RE: [microsound] Make your own vinyl

[Kevin Wehner <kevinwehner@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I copied the below from a tech newsletter I subscribe too - I thought the
microsound group might find it of interest.

Vinyl anachronists who've refused to digitize their collections, citing the
inferior quality of bits versus grooves, might want to pay a visit to the
Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, where two enterprising scientists have
developed a novel means of making perfect digital reproductions of vinyl
recordings -- with the same technology used to search for the Higgs boson.
Discovery News (circa 2004, yes, I know) explains: 

"A powerful microscope called a SmartScope with a digital camera collects
images of the groove patterns on records or cylinders, which rest on a table
moved with precision motors. A computer program allows the microscope/camera
combo to travel forward along the grooves until it reaches the end of the
recording. The captured image pattern transfers to a computer that
translates the tiny, millimeter-sized lines into sound." 

It's a fascinating technique and one that could preserve the thousands of
aging vinyl and cylinder recordings in the Library of Congress. "There are
many promising aspects of the research being conducted at the Lawrence
Berkeley Labs," Sam Brylawski, head of the recorded sound section of the
library's Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, told
Discovery News back in 2004. "One is the development of non-contact playback
of fragile sound recordings. Not only cylinders, but radio transcription
discs and 78-rpm shellac pressings. If their work pans out to enable
efficient and accurate transfers, we will be able to hear broken recordings;
be able to restore deteriorating recordings without the addition of digital
audio 'artifacts'; and play back obsolete formats without having to acquire
or restore specialized machines and identify highly trained, i.e. costly,
specialized engineers." 


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