Tumeni Notes
pfm Member
I had been harbouring thoughts for a while of digitising some or all of my Dad's 78s, which had been languishing in a cupboard in the family home since the 1980s or so, and which had languished in a corner of my music room since the early 2000s.
I've been editing audio files with Audacity for years, and noted that the Pitch and Speed adjustment feature included presets for adjusting between the standard TT speeds - 33 to 45, 45 to 78, etc. I had toyed with the idea of getting the Rega Planar 78, but noted that the TT was £400, whereas £80 would get me the RB78 cartridge .... so I looked out the old Rega Planar 3 that I have as a secondary TT, and ....
Purchase Rega RB78 cartridge, remove existing Audio-Technica ATF-5 from the P3 and install RB78. Minor snag - the RB78 has only two tags at the rear, not four, so either the left or right of the arm cables is connected to the cart, with the others tied up out of the way. Single RH channel can be later converted to Mono in Audacity.
Removed current TT felt mat to avoid contamination, and replaced with an old rubber mat that was previously used for record cleaning duties
Clean 78s prior to playback - cleaning fluid is tap water with some washing-up liquid and a few drops of wetting agent, rinse under the tap, then final rinse with purified water. Paint pads from B&Q are ideal for applying the fluids. Leave to dry. Once dry,
Set to 45, connect recorder (Tascam) to Tape Out, and drop stylus. Take WAV file to PC, load into Audacity, make corrections including preset speed adjust, save as FLAC
I'll try and add some pics and screen grabs later.
I've been editing audio files with Audacity for years, and noted that the Pitch and Speed adjustment feature included presets for adjusting between the standard TT speeds - 33 to 45, 45 to 78, etc. I had toyed with the idea of getting the Rega Planar 78, but noted that the TT was £400, whereas £80 would get me the RB78 cartridge .... so I looked out the old Rega Planar 3 that I have as a secondary TT, and ....
Purchase Rega RB78 cartridge, remove existing Audio-Technica ATF-5 from the P3 and install RB78. Minor snag - the RB78 has only two tags at the rear, not four, so either the left or right of the arm cables is connected to the cart, with the others tied up out of the way. Single RH channel can be later converted to Mono in Audacity.
Removed current TT felt mat to avoid contamination, and replaced with an old rubber mat that was previously used for record cleaning duties
Clean 78s prior to playback - cleaning fluid is tap water with some washing-up liquid and a few drops of wetting agent, rinse under the tap, then final rinse with purified water. Paint pads from B&Q are ideal for applying the fluids. Leave to dry. Once dry,
Set to 45, connect recorder (Tascam) to Tape Out, and drop stylus. Take WAV file to PC, load into Audacity, make corrections including preset speed adjust, save as FLAC
I'll try and add some pics and screen grabs later.