# nifty! scanning vinyl **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 6, 2002, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nifty-scanning-vinyl/127235 "2002-09-06T03:50:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2002, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nifty-scanning-vinyl/127235/1 "2002-09-06T03:50:59Z")
Through slashdot I just saw [a site](http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~springer/) that describes how someone scanned vinyl albums and translated that data into MP3/.wav. I think that’s totally cool. Am I a nerd or what? ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2002, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nifty-scanning-vinyl/127235/2 "2002-09-06T04:22:26Z")
I just bought some software to do this - and I can copy onto CDs, too, which is very nice. I can finally stop hogging cabinet space with my vinyl and listen to the music I love in the car! It’s called Sony EZ Audio, if you’re interested. ---
**Author:** ![partly\_warmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@partly\_warmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/partly_warmer)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2002, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nifty-scanning-vinyl/127235/3 "2002-09-06T04:26:03Z")
Excellent. Nice presentation. Does he realize he’s got an idea that could improve on the best phonograph needles? One small problem, one which I’ve never understood about LPs: The needle cutting the vinyl is presumably a precise mechanism that can be adjusted to exactly the right place. But the needle playing the record back is constantly colliding with irregular surfaces. In effect, jumping from one bump to another. Was this effect taken in account when cutting? If it wasn’t, seems like this guy’s technology could bring a whole new depth to those analog LPs. ---
**Author:** ![AmbushBug](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ambushbug/32/4600_2.png) [@AmbushBug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AmbushBug)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2002, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nifty-scanning-vinyl/127235/4 "2002-09-06T05:19:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LifeOnWry \* > \*\*I just bought some software to do this - and I can copy onto CDs, too, which is very nice. I can finally stop hogging cabinet space with my vinyl and listen to the music I love in the car! > > It’s called Sony EZ Audio, if you’re interested. \*\* :eek: 😕 😃 Follow the link, the person referenced didn’t use a turntable to do “this”. AmbushBug ---
**Author:** ![AmbushBug](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ambushbug/32/4600_2.png) [@AmbushBug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AmbushBug)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2002, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nifty-scanning-vinyl/127235/5 "2002-09-06T05:35:02Z")
Oh, I almost forgot. How about [this thing](http://www.elpj.com/). A touch expensive for my tastes. Though you can find someone who will do the [conversion](http://avconvert.com/audio/audio_price_list.html) for you. AmbushBug ---
**Author:** ![rsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2002, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nifty-scanning-vinyl/127235/6 "2002-09-06T05:39:10Z")
**partly\_warmer,** other than the master which is cut using a stylus, all of the the copies are made by stamping a die onto the vinyl blanks. As for the playback, a quality turntable will have a precision cartridge with the stylus balanced very lightly on the LP (a gram or less if I recall correctly). The stylus and associated moving parts are very low mass and can track all of the undulations without jumping about. It’s really quite amazing how the stylus can track frequencies up to 15K Hz and beyond. The instantaneous temperature and pressure are very high but last for such a short time that the groves remain undamaged. This is from memory, but I think I got it right mostly. ---
**Author:** ![partly\_warmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@partly\_warmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/partly_warmer)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2002, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nifty-scanning-vinyl/127235/7 "2002-09-08T02:14:27Z")
rsa, the point about being able to catch 15K Hz and up is well-taken. (It’s actually more like 22K Hm +, isn’t it?) If a needle can move that fast it should be able to handle mundane changes like 8K Hz with no problem. Howsoever, one suspects what’s happening on playback may not be exactly tracking, but – in part – impacting groves as the needle jumps from crest to crest at 22K Hz. The irregularity would tend to be smoothed by the mass of the needle, etc. The temperature and pressure on the vinyl are another situation. I remember that audiophiles used to say not to play a record twice without waiting. Surely some vinyls are more damaged than virgin audiophile quality ones? Then, as I was thinking this through, one doesn’t dare put a high quality needle on an older record that’s been run down and is dirty. So it seems like the technique might be most useful to pull tracks off of 78s, etc. ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2002, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nifty-scanning-vinyl/127235/8 "2002-09-08T05:08:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AmbushBug \* > \*\* > > :eek: 😕 😃 > > Follow the link, the person referenced didn’t use a turntable to do “this”. > > AmbushBug \*\* Oh. Oops. I generally don’t do links, unless I know where they go already. Sorry 'bout that. Nevermind, and carry on. ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2002, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nifty-scanning-vinyl/127235/9 "2002-09-08T09:41:31Z")
capybara, yes I saw the link there too. Allow me to agree that yes, this is cool as hell, and yes you are a nerd. The fact that the audio is practically indistinguishable is totally beside the point, the fact that some little geek-lunatic actuall thought to try this out and then code up a way to read the scan is astounding. I am in awe of his/her existance 😃 Since it seems almost noone read the link, here is a summary. The person in question scanned one of their vinyls on a flatbed scanner and enlarged the images. They were left with a “close up photo” of the vinyl where you could see the bumps. The shadow and light of the bumps gave a feeling of depth and he wrote a program to read the depth etc of the bumps from the pictures of the vinyl. He then converted this data into mp3s. You can hear that there is definatly music there under the static, but it would be hard to identify it. Completely useless and completely fascinating. ---
**Author:** ![partly\_warmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@partly\_warmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/partly_warmer)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nifty-scanning-vinyl/127235/10 "2002-09-09T14:12:33Z")
Iteki, while vinyl was still the main way to distribute recordings, audiophiles had looked into reading the information off records with – laser, was it? As I recall, it did work. The problem with the guy’s technique is that he hasn’t lighted the surface well enough. There doesn’t seem to be any technical reason, especially given how far advanced we are now with nano technology, that an absolutely perfect sound track couldn’t be taken from the surface. Given that the frequencies covered were often both higher and lower than CDs, seems like it might be worth doing. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nifty-scanning-vinyl/127235/11 "2002-09-09T14:34:32Z")
[Laser turntable](http://www.elpj.com/)