Looking for a member in UK to transfer 1/4"audio tapes to digital. Paid work.

[sahib]

I have two 1/4" 150 minutes tapes that I would like to be transferred to digital. We have no idea what is in them. Possibly voices of my wife's Italian relatives. They were in my late mother-in-law's estate and must have been recorded at least 40 years ago if not more. I will happily pay for the work. A UK based member is preferred.

 

[ruffrecords]

What speed were they recorded at? What size spools are they on?

Cheers

Ian

 

[sahib]

Hi Ian,

Believe or not when I posted last night It crossed my mind that you would be the one to respond first.

The spools are 5". Kodak made tapes.

I have no idea of the speed unfortunately. There are some notes written onto the boxes (in Italian) but it does not mention anything technical.

The boxes and the tapes are so in mint condition that you would think they were opened yesterday. They were neatly stashed in the bedroom cupboard which is cool and dry.

 

[MagnetoSound]

I can't see you having 150 minutes on a 5" spool. Did you perhaps mean 15 mins?

That would probably be 3 3/4 ips.

 

[PRR]

Speed is not critical. I've dubbed 78s at 45RPM and fixed the speed/pitch in the computer. There's some shift of record/play EQ, but for tape in theory it's a small few-dB wobble in the 3KHz range and in practice you will probably want to EQ-out some of the flaws in the recorder and microphone anyway.

I'm assuming these are family tapes, that you didn't find lost Hendrix recordings and need an "authentic" transcription for historical archives.

 

[guy_4]

Hello Ian,
Be careful with 40 years old magnetic tapes !
It needs some knowledge and magnetic tape experience to handle this job properly.
Have you heard of the oxyde shredding problem ? 
You may need to previously " bake " the tape in a special oven before trying to copy it...
Ask for advice a professional of tape archiving before doing anything.
I'm sure in UK there are retired BBC engineers that can help you !
Best,
Guy

 

[sahib]

Dan,

You might be right. The boxes are labelled as "Duree 150" which I assumed 150 minutes.  270 m is also marked which I assume the length of the spool. However, the notes on the box mention to turn the tape over to play the other side. So I am assuming that the recording is mono.


PRR,

Yes, I wish they were lost  Hendrix recordings but sadly not. These are family recordings. One apparently is a recording of an amateur theatre play. My wife has talked to one of her aunts and the tapes probably date back to 50s.


Guy,

Thank you for the advice.

 

[ruffrecords]

The other question is whether they are quarter or half track recordings. Most early tape recorders were half track mono and you turned the tape over to record/play side 2. Quarter track soon followed which allowed each side to hold a stereo recording. Unfortunately, the tracks were not side by side so they could not be played on a half track mono machine.

@Guy. I am well aware of sticky shed syndrome but fortunately have never come across it myself. It began some time in the 70s/80s when they stopped using whale oil as a tape lubricant. The man made substitute was not nearly as good. They did eventually sort this out but there is a period of about 10 years when a lot of tape was sold with dodgy lubricant. Sahib says is tapes must be 40 years old which makes them mid 70s. I have never had any problems with the tapes I purchased in that period. I suspect it was Ampex in the US who had the biggest problem with it. Having said that, it is always wise to check for this.

Cheers

Ian

 

[PRR]

> whether they are quarter or half track recordings

For "family tapes", it's not critical. Probably 1/2tr mono both sides. _IF_ you have an old Professional 2tr stack it plays right back on Left channel.(*) If you have 1/4tr head, there is a small mis-match and some missed S/N, but hey it's beloved Aunt Maria, not Jimi, and just hearing her voice again 50 years later is enough. (And good digital denoising works, even "too well"; be careful to leave some grit so we know it isn't new.)

(*) If you are very clever, you can take L and R to separate outputs. R will be the second half, backward, which is easily swopped in PC. This means just one pass over fragile tape. However you would probably want to get back to the original reel in Play speed for a smooth wind, so 2 passes makes sense unless oxide is flying off the acetate.

 

[ruffrecords]

> whether they are quarter or half track recordings

For "family tapes", it's not critical. Probably 1/2tr mono both sides. _IF_ you have an old Professional 2tr stack it plays right back on Left channel.(*) If you have 1/4tr head, there is a small mis-match and some missed S/N, but hey it's beloved Aunt Maria, not Jimi, and just hearing her voice again 50 years later is enough. (And good digital denoising works, even "too well"; be careful to leave some grit so we know it isn't new.)

I was thinking more the other way round. If the tapes were made on a domestic quarter track deck you would not be able to recover them with a pro half track mono or stereo head stack. I guess the answer has to be suck it and see. Sahib, do you want to send them to me and I'll see if I can recover them on my stereo Ferrograph.

Cheers

Ian

 

[sahib]

They'll be on their way to you tomorrow sir.

 

[ruffrecords]

They'll be on their way to you tomorrow sir.

At least the route between Glasgow and North Norfolk is relatively flood free at the moment!!

Cheers

Ian