Methods of copying and deleting Fade in / Fade out And …


Hardware & Software

Hardware & Software Pro Tools 11 / mbox 3rd gen Pro Tools and the mbox are a software

hardware combination that constitute a professional digital audio workstation for recording and editing in music production, film scoring, post production, musical notation and MIDI sequencing.

Yes that is a mouthful. Mbox intro demo


Questions?

Questions?

Art & Photos

Audio Digitization workshop presentation 20150616