I used to have a pretty beefy record collection. It certainly wasn’t the kind of impressive mass of vinyl that some DJ friends of mine have — the kind that requires specific insurance or an additional room in my house — but it was a couple thousand pieces, a decent collection by non-DJ, everyday-music-fan standards.

A few years ago, I sold off most of it. I had a fair amount of doubles, and a lot of stuff that I had also managed to collect on CD or digitally, plus plenty of shit that I thought was cool when I bought it, or that was purchased for some long-forgotten specific reason. I finally hit a phase of my life where less was more and I was purging a lot, so I poured through all the records and set aside a couple hundred pieces that I swore I would take to my grave, and put the rest up for sale. I let some DJ friends have first pick of the for-sale batch, and dumped the rest on Amoeba. I walked away with a tidy little stack of cash, a huge weight lifted (figuratively and literally), and a slimmed down, quality controlled collection — a few crates of nothing but greats.

Sadly, my record collection has continued to collect dust due to several reasons: accommodations (no room for records in the living room where the nice record player and stereo system are), life situations (fatherhood, and a girlfriend and baby daughter who aren’t necessarily always as interested as I might be in sitting around and listening to records), and scheduling issues (I’m fucking busy). Then, a couple months ago, someone I follow on Twitter posted a link to Woot.com, where the deal of the day was an Ion iPTUSB, a.k.a. the “portable vinyl-archiving turntable,” for a mere $50 (MSRP is $120, you can find ‘em online for $80 to $100). ‘Shit, at that price,’ I thought, ‘I can’t afford NOT to get it!’ So I pulled the trigger.

Ion’s iPTUSB has a pretty basic feature set: The top face contains a switch for 33, 45 and 78 record speeds, a +/- 10% Pitch knob, Low / High Tone knob, and a knob marked Audio that controls the volume; there’s a single 2″ speaker for monitoring, as well as RCA audio outs, and 1/8″ and 1/4″ headphone jacks, plus the USB port with an accompanying Gain knob for fine control of the audio being sent out over the USB connection. There’s also a handy little Line In 1/8″ jack that allows or the piggybacking of another audio source — cassette, AM/FM radio, etc. — for digital conversion of additional media types. The unit’s top case attaches via two hooks on the back and a slide lock on the front; it’s not bullet proof, but it’s fine for basic turntable protection…as long as you don’t have to use the iPTUSB as a step-stool, or beat a potential crook off of your record collection with it.

The entire surface of the player measures just over 11″ x 11″, so with the lid on, it fits on a shelf designed to hold records. With the lid off, a playing record actually hangs off the side — due to the room taken up on the top face by the tone arm, the speaker and the audio controls — but is supported by soft felt covered bumpers that keep everything level and steady. The turntable’s main power source is an included DC plug, but it also runs on six D batteries, so if you’re one of those serious diggin’-in-the-crates guys, you can take the iPTUSB with you and try-before-you-buy at the record store.

Basic setup on the iPTUSB is bonehead easy: Plug in the turntable’s DC power supply, connect it to your computer (Mac or PC; in my case, it’s hooked up to the desktop PC in my modest home studio) via the included USB cable, and install one or both software options that come with the turntable: EZ Vinyl or Audacity. I already had Audacity on my PC, so I left it at that. Follow the setup and troubleshooting instructions — there’s an easy one-step fix to some common wonkiness with the audio codec / driver — and you’re off.

The only problem I had initially was that, while Audacity was picking up the audio input from the iPTUSB just fine, and the built-in speaker and/or headphone jack on the turntable allowed me to hear what I was recording, I was unable to monitor the true fidelity of mix from the PC. When I’m sampling or, in many cases straight-up ripping audio, I like to hear what I’m getting at the destination point. I couldn’t make that happen, but I found that the latency between the iPTUSB and Audacity is negligible, so I was willing to settle for a monitoring solution that at least gave me full sound AND the freedom of mobility as I converted records to digital…or at the very least, just a way to simply listen to records in the lab.

I hit up my local pro audio shop and picked up an RCA-to-quarter-inch cable, which I used to connect the RCA audio-outs on the iPTUSB to one of the quarter-inch stereo-in sets on my mixing board, a Phonic Helix 18 Firewire, which opened up a few nice options:

1. as I mentioned, the USB connection from the turntable to the computer does not allow me to monitor the mix at the destination point (i.e. the sound as it is being recorded on the PC), and the tiny built-in speaker is really flat- and small-sounding, so this setup allows me to hear the full spectrum of what I’m ripping without being tethered to the immediate area by headphones;
2. it also allows me to use the iPTUSB as a source for vinyl sampling, because the Helix 18 board also happens to be my PC’s default soundcard, so when I’m working in Ableton Live or Cubase (which, for whatever reason, will not recognize the iPTUSB’s USB connection as a valid Line In), I just set the DAW’s audio input to the stereo in channels from the mixing board and, voila, I’m jackin’ for beats;
3. and finally, because the studio monitors — a pair of Mackie MR-5s — are connected to the main audio outs on the Helix board, it allows me to just listen to records in the lab, even if the computer is off, because, though the mixing board is the computer’s default audio source, it can also run completely independently from the PC.

Ultimately, the iPTUSB is way more versatile than I expected it to be, and I can’t complain about the sound quality. What was initially a rash purchase intended only for the conversion of vinyl to a more portable and convenient digital format, has become a catalyst for renewed interest in my trusty dusty record collection…not to mention a wealth of new sampling opportunity.

Here are a few favorite gems I’ve rediscovered recently and ripped to digital so you can hear some examples of the iPTUSB’s output…

Bud Powell, “Idaho,” Bud! (Blue Note, 1957)

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This record is among my most prized musical possessions. An original pressing bought brand new by my mom in 1957, it’s a bit scratchy, but still in great shape. Powell is on piano, with Curtis Fuller on trombone, Paul Chambers on bass and Art Taylor on drums. This is easily my favorite release from one of my favorite jazz pianists, and though this record was a rarity for a long time, it was reissued on CD by Blue Note in 2002.

Golden, “Titeshock,” Super Original Movement (Slowdime, 1999)

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I bought this record (and a few others) from the band at a show The Blue Room Theater in Chico, CA in 1999, and forgot how much I love it. Originally formed at Oberlin College in Ohio in 1993, Golden was a supergroup before any of the band members went on to big indie cred fame. Members included recording engineer and guitarist Phil Manley (Trans AM, The Fucking Champs) and drummer Jon Theodore (Royal Trux, The Mars Volta), as well as Ian Eagleson and Alex Minoff who are now half of the band Extra Golden.

The Beatnuts, “40 Oz.” 12″ (n/a, 1995)

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This track is off the B-side of a white label 12″ for the song “Fluid,” a sorta hard-to-find record that wasn’t officially released on any label. This poppin’ little ditty rides on a sample from “Ekim” by the Michal Urbaniak Group — made famous by A Tribe Called Quest on “Steve Biko (Stir It Up)” — backed by a big boombastic kick drum, and the whole thing is absolutely murdered by JuJu & Psycho Les on the mic. The “Fluid” 12″ ranks among my top favorite rap music 12″s.

*All audio files ripped straight from the iPTUSB into Audacity and exported to 192k mp3 files with no additional effects applied.

In this TED video, Razorfish ad exec & veteran rock climber Matthew Childs imparts 9 Life Lessons from his rock climbing experiences. Each of them is totally applicable to everyday life.

My favorite… Rule #6: Fear Sucks. Here why: “…because you’re not of focusing on what you’re doing, you’re focusing on the consequences of failing at what you’re doing.” I’ve never heard it put so succinctly. Keep your eye on the ball, kid. Nothing else matters.

I’m generally pretty willing to tell a sickly-sweet positive individual to take their PMA and shove it up their ass. No one can be all smiles all the time, and I always wonder what deep dark evil secrets those kinds of people are hiding. But these days, when there’s so much negativity and bullshit and bad news everywhere all the time — layoffs and pay cuts and lopsided compensation and turmoil and strife and pain — I can’t knock the power of a positive mental attitude. Sometimes it’s the only thing I have to fall back on. But I’m not a shiny happy person by nature, and I usually need a little help with the whole sunny outlook thing.

Thankfully, one of my favorite soul/pop gems from the 1970s is usually all I need: William DeVaughn’s “Be Thankful For What You Got.” If it doesn’t put me in a good mood, it’ll at least neutralize whatever shit attitude I happen to be mired in by serving as a simple reminder that things could be much worse — and for a lot of people, things are much worse.

There’s just something sublimely sunny about the song’s deep groove, mellow swaggering pace, funky rolling bass line and gospel style organ swell, backing one of the greatest lyrical refrains ever — pretty much a winner every time.

“Diamond in the back, sunroof top, diggin’ the scene with a gangster lean…” yeah…

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