Force EQ

[kozikowski]

I wonder what that's going to sound like.

The original problem is caused by an electrical equalizer and it's going to have different phase and group delays that the digital one isn't. Yes, I know this is going to be one of those 'some people hear it and some don't' problems, and the comparison tools will certainly help, but the poster is worrying about the wear between the first and second playings of a vinyl record, so we're not talking about gentle averaging errors. We're talking about making all the errors vanish.

Koz

[samspots]

Then lies the question:

Which is greater, the minor loss in quality with the vinyl, or the possible not-good-enough-ness of the spectral stuff...

By the way, when I labeled this "Force EQ", an equalizer that automatically makes frequencies the levels you set them to rather than relative to their previous values; for some reason I thought that would be what I needed. It might make a cool dual functionality of the spectrum thing, but it would probably bring out noise in places where there are not too many other things, and re-introduce subsonic trash if I'm not careful.

P.S. If you read the thing on me not knowing how to clean vinyl, that was the routine that my dad suggested I use, mostly.

[kozikowski]

There's the rule of recording it right the first time because you can't actually fix this stuff in post production. You can glue patches on it, wire some of the bits back on and wrap rags around some of the more gaping wounds, but you can't ever get back to zero. I am without question in the record it again camp.

And I wouldn't do it with that record. Choose another record and take it through the whole process beginning to end. Write down the errors and fix problems. Then, when you have the pipeline stable and predictable, transfer the real thing. If you don't have any ratty records, go out and buy one at a garage sale.

Koz

[samspots]

Good advice.

I'll try ripping some of my stuff so old it doesn't matter how many times its been played.

[kozikowski]

so old it doesn't matter how many times its been played.

Yes, but remember there is still that "letting vinyl rest" thing. It takes a vinyl record an hour or more to recover from the stress of having been played once. We are talking about dragging a diamond knife over plastic

Also, much has been written about removing vinyl noise.

http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=1994

Koz