Stereo Action is back!

My 1976 receiver had a problem. Noise. Just plain garbley noise when I tried to run the sound out to the computer to record LPs to digital. It’s not that much money to get it fixed, but somehow I never got it fixed. I spent the better part of a year without being able to record LPs. That meant no new Exotica CDs for sale on my site and no new music period to listen to and share.

But this week, I am back in business. I have everything repaired and can start back on this long term project. I have continued to buy records of course. And there is now an even bigger pile to be converted. I had plenty already.

It’s a pretty time consuming job. The first step is the hardest. You have to match your stereo output to the computer input to get the levels nice and hot, but not too hot. Once that is dialed in, you can then record the record. Once the record is recorded, you need to edit each side into tracks. And usually there are pops and noise to edit out of those songs. I do it manually. None of the automatic filters works well to me. They mess with the whole sound. I just smooth out the bad pops. And then you type in the info and save the tracks. One album likely takes 2 1/2 hours to finish. Part of that is just starting the record and letting it record. Much of it is tedious work.

There is a clipping problem I still need to work out.

So, in celebration of my return to recording I am sharing this first LP. It’s a recent find that I have been playing a lot. I just love this old Hawaiian music.

Music of Old Hawaii by The Sons of Hawaii featuring Gabby Pahinui – London International – SW-99396

I only have side one recorded. It’s a busy weekend. I’ll get the rest to you sometime this weekend.

UPDATE: This weekend has turned out to be more hectic than I imagined. I woke up Sunday morning with a hang-over and strep. I also have a rush order on a puffer fish lamp. So, rather than wait to put this out until I can edit all the pops out of the songs, I am just putting the tracks out there. Forgive the noise. The link below has all the tracks in it.

Download it here

UPDATE: There is something funky about the recording. Maybe some skipping problem. I have been listening to the download here at work. I will have to investigate. The oddity of the way they play and sing on some songs just makes it sound crazy!