Audio restoration

An unfortunate fact is that most of the sound recordings and motion picture soundtracks created over the past century have been lost due to improper storage and neglect.

Two researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Vitaliy Fadeyev and Carl Haber have been experimenting with an audio restoration method that involves taking a very high definition digital photographic image of the vintage recording medium.

They use a precision optical metrology system (designed to scan silicon detectors) to form an image of the groove on a 78 rpm record.

After processing the digital file, they have an audio stream that represents the variations in the groove walls, allowing them to "play" the record virtually without using a phonograph stylus.

[1][2][3][4] In the summer of 2007, the U.S. Library of Congress moved their audio, video and film restoration group to Culpeper, Virginia where the newly completed National Audio-Visual Conservation Center Packard Campus is sited.

The Library has expressed interest in the Fadeyev/Haber 2D imaging method for quick digital archival of their vast collection of vinyl and shellac phonograph records.

A massive, multi-petabyte storage array is nearing completion; it will hold the large digital audio and moving image files.