New Vinyl Getting Skips

[waxcylinder]

And lubricate the bearings.

Do this lightly with a very light machine oil - I use sewing machine oil.

WC

[prosser99]

Ok Steve, Wax, and Whomper. Thanks for your help. I'm going to get a new pre-amp, vintage amp, and cartridge. That should give me plenty of sound quality. It will also give me the chance to hear the music through a basic tt - amp - speaker set up. You guys run a good forum here. Quick and useful responses. Prosser99

[waxcylinder]

... I'm going to get a new pre-amp, vintage amp, and cartridge. ...

A vintage amp could well have a phono pre-amp stage in it already - so check before you buy a pre-amp.

WC

[prosser99]

The Skips were caused by the USB TT cheap, half-sized platter. When I put my new vinyl on my old marantz TT there were no skips. Thanks for everybody's help on this. For recording, I'm going to try the TT through pre amp through sound card. Prosser99

[waxcylinder]

The Skips were caused by the USB TT cheap, half-sized platter. When I put my new vinyl on my old marantz TT there were no skips.

What you don't get on these real el-cheapo decks is what is known as "anti-skating".

On any deck the arm has a tendency to move into the centre of the record - if this physical tendency is not checked then the arm and the cartridge/stylus will jump and skate towards the centre (giving you your skipping). See this Wikipedia articel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph#Arm_systems

More expensive TTs have an "anti-skate" device - my SME arm for instance has a little metal arm with a pully and a small weight and an adjustable prrong where the weight's nylon thread is attache dto the arm - looks cute and works a treat, a nice piece of engineering.

Glad the the Marantz works well for you - you are likely to get much better recordings with the setup you are now proposing

WC

[prosser99]

Wax - I bought the Artcessories DJ pre amp and set it up. I went TT to pre amp to sound card to lap top. The sound was good but I didn't get stereo. Then I tried to go TT - receiver (which has some issues) - pre amp - sound card - lap top. I didn't get stereo either and, got very little volume. Any ideas? How high should I set the gain trim? Thanks for your help. Prosser

[waxcylinder]

Wax - I bought the Artcessories DJ pre amp and set it up. I went TT to pre amp to sound card to lap top. The sound was good but I didn't get stereo. Then I tried to go TT - receiver (which has some issues) - pre amp - sound card - lap top. I didn't get stereo either

well it's definitely a stereo device - it has two RCA outputs one white and one red. And I definitely get stereo out of mine. Are you sure your cartridge is wired correctly? And when you say you don't get stereo what do you mean exactly: you only get one channel in Audacity , or both channels are the same, or ... ? Can you describe the symptons for us.

... got very little volume. Any ideas? How high should I set the gain trim? Thanks for your help.

With mine I normally have it set between -4 and -2 (i.e on the left if the dial) its' on -4 at the moment as I was doing 45's yesterday. Anything much above -2 seems to push any vinyl into the red-light zone of the DEJ-Pre (hardware clipping).

WC

[prosser99]

WC - When I say there was no stereo I meant I had none in my head phones or Audacity. I'll check the needle. I did remove it the other day. I might not have re-installed it correctly. (I'm thinking of upgrading it to.) Regarding the gain trim, I couldn't get enough volume unless I set it all the way to the positive. Once I get the stereo problem figured out, I'll try your setting. But I want plenty of volume when I record my vinyl. The preamp definitely produces quality sound. My brand new vinyl copy of Who's Next has never sounded so good. Prosser

[waxcylinder]

WC - When I say there was no stereo I meant I had none in my head phones or Audacity.

Do you mean no sound, - or no blue waveforms in Audacity?

Regarding the gain trim, I couldn't get enough volume unless I set it all the way to the positive.

The amount of gain you will need to apply in your case will depend on the signal level that your cartridge is delivering - "your mileage may vary ..."

But I want plenty of volume when I record my vinyl.

Provided you have a good clean signal with a low noise floor and you get the Audacity waveform up to half-way (if you are using linear scale) or -6dB (for dB scale) - then you can alwways pump up the volume afterwards with the Amplify effect. I normally take mine up to -1dB.

The preamp definitely produces quality sound. My brand new vinyl copy of Who's Next has never sounded so good.

Glad you like the sound - I am certainly pleased with mine - plus there is another poster who has just bought the ART intgrated pre-amp and soundcard (see this long thread: http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 27&t=22109), initial tests sound good.

WC

[prosser99]

WC - I played with the RCA cables and now I'm getting stereo through my head phones but no Audacity. Maybe I have to configure the pre-amp to take stereo on the lap top? On Audacity I'm getting a very narrow blue line. But that's after I've set the gain trim to -2. When I crank the gain trim I get a very large blue line.