"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Bob Latham wrote:
No argument from me - a cdr is a good way of making an essentially
identical *convenience* version of an LP.

How do you guys do this?

I have a PC with a sound card and my amplifier has a ADC inside giving
spdif 16bit 44.1K out. Should I get a sound card with spdif in?

I've tried connecting left/right analogue into the PC and recording using
(would it be Audacity?) and to me it was complicated to get it to work at
all and distorted when played back.

Any advice?

You can make perfectly respectable copies of an LP using analogue -
assuming you have a half decent sound card on your PC. Arny is somewhat of
an expert on these and is more likely to be up to date on what's available
than me. Nor do you really need any sophisticated software. Unless you
intend trying to 'clean' things up. Which I never bother with.

Dave - you've sort of answered a question I hadn't asked yet! I'm looking
to store all my LPs on a standalone device - see response to Jim -; in
spite of a record cleaning machine there are still the occasional pops (no
scratches). Was thinking of interposing something like a a Behringer; not
worth it? Would it degrade the sound in any way?

Geoff

In article , Geoff Mackenzie
wrote:


"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message
...


My impression is that in the general 'PC' biz there often is no real
distinction between "I can hear something" and "works fine". Indeed,
I've seen some comments in computer mag articles that make me think
the authors are clueless about issues like resampling problems, timing
problems, clipping, etc, etc.



Thanks, Jim, you've summed it up. I keep my PC for word processing,
email, pictures for eBay and occasionally catching up with Radio 7. My
audio stuff is quite separate, and I'd prefer it to remain so.

I've been using a 'PC' more as I've slowly been though a process of trying
to "bang the weevils out of the biscuit" and get more satisfactory results.
The frustration is the feeling that any future chance could introduce fresh
problems. However I don't mind *not* always using the 'latest software',
etc.


I asked for comments on the Brennan in this NG a while back, and all the
replies pointed me towards a PC solution.

The Brennan may well be a good choice. But I can't say. And I'd certainly
hang on to the CDs for when the HD crashes out. :-)

...I'm just looking for a way of archiving the whole lot and giving me
ease of access, hence my interest in the Brennan (no, I'm not plugging
it, I haven't bought one yet) but if it really does what it says on the
tin and works straight out of the box then it takes away all the
problems of software compatibility and so on which do not interest me at
all.

Understood. It can also avoid problems of the kinds that Paul Miller
documents in his column in HFN this month.[1] This gives measured results
showing how something like just having an unmounted USB HD connected or
changing a USB cable can alter the output from a computer DAC!

In theory, theory and practice agree. But in practice...

The difficulty with using a traditional computer system for audio is that
the actual system tends to be doing lots of others things 'under the hood'
and was probably made by people who have no real clue about the needs of
decent audio.

I keep hoping this will change. But the persistence of computers with noisy
fans and whirring discs shows that makers still haven't got this particular
message! I wish they had as it would make life far easier.

FWIW I've been interested in trying out something like a Squeezebox Touch
with an attached memory for the audio. (i.e. no other computer involved).
That might work well. But I've not yet had a chance to try one. Anyone else
had one to try this?

Slainte,

Jim

[1] Well worth reading - although I would say that, wouldn't I! :-)

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

"Geoff Mackenzie" wrote in message
...


"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Jim Lesurf wrote:
In article , Dave Plowman (News)
wrote:
In article , Iain Churches
wrote:
Sparrows used to be about the most common bird in this part of
London. Then all but disappeared perhaps 10 years ago. And
although
they've returned, in nowhere near the same numbers.

What happened to cause a reduction in their numbers?

I dunno. I've searched, but found no definitive answer. They seemed to
disappear near overnight.

I've hear mention of this a number of times. In general with people also
saying they don't know the cause.

I heard that it was the unexpected result of an ill-judged campaign by the
RSPB to preserve the sparrowhawk, but I have no idea if there is any truth
in this.


We are going down to the RSPB at Sandy in a while, if I can find someone
suitable I will ask about this. We get a sparrowhawk making fairly regular
appearances in the garden and its diet seems to be mainly collared doves! It
makes you feel bad about chucking food out - it's almost like you are making
the birds into bait!

Swimbo has just called out to say there was a woodpecker in the garden just
now; we do get a variety of birds here for a town garden, I hafta say!

In article ,
Geoff Mackenzie wrote:
My point is that while I've had a few failures on the audio system(s)
over the years - mainly blown fuses, an arcing failure on the ESL, a
burnt out valve etc - I've never had one which caused me to lose my
entire record/CD collection! Entirely possible with a PC based
solution, whether from a virus, unspecified bugs or simply Bill Gates
waking up with a hangover and deciding to render all previous releases
obsolete.

It's quite easy these days to make backups of stuff to prevent an HD
failure being catastrophic. Can also be done automatically. Things like a
RAID array of HDs do this by themselves. HDs are so cheap now it makes
sense to do so.

--
*It's not the end of the world if you can't spell armageddon.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
Geoff Mackenzie wrote:
You can make perfectly respectable copies of an LP using analogue -
assuming you have a half decent sound card on your PC. Arny is
somewhat of an expert on these and is more likely to be up to date on
what's available than me. Nor do you really need any sophisticated
software. Unless you intend trying to 'clean' things up. Which I never
bother with.

Dave - you've sort of answered a question I hadn't asked yet! I'm
looking to store all my LPs on a standalone device - see response to
Jim -; in spite of a record cleaning machine there are still the
occasional pops (no scratches). Was thinking of interposing something
like a a Behringer; not worth it? Would it degrade the sound in any
way?

I'm really not the best person to ask. I'm happy enough with just a
straight copy of an LP to CD - plops 'n' all. I just 'top and tail' the
WAVE file. I also usually use this old Acorn rather than the PC - I have
an external A-D convertor that feeds the digital input on the sound card.
Which gives better noise performance than the analogue inputs. However,
decent analogue input sound cards can be bought quite cheaply for a PC.

--
*When I'm not in my right mind, my left mind gets pretty crowded *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Geoff Mackenzie" wrote

I heard that it was the unexpected result of an ill-judged campaign by the
RSPB to preserve the sparrowhawk, but I have no idea if there is any truth
in this.


Humans have long had a deep-rooted mistrust of other carnivorous species.
Either we are afraid of them for ourselves, or we resent them competing with
us for prey. Birds of prey fit into this later category, it's still a major
part of a gamekeepers job to "discourage" birds of prey which might take
"our" game birds. So if any organisation actually has the audacity to
attempt to preserve a bird of prey it is going to trigger some pretty
deep-rooted hostilities.

No, there is no truth in this bit of propaganda. Cats are a far more
significant threat to sparrows than sparrowhawks are simply because there
are far more of them.

It seems probable that the decline in sparrow numbers is mainly due to
changes in farming practices, though there may well be a number of other
contributing factors.

David.

"Keith G" wrote in message
...

"Geoff Mackenzie" wrote



I heard that it was the unexpected result of an ill-judged campaign by
the RSPB to preserve the sparrowhawk, but I have no idea if there is any
truth in this.


We are going down to the RSPB at Sandy in a while, if I can find someone
suitable I will ask about this.


Didn't happen - four quid pay and display parking put paid to that!


We get a sparrowhawk making fairly regular
appearances in the garden


Including one that sailed through the front garden soon after sending this
post!

Empties the garden and it all goes very quiet!

In article ,
David Looser wrote:
It seems probable that the decline in sparrow numbers is mainly due to
changes in farming practices, though there may well be a number of other
contributing factors.

As I keep on saying, they disappeared near totally in a very short time
round here after being by far the most numerous bird species. Far more
common in an urban garden etc than even pigeons. Farming practices don't
change that quickly - nor are there any near here.

--
*When blondes have more fun, do they know it?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Geoff Mackenzie" wrote in
message

Dave - you've sort of answered a question I hadn't asked
yet! I'm looking to store all my LPs on a standalone
device - see response to Jim -; in spite of a record
cleaning machine there are still the occasional pops (no
scratches). Was thinking of interposing something like a
a Behringer; not worth it? Would it degrade the sound
in any way?

Behringer de-clicker or de-popper?

Do tell! Google and the Behringer web site come up empty for me.

Virtually 100% of all corrective processing of LPs is done using some kind
of computer software, whether it runs on a workstation, Apple, or PC.

What Behringer does provide is good, economical computer audio interfaces.

On 09/12/2010 11:18, Geoff Mackenzie wrote:


"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Bob Latham wrote:
No argument from me - a cdr is a good way of making an essentially
identical *convenience* version of an LP.

How do you guys do this?

I have a PC with a sound card and my amplifier has a ADC inside giving
spdif 16bit 44.1K out. Should I get a sound card with spdif in?

I've tried connecting left/right analogue into the PC and recording
using
(would it be Audacity?) and to me it was complicated to get it to
work at
all and distorted when played back.

Any advice?

You can make perfectly respectable copies of an LP using analogue -
assuming you have a half decent sound card on your PC. Arny is
somewhat of
an expert on these and is more likely to be up to date on what's
available
than me. Nor do you really need any sophisticated software. Unless you
intend trying to 'clean' things up. Which I never bother with.

Dave - you've sort of answered a question I hadn't asked yet! I'm
looking to store all my LPs on a standalone device - see response to Jim
-; in spite of a record cleaning machine there are still the occasional
pops (no scratches). Was thinking of interposing something like a a
Behringer; not worth it? Would it degrade the sound in any way?


I used to edit the file in a programme like Audacity and smooth the pops
manually, by 'stitching' the pop-peaks, removing the culprit and leaving
the music seemingly intact.

Rob