BS Reading Record Grooves

Subject: BS Reading Record Grooves
From: Doctor John
Date: 21 Apr 01 - 07:09 PM

For years I had wondered if you can "read" the grooves on a record visually to discover what has been recorded. Then someone appeared on television and seemed to be able to do so; he was more accurate with 78's than microgrove recordings (the latter term shows my age!). This was long before the CD age but I bet he couldn't have read those! I've often wondered if this was a con. Can anyone enlighten me. Dr John

Subject: RE: BS Reading Record Grooves
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 21 Apr 01 - 09:53 PM

78s are easier, because they're monaural. LPs are often stereo so you have to do reading of boths side of the groove. A high school friend of mine (Jim Russell) working at Battelle Northwest, didn't like the way the diamonds ruined his microgrooves, so he invented a device called the Compact Disk in 1965 (see MIT's Lemuelson Prize website about that and Jim's picture). Now it's me that's working for Battelle Northwest (via internet) and he's consulting in Redlands, Washington (a little south of Seattle)

Subject: RE: BS Reading Record Grooves
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 21 Apr 01 - 10:22 PM

You don't need eliptical diamond styluses to read grooves anymore. CDs do it better.

Jim Russell (without Barbara)

Subject: RE: BS Reading Record Grooves
From: Mr Red
Date: 22 Apr 01 - 04:01 AM

The guy I saw had an intimate knowledge of his subject, recorded classical music. He didn't try outside his subject. He admitted he looked for the dynamics of the music, jagged tracks and smooth tracks. The dynamic range of pop music would make that difficult. A good party piece but is it music?