phbart
11-25-2015, 01:05 PM
Okay, so like title says, this is just a test for a vinyl transfer I made when I received my turntable a few months ago. I intend to open a thread on a future occasion regarding my very modest vinyl collection (basically Spielberg/Williams and Star Wars albuns).
This was never released on CD. "Hey, what about the 2010 FSM release? It has the LP program on CD2." Yes, but it's reconstructed from the remastered source they used for the complete release on CD1, which was sourced from analog tape. The vinyl was sourced from the digital recordings. I don't know how we can compare an analog vinyl transfer that used a digital master as source with a CD rip that used an analog master tape as source, but I can say I like this vinyl better (please, read the fourth paragraph about the vinyl used for this transfer)
Today I did some upgrades on my turntable and got a new PC soundcard, but when I made this transfer I used the turntable as it came, plus the onboard sound from my PC (Realtek ALC-888B). I upgraded the belt (ViVid belt, which gives better torque), the stylus (custom made, highly polished 0.3 x 0.7 mil Special Elliptical diamond), soundcard (ASUS Xonar DX with 192kHz/24bit recording capabilities in ASIO mode). The turntable is the Audio Technica AT-LP 60 non-USB version, fully automatic with built-in pre-amp (you can bypass the built-in pre-amp and use you own pre-amp). This is a great turntable, but since it's made for people with little vinyl experience, it's not upgradable, except for the two parts I mentioned above and the use of an external pre-amp. Still, for my future threads, we might expect improvements.
The vinyl used for this transfer is a brazilian pressing that a very good friend of mine from there sent me (along with some other stuff). The vinyl was not in very good shape, scratched and extremely dirty. So I didn't expect much from the sound quality. I tried to take some photos with my cell phone, but it didn't really show how bad it was (damn you, Samsung!). However, after a few good lessons of vinyl cleaning, I was simply blown away on how good it sounded! Of course, there are some clicks and pops here and there, but all the noise is gone. Like magic! I couldn't believe how a fucked up vinyl like this could sound this good, given the circumstances. This made me ponder about the indiscriminate use of post-processing stuff like click and pop remove (which I abominate) against a good and careful phisycal cleaning of your vinyl. Oh, and by the way, I got ahold of a mint US pressing vinyl... so, the source was upgraded as well.
About this transfer, I used Cool Edit Pro 2.1. Since I used the onboard sound for recording, this now ancient software is perfectbly suitable. But since my new soundboard is ASIO compatible, I had to upgrade to Adobe Auditon, as Cool Edit can't handle ASIO. As far as audio manipulation and tweaking, I did none of those (no click and pop removal, no EQ and no normalization). Other than splitting the tracks, this is a pure and straight transfer. Even the line-in volume level was adjusted before I recorded. I did that by playing the loudest passage of each side (I know this soundtrack by heart, so I knew exactly where the loudest passages were :) ) and I set the volume accordingly so it did not exceed the limit.
I hope you all enjoy this test, as my future vinyl threads will already benefit from the upgrades I mentioned above.
Tracklist:
SIDE A
1. Carol Ann's Theme (03:29)
2. Night Visitor (07:28)
3. Escape From Suburbia (06:18)
4. The Light (02:03)
SIDE B
1. The Neighborhood - Day (02:12)
2. Night Of The Beast (02:16)
3. Twisted Abduction (06:14)
4. Rebirth (08:17)
MEGA:
https://mega.nz/#!PZlllaJR!YprwfTaGvtXtHhgBFWb1HSYv1fNR00yfaoigc8a8Grc