LIZ CRO

Hand-made and hand-painted tiles by my dearest friend Liz Cro

(from Penzance, Cornwall). I just love these tiles!

Beautiful Christmas

Recently Bruno and myself did some work for our friend Vinny Vero, who was asked by Pet Shop Boys to remix the song Beautiful People from their album Yes. His mixes were to be included on a limited single, but due to scheduling conflicts they did not make it onto the final track listing.

Vinny has now posted them in his blog So Hip It Hurts, in a package he and I art directed together, with final mastering done by Bruno.

Please to enjoy. :)

A Message From Bruno

Several people have tracked down Bruno through clues dropped in these entries and asked him to work his magic on recordings by _______. He's asked me to post this on his behalf:

"Can this audience/bootleg recording/MP3 be fixed?"

The answer is no, nothing can be done to make muffled cassette/audience recordings sound professional. And if anyone is asking, the same goes for low bit-rate MP3s which sound like gurgling water. The reason is that when cleaning up a vinyl recording, all of the sonic information in hearing range is there: it may be littered in clicks, compressed, strangely EQd, etc., but it's all there. With vinyl, the sound degradation is caused by *added* noise. So, restoring a vinyl recording is really about selectively removing all the added noise, to reveal the details of the recording underneath. With cassettes, MP3s, etc., the problem isn't so much noise, but that the finer details simply aren't there to begin with.

Think of a vinyl recording as a large printed poster which is full of creases and scratches, and perhaps a bit faded on the edges. You can scan it into Photoshop, and using "smart blur", eliminate some of them, although you'll also introduce other problems. But if you're patient, you can carefully zoom in, and with a variety of tools at your disposal, carefully patch each little imperfection one at a time. It's tedious, but the results are as good as one can get without going back to the masters. In essence, this is what I do.

In contrast, the cassette and the MP3 are the aural equivalents of the Polaroid picture and the heavily-compressed JPG. They were created for convenience and not for quality. They sound the way they do because they are lacking so much. There is simply no way, no matter how skilled one is, to restore the details that these formats lose. Forget about plug-ins which claim to restore lost harmonics; all these do is add harmonics via distortion.

"________ is my favorite band! Will you help me restore all their singles?"

Unfortunately, I'm already swamped with projects I wish to complete. It takes time to do this right.... a lot of time. So much that it can only be done as a labour of love, and by someone with a lot of spare time. I have never given serious consideration to offering my services for hire, simply because I don't see how I could do so at a reasonable cost. Secondly, I have no idea how long it will take me to do any given piece until I finish it. It depends not just on the condition of the record, but also the type of sounds recorded, and the types of surface noise present. Some albums I have been able to start and complete in the course of an evening, whereas a recent project of mine took approximately 2 hours of work for every *minute* of music.

Finally, my main focus is for recordings for which the master tapes are likely lost or damaged, in particular for obscure disco and electronic recordings from the 70s which have also suffered the indignity of being pressed at a time when the standards for vinyl quality in North America were quite low. It's rare that I would do this sort of work for an act as prominent as New Order. Most of the original Factory UK pressings are stellar (with the Temptation 7" and Run 2 being exceptions), and it's likely that the masters for all of their material are accounted for... [just so you know, most of them are missing - £50] it just seems that their label was unwilling to look for them or use them when it came to the recent reissues. However, there are untold thousands upon thousands of recordings, many unjustly fading into total obscurity, for which the only remaining existence of is through the ever-shrinking pool of second-hand vinyl. These have always been, and remain, my focus.

Turning a bad thing into a good...

Just a few years ago, we all desired the biggest, brightest, high resolution CRT monitor money could buy. While they consumed most of our desk top, we covered them in post-it notes and learned the exact spot on the side to 'whack' when the picture wasn't quite right...

Then along came the CRT's greatest nemesis, the LCD flat screen. Suddenly, perfectly good working CRT monitors found themselves gathering dust in some forgotten part of the basement. Then there were more. And more. You get the picture (no pun intended) right?

In the 9 years we have been recycling electronics, we have seen the surplus monitor problem go from bad to extremely bad. In fact, you might be shocked to know how many of these have been made their way to the landfills already. Plus there are a LOT more in hiding.

So what's the solution? A dismantling facility just for computer monitors and television sets. In assembly line fashion the units are taken apart with plastic, boards, wire, steel and CRT tube all separated for recycling. There is not much scrap value- maybe a couple of bucks at best for the wire, steel and pc boards. The CRT tube has no scrap value. In fact it must be sent to an approved smelting facility to properly extract the silica glass and lead. Cost to do this averages around $2 for each CRT plus shipping, which adds an additional couple of dollars. Did I mention that you also need to pay your employees to take them apart?


As you can see the proper disposal of a CRT monitor or TV set is not just hazardous but expensive. Most legitimate recyclers charge around .35 cents per pound to process them which equates to about $10 for your average monitor. All things considered, its not a bad price to pay to keep them out of the landfills!

The Gold Rush-more ways to cash in?

Late night TV is littered with commercials encouraging you to trade your unwanted gold for cash, which I find a little amusing. First, I don't completely trust my $400 worth of gold to the US Postal Service- plus the price paid must certainly be a wholesale price...

In the electronics recycling business we are constantly searching for this precious metal in many forms as shown in the pic. Usually we sell the gold left on the part as  you see here; with gold prices high, you still make pretty good money doing it this way. However, most profitable way to sell the gold would be to remove it from the part, melt it down and sell it in it's purest form.

I toyed with doing this a few years ago and found that there are some serious tradeoffs in terms of safety and complexity. Gold is held in place one of two ways on the parts- it is either plated on another metal surface, or it is glued on a plastic or fiberglass (pc board) surface.  Before we go any further take note that removing gold in either case requires the use of some caustic chemicals. These chemicals cannot always be simply shipped to you without a permit and the local EPA might come snooping around to make sure you properly dispose of the chemicals when you're done with them.

With that said, you still stand to make more money from gold if you remove it from the part. Its a matter of setting up a properly ventilated facility, getting the proper equipment and alas, permits.

There is no question in my mind that that a gold refining operation will greatly boost your bottom line. We purchased needed chemicals and supplies from Shore International in New York and also found their web site to be chock full of needed information. Please read their Precious Metal Recovery pages completely before getting started. You 'll be glad you did!

Electric Cars - The Future is Now?

I continue to have mixed emotions about electric cars-hybrids are too expensive and conversions don't get the miles per watt I would need. My daily commute is 48 miles one way, so gas seems to be the safest bet since most 'affordable' electric car conversions struggle to make it to the 50 mile-per-charge mark. While I keep saving for my future electron powered cruiser, I occasionally find something like the video below that totally intrigues me. It showcases a 1972 Datsun (remember before Nissan?) coupe electric conversion. A plain jane ride with the exception of a trade of gas tank for batteries; gas engine for an electric motor; dash gauges replaced with volt and amp meters....

SO? This vintage hobby car is a destroyer at the drag strip. Corvettes, Porsches and nitrous boosted street racers are no match for this inconspicuous import. Check it out:



That's just neat. My interest in the electrics is renewed and of course I start thinking about how I could do this with, uh, yes, recycled batteries and motors (dream cloud)...and SHAZAM! I stumbled across this video:




Ok, I'm off to the junkyard to find the perfect ride for my electric conversion. Convertible Fiat? Covair? Maybe I'll keep it simple and find a nice '71 Ford Pinto. With the gas tank removed it should be safe.

New Extension

The new extension at the front of the school is nearly finished. The architects and builders have done a grand job, matching the new building with our lovely old Victorian school. I know they took extra care with the window frames and sills. It will be a pleasure to look at while I'm sorting out the recycling!!!

Now the office staff will be able to work in peace, without being distracted by people having to use their very small room as a corridor to get from one part of the school to another and there will be a pleasant reception area for visitors.

I'm thankful that the villagers are still trying to use the recycling centre. The picture above shows that the builders have been working in very cramped conditions. Waste skips and latterly workers vehicles, have blocked the access for the companies that collect from the recycling area.

We are building a glass mountain in the corner!