Care of records:  My record collection spans about 50 years, with nary
a click or a pop or (shudder), grinding on any recording.  I am appalled
at the way many people abuse records.  There is just no excuse.

I always, without fail, wipe each side of a record just before playing,
with a damp sponge.  A good O-Cello sponge is best.  Rinsed and wrung
out completely.  This will remove  dust, fingerprints, and static charge
off the record surface and keep your records like new for decades.

Records with damaged surfaces can be restored somewhat.  Wash the
surface with a solution of warm dishwashing liquid, being careful not
to soak old labels and damage them.  After you have removed years of
dirt, fingerprints, peanut butter and jelly, the occasional ham
sandwich, etc., rinse, dry, then apply Pledge spray wax.  Buff with
clean soft cloth.  Wipe with damp sponge to remove any lint.

I use my old faithful Powertracks 6 for recording to WAV files.  The
phono pickup plugs into a recording cassette deck, in this case, used
as a pre-amp, the output goes into the computer.

WAV files can be huge.  Just a short song can be around 35 MB, so
compression to MP3 is desirable.  I use winLAME rc2 for WAV to MP3.
It's a great program.

The trick to using MP3 compression is to not overcompress.  The lower
end is only 32 kbps, too low for most applications.  128 kbps is
supposed to be CD quality, however, I have found that a setting as
low as 40 kbps, joint stereo, will preserve all the music without
distortion.  If there is a lot of stuff going on in the music, I might
go to 48 kbps just to be sure.  I have listened carefully and it
really seems everything is captured nicely at these lower settings.

winLAME is freeware.  Homepage is at http://winlame.sourceforge.net/.

I can't vouch for the current version, as I'm using an earlier version.
I never upgrade - why fix it when it ain't broke?

Tom Lear
San Francisco