Original lacquers--which it sounds as if you have--are easily damaged. I would suggest you contact Art Shifrin in Fresh Meadows, NY, and ask him to transfer them. He does a great job, and he's practically a neighbour of yours. http://www.shifrin.net mailto:[log in to unmask]

The 33-1/3 rpm ones may be microgroove or standard groove, while the 78 rpm ones are most likely standard groove. A microgroove stylus will bottom out in a standard groove. Art has a collection of stylii for optimum playback--one of the reasons I don't generally do grooved media myself. I specialize in tape, not grooved media.

Cheers,

Richard

At 01:08 PM 5/16/2006, Sokolow, Daniel wrote:

All,

I'm finally looking at some LPs in the collection that were made in the 50's - they're labeled as NBC Radio reference recordings, which according to my dad they sometimes made kind of on the fly.  He also suggested they could be made on either glass or aluminum.  I can't tell from looking at them, though they appear to be some kind of vinyl laid down on a metal substrate.

In any event, I'm looking to transfer these to digital files.  Several of these are 33 RPM, the rest 78.  I have a 33 turntable of my own, and my dad still has a 78 capable player.  Recognizing that ideally I should go to a professional conservator, does anyone have any specific advice for handling these properly for playback?

I basically want to capture the information off them as best I can - some level of high quality, lossless capture that will insure I at least have the data.  I can clean up the sound later electronically.   I don't know how much can be done to preserve the LPs themselves - there's very little budget available right now.

Some specific questions:

* One or two appear to have smudgy areas, like smeared fingerprints.  Will those hamper playback?

* Can I use a standard LP cleaning brush?  With or without some kind of fluid?

* Do I need to worry about the needle used for playback?  Are there specific needles needed for aluminum discs?

* Do I need to worry about needle pressure?

Anything else?

TIA,

DS

______________________________________
Daniel Sokolow, Archives Coordinator
David Taylor Archives
North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System
155 Community Drive
Great Neck, NY 11021
mailto:[log in to unmask]

Richard L. Hess                   email: [log in to unmask]
Aurora, Ontario, Canada       (905) 713 6733     1-877-TAPE-FIX
Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes. A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org. For the terms of participation, please refer to http://www.archivists.org/listservs/arch_listserv_terms.asp.

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