[Discuss] [OT] digitizing old 78rpm records? ELP laser turntable services?

[dsr at randomstring.org (Dan Ritter)]

On Sun, Apr 05, 2015 at 08:15:01AM -0400, John Abreau wrote:
> I have a cabinet full of ancient 78 rpm records that I inherited when my
> mom died back in 1998; it' been sitting in my attic all these years.
> 
> The records are fragile, and I'm afraid if I try to play them on an
> ordinary turntable, the records won't survive.
> 
> There's a company in Japan (ejpj.com) that makes a laser turntable that
> should be suitable for digitizing fragile records like these, but it's not
> worth spending $17,000 for what's essentially a one-time project to
> digitize the collection.
> 
> Has anyone heard of a service that digitizes old audio recordings,
> preferably to WAV or FLAC files, that uses something like the laser
> turntable to safely digitize fragile records? I've tried googling for such
> services, but so far all I can find is services to digitize photos videos,
> documents, and books.
> 
> Another option would be if someone on the list either has access to one of
> these turntables, or knows someone who does, and they're willing to help me
> digitize my 78s.
> 
> I recall a conversation many years ago, probably at one of the BLU bbqs,
> where someone described their collection of LPs, 78s, and old Edison
> cylinder recordings, and I imagine they'd also be interested in digitizing
> their collection, if they haven't already found a way to do so. I can't
> recall who it was, though, and I'm not entirely certain that it was at one
> of our bbqs.
> 

Back in 2000 or so, I had a coworker at BBN whose side-project
was digitizing ancient records. As I recall, he was using
assembly-programmed controllers to run turntables at extremely
low speeds with ultra-low-mass needles, digitizing the output
and then applying appropriate post-processing.

Unfortunately I only remember his first name was Jeff. I'll see
if any ex-BBNers have more details.

-dsr-