Melissa Manchester - Melissa (MFSL [originally on Arista 1975])

This is one of Richard D's Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs Original Studio Masters. Richard said, "I listened to that one quite a bit, so I'm not sure about the condition." It turned out quite nicely. There was a bit of what Richard referred to as "vinyl patina" particularly on the first track of side one but after that it sounded very good to me. In what to me is a somewhat disturbing trend, Amazon has this only as a download for $9.90. If you want physical media, Amazon resellers are starting the offers at $49.99. According to the artist's web site discography and wikipedia, this is her third and best charting album, peaking at a #12.

Fiddle Fever - Waltz of the Wind (Flying Fish 1984)

From Lans. This one was not sealed but still has the celophane and price sticker for $3.99 from Wonderland. It is a cutout with the corner clipped on the jacket. The vinyl sounded great. This has been repackaged and released on a 12 dollar CD by Rounder. Rounder's web site says:

This 21-track anthology brings together the best recordings by Fiddle Fever from the two albums they recorded for Flying Fish, oringially issued in 1981 and 1984. The album includes the original recording of fiddler Jay Ungar's popular "Ashokan Farewell," which became the theme song for the PBS series, The Civil War. The band includes Russ Barenberg, guitar, fiddle, percussion, mandolin; Matt Glaser, fiddle, piano; Molly Mason, vocals, bass, guitar; Evan Stover, fiddle, viola and Jay Ungar, fiddle, mandolin. Featured guests include Toby Stover on piano and Tony Trischka on banjo.

Richard Greene - Duets (Rounder 0075 - 1977)

Richard Greene along with Peter Rowan were members of Seatrain. Lans discovered Seatrain in about '71 and took me to see them as one of my first concerts at the Spectrum. This album of duets features Grisman, JD Crowe, Rice, Trischka and others. The condition of the album is "Like New" .. Rounder has released this on CD in 2006 and is selling it for $12.

Emmylou Harris - Blue Kentucky Girl (Warner Brothers 1979)

Lans had this one. It looks like this might have been played once to record it to tape. The cover and the vinyl are in "like new" condition. Amazon has this on CD for $11. Amazon's editorial review says:

Emmylou Harris focuses more intently on her country ancestry with this 1979 record, tackling songs made famous by Hank Williams, Loretta Lynn, and the Louvin Brothers. However, the most rewarding cuts are the lesser-known gems: Willie Nelson's rollicking "Sister's Coming Home" (with Tanya Tucker), Dallas Frazier's aching ballad "Beneath Still Waters" (which hit No. 1 for Harris), and Jean Ritchie's moving folk song "Sorrow in the Wind." Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt help out on "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues," while Lincoln Davis's accordion beefs up the Flatt & Scruggs classic "Rough and Rocky." This record, Harris's fifth for Reprise, signals the end of her classic country-rock period. She would unplug completely for 1980's superb Roses in the Snow before breaking up with producer-husband Brian Ahern and pointing herself in new directions. --Marc Greilsamer

The text of an email I sent explaining my process

I capture using a Sony RCD-W500C. I'm an advocate of doing the initial analog to digital conversion in a device that is not trying to multiprocess and is engineered as an audio component. I make my initial burn on a CD-RW disc so that I can backup and re-record if something goes awry. Normally, I use the CDR deck to put in the track marks on the fly using a button on the remote. The result is a standard CD format disc. Then I finalize the RW disc and move it to the PC. From there I rip it to the PC (using Media Player) as a mp3 at 196K sampling rate. Then I burn an archival copy of the disc onto a CD-R disc. Then I reuse the RW disc for the next album.

I'm trying to pay attention to the lossy vs non-lossy formats and avoid making unnecessary compressions and decompressions. However, there have been times when I didn't put a track mark precisely where I wanted it and rather than back up and rerecord the tracks, I'll go ahead and finish the recording and then after loading it into the PC, I'll use Goldwave to cut the tail end off the preceding track and paste it onto the beginning of the succeding track to adjust the track mark. I sometimes handle live albums in that way because it is often very difficult to peg the track marks on the fly. In such a case, I will likely make my archival copy CD as a burn from Media Player rather than from the RW disc. Also, if there are any major pops, I may fix them after getting it into the computer and again, compromise on the lossyness and make my archival copy from the PC. Assuming that I follow my standard procedure and make my archival discs as an exact disc copy of the RW disc (as it is about 90-95% of the time) then they are copies of exactly what I got off the LP. I may later edit the audio files on my PC for various reasons, but I don't typically replace the archival copy when I do this. So, what I typically listen to might be a slightly tweaked version. I try to stay on top of backing up my hard drive but depend on the archival CD copies as an ultimate backup. I'm balancing the potential loss of numerous edits to the music files on my PC if I were to lose my hard drive in a non-recoverable way VS. maintaining the archival copy as the original master of what came off the LP.

I think an audiophile purist would regard a disc copy of the archival CD as a generation better than a CD burned from Media Player. That being said, I don't think I can easily tell the difference between the two.

Based on my iPod having about 38 days worth of music on 80GB, my arithmetic is that I'm around 1.5 meg per minute. Perhaps I'd be at a meg a minute if I was sampling at 128K instead of 196.

Does this adequately explain how I'm doing this? I like to think that if my archival copy has been edited, I'd make a note of that in the DTR. I think I failed to do so for the recent Zappa/Beefheart/Mothers Bongo Fury transcription. Remember listening to that one in the Basement in our junior/senior years of high school? Anyway, the tracks pretty much run together and I adjusted the track marks as described above to fix it.

I've fooled around with other approaches, but after doing hundreds of albums, what I've described above feels like overall, the most efficient and effective way to resurrect the mass of vinyl I've been moving around the country and not listening to for decades. Trying to generate a homemade disc that "looks like" a factory-made disc makes it much easier to manage getting artist, title, date, composer, etc. data from the Internet rather than having to type it all in. It would be possible to record whole sides as a single track and then rip it to the PC and break it into tracks there and then get the album info from the web but if that was my standard operating procedure I think I'd want to rip it initially as a lossless format and then after breaking it into tracks I'd save it as an mp3 but that would involve geneating a temporary version on the PC. But at the same time, I'd be wanting to burn the archival copy of neither of those versions since one is not broken up into tracks and the other has lost a generation of quality.

Mark O'Connor - Markology (Rounder 1978)

This one is from Lans. Vinyl condition: spectacular. Amazon has this for $18 but it looks like it could be gotten from Rounder directly for $12. The new version has a different cover. My LP has a picture of Mark looking very young. I think he was 16 when he recorded this album which somewhat strangely features him mostly on guitar rather than violin.

Mark O'Connor - On The Rampage (Rounder 0118 - 1979)

This finishes up Lans' Mark O'Connor records. The vinyl was also flawless. It looks like this one might be hard to find. Rounder nor Amazon has it, although a used cassette is being offered by an Amazon reseller for $10. This album had recently come out when Lans and I encountered Mark and Steve Morse of the Dixie Dregs busking on a street corner near the hall where Grisman was playing. I had my portable cassette deck and made a recording of several songs before the police came along and broke up the impromptu performance.

Tony Rice Unit - Mar West (Rounder 1980)

I think this finishes up the "Tony Rice Unit" portion of the library. Amazon is only offering this as an import for $39. I might have heard a pop or two but generally speaking I thought the condition of this LP was spectacular. "Neon Tetra", which is on this album, also appears on Grisman's "Hot Dawg". I assume they are different recordings but I didn't verify that.

Tony Rice Unit - Backwaters (Rounder - 1982)

From Lans. This album was released just after "Still Inside". But unlike "Still Inside", Amazon has this one, albeit for an unexplicably high $17. They are however offering a download for $7. The condition of the vinyl on this one was flawless, as near as I could tell. All instrumental, this is a very pleasant bluegrass-jazz fusion album that I find mesmerizing. Dawgma!

Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart - Bongo Fury (Discreet 1975)

I'd guess that somewhere in the two year period when Lans was in college but before I started college, he financed the purchase of a cassette deck by selling off his LP's. Of course, since he sold most of them to me, I believe, for a buck a piece, he was able to record them to tape and still effectively have them. I think that this Zappa album as well as the Byrds album recently converted to CD were among the 50 to 100 albums I acquried from him in the mid 70s. The condition of the vinyl was surprisingly good. Amazon is selling a remastered version for $15.

Wikipedia says:

Bongo Fury is a mostly live album released by Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart in 1975. The live portions were recorded in May 1975 at the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, Texas. Studio tracks were recorded in January 1974 (during the sessions which produced One Size Fits All and much of Studio Tan).

The tracks on the LP pretty much run together and in making my initial recording, I put the track marks close to where they belong and plan to use Goldwave to cut and paste beginnings and endings in order to improve trackmark placement. Then I'll burn my archival copy from Media Player, rather than making a disc copy of the CD-RW disc from the CDR deck as I normally do.

Tony Rice Unit - Still Inside (Rounder 0150 - 1981)

Pure Lans.

Vinyl Condition: Outstanding. Amazon: Currently Unavailable

Out from behind the sofa

I don't know if I moved the records so I could shampoo the carpet or if I was able to shampoo the carpet because I finally moved the records out of the way. Chicken? Egg? Either way, after moving the records I realized that I was able to take in the entire collection in one view for the first time ever. I took a picture. I don't know that I'll leave them stacked this way for very long but for the moment there they are.

Eric Thompson - Bluegrass Guitar (Kicking Mule Records)

Another classic Lans. Grisman is featured prominently on this album. I can't find it at Amazon and even Wikipedia seems unaware of this gem. Unfortunately it sounded a bit dusty in places but still quite listenable. I've been using Goldwave to edit some of my transcriptions and this might benefit from a little "touch-up". I'll have to enter the titles manually since Media Player couldn't help me out.

I took the album art photo on 6/6/2008.

I think the release date on this might be 1978.

Muleskinner - Muleskinner with Richard Greene (Ridge Runner Records - 1978)

This one is classic Lans: Obscure but amazing. Fiddle player Richard Greene pulled together this group and put out I think just this one album with Bill Keith, Clarence White, Peter Rowan, David Grisman. Vinyl condition was really good. It appears that this is only available from Amazon as an import for $38.

Peter Rowan stands out on "Blue Mule" and "Runways on the Moon" really put me in a Seatrain place.

Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska (Columbia - 1982)

Found wedged inside an Al Stewart album. Quality: Average. Amazon: $11

Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues (1983 - Sire)

This one has a somewhat bizarre blister pack style packaging in lieu of a normal record jacket. The packaging is slightly oversized and after moving some records around this stuck out kind of like a sore thumb so it leapt to the top of the queue. It's actually a pretty good album and it turns out that the packaging is a limited edition which won a Grammy award. Initially the oversized dimensions were really annoying but after looking at it more closely, it's really kind of cool. Wikipedia talks about it some. The condition of the record was pretty good especially since it's on clear vinly. The basic CD is selling on Amazon for $11 but the used special edition vinyl like mine from Amazon resellers (4) are being offered at from $55 to $275.

The Byrds - Byrds (Asylum - 1973)

This was a high school era album and the condition reflected the age. It was still listenable but a bit scratchy. Amazon could solve the problem for $14 or down to under 7 for a used one.

As mentioned above, I was moving some albums around and in the process, I culled approximately 6" worth of linear album space (LAS). These albums are headed for Goodwill. They include the massive boxed set "Mood Music for Dining" (suitable for use as a door stop) and a bunch of other albums that I feel confident that I'll never miss. I keep thinking that the day is approaching when I'll take on the task of trying to select out the albums that I have duplicates of and that I think might have some demand for sale on eBay or locally at Zia's Records. I think I'll probably also pull out some albums where I own a store-bought CD and where the LP version doesn't have any significant appeal over the CD version. I suspect that such a cull could recover at least another 6" of LAS. In moving albums around, I discovered Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska wedged inside the gatefold of an alphabetically adjacent double album. "Huh, I didn't know I owned THAT! Cool!"

Al Stewart - The Year of the Cat (Janus 1976)

From Collection X (see above). Astute readers will note that this album doesn't come from the front end of the alphabet (by group or artist last name) where the past several conversions have been pulled from. I was moving albums around and this one kind of got my attention. I probably haven't heard it since college. Mr./Ms. X didn't care for their albums as well as Lans and consequently, this one had some dust and a couple of significant pops in annoying places. After ripping it to Media Player, I used Goldwave to good effect to filter out two of the most offensive pops. Then I burned my archival copy from Media Player instead of making a disc copy of the CD-RW disc as I normally do. Amazon has a remastered version (but no bonus tracks) for $11.Per Wikipedia:

Year of the Cat is the seventh album by Al Stewart, released in 1976 and engineered by Alan Parsons. It features the hit single (and one of his best-known songs) also called "Year of the Cat", which runs for six and a half minutes and was co-written by Peter Wood. His other single from the album is "On the Border", which is also one of Stewart's most well-known songs. A digitally remastered version of the album was released in 2004.

The Clash - Black Market Clash (Epic 1980)

Another one from Lans' collection and another presumed adoption by him from... should we give this person a name? Suggestions? Collection X? The condition of this odd 10" disc's vinyl was pretty average. Amazon is selling a substantially expanded reissue version of this on CD titled "Super Black Market Clash" for $12.00. Yes, that's the end of the Clash albums from the "to do" pile.Per Wikipedia:

Black Market Clash was released only in the US between the releases of London Calling and Sandinista! It compiled recordings which were then unavailable in the US except as imports. It was one of series of 10" records that Epic released by various artists, including Gary Glitter and New Musik, under the name Epic "Nu-Disk".

The Doors - The Doors (MFSL original release date 1967 on Elektra)

This is from Richard D.'s collection. There was some dust but gerenally speaking quite listenable. Amazon: $11. Per Wikipedia:

The album is generally thought of as the band's best work, in addition to being one of the greatest debut album's by any band. It's also considered to be one of the quintessential albums of the counterculture movement/Social Revolution. In 1998 Q magazine readers voted The Doors the 93rd greatest album of all time; in 2003 the TV network VH1 placed it at number 60. In 2003, the album was ranked number 42 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

The Clash - Combat Rock (Epic 1982)

This also came from Lans' collection and before that, it probably came from the same person who had the Asia, Jon Anderson, BTO, Boston, Bad Company, etc. The quality was not an issue. Amazon is selling this on CD for 8 bucks. Per Wikipedia:

Combat Rock was originally planned as a double album with the working title Rat Patrol from Fort Bragg, but the idea was scrapped after internal wrangling within the group. Mick Jones had produced the first cut, but the other members were dissatisfied and producing duties were handed to Glyn Johns, at which point the album became a single LP. The original cut has since been obtained and subsequently bootlegged.... Original U.S. pressings of the album had the full length track "Inoculated City" lasting 2:43. This version contained the audio from a television commercial for a toilet bowl cleaner called "2000 Flushes." After the maker of the product complained of copyright infringement the track was edited to 2:11. Approximately 100,000 copies of the first version were pressed with custom designed record labels. However the majority of copies sold had the edited track and were re-issued on a standard dark blue Epic Records label. The full length track also appeared on the B-side of a US "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" single. Early US CD copies had the edited track. But when the album was released as a remastered CD in 2000 the full length track was restored though no mention of this was made anywhere on the CD package.

Mine contains the 2000 Flushes! A quick scan of eBay didn't create an impression that this earlier version of the LP is a serious rarity that commands a premium price.

Miles Davis - Water Babies (Columbia 1976)

This one came from Lans' collection and finishes off the Miles Davis records. I think there might have been a couple of clicks and pops but generally the vinyl quality was a non-issue. There appear to have been a few versions of this single album on CD; a delux edition with bonus tracks, a remastered version and an import. Amazon's offerings range from 7 to 27 bucks while resellers have offerings from under 5 to nearly 20. Per Wikipedia:

Water Babies is a studio album by Miles Davis released nearly ten years after it was recorded. It features the same line up of musicians from Filles de Kilimanjaro and Nefertiti.

That places the recording a few years before Bitches Brew and a few years after Seven Steps to Heaven. All but one of the tracks are Wayne Shorter compositions. I found it to be quite listenable.

Miles Davis - Seven Steps to Heaven (Columbia 1963)

Another one of mine. According to Wikipedia, "This is the last of Davis's studio albums which relies substantially on standard tunes - once Wayne Shorter joined the quintet in 1964, tunes on studio recordings were almost always composed by members of the group." It certainly feels a world away from Bitches Brew (1969) and Agharta (1975). I think there might have been a little skip in "Baby Won't You Please Come Home" (side B, track 2 and/or CD track 5) but overall the quality of the LP was very good. This single album is currently available from Amazon for $12.