On: Digital Needle - Playing phonograph records with a scanner

[leed25d]

It seems to me that I read once of a device at the Library of Congress which is a purpose built laser scanner for extracting such waveforms from old records, even the drums.

[jessevondoom → leed25d]

Yeah they're IRENE scanners. Pretty amazing, actually. Able to lift sound off the most delicate old recordings. Probably a lot of possibility for repair of lost fragments visually:

http://irene.lbl.gov/

And there are laser turntables for commercial purposes as well. Not a visual product, in interesting still...