Lasers get groovy

Abstract

Laser turntables make light work of playing gramophone records without the need for scratchy styli, and claim to beam into hidden areas of sonic data, reports James Hayes. Audio digital recovery and restoration technologies have, in recent years, attracted interest from music labels keen to tap into the commercial opportunities of releasing archive recordings for a new generation of consumers. At the same time sound preservationists and recording engineers are intrigued by new ways to 'release' sounds locked into old-fashioned recording media. In recent decades the necessity to preserve historic archive recordings for national cultural history has become a matter of great importance whether they be records of statesmen making historically-important broadcasts or legendary poets reading their own work, shellac, like silver nitrate film stock, is a fragile base medium. Moreover, aged recordings have been damaged by mishandling and over-play down the years.