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Making Old Sound Recordings Audible Again
orgelspieler writes "NPR is running a story on a safe way to reproduce sound from ancient phonographs that would otherwise be unplayable. The system, called IRENE, was installed in the Library of Congress last year. It can be used to replay records that are scratched, worn, broken, or just too fragile to play with a needle. It scans the groves optically and processes them into a sound file at speeds approaching real time. IRENE is great at removing pops and skips, but can add some hiss. Researchers are also working on a 3D model that is better at removing hiss."
Oh wait, never mind...
(but i swear that's what my mind picked up initially!!)
these audio recordings aren't degraded, they just have some sort of ancient DRM on them. many years from now they'll find some ancient music cds of ours with DRM on them and think they are degraded too.
I wonder if they can help this guy?
I record bacon frying on a hot skillet. Then I reverse the polarity of the sound by hooking up my speakers backwards. I superimpose this over the phonograph and it all balances out.
Oh yeah, I almost left out the part about firing up a large doobie.
Dude, I was enjoying some Chemical Brothers on NPR last sunday. I though I tuned to the MSU student radio station but noticed that I was on the Statewide NPR station (they transmit on 4 different frequencies at incredibly high power to cover almost all of lower michigan).
They also played some newer Information Society and then finished with some DonJuan Dracula before they broke.
I was freaked to hear some really progressive music played on NPR. They either must be desperate to attract new listeners or don't care they will turn off the old farts who grimace at hearing that "pounding hippy music"
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Yeah, we've had one since 1992 as well, but it took the designers 15 years to come up with the name "IRENE" before we could start using it.
The digital reproduction just isn't as warm as the analog original we're no longer able to hear in comparison. By the way, have I told you how wonderful my gold-plated connectors are? You can practically hear the money I spent!
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
The are taking the Library of Congress to court for copying phonographs.
One ring to bind them - should probably have more fiber and less rings in their diet.
Music, obviously.
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