Post Your Needledrops (Part Three)

Those guys are THE BEST. I'm a huge fan of their work.

That said, I have no desire to compete with their work. My drops sound quite good and that's enough for my purposes. I only needledrop to make my favorite LPs mobile - not to replace them (I never pass up an opportunity to spin the actual vinyl when I'm at home).

 

The moment you start trying to compete with Pbthal is the moment you lose the plot and go crazy trying to gain perfection on which he's spent years and thousands of dollars.

I had to learn to relax and decide to be happy with rips that sound good enough to me. And I'm not really there yet; I still feel I get too much IGD.

 

Exactly it, right there. I started needledropping because of what I heard from pbthal's rips. But, I've never tried to compete with them. As long as you are happy with what you hear from your own rip, that's really all that matters. If you try to do what others are doing, you'll drive yourself crazy trying to get the perfect sound. Find the sound that you enjoy the most and go with it, it's that simple.

 

It wasn't that long ago that these guys had the exact, same gear you and I have now. They did move up the chain quite quickly. I'm pretty much using the same class of gear these guys were using just three years ago, and they were still creating fine rips! Do you know why? They have the skill! They have the determination and dedication to get it right. They are OCD about it. I am too.

It isn't always the gear, it's the ear! You have to stop and decide what kind of quality you want. You see, if your standards aren't too high, and you just want to satisfy yourself, you will not get good quality rips. It's a mindset. Treat every rip you do as if you are creating a commercial product. Take pride in your work. be anal about it. Then your rips will improve.

 

This is why this thread is great. It gives you an idea of what others think and you can get some constructive criticism on your own rips. Sometimes you may get a little complacent in what you think sounds good and when someone else hears it, they can point out that there may be too much bass or maybe it's too bright and you can adjust from there. Always good to get other opinions but you also can't go crazy trying to keep up with the guys who are the best at it, just go about it at your own pace.

 

Yes. Go at it with your own pace (and wallet), but there's nothing wrong with a little competition, either. Competition is motivating, it gives one the desire to do better. Do each rip like you're getting paid to do it!

But, if all you want is a quick rip for the commute to work...

 

No, I have to admit I want more than that. I really do want these to sound the best they can.

 

I don't. At least I try hard not to go crazy over it.

My reasoning is that I am definitely a perfectionist and, when it comes to needle drops and vinyl in general, being a perfectionist is probably not the best way to be. Matrix numbers, cleaning, storage, carts, constant tweaking of the turntable, upgrades OMG it can go on forever. I knew this going in as I remember it from when I was a kid, and just reading a short amount of posts here.

My end goal is for it to just sound better than the CD. I constantly keep that in head when flaws crop up (and they do). Or if there's no CD version, I just have to guess if it's good enough to listen to without me obsessing over the flaws. And if I can't get it better than the CD, then the drop is tossed and I have done that on several occasions - a bad pressing can only go so far. Or for something with no CD version, it just has to be playable without being cringe-worthy.

My equipment just isn't that good, either - its low-end / budget and I think I'm already getting pretty the best out of it that I can. So I just keep plugging along - as long as I can play them and enjoy them, then it's all good.

 

I suppose this last remark was in reference to this

It's true, I primarily needledrop as a practical means to an end. For some here, it is a genuine obsession and the activity itself is more the point than the end result. That's fine, and it makes for interesting reading and I respect that - but that's not for everyone, nor is it really essential. That doesn't mean I'm ambivalent about quality, nor should it be taken as ignorance or laziness. My needledrops, to be perfectly frank, sound pretty amazing. I've been doing it fairly regular for over fifteen years now, so I think I know what I'm doing pretty well at this point.

I've downloaded some of your work in this thread, and to be honest you could probably do with a bit more modesty. Decent enough work, but not so good that you're in a place to be talking down to or lecturing others about how they should go about their process. If you've got some tips or experiences to share, please do so. You can keep the condescending remarks.

 

I don't have really great equipment, either, but I obsess with how my drops come out. If I can't do justice to an album, I finish it anyway and archive it as a kind of a placeholder until I can redo it better. I literally just finished a remaster of the B-52s "Mesopotamia" EP.

As a side, I have been thinking I had phase issues. I realized I don't. I have been totally misunderstanding the Spectral Phase Display in Audition. I recall that someone here once told me that if the graph wasn't totally green that it meant the files out of phase. Not true. The colors represent the frequency spectrum and strength. If the white area id on or near zero, it's in phase. If they are at any other point, it's out of phase. The meters were no lying to me. I was right the first time and I believed someone here who was wrong. I should have known better. So, all this time i've been looking for a problem that wasn't there!

 

No, it wasn't at all. I was thinking of those people who always say that they just want a quick rip for the car and that the imperfections don't matter to them.

 

I never said my stuff was great. Did I? No. So, you can keep your condescending remarks to yourself. Have you considered that the music I tend to rip just wasn't recorded that great in the first place?

And, i'll make all the recommendations I want. I've been doing this for the same amount of time you have. I DO know a bit about this stuff.

Doug Sclar and I listened to a couple of my rips on his stereo last year. Unfortunately, he heard the mp3 versions instead of the FLACs by mistake. If he had heard the FLACs, he would have had a different opinion. But, he did have some suggestions and I took them. My drops have improved as a result. I never said my work was great, and I don't brag like you do. And, I don't use a nasty tone with others that you just used with me.

So, if you have nothing constructive to post, you know what to do... I was trying to motivate. What were you doing? Ignore list time.

 

Thanks for the compliments, I can say that the best thing to come out of my "needledropping" has been my falling in love with music all over again. No matter what my equipment profile says, it is about that feeling I get from music now, a feeling I lost when I was listening to remastered CD's, not to start a CD debate, just my feeling. That to me is the best part..connecting with the music

 

You helped bring it back for me, too.

There is nothing like pulling the LP out of the sleeve and placing it on the turntable. And sitting and listening. Nothing.

 

Here's the first 60 seconds of The Beatles' "Baby You're a Rich Man," from my "new" vintage Denon DP-37F turntable.

Stylus: M97xE w/ stock stylus
Pre-amp: Art DJ Pre II set at 200pf
ADC: Sony MDS-JE520
SP/DIF to Sony VAIO VGX-XL2A with Windows 7
Audacity 16/44.1
No click processing

http://www.sendspace.com/file/9s4fty

I've since increased the tracking by .25 of a gram.

 

just curious > What pressing did you rip?

 

Ack! Can't believe I didn't mention it. German Apple, 1973. True stereo side 2.

 

Hi Deadwing,

I meant to get to this yesterday but wound up getting involved with my vintage Denon table. First . . . I only downloaded "Once in a Lifestime" because it's a huge hi-res file, and it took 45 minutes to get it from Rapidshare. It's the full song, and we try to only post 1-minute song samples, since a 1-minute sample is considered fair use and we don't want to get our host in trouble.

That being said, I thought your rip sounded fabulous. Great presence and clarity across the board. I think you're justly proud of it.

 

Yup, as much as I'd like to hear a DL-304, those samples are too big to download, Deadwing.

 

I'm looking for some help with this Rolling Stone Beggars Banquet record. My record is two percent slower than the track times listed on the label. If anyone has perfect pitch or some kind of software or just an opinion, which clip is closer to the correct speed? The first half is recorded 2% fast and matches the track time on the label. The second half is recorded with the turntable running at 33 1/3.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/m0dopk

It seems they had a bunch of stoners working on this record.

 

24/96 FLAC. Nazz - "Open My Eyes" (60 sec sample). From their S/T LP (1968).

AT440Mla cart / SL-3200 TT
Furutech GT40 for the phono stage and ADC / Audioquest Forest USB cable
Audacity (under Ubuntu x64 v12.04) to FLAC.
ClickRepair 25 25 Reverse Wavelet x3

I think the sub-par quality is the LP itself. I think. Love the "I Can't Explain"-eque opening...

 

I've never been able to find a good sounding copy of that LP, so maybe it just doesn't exist. Anyway, here is the same thing off of the 45. Its a much better mix, but the single is pretty beat up. I dropped this a long time ago on the Dual 1219 using a Shure M-44 since it does the best job on beat up 45s. The phasing is amazing on the single mix.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/xieexk

 

Mono mix. And I see you actually did a minute ten like I did -- had to get the phasing in there. Yep, I like this mix too.

I wonder if there's a mono version of the LP? hmmmm..... EDIT: Nope. Just two songs have true mono mixes (found an old thread on this forum about that).

 

Here's a gem: a beautifully near-mint copy of Jethro Tull's This Was, the 1970 edition on the Island palm tree label. This sample contains the first minute of each song on side 1. I've tossed it up so any Tull experts reading my thread in the Music forum can listen to a representative sample and see if they can discern any differences between these mixes and others.

My Sunday Feeling / Someday the Sun Won't Shine for You / Beggar's Farm / Move On Alone / Serenade to a Cuckoo

Turntable: Denon DP-37F turntable.
Stylus: M97xE w/ stock stylus
Pre-amp: Art DJ Pre II set at 200pf
ADC: Sony MDS-JE520
SP/DIF to Sony VAIO VGX-XL2A with Windows 7
Audacity 16/44.1
Click Repair level 8, reverse, simple.

 

Hello,

Here is a sample of an album I literally just finished dropping. The track is the second one from the Whispers album "This Kind Of Lovin'" Solar BXL1 3976-A. It was mastered by Wally Traugott at Capitol Records in Los Angeles, as were all of Solar's Records in the early 80s.

http://db.tt/6vbpbO8b

This album has been mastered and archived by me already, and it is the final 16-bit version. I did not feel the album was important enough for me to keep a hi-rez copy of it.

Most of you will not have the album or be familiar with the music. But, if anyone does, please listen to this finished and archived needledrop and compare. The frequency response is pretty much flat from about 2,000 kHz to 16,000 kHz. I used very little NR, so little that there is still tape hiss on the track, and it is very audible.

I post this because a certain forum member has said that my drops don't sound good, even though I use good decent equipment and software. My main point is that if anyone has a problem with my drops, it is because I typically do used records, and ones that, frankly, just weren't recorded, mixed, or mastered so great. With the kind of music I want to preserve, I can't always get world-class recordings, and audiophile pressings on 180 gram virgin vinyl. It will never happen. The only thing this recording has is that it was mastered by a top mastering house by a renowned mastering engineer that is respected on this forum. My drop reflects the sound of the vinyl.

Comments?