Remaster Faster: Fast readout of historic audio recordings with RIXS-MCD

Tens of millions of magnetic tapes containing unique audio recordings are at risk of becoming unrecoverable due to chemical decay, potentially resulting in permanent loss of cultural heritage and ‘loss of artistry’. In proposal HG-244 we obtained excellent proof-of-concept results based on RIXS-MCD using a Johann spectrometer and a microfocused beam to readout degraded analogue audio recordings. In this continuation proposal we aim to readout a few seconds of B.B. King's historic 1980 concert at the Montreux Jazz Festival that cannot be digitized with conventional tape players due to its advanced state of degradation. We equally aim to measure segments of brittle and warped acetate tape, such as a recording of the opera "Fra Diavolo" by the French composer Daniel Auber. This proposal is an essential step towards the development of a reliable contactless technology for the digitization of presently unrecoverable historical tapes.

数千万盘承载独特音频录音的磁带因化学衰变面临无法恢复的风险，可能导致文化遗产永久性灭失与“艺术价值永久流失”。在HG-244号提案中，我们基于约翰型光谱仪（Johann spectrometer）与微聚焦光束的RIXS-MCD技术，对退化的模拟音频录音进行读取，并获得了出色的概念验证结果。在本续项提案中，我们计划读取B.B.金1980年在蒙特勒爵士音乐节（Montreux Jazz Festival）举办的历史性演唱会中的数秒音频片段——该磁带因严重降解，无法通过传统磁带播放器进行数字化。我们同时计划对脆化翘曲的醋酸酯磁带片段进行读取，例如法国作曲家丹尼尔·奥柏（Daniel Auber）创作的歌剧《魔鬼兄弟》（Fra Diavolo）的录音片段。本提案是开发可靠的非接触式技术的关键一步，该技术可用于对目前无法恢复的历史磁带进行数字化。