I have at long last begun the process of digitally recording our LPs on to CDs. It’s going to be a long haul; I estimate there are a good 200 LPs to be done.
I’ll begin with a few general observations on our LP collection. About three-quarters of the LPs originally belonged to my husband (who had a head start on me, and like many performers I’ve never been a great collector of recorded music). For obvious reasons none of the recordings are later than the mid-1980’s. As we were both building up a basic collection of standard repertoire the musical taste of the collection is not very adventurous and 20th-century works in particular are under-represented. Recordings of earlier music are not necessarily historically informed! It would be interesting (though I don’t think I have the time) to work out how many of these recordings are still in the catalogue. There are a lot of Melodiya and Supraphon discs which I suspect are unavailable now. There is very little opera, but a few boxed sets of other works and composers.
I’ll be posting updates here after each batch. I’m noting various pieces of information about each recording as I go: as well as details of work and performers, the label and number, date and place of recording (where given).
A technical note: I’m using an ART USB Phono Plus V2 preamp and (at least for recording;we’re getting some advice on editing) PolderbitS software.
Remind me, when are CDs due to become obsolete?
We’ll meet here again in five years’ time and see what the situation is. I’m not sure that the format which will eventually replace CDs exists yet. My immediate concern is to make digital versions of the LPs and I’m not going to use a lossy format like MP3.