Live data from Hacker News

78rpm Records Digitized

archive.org

51–59 of 59 posts

Re: 78rpm Records Digitized

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wish I had not sold my 78's to Half Price Books a few years back. I had a couple hundred records, some of which had probably never been played. How much did you get for them? I assume HPB puts almost all 78s in the dumpster.

I knew going in that I wouldn't get much so I was not surprised to end up with a only few dollars which I spent on books for the kids. At the same time I also sold them a bunch of books so the records and books were co-mingled money. I know that HPB has always had a good selection of 78s on the shelves and that is why I took them. Hopefully they were able to send them to a store where someone could buy and enjoy them…

> I know that HPB has always had a good selection of 78s on the shelves and that is why I took them.

Oh, that's great. My local store doesn't have them.

> I also have a large collection of vinyl albums from the late 60's through the mid-80's that I tried to sell/give to a well-known local record shop in FtWorth. They wouldn't touch my albums or 45s and told me that most albums have no real value. This, in spite of the fact that their entire store was wall-to-wall used albums.

It's weird the way it works with vinyl: there's enough out there that it's still really, really cheap. But it's not necessarily easy to buy any given item.

Re: 78rpm Records Digitized

#52

Since the kids are all about sea shanties these days: https://archive.org/details/78_rio-grande_leonard-warren-tom...

The kids should use the IA WinAmp player by clicking that llama :)

Thank you for pointing this feature out. IA never cease to amaze me.

Re: 78rpm Records Digitized

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can be recorded as a .WAV file at 33 rpm, which is then easy to write a program to speed up to 78.

It's my understanding that it's more than just the speed. 78's will destroy the needle of a regular record player because they're made of very hard shellac, and not vinyl.

Yep - they are very dense, heavy and brittle.

Re: 78rpm Records Digitized

#54

Since the kids are all about sea shanties these days: https://archive.org/details/78_rio-grande_leonard-warren-tom...

The kids should use the IA WinAmp player by clicking that llama :)

That's just amazing. Last year I realized you can still download winamp (they ... freed it??) and it has that bizarrely good milkdrop 2 visualizer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO2YkCvOhNE - it's mindblowingly interesting.

Re: 78rpm Records Digitized

#55
post #20

I try to understand how this is legal ? I mean: what is the difference between Archive.org and any other torrent website ? Aren't they both preserving the culture ? Archive.org is doing 20M USD in revenue, lot of people are getting paid in the process, and suppliers as well, it's not like they are working for nothing. They just don't have investors (but can have big salaries). Genuinely wondering because I saw that y…

Archive.org are a registered library: https://archive.org/about/

Re: 78rpm Records Digitized

#56
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the equalization that had the kids thinking 78 was so obsolete & bad sounding compared to our 45's and the upcoming 33's back in the early 1960's. Naturally it was all the fault of the RIAA. By that time almost all new record players had the recent RIAA standard equalization built in, by compensation in the audio playback circuit based on the published RIAA engineering standard which had emerged. Otherwise the 4…

Wow! There's a book in here, waiting to be written.

I've been hesitating less, since Covid.

Hence the wall of text.

Re: 78rpm Records Digitized

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the equalization that had the kids thinking 78 was so obsolete & bad sounding compared to our 45's and the upcoming 33's back in the early 1960's. Naturally it was all the fault of the RIAA. By that time almost all new record players had the recent RIAA standard equalization built in, by compensation in the audio playback circuit based on the published RIAA engineering standard which had emerged. Otherwise the 4…

> 78's which had plenty of space between the grooves since there was only one tune per side. Hence the appearance of the 12" 45 rpm disco single in the 1970's, which sounded a heluva lot better than the 45, especially in the base. It was even better to score the "promotional copies" which had no bubbles in the plastic or other flaws. I don't know if the PCs were pressed on a separate line or were just hand -picked fr…

The most high-fidelity record I know of is the direct-to-disc recording of Carlos Santana and Paco de Lucia in acoustic duets.

Unlike the others in the direct-to-disc series, there was supposedly no console between the artists and the input to the master record-cutting stylus, and no remixing after recording.

The difference was quite apparent, and I have always been convinced that the fewer electronic components between the artist and the listener would yield the best reproduction.

Re: 78rpm Records Digitized

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 78's which had plenty of space between the grooves since there was only one tune per side. Hence the appearance of the 12" 45 rpm disco single in the 1970's, which sounded a heluva lot better than the 45, especially in the base. It was even better to score the "promotional copies" which had no bubbles in the plastic or other flaws. I don't know if the PCs were pressed on a separate line or were just hand -picked fr…

The most high-fidelity record I know of is the direct-to-disc recording of Carlos Santana and Paco de Lucia in acoustic duets. Unlike the others in the direct-to-disc series, there was supposedly no console between the artists and the input to the master record-cutting stylus, and no remixing after recording. The difference was quite apparent, and I have always been convinced that the fewer electronic components betw…

I've never even heard a simply amplified PA system sound as good as the acoustic instrument the mike is attached to. This is with high end pro equipment, not home audio stuff.

Re: 78rpm Records Digitized

#59

I hope someone can put Internet Archive and Zero Freitas in touch with eachother. Zero is a businessman that has been buying up vinyl collections and archiving them in Brazil, amassing an enormous archive. https://thevinylfactory.com/features/inside-the-worlds-bigge...

We are very aware of each other.

Ah, brilliant!

Also, Jason Scott replied to me! Wohoo!

Also, thank you for all the work you do, and thank you for writing about it.

Post reply on HN