I eventually switched to compact disks, but could not afford to replace the entire record collection, so I maintained both collections and working turntable and compact disk players. As the years went by I played my records less and less, and even ripped all the compact disks into my computer for convenience. Many of my record albums are now replaced with compact disks now.

There are a few records that I keep because they sound better than a compact disk. There are very few of these, but they are special. It requires a really good moving coil cartridge and high quality preamplifier to get this spectacular sound, but I am proud to own a few.

There are many records that I keep because the labels have never printed a compact disk version of the album, or they did so, but for a short run and it is now out of print and impossible to find.

For these, I thought I would get around to digitizing them some day, and then I kept putting it off.
My Mom has re-prioritized this for me, and I love her for it. She had a few records she could not find on compact disk and she wanted them “turned into CDs” but knew one of her two computer geek sons could do this… and the first batch included some old Christmas albums she (and my brother and I) grew up with. Now I have a mission and a deadline… and set to work.

I ran into several road blocks. Converting the entire CD library over to computer files has been so convenient for me that I had not even used the plain old stereo gear in ages. The CD player, the cassette deck, and the turntable were all dusty and not working. I could not even find the phonograph cartridge I packed away so it would not get damaged in the last household move. A long weekend, and some time wrestling dust bunnies (are they still bunnies when they can swallow you whole?) and I am happy to report the gear is mostly working again. The cassette deck and CD player (both vintage late-1980s Technics) are once again working and sound fantastic. I forgot that MP3 is a convenient compromise that really does NOT sound as good as CD or even tape.

I found the cartridge, a Yamaha MC-705, and it’s replacement, a fantastic Denon D-110; I spent a few hours trying to adjust the tonearm on my Yamaha PX-3 turntable, and could not get it to work. Something is preventing the arm actuators from sensing when it needs to move, and the belt for the linear tracking arm is slipping. Service manuals and repair kit are now on order.

In the meantime, I wanted an even quieter belt drive turntable to record from, so I ordered a Denon DP300F with Ortofon 2M Red cartridge from NeedleDoctor.com and it came in just a couple of days. I did not really need the new cartridge, but I wanted to hear a different take and have a backup. I disabled the preamplifier that is inside the turntable, as my vintage Onkyo Integra P-308 has a vastly better preamplifier, plugged everything in and adjusted the tonearm in about an hour and started playing records and was immediately impressed with the quality of the sound.

For years I have used a Roland Edirol UA-1EX USB audio interface to connect my Mac Mini to my vintage Yamaha R-9 receiver (the main amp in my house). The Edirol can import and export sound, I had just never used the import function before now.
I plugged the tape out connectors on my preamplifier into the inputs on the Edirol, and fired up Audacity (free, open source sound file editor and converter for Linux, Mac, Windows, others) and was pleased to discover that the sound was already being “heard” on my Mac Mini. Simply press the “record” button and it began sampling direct to my hard drive. I had no idea how easy this would be. The hard part is getting a turntable working and balanced again.

I tackled “Jimmy Dean’s Christmas Card” (1965 Album) first for my Mom. I recorded each track by playing them one at a time, then pressing record and stop in Audacity. I then cleaned up the tracks a little (I must learn more about this part) and saved the AIFF files for each song, tagged and marked appropriately. I have modified this method now, and record a whole album side into Audacity, save the project, then cut up the project into individual song tracks as needed (it’s faster this way).

I copied the files into an iTunes playlist and burned my first audio CD album, then burned a label.
I enjoyed many fond memories while listening to the album I grew up with, and thank my Mom for getting me started on a new hobby for a while (digitizing the rest of the vinyl that I don’t have on CD already).

Thanks Mom!

What’s needed:

• a decent quality turntable (plain old analog players are best, USB turntables are junk)
• a decent quality phonograph preamplifier that matches your cartridge to line level outputs
• a sound sampling card, or USB interface, or device on your computer
• a computer
• sampling and sample editing software like Audacity (free)
• track ordering and CD burning software like iTunes (free)
• about an hour per album, minimally

Remember, turntables are sensitive to vibrations – so refrain from jumping for joy as the beautiful old music streams out of your speakers, at least while you are recording.

I cannot rave enough about how cool Audacity and iTunes are for this sort of job; and I am a raving fan of Edirol as well, excellent device and well worth the money. I am picky about audio gear, so you could probably do this for a lot less expense if you went cheap on record player, cartridge, and preamplifier; but remember, your time is valuable too. If you are burning an hour to do this why not spend the money getting the best master copy you can.

This morning I had an unexpected adventure, just as I was finishing breakfast and feeding the fish, I discovered that my 30 gallon marine aquarium was leaking on the kitchen counter and from there down onto the floor! I wiped the water with a towel, waited a moment and it was definitely an ongoing leak and not just a spill.

So I grabbed an old 29 gallon tank from the basement, transferred the water, fish, shrimp, corals and heaters/pumps/lights to the temporary replacement, and made sure the leaky tank stopped leaking (about an inch of live sand and water are still in the tank waiting for more time)… then I headed into work. At work I think we can shrink from 5 active marine tanks to 3 if we need to, but we must keep the big fish separate from the little fish and the little predator away from our shrimp… so 3 tanks is the minimum. Must work this out with Sutragirl.

I have been hitting a learning spurt in my dancing, picking up several new groupings and refining technique at both studios. I hope to dance with Cassandra, Ann, Anne-Marie, and Sutragirl at the Yuletide Ball Championships. It should be great fun.

I am replacing my dual 500MHz G4 Mac desktop and 500MHz G4 Mac cube server at home (both running 10.3.9) with a 20″ iMac and a Mac Mini (both running 10.5.1). That is taking a while to get everything set up properly (jump from 10.3 to 10.5 is non-trivial, but fun), and I am discovering that I do not have enough firewire cables, extra drives for backups, and time…

New job has been a huge learning experience (exactly what I asked for… though perhaps a bit much of it) and I have been learning all about openSuSE 10.3, HP Blade c7000s, i-LO server management, PXEboot/tftp/dhcp install servers, YaST, and relearning Solaris, BEA WebLogic, and NFS… Plate is full… and after the holiday break it will be time for MySQL replication servers, MediaWiki, Oracle, and Progress. Folks at the new job are awesome, and everyone tries to do everything… Damned Astaro VPN is not letting me in, but that’s because we cannot save a new configuration with my userid in the PPTP allow file… sigh. It’s fun working on a team of five with three Prius owners on the team!

Children of Hurin is helping me stay in touch with Fantasy/SciFi at night… and the writer’s strike has given me a chance to catch up to almost current on the few remaining decent TV shows…

Basically I think Neely has this pegged on the nose:

1. many Americans are concerned about the over commercialization of Christmas
2. most Americans are not concerned about wether a store has “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas” on their posters
3. most healthy Christians are not offended by the phrase “Happy Holidays“
4. most non-Christians are not offended by the phrase “Merry Christmas“
5. the few people who are concerned, are really more concerned that they no longer control the public holiday, the family, the social compact, and the center stage than they are about the true meaning of Christmas
6. the last week of December is probably not the anniversary of the birth of Jesus, that is more likely to be sometime in September, though we probably will never know
7. the last week of December is the proper time to celebrate many holidays, but especially Yule and Saturnalia, so let the parties begin!

The date many Americans celebrate as Christmas was first set in 395 by an early Christian Church that desperately wanted more converts. They figured that by setting a major Christian holiday amid the widely popular pagan celebration of Saturnalia, conversion would be easier for them to attract converts. It also coincided with the traditional Northern European celebration of Yule, which has to do more with the darkest days following winter solstice. Puritans did not celebrate Christmas because they were horrified by the free use of clearly pagan symbols (holly, drinking heavily, gift exchange).