Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion

Subject: Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion
From: BanjoRay
Date: 22 Oct 22 - 06:43 PM

I have a reel to reel tape of an interview done with with Alexis Korner back in 1964 for our college newspaper in Aberystwyth, and no means of playing it. Does anyone know where I could get it transcribed to mp3? Thanks
Ray

Subject: RE: Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 22 Oct 22 - 07:54 PM

If it's any help I believe the Blues singer Charlie White aka Mal Gibson specialises in analogue gear and will do the job. [e-mail] Mention my name and you will be taken seriously.
Check him out on Google.
kind regards
Nick

Subject: RE: Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Oct 22 - 09:30 PM

If you go to Forum Search and enter "mp3" (without the quotes) you'll come up with lots of threads with mp3 in the subject line, many to do with this kind of conversion.

If you find someone with the reel-to-reel player who knows how to use it and connect it to a modern receiver then it isn't difficult to capture the audio file in a format that can be converted to mp3.

The question of where to find it - try your local libraries first, and even university libraries, where they probably convert obsolete media on a regular basis. (That was one of my last jobs at the university library I retired from a few years ago.)

Subject: RE: Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 23 Oct 22 - 05:12 AM

If you do not need high-end quality, you can borrow a suitable player (tape recorder, very common even in Aberystwyth), buy a suitable cable for a couple of pounds (to be plugged to the audio-in plug of your computer), and download any free recording software such as Audacity. Bob's your uncle.

Subject: RE: Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion
From: DaveRo
Date: 23 Oct 22 - 05:50 AM

If this tape hasn't been unspooled in 60 years, and you value it, I wouldn't just feed it into any old domestic tape recorder. You might end up with a transparant reel of tape and a heap of oxide dust.

Subject: RE: Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 23 Oct 22 - 06:34 AM

DaveRo has a point, although I recently (2020) copied tapes from the 50s with a "domestic" tape recorder from the 70s without any problem. You may try your device on an obviously unused part of the reel first, then on a short section of minor importance.

Subject: RE: Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 23 Oct 22 - 06:41 AM

PS: clean the tape recorder, tape head and all.

Subject: RE: Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 23 Oct 22 - 10:01 AM

Most every major record label has had a rude surprise pulling those old masters out of the vault for a routine compilation or box set reissue: Sticky-shed syndrome

“Baking” the unwanted moisture out is the quick & dirty amateur fix and fraught with peril. Industry pros use a dedicated lyophilization or cryodesiccation vacuum chamber, fancy word for freeze drying.

I've had some very nice results with a taxidermist's kit but it's still a mad science experiment. Lots of variables to control there.

Subject: RE: Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion
From: Bill D
Date: 23 Oct 22 - 11:48 AM

I have 2 different models of TEAC machines which will take inputs from any source... tape, LP, CD... and spit them out as MP3s.
The newest is this (built-in phonograph)

Subject: RE: Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Oct 22 - 01:50 PM

I have an old Philips reel-to-reel player my aunt gave me years ago. I need to set it up and see what it will do.

Subject: RE: Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion
From: robomatic
Date: 23 Oct 22 - 02:19 PM

About twenty years ago I executed a project to take my family's old reel-to-reel music tapes and convert them to digital. I had contacts at the local radio station who loaned me a reel recorder. I used its headphone jack to get a stereo signal out, which could be adjusted in the correct voltage range to be fed into my computer's line-in micro jack. The music tapes were all at the time at least forty years since purchase, once 'high quality' audio, but were found to be of varied physical quality. The DECCA label tapes could could be spooled up and played as if no time had passed. The London ffrr tapes, mostly D'Oyly Carte Gilbert & Sullivan production were quite delicate and appeared to be symptomatic of the sticky-shed phenomena. After reading up on this on the internet I baked the tapes in my electric oven at low temperature for 12-24 hours. Then processed the tapes as with the others. This was all done with minimal hardware, most of it found around the house. My relatives were satisfied with the results.

One of the lessons I drew from this was that good magnetic media well handled was at least as reliable as standard CD storage.

Good luck.

Subject: RE: Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion
From: GUEST,CJB
Date: 23 Oct 22 - 02:55 PM

Why crappy MP3? You need to use WAV or APE or FLAC first. And to correct and process the digitisation. Then reduce down with MP3 @ 320 kbps, lower that if you really want compression.

I use a Behringer device for analogue > digital conversion. And Audacity with NiQuist actions to capture the digital stream, then to edit out the artefacts &/or to normalise the result.

Subject: RE: Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion
From: DaveRo
Date: 23 Oct 22 - 03:21 PM

robomatic wrote: I used its headphone jack to get a stereo signal out...

Were these pre-recorded tapes? ffrr recordings were generally mono, I think.

I wonder if the OP's tape is half- or quarter-track, and what speed? Half-track might be better quality. I suppose a delicate tape could be played back at half speed if the machine allows it; you can double it during the mp3 (or whatever) encoding.

My parents' tape recorder, which I used in the 60s, had 3 speeds. I could only afford cheap tape and used the slowest speed IIRC. Many of the tapes went brittle and I threw them away years ago.

The earliest CDs I made from my LPs were done in the late '90s (CDDA). I read at the time that they might degrade so I bought a good brand. So far they all seem OK, though I usualy play them as mp3s now.

Subject: RE: Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion
From: cnd
Date: 24 Oct 22 - 08:19 AM

On the topic of the "sticky shed" phenomena...

If "baking" the tapes doesn't work (and a word of caution: baking only works for certain tapes of certain age and make... people online have figured out most of the ones that do or don't work, but, be mindful of that before plopping any tapes in the oven) I have had success on cassettes that are sticking by spraying the entire spool with dry silicone lubricant and apply the lubricant to the entire length of the tape -- see here

Subject: RE: Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion
From: GUEST,Mark
Date: 28 Oct 22 - 06:39 PM

Hi there. I was official Archivist to the Alexis Korner Estate. I have high-end studio RTR machines and will happily transfer the Alexis interview tape to whatever format (e.g. MP3) you would like.

Subject: RE: Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion
From: GUEST,Mark
Date: 28 Oct 22 - 06:48 PM

You can reach me on [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Oct 22 - 11:29 PM

What I love about Mudcat!

Subject: RE: Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion
From: Bill D
Date: 30 Oct 22 - 11:00 AM

"Why crappy MP3? You need to use WAV or APE or FLAC first. And to correct and process the digitisation"

CJB... because it's for convenience, not perfect audio. Many...including me... can't hear the difference between MP3 and FLAC pr WAV well enough to bother learning the steps.

I have a number of recordings in FLAC, but they came that way. If you played them beside an MP3, I doubt I could decide.

Subject: RE: Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion
From: Newport Boy
Date: 30 Oct 22 - 01:32 PM

Bill D wrote: I have a number of recordings in FLAC, but they came that way. If you played them beside an MP3, I doubt I could decide.

You're probably right, Bill. Some years ago our (classical) music group acquired a new sound system for use in halls & a church. Other groups were also to use it and we had a session to try it out with all sorts of music - orchestral, chamber, jazz, opera.

I took the opportunity to compare 3 versions of a Beethoven symphony movement. Original CD, WAV file ripped from it and MP3 from that played from USB input. An audience of about 50, mostly over 50s, couldn't easily identify any difference. Most interesting, when I asked them to state a preference, the majority went for the MP3.

Make of that what you will. Apolgies for hi-jacking the thread.

Phil

Subject: RE: Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 30 Oct 22 - 02:45 PM

> the majority went for the MP3

Many Years Ago, the head of a manufacturer of wireless sets heard that the BBC's musical broadcasts went as high as 7000 c/s (7kHz in new money). Right, he said, if the BBC's gone to this trouble, we've gotta improve our wirelesses to reproduce the higher frequencies properly. They did .... then found themselves obliged by market pressure to put a switch-and-capacitor arrangement in the circuit, with the switch's closed position marked "mellow". People were simply not used to hearing the high frequencies.

We now return you to the discussion of tape-to-[chosen digital format] conversion.

Subject: RE: Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Oct 22 - 07:43 AM

A few years ago I used a Revox recorder and a decent sound card to digitise some quarter-inch tapes from the 1950s, with perfectly acceptable results. But that did involve luck, that the tapes had not deteriorated significantly. If there is a risk that the OP's tape may have deteriorated it would be safer to send it to someone who knows how best to treat it.

Subject: RE: Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion
From: Bill D
Date: 31 Oct 22 - 01:53 PM

Many years ago, our local folk DJ, Mary Cliff, told me she carried a NAGRA portable recorder, and that she could hear frequencies (she named a number) way above anything I could.
   I have some hearing loss from working in noisy places... I can hear a car door close down the block, but have to be close to hear my microwave ding.
I am testing hearing aids right now, and can barely remember being able to pick up such sounds.... but I still can't choose between MP3 and WAV or FLAC.... but I can hear any of them much better with the volume turned down!

Subject: RE: Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion
From: Tony Rees
Date: 31 Oct 22 - 02:16 PM

It's not the frequency response per se, but I definitely hear a kind of residual noise or distortion (I call it "wurble") with mp3 and other highly compressed formats that is not there in the full resolution wav equivalents, and find it irritating. Maybe it is just me, or maybe there are better and worse mp3 algorithms, even at the same bit rate... of course bit rate matters as well, all mp3s are not the same. Many people say 320 kbps mp3 is acceptable, a lot more so than 128 kbps anyway.

Subject: RE: Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion
From: DaveRo
Date: 31 Oct 22 - 03:15 PM

An audio CD, a WAV file ripped from that CD, and a FLAC file encoded from the WAV file are identical in quality. You can convert from one to another and the underlying PCM data will be bit for bit identical. If they sound different it will be the equipment used to play them.

MP3 is a different kettle of fish. The quality depends (mainly) on the bitrate. When I first started making MP3s of my LP collection disk space was expensive and I used 128Kbps. As disk became cheaper I upped it to nearer 200. High quality MP3s can go as high as 320 or more, and there are streams broadcast as low as 64. But what you hear will depend also on the equipment you use to decode it: high bitrates require more processing power.

I still listen to my 128Kbps MP3s, decoded on a BananaPi and played though my 'hi fi' - as it used to be called. They sound OK; but my hearing is not as good as when I made them. I could re-encode them if I wanted to: I made CDs at the same time. But those earliest CDs will for ever be limited by the quality of the Analogue to Ditital Converter in the Dell laptop I 'borrowed' from work back in the 90's.

Subject: RE: Tech: Tape to MP3 conversion
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Nov 22 - 01:01 PM

I heard a radio story yesterday on the TED Radio Hour about The Art of Record Digging and at one point he said he was less concerned about the disappearance of these old records (the material is on them for a long time - they're quite durable) but that our digital archives are vulnerable. Especially online - someone on MySpace a while back accidentally deleted every audio recording on the site. He pointed out that a site fee isn't paid one year and the host company deletes the files, etc.

ZOMORODI: Alexis, I assume that most people who go digging for records hope that they're going to, you know, find something, pay two bucks for it, and then turn around and sell it on eBay for $100. And that's the second chance. But how would you describe your intentions if it's not about resale?

CHARPENTIER: Yeah, my intention is connecting with the artist, if the artist is still alive, and to figure out - to find out more about the context. There is a bit of that detective work, and I have this reverence and respect for - when I hold a record in my hands, I can kind of have a feeling of who were the people behind it.