right this may seem like a bit of a daft question (and I am not sure where i would have been best posting this)...but to anyone who uses vinyl...what have you found to be the best method of cleaning your vinyl?

Also,does anyone have any tips on how to deal with scratches on your records ?(vinyl is going to play a big part whilst 'working')

answer! DONT!.... buy cds!

Seriously though an anti static brush should be fine for cleaning vinyl. Although you can t-cut scratches out of cds... I dont think there is anything you can do with scratched vinyl.

hehehehe...i would love to be able to use just CD's but I have too much vinyl to ignore...and there is something about vinyl which CD's just dont have...and when it comes to some of the older vinyl, the sound is much better than a CD(well somethimes anyway)...and its just good to look at as well.

I think I might need a bit more than an anti static brush for some of these though...

If an anti static dont cut the mustard, you could always try wiping them in a warm soapy water solution. Just be gentle and make sure you use a very soft cloth. The best way of course it to look after it properly.. keep those larger swilling party goers away!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I knew which path this thread was heading, right from the 2nd post. CD vs Vinyl...a debate that we'll have all the way up until 2009/2010, when production of new vinyl is Eco'd/Green'ed out of existance.

Vinyl 2010 PVC/VC update

Of course, people will still be able to play older vinyl, past that date. So knowing how to clean it will be important.

A calotherm impregnated cloth is a good remover of physical surface kak! (such cloths normally smell a bit like strong salt'n'vinegar.)

As for the alledged sound quality differences between CD's and vinyl - its nothing that an audience has ever spotted.

i agree...looking after it is the best policy...but sometimes one has to but records in not the best state from second hand shops (some real great bargins).

Now, I am sure that someone once told me that lighter fluid was alright to use (or maybe they said it was NOT alright to use it).

I guess that some sort of alcohol (not beer ) based liquid would be good for it...and a detergent for getting the grease off...

maybe a bit of saliva and the tee-shirt i am wearing is a solution

LIGHTER FLUID...... SERIOUSLY? I bet mr health and safety man would love you if you did that.... you would have to be 100% certain that the residue had been totally cleaned off.... a mere trace could ignite!

and where would one buy a 'calotherm imprenated cloth' or indeed some'calotherm' (!!!????) to impregante a cloth with.

by the way...cheers for these suggestions, i felt like a bit of an ar$e asking the question...a dj should really know the answer

it might be dangerous, but it would look quite impressive...until it came to peeling your burnt vinyl off the turntables

...a whole new meaning to burning the house down!

Dont worry about asking any questions...... we are pleased to help with what we can..... remember, this is a dj forum and there isnt one dj on here that knows everything there is to know about dj-ing!

nice one...cheers

.......except gary!! No he is a wise old boy! Knows a hell of a lot.... but he still learns like the rest of us!

I just tried a test with CD lens cleaning fluid on some old vinyl thats been lying around in the garage for a couple of years & it removed muck brilliantly.

Obviously, if you're going to try it for yourself, choose a piece of vinyl that you wouldn't be upset about losing, and wipe it off immediatly.

The cleaner I used contains "isopropyl alchohol". Obviously alchohol based but I've no idea what it really is. , but because it's alchohol based it evaporates and doesn't leave anything on the vinyl to catch fire.

As for scratches, I would have thought that there is nothing that can be done about them as vinyl relies on physical movement of the stylus and if you magnify the groove it looks like a mountain range. So if you smoothed the scratch out you would also smooth out the information in the groove.

What I've done with a lot of my vinyl that has tracks that I cannot easily find on CD is to create my own CD's using software that has filtering to remove hiss, crackles and pops etc. Any PC with a CD writer can do this.

Hope this gives some help to somebody.

I just tried a test with CD lens cleaning fluid on some old vinyl thats been lying around in the garage for a couple of years & it removed muck brilliantly.

Obviously, if you're going to try it for yourself, choose a piece of vinyl that you wouldn't be upset about losing, and wipe it off immediatly.

The cleaner I used contains "isopropyl alchohol". Obviously alchohol based but I've no idea what it really is. , but because it's alchohol based it evaporates and doesn't leave anything on the vinyl to catch fire.

As for scratches, I would have thought that there is nothing that can be done about them as vinyl relies on physical movement of the stylus and if you magnify the groove it looks like a mountain range. So if you smoothed the scratch out you would also smooth out the information in the groove.

What I've done with a lot of my vinyl that has tracks that I cannot easily find on CD is to create my own CD's using software that has filtering to remove hiss, crackles and pops etc. Any PC with a CD writer can do this.

Hope this gives some help to somebody.

Be careful when using some concentrations of isopropyl alchohol since it can attack and damage certain plastics. The fluid used to clean cd's should be okay, for obvious reasons,but be careful if you buy the alcohol from industrial sources!.

Well all I can say it that the virtues of fairy liquid are endless... and its cheap!

Once again I agree with Kazz on this one, warm soapy water lots of and a soft cloth, if that don't do it then it is probably beyond hope!

Just my 4d worth

Spin

My CD's fit nicely in the dishwasher where the saucers are meant to go

maybe i should buy a 'discwasher'....

Should really stop skimming through the forum posts

How about trying the Stanton vinyl cleaner kit.

Does he need to use 2nd hand lighter fluid for 2nd hand records?

I am a warm water with a little fairy, man meself