Shops help preserve the music.

Byline: Lewis Taylor The Register-Guard

The process of turning old records into new CDs is getting easier.

As long as you're willing to part with some cash.

House of Records is one of several local businesses that will convert albums into discs. Provided the record is out of print, the Eugene store will burn a copy for $15. And, for an extra $3, they'll even reproduce the cover art.

Owner Gary Haller, who began offering the service roughly six months ago, said he fills several requests a week.

"There's just a lot of people that don't have turntables anymore. There's a lot of product that's not available at all now on LP."

Some turn to Haller to preserve rare recordings, or to save a favorite record that's been worn thin from over-playing. Some are hoping to listen to an album on their car CD player, and there are customers requesting dupes of hard-to-find records to give as gifts.

Along with records, people also are looking to copy cassette tapes, mixed tapes and old band demos, buyer Raenie Kane said.

"It's been fun," Kane said, referring to the compost of old recordings that come across the counter. "It's just a really mixed bag of really interesting stuff."

Before the advent of CDs, House of Records performed the same record-copying service, only with cassette tapes. At one time, the store received so many requests for cassette copies of the Peter, Paul & Mary tune "The Wedding Song" that they kept a copy of the record at the front desk.

So far no record has emerged as the most commonly burned CD, Kane said.

Good or bad, it's burnable

Cat's Meow Jazz and Blues also will burn CDs. Owner Jeffry Ogburn charges $10. He'll even make copies of records he doesn't like, he said jokingly.

Cat's Meow has the same policy of burning only out-of-print records.

"If somebody comes in and says Nat King Cole's `Jazz Encounters' is out of print, if (they) can get a copy of it, I'll burn a copy," Ogburn said.

To avoid the wrath of the record companies, Haller and Ogburn take a fairly strict reading of the copyright laws. In contrast, Charles Bard, owner of Play It Again CDs, will burn a copy of almost any record you can bring him.

Bard charges $15 and makes customers sign a release form acknowledging that they are the original owners of the record being duplicated and won't, say, be selling copies at the next Saturday Market.

Even though the cost of buying a CD copy is about the same as buying a new CD, Bard says the quality of the dupe sometimes can exceed the one you'd find at a music store.

"The record engineers and technicians back in those days knew what it took to make a record sound good," Bard said. "When they went to make a CD from the old master tapes, they didn't necessarily take the time or effort to maintain the same quality.

`That's why, over the years, they've reissued a lot of stuff, because they've realized, `This stuff could have been done better.' '

Bard, a record collector who runs his CD-burning business out of his own home, got into the game after transferring his own vinyl collection onto CDs. He spent about $700 outfitting his computer with additional software and taught himself how to make the transfers.

Using a turntable hooked up to his computer, he converts the music into digital files and cleans up the pops, clicks and other imperfections. He then reconfigures the songs and burns them onto a CD.

Haller uses a similar process for his House of Records customers, while Ogburn goes straight from record player to disc recorder (hence the $5 discount at Cat's Meow).

Heirloom recordings popular

Those who are looking for audio perfection can turn to any of the professional recording studios in town and find engineers who will gladly perform the service, most of them for regular studio rates ($40 to $100 an hour).

Don Ross, owner of Don Ross Productions, says he gets more requests for CD copies of old family heirloom recordings - mom singing a recital, grandpa playing in his jazz band - than he does for old LPs. For strict record-to-CD transfers, he offers a reduced rate from his normal charge of $85 an hour.

Because record-to-CD transfers require a lot of "real time" work, the cost of converting an entire collection to CDs at a recording studio quickly can spiral into the thousands of dollars. And even the cheaper services add up quickly when you're talking hundreds of records.

For anyone with a large collection, Ross recommends another option: Do it yourself.

"For people who have more time than money, that's the ticket," Ross said. "An old friend of mine just did that.

`He figured he had, like, 300 or 400 records, and this guy's a retired guy. I suggested, `Hey, well you've probably got a lot of time, so go at it.' '