Turntable setup

Use a professional direct drive turntable that allows you to adjust its features for the best performance. Keep your turntable away from your computer and monitor as the tiny magnets in your stylus may be affected by the magnetic field surrounding your computer and monitor. Check your pitch is set to zero.

Tonearm & platter
On the turntable platter, if you have a rubber slipmat then use it to ensure the record doesn't slip and spins at a constant speed.

To set up a perfectly weighted and balanced tonearm for recording purposes, you are aiming to get the tonearm in a perfectly horizontal position. First place a record onto the turntable and place the needle onto the record. If your turntable allows, adjust the height of the tonearm so its horizontal.

Cartridge and stylus
Its important to use a stylus that will give you the most faithful reproduction of the music. We recommend you use a Shure cartridge and stylus. Buy or borrow from a friend the best quality stylus possible. Clean the cartridge and stylus removing any dust and dirt, there are stylus cleaning liquids and brushes available or you can use a dry cloth. Saliva is not a cleaning solution and using it will result in your stylus picking up extra dirt.

Here is how to correctly adjust the counter weight: Twist the counter weight on your tonearm until you get the tonearm almost floating, perfectly level, with the stylus tip at the level of the record's playing surface. Now hold your counter weight still and rotate just the dial until its reads zero. When it reads zero, slowly twist the counter weight until the dial reads 2.0. The numbers on the dial represent grams.

We used the Shure M44-7 stylus for archiving vinyl. The Shure website recommends an effective tracking force at the stylus tip of 1.5 - 3.0 grams. Check with the manufacture of your stylus for their recommended tracking weight.

Suitable counter weight settings in a club environment are usually between 3.0 and 5.0 grams as the extra force is needed to compensate for bass vibrations, scratching and when you back-cue.
This extra weight can have adverse effects on your sound quality when archiving so your usual settings may not be optimal.

Preparing your mixer

It's best to make all your recordings with flat EQ settings, extra EQ recorded now can't be subtracted later, so check the EQ dials are set to zero. If you want to record some mild EQ cuts or boost's then be cautious with amounts. Check the pan is centered.

Move the needle to a loud part of the record and tweak the input gain on your mixer and the input level adjustment knob on Scratch LIVE making sure the signal is strong yet stays inside the green LED area, if the signal is occasionally hitting the yellow area thats fine but if the signal goes into the red you will get digital clipping and you will need to start the recording again. For more information check out this article on gain structure in general.

Monitor the signal using your headphones, turn off your monitors as the vibrations from them will effect what the stylus picks up.

Recording

If your using the TTM 57SL change the recording input to 'a pre' inside Scratch LIVE.

If your using the SL 1 unit change the recording input to '1 in' inside Scratch LIVE.

With everything set-up it's time to start recording. The keyboard shortcut keys ctrl-n will turn record on and off in Scratch LIVE. Record one side of your vinyl, if it has multiple tracks you can edit it on your computer later into separate tracks. Name the recording and press enter to save.

Recordings are saved in "MyDocuments\MyMusic\SratchLIVE\Recording" on a PC and "~/Music/ScratchLIVE/Recording Temp" on a Mac. Recordings are saved as 16-bit, 44.1kHz, stereo AIFF files. If you are using the Rane MP4 recordings are saved as 24-bit, 48kHz, stereo AIFF files.

After recording a record always store your vinyl in a vertical position. If you leave it lying horizontal with weight on-top it will start to warp.