78 records

[Camphuw]

A friend has just asked me how she could digitise a recording of her grandfather. The issue is they are 78’s. Any suggestions of who to go to?

I had thought of recording it at 45 and then speeding it with software.

[AndyP]

In simple terms, as a 78 isn’t Hi Fi quality - apologies to all the fans of 78s.

Use a USB microphone say something like this Trust 23790 Mico PC Microphone, USB Plug and Play for £12 and record the sound into the free software Audacity.

OR if you haven’t got a 78 player which I assume is the case then buy one of these:

Record Player, FYDEE Vinyl Record Player with Built-in Speakers, Turntable for Vinyl Records, Belt-Drive 3-Speed (33/45/78 RPM) LP Vinyl Player for £50 on Amazon. Record the record and put the player on Marketplace or Ebay once the job is done.

[Guinnless]

You will need a special cartridge for 78rpm records.

[catswhiskers]

This is a useful resource, it may be the job is already done, if not a lot of information.

https://great78.archive.org/

[Stokie]

Oxford Duplication Centre can digitise shellac 78s for a reasonable price.

[Camphuw]

Thanks @catswhiskers and @Stokie i will pass the messages on.

[Innocent_Bystander]

@Camphuw, to save me re-writing please see this:

Recording old 78's with Audacity + LP12

I would be extremely wary of playing 78s with a fine hifi stylus. Some moving magnet cartridges used to have an option of a swap-in fat stylus for 78s (Shure in particular used to do this). Otherwise: When I inherited a couple of 78s of my grandfather singing, several years after selling my TT, bought an Ion TT with USB output through eBay for something like £20-30. It claimed to play 78s but didn’t have 78 speed, and I don’t recall if a separate stylus (if not I would have reasoned it would h…

[Alley_Cat]

This thread reminds me that I’m sure there are 78s up in my parents’ attic.

At least there were when I was nimble enough to get up there!