Tape Restoration.

Subject: Tape Restoration.
From: Nynia
Date: 30 Jul 00 - 07:07 PM

Hi folks. In the late 70's early 80's my father made around 50 recordings of guests at Dumfries Folksong Club. These included; Martin Carthy, Dick Gaughan, Boys Of The Lough, Roaring Jelly, Bob Fox & Stu Luckley, Bob Zentz etc. etc. etc. Not to mention the resident floor singers. I was home recently and listened to a few and the quality was variable, some pretty so-so, some very good considering that they're twenty-odd years old. I'd dearly like to get them onto CD or MD so that the don't degrade any further, which isn't really a problem as I've a CD burner on my computer. Ideally what I'd like to be able to do is to clean up the sound a little. Does anyone have any suggestions as to which is the best method, any software advice etc. I hasten to add that this is purely for my own, and my fathers enjoyment. Thanks in advance for you suggestions, Nynia.

Subject: RE: Tape Restoration.
From: Bernard
Date: 30 Jul 00 - 08:12 PM

I use Sound Forge - a friend had an old vinyl with a deep scratch, and I was able to produce a scratch-free CD for her. It wasn't easy or quick, but it was good!

It's best to put them on your hard drive, and burn CDs of the raw originals, then work on them with the safety net of being able to back-track if things go wrong.

If you need more help, email me on [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Tape Restoration.
From: Nynia
Date: 30 Jul 00 - 09:17 PM

Thanks Bernard, do you know who makes / where I can get Sound Forge ?

Subject: RE: Tape Restoration.
From: Willie-O
Date: 30 Jul 00 - 09:24 PM

CoolEdit is a shareware audio editor with pretty good noise reduction capabilities...it can also boost the volume of a track without noticeable distortion which is one cool trick.

Tucows.com has it under Audio in the Win 95 (etc) section.

Now if you spend some time with this treasure trove, maybe you can transcribe some of the material for the DT -- I'm sure there'd be good variants and probably trad songs not currently in the DT.

Have fun, be good.
W-O

Subject: RE: Tape Restoration.
From: GUEST,Nynia (at work)
Date: 31 Jul 00 - 08:45 AM

Thanks Willie, there's some absolute gems, it's gonna be a few months work, but very enjoyable work.

Subject: RE: Tape Restoration.
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 31 Jul 00 - 02:24 PM

If you are using reel to reel tape that has somewhat bonded together you may have to bake the tape in a convection oven. I have a recipe somewhere. There was a block of time when tape manufacturers used a formula that did not hold up and many tapes became impossible to use after a period of time. There are probably contributors to Mudcat who have more information about this problem and how to deal with it.

Subject: RE: Tape Restoration.
From: Tiger
Date: 31 Jul 00 - 04:35 PM

For cleaning old tapes, I took an old reel-to-reel unit ($5 max at a tag sale), and added a stationary pillar with an external cleaning cloth.

I also have a pylon unit that does the same thing (you can put cleaning fluid into the central pillar and it slowly wicks out into the cleaning cloth on the outside).

In both cases, you play the tape over the cleaning surface, multiple times if needed. You can even clean the other side by adding a half-twist into the loop.

Software not withstanding, this may be an essential first step in making the tape playable.

Subject: RE: Tape Restoration.
From: Sourdough
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 02:13 PM

The software that is available for improving tape quality is extraordinary. About six years ago, while doing a documentary, I had about two and a half minutes of sound that was terrible. It had been recorded on the wrong micrphone, one about ten feet away rather than on the microphone that was six inches from the action. The result was a low level, boomy track. I sent the piece to Saul Zaentz studios in Berkeley, CA and the results were almost magical. Using powerful computers, special software programs and highly trained audio techs, they made a huge difference and the piece was saved. It went into the distribution version. However, it was expensive.

Two weeks ago, a friend took an old tape, and using what I think are probably the same techniques but now available on a home computer, did the same thing!

Subject: RE: Tape Restoration.
From: Bernard
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 02:30 PM

Ain't technology wunnerful?!

The best thing about computers is you don't process in real time. If it didn't work, hit 'undo' and try again, and you hear the results immediately. Better still, you can save the settings for the next track...

I recently did an old 78 for a friend - got rid of the hisses and scratches, and pseudo-stereo'd it! He was gobsmacked.

I've looked at CoolEdit, and it seems to do more than Sound Forge. Unfortunately, it's 'cripple ware', so I couldn't evaluate it properly. Shareware's all well and good, but not giving it full functionality for the 30 day trial period is short sighted. It put me off! So I am sticking with Sound Forge (from Sonic Foundry Inc.).

Regarding the old tape stock problem - nobody has mentioned how important it is to keep the tape heads clean! Isopropyl alcohol is cheap enough from most chemists (pharmacies?), and cotton buds are the ideal cleaning tool. Failure to do this will drastically reduce the high frequency response, which is impossible to put back afterwards.

Lecture over! Good luck!

Subject: RE: Tape Restoration.
From: Nynia
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 04:30 PM

Thanks to everyone, Sourdough can you check what software your friend is using and post it for me, thanks.

Nynia.

Subject: RE: Tape Restoration.
From: Bert
Date: 25 Oct 00 - 11:43 AM

And don't forget to demagnetize your tape heads first.

Subject: RE: Tape Restoration.
From: GUEST,CraigS
Date: 25 Oct 00 - 02:47 PM

Be careful to inspect the static pillars of any tape deck that hasn't been used for a long time for wear and corrosion. I once ruined a day's work in the studio by playing the master tape on my home deck - the pillars had corroded (because someone had spilt a drink near it, I think).

Subject: RE: Tape Restoration.
From: Art Thieme
Date: 25 Oct 00 - 07:10 PM

In 1998 I put out a CD from tapes made in the 70s, 80s and the 1990s. MANY of these were on reels in radio station archives and they had seriously deterriorated. Rich Warren at WFMT radio in Chicago and Tom Martin-Erickson at Wisconsin Public Radio had to BAKE the tapes in a CONVECTION OVEN to set the oxide on the tapes. This allowed us to play them ONE TIME ONLY so that they could be recorded onto a DAT tape. Then they were made into CDs.

Many great and wonderful tapes have, in hundreds of radio station archives, deterriorated in this way---and they did that in a very short time compared to expectations for tape longevity. Many important records and artifacts have been totally destroyed.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Tape Restoration.
From: Bernard
Date: 25 Oct 00 - 07:16 PM

Tapes should always be carefully spooled through before use - partly to ensure they aren't damaged, and partly to check that any splicing is still intact (it probably isn't!).

Subject: RE: Tape Restoration.
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 26 Oct 00 - 01:06 AM

G'day Nynia,

You had better take notice of what GUEST Arkie said above!

In the late 1970s, Ampex introduced a new binder for the magnetic medium ... beautifully flexible (for new-fangled helical scan video machines) ... smooth and slippery ... hard wearing ... and it HYDROLISED in a few years! (or a few months ... or weeks ... in the tropics!). The binder was picked up and used by most major manufacturers - especially the American ones - so you have to assume that any tape from that decade is potentially hydrolised.

Even playing them once to hear what is on them CAN scrape significant portions of the binder off, to gum up your heads and to degrade the remaining signal. It is not just a matter of cleaning as Tiger suggests. Art Thieme's post covers it fairly well.

I had this as a major problem in a set of CDs I recently made from high grade Ampex Studio Mastering Tape recorded in 1984. (And I have to face it stil for a lot of archive tapes in my care. It is actually more common with top grade tape, which had embraced the new binder than with ceapies that were old (and safe) technology.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Tape Restoration.
From: z!
Date: 26 Oct 00 - 03:24 PM

For those not faint-of-heart, do a deja-news search on rec.audio.pro. There have been quite a few threads about tape restoration, "unplayable" tapes, etc.

Cheers,

z!

Subject: RE: Tape Restoration.
From:
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 01:52 AM

I guess I have need of the cooking instructions for these old tapes. Too often these days I get ten seconds of audio then it dies........for ever.

So, what oven setting and for how long ?

Jack

Subject: RE: Tape Restoration.
From: GUEST,Dave
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 02:44 AM

The baking process is not always successful but is the best chance, in professional hands, of recovering the material. Because most old tape is magnetised iron oxide on a vynyl backing wound close on a reel, unless you rewind it and store it backwards once in a while, the magnetism bleeds from one layer on the reel to the next, making mush of the sound.

Subject: RE: Tape Restoration.
From: GUEST,Folkmonster
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 07:34 AM

Got my site at www.requiem.net/folkmonster for a guide on digitising using Cooledit.

Are the old recordings on cassette tapes? if they are, you can often get a good improvement by adjusting the playback head of the deck (take the door off to access the screw head). It's surprising how many portable cassette recorders were used out of alignment and 9 out of 10 tapes I've restored benefit from this.

Subject: RE: Tape Restoration.
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 04:10 AM

G'day GUEST, Folkmonster,

Yes ... cassette bring in a whole load more of problems. The point about adjusting the playback heads is very valid. I know that Rob Willis, now working pretty well full time as a consultant for the National Library of Australia's Oral History Unit (which covers folk music and song) comes across family tapes that are the only record of Granddad or Grandma.

These are never good quality, but the content is often priceless. The ANL has set him up with a Nagamichi cassette deck that has been modified to make it easy to adjust the azimuth. That way, he captures the best possible copy of something we would all, otherwise, lose.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Tape Restoration.
From: GUEST,Folkmonster
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 02:02 PM

... Agreed Bob, and of course adjusting the azimuth on reel-to-reel tapes can help as well - although here it's not as critical as on cassettes.

Subject: RE: Tape Restoration.
From:
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 04:51 PM

I'm not talking about improving the quality. I have a handful of tapes which, after playing for a few seconds only, ground to a halt and now play no more.

There is no problem with the equipment, all the decks that I use work perfectly well with all other tapes and the handful all refuse to play on all decks

I'm open to any other diagnosis of the problem. The tapes are around thirty years old.

Jack