Digitized 78 Records

Subject: Folklore: Everyone aware of this?
From: GUEST,??
Date: 13 Aug 17 - 03:55 PM

http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/arts-culture/item/106319-philly-company-digitizes-collection-of-25000-old-records-and-growing-free-to-download

Subject: RE: Digitized 78 Records
From: Jeri
Date: 13 Aug 17 - 04:33 PM

Twenty-five thousand songs recorded onto 78RPM discs in the early 20th century have been released online, for free.

They are the first batch of an estimate 400,000-piece virtual record collection to be made available by the Internet Archive, from gospel by the Tuskegee Institute Sings, to opera recorded in Italy, to novelty tunes by Spike Jones, to hot — though obscure — jazz.

The task of digitizing all of those old records is happening in Chestnut Hill.

In a little storefront building on Germantown Avenue in Philadelphia's Chestnut Hill neighborhood, George Blood Audio LP, an audio preservation company, has been quietly preserving America's musical heritage, one 78 at a time.

Just a part of it.
I still have a 2'+ stack of 78 records here that I haven't been able to listen to since, oh, 196-something. Not that they're all that cool - my ancestors' taste in music was mostly big bands and Bing Crosby... come to think of it, that doesn't sound as scary as I used to think it was.

Subject: RE: Digitized 78 Records
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Aug 17 - 05:38 PM

Thanks for pointing out this resource.

Subject: RE: Digitized 78 Records
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 13 Aug 17 - 05:40 PM

On Jeri's bit, not sure any exist now. Did try to play the pile as a kid tough. A few I remember.

Donkey Serenade
Rachmaninov playing piano
The Tree Bells (Compagnons De La Canson version - not this one ;-) )
Lazy Bones
Trees
Song of the Volga Boatman
The Creed (I think in Russian)
...

Subject: RE: Digitized 78 Records
From: Jeri
Date: 13 Aug 17 - 05:51 PM

I think I've heard most of them, Jon. They're selling record players now that will play the 78s, but having them in a digital library is so much easier.

Subject: RE: Digitized 78 Records
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 13 Aug 17 - 06:16 PM

Yep. Sorry I drifted a bit. I don't think we have anything that would play them now. did have a relatively new "retro" player that did do 78 that may be under dad's bed but I didn't like as it hummed even when its off switch was off (maybe a bit of caution there for some of the things on the UK market these days - I don't know but we replaced it with an audio-tecnica turntable that doesn't do them and amp [the other was stand alone] Couldn't actually find anything that did the 78 that matched our price range, was autoplay[needed here] and didn't have "record wrecking" reviews - not that most of what we have on vinyl hasn't already been abused).

Subject: RE: Digitized 78 Records
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 13 Aug 17 - 07:25 PM

78s need a different stylus (needle) and cartridge than 33-45 LPs (microgroove.) It's both the RPM and the shape of the record groove.

Jon: "...it hummed even when its off switch was off..."

Did it have a separate DC "wall wart" power supply? They're awful.

It's hard to do 45-78rpm right for under U$800 these days and that's just the turntable, no (pre)amp or speakers.

Subject: RE: Digitized 78 Records
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 13 Aug 17 - 07:49 PM

Phil, I've known DC adaptors do that but this one was the plain (UK 240v) plug and the hum was inside the player.

Subject: RE: Digitized 78 Records
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Aug 17 - 09:01 PM

I have a Victrola player and a stack of 78s from my great aunt's house. They're family relics.

Subject: RE: Digitized 78 Records
From: GUEST,Bob Schwarer
Date: 14 Aug 17 - 01:04 AM

Somewhere around the house is a box of 78s I brought back from Japan in 1953. Now I need to find them.

Subject: RE: Digitized 78 Records
From: DaveRo
Date: 14 Aug 17 - 02:42 AM

I have an LP by Moby Grape that has one track at 78rpm - "Just like Gene Autry - a foxtrot". It was 30 years later, after the invention of p2p file sharing, that I heard it at the correct speed. (It wasn't worth the wait.)

Subject: RE: Digitized 78 Records
From: GUEST,Jim I
Date: 14 Aug 17 - 01:38 PM

I still sing a couple of songs I learnt from my grannie's old wind up gramophone - Big Grand Coulee Dam and She Wears Red Feathers.

Subject: RE: Digitized 78 Records
From: GUEST,jim b
Date: 17 Aug 17 - 11:39 AM

a man of taste!