Conservation and restoration of vinyl discs

Vinyl LP preservation is generally considered separate from conservation, which refers to the repair and stabilization of individual discs.

Funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, the purpose of the investigation was to establish suitable guidelines for the storage and preservation of sound recordings for libraries.

Conducted at the Southwest Research Institute of San Antonio, the study involved subjecting sound recordings to a series of lab tests, from accelerated aging to fungal exposure.

Though considered the definitive study in the field, the chemical makeup of plastics and how they perform under stress was the primary focus of the report, whereas playback deterioration—a significant concern to sound archivists and record collectors—was excluded from the investigation.

A comprehensive manual based on reports gathered from library professionals, sound archivists, audio engineers, and other experts, it included information on such topics as disc damage from frequency of use, stylus wear, and inferior or improperly adjusted equipment.

"(Prudence S. Adler, Associate Executive Director and Karla L. Hahn, Director, Office of Scholarly Communication, Association of Research Libraries, Jan. 2007)[5] Though recommendations for LP preservation differ among professionals, the majority are in agreement on some basic guidelines: discs need to be kept clean, stored in such a way to prevent distortion, and maintained in a stable, climate-controlled environment.

"(Gerald L. Gibson, Head of the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division of the Library of Congress, 1991)[6] It is imperative that LPs be kept free from foreign matter deposits.

Dust can become embedded permanently into the disc's grooves, causing distortion of the transmitting signal, ticks, pops, and inferior sound quality.

[6] In recent years, ultrasonic cleaning machines from manufacturers such as Klaudio (Korea) and Audio Desk Systeme (Germany) have also been used with great success.

A general guideline is to digitise the recording using the appropriate stylus, tracking weight, equalisation curve and other playback parameters and use high-quality analogue-to-digital converters.