Another project started

[jducoeur]

Among the things we have taking up Far Too Much Space are a considerable number of LPs that aren't doing anything useful. We haven't actually played an LP in at least five years, so I haven't bothered to hook a record player up to either stereo system.

That said, we still own a fair number of records that I do *like*, many of which we don't yet have on CD. Worse, a decent number of them probably don't exist on CD, and in many cases never will. I mean, my very favorite children's album, "Fly, Hippopotamus, Fly", is so obscure that Google will not admit that either the album or singer even exist. So I've hooked up both a record player and cassette deck to the computer, specifically so we can take all of this stuff in less-useful formats and digitize it. (And perhaps then get rid of the LPs.)

One of today's projects was to prove that was working. It's a good thing I did that before we put the spare record players into the attic, because I found that, while the linear tracking turntable I got (years ago) from antoniseb works very nicely in most respects, it won't quite finish the album. It plays about 90% of the way through the record, and then stops -- the linear tracking won't track any further, no way, no how. So that makes two turntables we have going begging to anyone handy who would like to take them and fix them. (The other appears to have a broken grounding cable, based on the hum.) Just for once, though, being a packrat pays off -- we still have two intact turntables, so finding that two are damaged is no great tragedy.

Anyway, to start off I decided to rip something that was (a) pretty damned obscure, and (b) still in very good condition. So I now have a CD of Songs of Electronic Despair by The Android Sisters, certainly one of the weirdest discs I own. I am strangely fond of that album, especially such deathless tracks as "Macho Robot" (aka "The Banana Trilogy"), and "Invasion"...

Comments

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Just for once, though, being a packrat pays off -- we still have two intact turntables, so finding that two are damaged is no great tragedy.

Am I reading this correctly? You have four functioning turntables, in various states of disrepair? ...

[tpau]

omg, you suceeded at this? i have a box of records that i desperatly want on mp3, any chance i couldat some point borrow yoru setup?

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

The Android Sisters do have a "Best of" CD in print, that contains at least most of the contents of SoED.

(Contemplating my own stack of vinyl...)

[laurion]

As a christmas gift to asdr83's parents I helped her set up her old laptop to record audio from her parent's records and clean it up with Audacity, then dump to CD. I remember doing something similar with some cassette tapes about 7 years ago. It's important to convert some of that older material, both because there's no sense buying it twice, and because, as you point out, there's some of it that just *can't be found* anymore. It made an excellent gift to see her mother's face when we started playing her old 'Artichokes' album on CD...