Older Folks and Vaping Back Porch - Part Four

[bigbells]

Well it seems websites can now detect if you're using ad blocking add-ons in your browser.

I use Firefox with Adblock Plus installed, just went to download Audacity, and got this:

Dear fellow! It appears that you hate Ads! If you will consider a donation to FossHub, we will spend the money on buying more bandwidth and more servers to offer the best download speed.Thank you for any donation!

That's the second time this week I've gotten a similar message. That first website wouldn't let me proceed unless I turned off Adblock, so I just left.

Installed Audacity and Folks let me tell ya, that looks like one complicated program! I know -nothing- about audio, so have a lot to learn. Should be fun though....

Will they fit in a large priority mail box. That has no weight limit.

No, 150 albums would not fit in a large Priority Mail box. We're talking about 40" x 13" x 13".

freeware version of Audacity is the Gold Standard for, er, freeware in audio recording and manipulation .. it has a learning curve, but all software of this type does .. most USB turntables that I know of come with Audacity likely because of the cost ..

The hassle of vinyl to digital conversions really boils down to .. it's done in real time .. if you want to remove hiss and pops it's much more time consuming .. the quality of your PC/speed, etc can play a role .. the software does not name tracks, so manual input is required .. automatic track separation is hit and miss .

if you look back fondly on that one pop just as "Dark Side of the Moon" went into chorus, then don't remove the glitches .. .. because they were all part of the experience you fondly remember ..

I've used Audacity for over a decade, mostly for recording audio clips for musical instruments that I was selling on Ebay. I haven't yet done any work at all to see how it will work for recording my LPs. Jup, about the glitches. They're what make vinyl so valuable. If pops and scratches are what make LPs valuable, mine are worth a friggin' fortune! (I never was remotely meticulous with them, lol.)

 

[3mg Meniere]

Don't have to send them all at once. When you get them done, send a smaller batch at a time. That will ease your packrat tendencies, less painful.

 

[2legsshrt]

If they will fit in a large priority box bulk rate no weight limit.

 

[umanbean]

........Since we've had a lesson on Light Bulbs, I thought I would add another Class on what I know .. .. to the Thread that just keeps giving ..

Uncle Wille thanks for the primer - very informative.

...... If pops and scratches are what make LPs valuable, mine are worth a friggin' fortune! (I never was remotely meticulous with them, lol.)

Same here - "meticulous" was not even in my vocabulary in my 20s... so no telling what shape I'll find these in when I get to the point where I can play them again. Still, I think it'll be nice to have a working turntable again.

 

[MattB101]

Good morning, Porcher peeps! Dragging this morning, but hoping the java does it's job.

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Top of the morning Gracie. Try to stay cool. Looks like it's gonna be a warm one today. Southeast breezes. Wondering what it's like in Iffy's neck o de woods. He's got southeast too but, it's gotta go all the way across the state.

 

[MattB101]

3 ways? sure you can. Lowes has em.

Sorry about the misinformation. I don't use them and know that 100 watt singles are gone so I just assumed. Won't happen again.

 

[MattB101]

You're a Pepper?

I was much more so in my younger years. I had a mentor when I was a young tween/teen who was an attorney and a deacon at the church. He would accept cars as payment from his clients and always had old POS cars that he taught me to drive after church on the beach in Daytona. We'd alway stop at the local 7-11 and I would get a 16oz Dr. Pepper and a moon pie. Then we would go down and cruise the beach. Great memories. I still like the occasional Dr. Pepper but not as much as I used to. I'm a Pepper, your a pepper, wouldn't you like to be a pepper too? Dr. Pepper at 10-2 and 4!

 

[Robert Cromwell]

Sorry about the misinformation. I don't use them and know that 100 watt singles are gone so I just assumed. Won't happen again.

Not a problem. they are classified as speciality bulbs. You can actually still get 100 watt incandescent bulbs classified as heavy duty. Not cheap though.

 

[MattB101]

Thanks for the reply bb... It may be about 10 years before I can afford the postage on 150 LPs anyway. It didn't occur to me until after I posted that we're talking about a lot of weight.... put my mouth in motion before putting my brain in gear, as it were.

Maybe Audacity would work with your machine? Worth a try anyway. I've been reading quite a bit the last few days, and Audacity gets mentioned more often than any other audio programs for ripping, then "fixing" static, pops, and the other quirks of vinyl. I don't have any experience with it yet, but read somewhere that you can record an entire album side, name the tracks, then the program will automatically "separate" the songs and save them individually. Sounds like a great time/trouble saver to me. Good luck.

I use it on my Imac to record vocal mp3s while practicing for what I hope to be an upcoming podcast. Great program. Very versatile. Fairly easy to learn of you have a little background to work from. Supposed to be lots of plug-ins available but, I haven't explored that avenue yet. Willie, what say you?

 

[MattB101]

There are other, better, audio softwares commercially available, however, the freeware version of Audacity is the Gold Standard for, er, freeware in audio recording and manipulation .. it has a learning curve, but all software of this type does .. most USB turntables that I know of come with Audacity likely because of the cost ..

The hassle of vinyl to digital conversions really boils down to .. it's done in real time .. if you want to remove hiss and pops it's much more time consuming .. the quality of your PC/speed, etc can play a role .. the software does not name tracks, so manual input is required .. automatic track separation is hit and miss .. on average, doing one LP right, with minimal fixing required, is at least an hour per LP .. as well, it's a good idea to route the PC output jack as a monitor set of speakers, since actually listening to the LP as it records is a good idea, just in case you get a skip or a groove that bounces the needle and repeats ..

Anyone considering this should think about the fact that most CD's can be had at used prices relatively cheap and will auto name, etc thru the Web and can be set to convert at about any bitrate .. and when you're done, you can still sell the CD's .. it's a question of "Is the juice worth the squeeze .. "

The draw of vinyl conversion is, you've digitized your old collection and can then dispose of it .. if you look back fondly on that one pop just as "Dark Side of the Moon" went into chorus, then don't remove the glitches .. .. because they were all part of the experience you fondly remember ..

Lastly, rare vinyl that brings any kind of money is really LP's that were promotional, withdrawn/recalled, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab pressings can be worthwhile, etc .. for the most part, however, LP's were pressed in high numbers and are not, as a general rule, greatly collectable .. a few examples of some real money LP's :

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan [withdrawn version] (1963) ... Incredibly rare version of the US version (stereo) which features four songs left off all subsequent releases ("Rocks and Gravel," "Let Me Die in My Footsteps," "Gamblin' Willie's Dead Man's Hand," and "Talkin' John Birch Blues"). in Mint Condition : $30K

The Beatles .. Love Me Do / P.S. I Love You (1962) [Single] .. The UK promo copy of The Beatles' first single. Paul McCartney is credited as "McArtney." Limited to 250 copies. Mint : $20K

The Beatles "Yesterday"...and Today (1966) .. The stereo version of the "Butcher Cover," as it is known, is far more difficult to find than other variants of this highly sought-after record. Mint : $15K

Any 78 RPM singles by Robert Johnson from 1937 .. $7.5K each in Mint, generally ..

Even modern items can get valuable .. Led Zeppelin Classic Records Road Case from 2006 [Compilation] .. 48 vinyl LP set of Led Zeppelin's complete discography, all 45 rpm, in "road case." $5K

So, don't throw them out or sell them before checking eBay ..

Since we've had a lesson on Light Bulbs, I thought I would add another Class on what I know .. .. to the Thread that just keeps giving ..

Thanks. What do you use for recording vocals and such? I wish there was something simpler for spoken word editing than the more complicated programs such as Audacity. After all I invested in equipment to make the voice recording somewhat pristine. Gonna need to find software for land line/cell phone interface as well. Preferably as a plug in to make seamless integration.

 

[Uncle Willie]

I use it on my Imac to record vocal mp3s while practicing for what I hope to be an upcoming podcast. Great program. Very versatile. Fairly easy to learn of you have a little background to work from. Supposed to be lots of plug-ins available but, I haven't explored that avenue yet. Willie, what say you?

See my previous post earlier .. yes, there are various plug ins, an example would be that Audacity does not save/convert to MP3 without a plug in and even then it's an export, not a save .. learning curve wise, if you're just converting vinyl, it's fairly cut and dried once you drive the software for a while and get a feel for it ..

Another good thing about Audacity is if you're running an older PC with less horsepower, it's pretty easy to download earlier versions ..

I don't normally offer advice on anything that circumvents Creator Ownership/Copywrite, etc (and it's not verboten to convert vinyl you own) .. however, if a person does not care about the quality of an MP3, then use YouTube in conjunction with

YouTube to mp3 Converter

The sound quality is low bit rate, but the site will strip the MP3 on a YouTube video and download it to your system .. it can be hit or miss depending on if YouTube is watching .. YMMV ..

 

[Debadoo]

@2legsshrt since you just said busardo posted the video, does that mean ya didn't win?

 

[MattB101]

Busardo just put out his video on the stocking contest.

Did I win? Probably not. Didn't enter.

 

[2legsshrt]

Well I didn't win it again. What's new

 

[Iffy]

Maybe Audacity would work with your machine?

Audacity is a neat program for us amateurs. Played a lil' with it a few years ago. Made CDs from an old Christmas album that our family played every year. Now my girls have those 'memories' digitally recorded. Also cleaned up some music files for a couple of my buddies. Came out nice. I didn't even come close to using all the program's capabilities!

Wondering what it's like in Iffy's neck o de woods. He's got southeast too but, it's gotta go all the way across the state.

Currently, it's 84°F, feels like 91°, with breezes from da S/SSW at 5 mph with 'gusts' to 9 (aka my kind of winter!)...

 

[Uncle Willie]

Thanks. What do you use for recording vocals and such? I wish there was something simpler for spoken word editing than the more complicated programs such as Audacity. After all I invested in equipment to make the voice recording somewhat pristine. Gonna need to find software for land line/cell phone interface as well. Preferably as a plug in to make seamless integration.

I've stuck with the Sure SM58 forever .. it's a near perfect mic and in a pinch, you can drive a nail with it .. the SM58-X2u bundle is used by many Podcasters .. you can spend some real money on a Sure KSM42, but the improvement in sound quality is not huge .. most Podcasts are compressed files anyway, so most any decent quality mic does the trick .. the one thing about Sure is, they hold their value should you ever decide to dispose of your gear ..

 

[Debadoo]

Well I didn't win it again. What's new

I've won a lot on ecf in smaller contests, but I can't even imagine how many 1000's enter that one. Still, you've got as much chance as anyone else. Don't cost nuttin to enter

 

[Flowersoul]

Hay, you live in Florida - so you know it is true... They are clueless when it comes to snow...

Indeed they are!
Being a Philly gal, I learned quite well how to drive in the snow! We hit an ice storm once when I had to pick up Mom and bring her to my home.....I hugged (and I mean HUGGED) the curb on every road, and that gave me enough traction to inch the 7 mile trek to our home in 2.5 hours........hey, we got there safely......a bit late, but safe!

Top of the morning Gracie. Try to stay cool. Looks like it's gonna be a warm one today. Southeast breezes. Wondering what it's like in Iffy's neck o de woods. He's got southeast too but, it's gotta go all the way across the state.

Well, we do have high temps, but not as high as you and Johnny! It's the frappin humidity at 79% that a dilly.


Oh, on another note.....anyone with skin rashes or irritations try zinc cream in the form of malonate!

 

[Uncle Willie]

I've been saving this one up for a couple months .. here we go .. .. all absolutely true ..

A few months back, a close friend and I were dining at a Chinese Dim Sum place in U. City (St Louis burb, Nelly's Home area) .. called Lu Lu's .. it's really the go to place for Dim Sum if you're ever in St Louis .. so, we finish off as much as we can stand and one of the girls brings us a couple of Fortune Cookies .. now, I don't eat Fortune Cookies, because I don't like them, but who can resist opening and reading .. ??

At any rate, both of us got the exact same cookie insert paper (I'm sure there must be a technical name for these things, but I don't know it .. ) .. I looked at her and said "What are the odds .. ?? .." .. So, being the person that I am, I got up and walked around the dining area and quizzed other's that had obviously gotten a cookie around the same time, and asked if I could compare my paper with theirs, thinking that maybe the place just got a bag full of cookies with the same insert .. well, no .. everyone had different inserts .. there was not an empty seat in the place, so I had a fairly good selection to quiz ..

Our cookie papers said :

New Year's Eve
Lucky Numbers : 15, 3, 42, 22, 14, 25

So, although I don't play the Lotto, tomorrow being New Year's Eve, I am going to play, using these numbers, for obvious reasons .. .. I am also going to hit a Casino and play a few rounds of Keno using these numbers ..

In the event that any of my friends here decide to also take the plunge, so to speak, if by chance you win, I will count on the Honor System as your motivation to take care of my piece of the action ..

 

[2legsshrt]

Well one of the guys who bricked his RX200 bought it at Efun be warned. If you send it back they only give you 15% if its more then 7 days. Don't deal with them.