Record-playing Rituals?

First I wash my hands and get the water temperture just luke warm then I use dilluted non-phosphate bio degradible green friendly liquid castle soap. I really like the Lilac diluted to about 63 parts water to 1 of soap. I use the pads of my fingers and wash with a circular groove flowing motion under a slow stream of water going across the record. I do the same for side two before laying the record down on a fresh soft egyptian cotton terry cloth towel on the velour side fold the towel over and pat dry softly.

At my turntable I have the same type of towel rolled for a quick dust if needed before play.

Listening to U2 Blood Red Sky Island Mini LP Vinyl

Groovey Records

I don't know about you guys but I use a drop of dish washer liquid and a wet paper towel. Then I rinse with warm water and stand the record on its side to air dry. Dirty record come out super clean. It still have some snaps now and then. So then I say Hare Krisna Hally Rama and give the mother a spin and hope for the best

Chazzbo - Mikey Fremer is talking about a reverse osomosis system NOT laboratory (a.k.a. pharmaceutical) grade water. To purify the water some people will put the same water repeatedly through the RO process 5 or 6 times to remove impurities. Very weird but OK (I guess) if you have the time.

EVERYONE - you simply MUST try STEAM cleaning! No matter what system you use - even if it is dish soap, dishwasher soap, or a "let dry & peel" technique. Steaming, with the best water you can get, is for EVERYONE and does a wonderful "finish" job as well. The Egyptian cotton terri cloth for drying is a really nice added touch too! However a common wooden dish rack will work nicely as well. For those that worship at the altar of self-appointed Pooh-bah and vinyl techno-Shaman Mikey Fremer, steaming is one of the things he wants the purist water for (as well as mixing). But REMEMBER, Mikey did NOT discover steam cleaning LPs - Charlie Rehm DID!

AS FOR EVERY TIME I PLAY A RECORD - jury is still out on the minimalist approach but carbon LP brush and a stylus brush swipe seem necessary. HOWEVER, reducing static (which is level dependent upon Relative Humidity) is a biggie but I still need to perform empirical testing with measurable data to be certain what is easiest yet very effective.

Jimi,

What would you say is a good humidity for the home in general
I have lots of books and wooden guitars plus those records of mine.

The house is all wood with forced water radient heat under wood planks combined with forced water base boards.

I'm keeping the upstairs loft @ about 45 -50% humidity and about 65 deg where the guitars are kept The loft looks out on a cathedral pine clapboard ceiling peaking at 40 ' .
All together It's a very big room with open space about 1400 sft, I have another humidifier in the L shaped living listening area downstairs. In the winter it often goes below zero outside and as far down as 40 below sucking all the moisture out of the air.

I know humidity affects static as well as mold whadayathink would be good

Thanks
Groovey

ps I saw Jimi a few times' First time on MacDougal St in NYC at the Cafe Wha? Jimi James and the Flames in the daytime drinking dayglo mountain dew Not necessarily stoned just beautiful.

Listening to Stevie Wonder-Fullfillingness' First Finale-Mowtown 2-47075
Spanish Vinyl

Where you are at - 45-55% RH in the entire home is fine for guitars, books, wood, etc. 30% is very low and HUGE static problems arise as well as drying out pretty much everything. Above 70% is just too moist and you may start having mold & moisture problems but probably need 75%+ for that.

So given the largess of you environment it sounds like you are doing GREAT to keep it at 45% RH during the winter (overall). HOWEVER...55-65% in the small area around your turntable area is ideal. I find below 55% RH things start to sound worse due to static build-up and a bit of a drying of other things in the vinyl playback chain.

BEAR IN MIND THOUGH that this is done to mitigate static so at 50-55% RH you can do fine WITHOUT local humidification BUT you need to mitigate static charge build-up. I am trying to investigate this as we head into the winter months. This is why I started a thread inquiring about the NEW Dust Bug performance.

Bear in mind that there are several factors involved - turntable drive type, platter material, platter finish, mat material and vinyl cleaning methods and products used. So this is why everyone has varying degrees of the impact of this problem. Unfortunately my TT materials are pretty bad from a triboelectric perspective so I need to figure out what mitigation options are optimal. Right now I am using local humidity and ionic treatment to keep the problem in check. Humidity has a host of ancillary benefits so it's not a bad way to do it but it's always best to identify all the "static generators" in any system set-up.