What do I do with those big, black CD's?
 

I recently got a record player and a bunch of records (mostly 78's), but, being 19, I'm terribly unfamiliar with them and I was hoping I could get some advice. How do you clean a record? Can scratches be repaired? Also, is there a good way to record the music from records onto another, less fragile medium? Any other things I should know to avoid destroying them through sheer ignorance?

I just use a swiffer cloth to very gently get the dust off. Other than that, I just leave em alone. There's no easy way to fix scratches that I know of so be careful what you buy.

To clean a record the right way you need a special brush. You can get it at any audio shop. You clean it by doing the OPPOSITE of CD cleaning - go in circles, following the grooves. Otherwise, you'll scratch the grooves (btw, record grooves are where "groovy" came from). Store records vertically, not stacked, otherwise the grooves in the lower records get flattened out. Test the needle on the record player on a record you don't care about first. If it's bad, you don't wanna wreck a good record. If it's bad, you need a needle cartridge. This is a REAL dicey area - you can easilly pay $400 and more for a single needle. You need to find the balance of affordability and sound quality - the really cheap ones will make your records sound a lot worse than more expensive ones.

It's pretty easy to record from record player to another source. Plug the record player into the PHONO plug on the back of your stereo receiver. You can now record on tape, CDR, minidisc, or whatever else you have plugged in. What I generally do, since my receiver is hooked into my computer, is run the record player through the receiver, record to mp3 files, then compile them on a CDR.

If you want to record them, do it quickly. Every time you play a record you wear it out a little bit. Records don't sound nearly as good on even the 10th spin as they do new.

You'll also have to learn to walk softly unless your player is shock mounted, because players don't have anti-skip ;)

$400? Sam Goody still has them for $15 around here.

One of my friends uses an old Bon Jovi record for testing new needles :) His copy of footloose got too badly worn to be able to test needles, so he M-80'ed it.

for $400 you might as well buy a new player

record players kickass.. I love the sound I can get off my parent's record player and old Don MClean albums..

Remember to keep the needle up, never keep the arm and needle down resting on a record when it's not in use, and dont let it keep running after the record is done (when it hits the paper circle at the center

you can record onto anything, because in the end its just an audio input.. I archived alot of old records onto CDR, but since CD doesnt have the depth that record players offered, it wont sound as good. I know it sounds strange, but the best recording you can get is recording records onto VHS

shakran is correct, I still have a brush- it's made by a company named disc cleaner. It comes with a bottle of fluid. He is also correct that you clean with the grooves and not against them like a cd. The easiest way is just to put the record on the turntable and power it at the 33 setting. Put a few drops on the edge of the brush and smooth the solution on with the edge of the bottle.
set the brush down on the record and let the turntable do the work. Like I said, go with the grooves.
Man, this is weird to think some people have never used a turntable! I am old!