Vinyl Care
..although life has surface noise, I would like to contradict John Peel.
Crackling and background noises may be used with samples for hip hop records, for example to convey the feeling of authenticity or old school, personally we find these background noises and the crackling, especially in quiet passages of a classic record, to be annoying.
But where do these background noises actually come from? The answer is simple - dust, grease and dirt in the worst case scratches.
Dust that has stuck in the groove of the record for years, unfortunately magically attracted to your black gold, not only reduces listening pleasure, it also damages the record and the pickup and can irreversibly damage both. Even records that appear clean on the surface can be very dirty. There may also be dust in the record sleeves and so immediately contaminate a clean record. We therefore recommend that you never leave the records on the record player longer than necessary and put them back in the protective cover immediately after playing.
The "death" of every pickup - dust
This recording is intended to illustrate why crackling and background noises impair conscious music listening and why many music lovers use the compact disc.
Grease, for example fingerprints, or other deposits that stick to the surface of the plate. If there are grease or other deposits on your plates, then only wet cleaning or the use of gels will help.
Conclusion: Clean records for simple or heavy soiling:
Antistatic brushes, usually equipped with carbon or carbon fibers for simple soiling.
- rough cleaning before playing the record
- it is brushed with the grooves and without the use of water or other liquids
- to remove dust
- a must have!
Microfiber cloth and cleaning fluids
- suitable for removing grease, eg fingerprints
Wood glue and gels
- Deep cleaning of the groove
Vinyl record washers
- particularly suitable for large record collections
- less time-consuming compared to care with gels
- most convenient and effective way to remove dirt