Looking for 78 transciption service in Central Illinois, Chicago or Milwaukee

[KiM3Ce]

I hope this is on-topic enough for this forum; if not please let me know and I will move it. If any reader can give me a lead on this please, I would be grateful!

A family member in Decatur inherited some 78 RPM records including performances by his grandfather. He would like to get them into a digital format. It seems he would have to find a suitable turntable plus electronics to do this. He's not a technical guy and it seems like it would make more sense to find a business that can do this than to invest in the gear.

He does have family in Chicago and Milwaukee so he could probably use a service there if we can find one. Searching online, I see a company called Midwest Production near Chicago and Milwaukee Media in Wisconsin. If anyone has any positive or negative experience with these, please share you opinions!

Any suggestions would be much appreciated! Thanks a lot!

 

[KentTeffeteller]

Esoteric Sound may be able to do this for you. They specialize in vintage disc playback solutions.

 

[KiM3Ce]

Thanks! Interesting website.

 

[jeffpaletz]

I also do this but I'm located in the Minneapolis area. I use a Technics Direct Drive turntable and either a 2.5 mil or 3.0 mil 78 stylus depending on what sounds better. I use a program called Click Repair which removes clicks. Depending on the condition of the records they can come out sounding really good. Send me a private message if you'd like to discuss this further with me.

 

[malden]

Yes, Esoteric Sound is a great resource for all things high speed...

 

[sKiZo]

Great DIY project though ... I just did a few hundred here, and it's not all that difficult, or expensive.

I used a spare table (technics SL23) with a 3mil Shure cartridge that I got for cheap off that auction site. Played the shellac back at 45rpm, and used Audacity (free!) to digitize them, adjusting the speed with the software. I also used the built in noise reduction and declicking to clean the tracks, then saved it all to FLAC. Real decent results.

 

[KiM3Ce]

Thanks for the inputs. I'm 1,000 miles away so I can't help him directly.