on 
on 
on 
on 
Classic ISKCON Vinyl – Vrindavana LP from France and/or Holland
Classic ISKCON Vinyl – Srila Prabhupada’s Krsna Meditation Double LP
Classic ISKCON Vinyl – Hare Krsna Festival 7″ (HKR-2003)
Classic ISKCON Vinyl – Hare Krsna Festival 7″ (HKR-2002)
Classic ISKCON Vinyl – Hare Krsna Festival 7″ (HKR-2001)
Classic ISKCON Vinyl – Srila Prabhupada’s Govinda LP
Classic ISKCON Vinyl – Acyutananda Swami’s India LPRedoing my entire Classic ISKCON Music collection
As you do things you care about, you get better at doing them. This certainly the case with how I digitally “preserved” my classic ISKCON vinyl and tapes. This practice involves recording the records or tapes with your computer and “ripping” them to a digital audio file (like WAV or MP3). Then, I had limited knowledge, resources, disk space and time. Some of that has changed.
I’m a bit more knowledgeable when it comes to preserving audio. Before I was kind of almost good enough. Honestly, it was the best I could do at the time, but it’s lacking in several areas. For one, I lost the original WAV files. I had only MP3s encoded at a 192kbps, which is almost alright, but is slowly becoming the low-end of almost alright.
My equipment has also been majorly upgraded. Before, I was using a plastic novelty turntable which was great for casual listening, but for anything more I would need to forge ahead. That’s what I did. Nowadays, I’ve got an Audio-Technica PL-120 (the poor man’s Technics SL-1200 series). The Audio-Technica PL-120 comes with a built in phono preamp, but something wasn’t right with it (has to do with messed up waveforms – don’t worry about it). I got myself a pretty decent TCC TC-750LC. It’s quite an improvement. And instead of my computer’s very iffy soundcard, I now use an Roland Edirol UA-1EX USB external soundcard.
Is there room for improvement? I’ll eventually pick up a Shure M97xE cartridge (needle, etc). But what I have now is much better than just good enough and that’s what I was shooting for.
On the software end, I used to use Cool Edit Pro – it’s a very good program that’s since been bought and replaced by Adobe (I haven’t used it, so can’t really comment on Adobe’s program). For this new project, I’ve decided to exclusively use the Linux operating system. Cool Edit (or whatever it’s called now) is expensive. Most things for Linux are free. I am using Audacity, a free audio software program that allows me to record, mix, edit and slightly repair audio files. It’s definitely more limited than Cool Edit Pro, but it does everything I need.
Another area where I’ve become more aware is how to handle, store, clean and play records. If they are cleaned, dusted and destaticed there will be very few pops and crackles. This is much more desirable than fixing it digitally. The better the source file, the better the end result.
When I did this before, I saved them as very low quality MP3s. MP3 is the accepted format, so I’ll definitely offer them again. This time they’ll be in 320kbps, high quality MP3s (the highest quality). I’ll also be offering them as “lossless” FLAC files. Most folks won’t care and the MP3s will be perfect for almost everyone, but for those who like FLAC, that’s what you’ll get.
I’m also rescanning the album covers and labels. Before, I scanned at a low quality, chopping off part of the cover or took a shaky picture with a crappy camera. Now, I’ll be scanning the entire cover (which requires four different scans to get the whole thing), back and front (so, eight scans). This is also done in Linux. I’m using Xsane for scanning and GIMP (a photoshop knockoff) put the four pieces together seamlessly.
All the software, including the operating system, is free and the results are every bit as good as I could do in Windows or Mac. This offsets the cost of equipment and records, you know, sort of.
I’ve just started, but I’ll be posting albums as often as possible. As for the tapes, I need a decent tape deck, which don’t seem to exist anymore. We’ll see how that works out.
The first album will be Temple Radha Krishna on the French Hare Krishna label Production Parampara. It was their first of at least three releases. It features Srila Prabhupada, Acyutananda Swami, Bhagavan dasa and Yogesvara dasa. Temple Radha Krishna is one of my favorite records and it’s great to come back to it. The results are obvious and I’m very pleased with it.
Check out the difference for yourself. Here is Acyutananda Swami doing “Kesava Kali Mala.” First, the old version…
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
And now, the newly reripped version…
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Keep in mind that with the new versions, I didn’t touch the EQ. The sound, for better or for worse, is exactly like it was on the original vinyl LP. Who knows what I did to the old version. I probably ran it through some noise filter and some thing to take out pops and clicks, which took out parts of the kartalas too.
So get ready, every Classic ISKCON Record I own will be reripped to digital and posted here. I might post one every Ekadasi or something, but I’ll probably just post them as I do them. Why wait?
The first record will be Temple Radha Krishna, but if you want to suggest the next record that I do, feel free to suggest one. Here’s the list to choose from. Eventually the whole Classic ISKCON Music site will be incorporated into SitProperly.com. Give me some time.
Related posts:
08/20/2009 at 10:45 am
I truly regret that I used a very basic ION turntable from Radioshack to transfer all my vinyl to digital–(all my records now sit in various New Orleans thrift shops) the sound quality is inferior, to say the least. The turntable did come with Audacity software, but I guess I’m too much of a dinosaur to figure out how to use it. Again, you get what you pay for.
Oh, and this posting makes me even more anxious to contribute my two Classic ISKCON records (singles) to your collection–moving into our Ballard basement apt on Labor Day!
[Reply]
eric
Reply:
August 20th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
YES! I totally forgot about those! I would love to add at least the sound files to my collection. I can understand not wanting to part with them, but at least let me clean them and preserve them as best I can.
The ION turntable is good for what it is. A lot of it has to do with the records themselves. Audacity is nice, but sort of clunky on Windows. Probably clunky on linux too, but it’s easy to use and I just use it for recording.
I found a pop/hiss wav file cleaner for Linux that works REALLY well. Gnome Wave Cleaner. I think I’ll add it to my regimen.
The record I’m putting up on Saturday didn’t really need it, but the one I recorded today… wow… so bad. It really benefited from the software. Though it’s still pretty crackly.
I blather on.
[Reply]
08/20/2009 at 3:39 pm
Eric, thanks for taking the time and trouble of preserving and sharing these priceless recordings. I didn’t know Audio-Technica even made turntables, then again, I don’t have any vinyl so why should I? Looks like a wise choice to go with a better turntable with line-out level, rather than an all in one USB version. Offering high quality mp3 and lossless versions is also very much appreciated.
Why, oh why won’t the BBT do the same with audio of Srila Prabhupada? It’s infuriating! Krishna Meditations at less than voice quality mp3, what were they thinking? Worst of all is what they did to the lectures. Poor quality, high compression mp3’s of low quality recordings.
On top of that, and this really annoys me, they used, what sounds like digital “gating” in an uninformed attempt to get rid of tape hiss. You don’t do that to spoken word. It’s something you do when there’s some other sound, usually music, to mask the incredibly noticeable audio drop-outs. To “gate” these lectures was extremely poor audio engineering and just plain dumb. If they didn’t know how to transfer the tapes properly, that’s fine, pay a professional archiving facility. Instead, they paid themselves to mutilate them. Grrrrr! OK. Rant over.
[Reply]
eric
Reply:
August 20th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
It’s very very infuriating what the BBT and Archives have done to the digital files. I just hope to god that they have the source files. Sometimes I doubt it, but nobody is that irresponsible.
The lectures are listenable and I think that’s what they were going for. They (hopefully) have the high quality versions squirreled away somewhere. And like any museum, we don’t have access to them.
For voice, you don’t need huge mp3 files. 128 should actually do it. But they did 32 first and then upped it a bit to 64, no? Still horrible, but listenable. The gate thing drives me insane.
The facility I have isn’t perfect, but I think it’ll be better than what they’re doing (though not better than what they could do).
[Reply]
08/20/2009 at 3:43 pm
Hey, I just noticed, we have little Tux’s after our names. Mac users have the Apple logo and Microsoft users have….well you know….whatever the hell that is…..oh yeah….it’s a…..window…..whoop-de-doo!
And if that wasn’t cool enough, the individual web browsers are shown. I notice mine looks like a little red face with a big nose. For anyone interested, it’s the Shiretoko version of Firefox 3.5 and not a picture of me.
[Reply]
eric
Reply:
August 20th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Ubuntu and Debian get their own logos, but any other linux is just plopped onto tux. As for the browsers, I’m using Flock, but it’s coming up as an out of date Firefox.
What is Shiretoko? Is it some Tolkien thing?
[Reply]
Dwija
Reply:
August 21st, 2009 at 6:20 pm
I figured out that the big nose red face thing is actually the Mozilla dinosaur. Yes, Shiretoko is the lesser known Shire, famous for: http://www.tokous.com/NordicMain.htm
It is also Firefox 3.5 for Linux Mint that has some improvements on Firefox 3.0. You have to download it for now because it doesn’t come with Gloria. It also doesn’t update Firefox but adds another version, Shiretoko, that you can set as the default browser.
[Reply]
eric
Reply:
August 21st, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Well, I do love simplicity and performance in both my hobbits and my web browsers.
I also have Firefox 3.5, but it’s not a Shire-based browser. Just the regular ol’ resources hogging Firefox.
Mostly, I use Flock though.
[Reply]
08/21/2009 at 7:53 am
i’m afraid i don’t have all the techy geek knowledge of you two. i recognised roland (yay) and shure (again yay!) i’ve listened to both a few times, and definitely like the new one better. a big yay you for doing this!!!
[Reply]
eric
Reply:
August 21st, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Thanks! This first album was really easy as it was super clean and pretty much unplayed. I’m doing another album now and it’s mega scratched up. There’s no way to remove all of the scratches, but It’s not bad.
Somewhere you suggested that I do Vrndavana next. I think I shall. I have two different Vrndavana albums (same recordings), so if one is scratchy, I can use the other one. The same goes for Srila Prabhupada’s Govinda LP, which I’ll do soonly.
De-clicking/popping the songs takes a really long time. I spent five hours on one song (it was heavily crackly). Some folks take out the pops, etc automatically, but I’ve found that it sounds much better if you do it manually. Though it apparently takes about an per minute of music. The second song that I did, also five minutes long, took about an hour. It was less scratchy.
I actually feel like I’m doing some sort of service. Pretty neat, huh?
Now… how much am I getting paid?
[Reply]
Alan
Reply:
August 23rd, 2009 at 9:10 am
Spiritual dollars, Eric—can’t spend those here.
Seriously, thanks for your service.
[Reply]
eric
Reply:
August 23rd, 2009 at 10:35 am
But don’t all services get cash money? Even direct service to the deities? That’s why Prabhupada came to America, right?
Mo’ money.
[Reply]
11/01/2009 at 7:01 am
Eric prabhu, I see you are missing the ISKCON BBT LP entitled “Mayapur”. It looks similar to INDIA (Acyutananda Swami) in design, and has two tracks (one each side) of “Live Recordings of a Hare Krishna festival”. The label says GEMA, RKP-1006. It is produced in Sweden. There is no date info, but I am sure it was released in the mid-70´s, just as the INDIA and “HARE KRISHNA FESTIVAL” LP´s.
Do you have this album? I have it here myself.
[Reply]
eric
Reply:
November 1st, 2009 at 8:00 am
Haribol!
I don’t have it. I’m not even sure I’ve ever heard of it. Thanks! So that’s Radha Krisna Productions #6. Wonderful! Now I just have to find it for myself.
Thank you very much!
[Reply]