Preserving Old Valuable Tapes

[Dave Anderson]

I have a set of old tapes recorded by an uncle who died about 10 years ago. They are recordings of his voice and have great sentimental value to me. The original masters were recorded onto cassette. I have copies of the masters also on cassette. My uncle did not use the best in recording equipment so the sound quality is not great. However, apart from a little background hum the recordings are fairly clear.

I want to preserve the copies I have and make 'back-up' copies in case any of the cassettes jam or deteriorate in some way. Obviously the copies of the copies should be as near the original as possible. I don't want to lose any of the sound I've already got.

I have a few options with the equipment I possess. I have an HHB CD recorder. I like this machine and it gives me good results. I could 'burn' some CDR discs. However, I've read of people having problems with some brands of CDR discs after only 10 years or so. I tend to buy the HHB brand of blank discs but have not used them long term.

I could, of course, simply copy my uncle's tapes direct onto cassette tape again. I fear this would give the least satisfactory results in terms of sound quality. I even have reel to reel and could copy the cassette tapes to this format, though it would be the most expensive option (and create storage/space problems).

My final option would be Minidisc. I could transfer the tapes to Minidisc and preserve them this way.

I wonder if members of the forum have any thoughts and views about archiving and preserving old tapes. The recordings, mainly of my uncle talking, are priceless to me and I would prefer to have some sort of back-up copy. There are around 20 of these cassette tapes so it may take a bit of time making the copies so I was wondering what would be the right course to take. My own instinct is to copy direct to CDR using the HHB CD Burner but I am unsure about the long term reliability of blank discs.

Dave

[Pro 12 user]

Hi Dave,
You may want to check the information on this site:

http://cybercoyote.org/hardware/cd-r.shtml

[Ted Kendall]

Preservation, these days, is best done in digits, without data compression, which lets out common or garden MiniDisc for a start.

First, extract all the data from the cassette, as information lost here cannot be recovered. Best for this is probably a Nakamichi dual capstan transport in good shape, or a Revox ditto. The Nakamichi retracts the cassette pressure pad and is easier to tweak for azimuth. Use appropriate EQ and noise reduction settings (we'll skate over the details for now) and dub directly to a decent digital machine, in which category the HHB would qualify. Use decent CD blanks, make backups, and store correctly.

Preservation also implies future playability - Red Book CD is the audio format which will have working machines available for the longest time. The archive community has settled on 24/96 WAV files, but this implies storage on some sort of safe hard disk array with redundancy, etc.

This done, if you want to make playback copies on cassette, it's easily done.

[Duke_Nukem]

I'm not sure minidiscs - or, indeed, any other digital technology is necessarily better than a good quality CDR. And minidiscs are already obsolete technology.

I've an extensive collection of tapes I transferred to CD, and then stored the original tapes safely. As well as creating proper audio CD's, I created high quality MP3 versions which are archived to DVD's; the DVD's I duplicate every couple of years but always keep the previous set and also have a set on the hard drive. The DVD's and CD's are stored in different places.

Sounds ott, but it is cheap - in your case uncompressed 16 bit stereo WAV files archived on 2 DVD's == 9.4GB, divide by ~700MB/Hour, thats 13hrs of recordings which sound like enough for your purposes ?

There are some loseless codecs about (such as Monkeys Audio) which is useful for those not wishing to go the MP3 route but need some compression just to make archiving practical.

Key thing is to duplicate "regularly", always keep the previous version and if you stick to lossless compression they'll never be any degradation however many copies you make. Also, store those tapes carefully - they can last, remember that quite a few old 50's comedy shows broadcast on BBC7 survived thanks to home tapes.

TTFN,
Jon

[paolo]

A cheap way is to download Audacity and then run the 50Hz filter across the recording. It should eliminate the hum and provide you with a decent enough digital archival backup.

Paul

[cheerfulcharlie]

The lazy man's way of preserving tapes is to FFWD them and RWD them a few times a year.

[paulsherwin]

Ted has given the professional's answer, but this is probably a bit OTT for archiving domestic cassette tapes from the 60s and 70s.

He's right to specify using the best cassette deck you can find though, as this will have the biggest single influence on the archived quality. Keep an eye open for a Dual C814, which sold in very large numbers in the early 80s and perform very well indeed. You should check and adjust the playback speed before copying anything, and adjust the azimuth to match each cassette.

You can digitize the audio using the standard soundcard in your PC. The will not give results equal to a good professional soundcard but will normally give good performance if you adjust the audio levels carefully. 44.1k sampling (CD standard) should be adequate for domestic use, though again pros will use a higher sampling frequency.

You will now have uncompressed digital audio on your PC. Ideally you should save copies of these files before doing anything else. The problem is that they will be quite large, though given the cost of hard drive storage it's definitely worth doing. You can then edit the raw digital files with something like Audacity and transfer them to a consumer format such as an audio CD or MP3 player. If using MP3 the best sounding encoder by far is LAME. If you prefer lossless compression the best choice is probably the FLAC codec.

Finally, retain the original cassettes and store them in a dry temperature controlled environment (i.e. not in the loft or the cellar.) Most cassettes from the 70s seem very stable and they are lasting well.

Good luck, Paul

[dave walsh]

This is a regular and ongoing topic Dave that seems to boil down to what will last? Other than audio tape, it's a bit of an open question so your back up to
cassette is probaly a good idea even if you are going digital as well. I think the last thread here on this was Archiving Domestic Recordings 31/1/10. Dave W

[Roger13]

Hi Dave.

You're getting a lot of good advice here which I'm sure will sort things for you. For my 'tuppence worth' I would just say that I archive anything really irreplaceable to everything I have available. Media is cheap enough to make copying your (lossless) digital copy to CDR, Minidisc, HDD, a fresh cassette and anything else you have available. It's the best way I can think of to guard against obsolescence of media formats.

Personally I keep an external USB Hard Drive specifically for backing up absolutely everything I archive, whatever the medium. External HDD's are relatively cheap, very efficient and FAST, and can store huge quantities of data. Just keep an eye on technological progress..........

I have learned from bitter experience that you only 'lose' a prescious recording once. So it's worth a bit of time and effort.

Cheers,

Roger.

[brenellic2000]

My experience of computer technology these past 30 years is that computer media is far from ideal for archive storage, as storage fashions (8" - 5-1/4" - 3-1/2" - Zip) and non backward compatible software (Microsoft/AutoCad especially) means you are forever having to recopy to new media! Stick to BASF LH35LP tape - it has proven archival qualities!

As Paul quite rightly says, store it in a cool, dark, dry humidity controlled room - an unvarnished/unwaxed wooden box is ideal. The higher the room temperature, the more problematical will be the print-through.

Barry

[TIMTAPE]

Another factor to consider is accidents such as fire, flooding, and forgetfulness. It's just commonsense but storing a second set of copies offsite, perhaps at another family member's home, can give you some extra insurance.

Tim

[Dave Anderson]

Thank you to everyone for the very good advice. I have three Nakamichi cassette decks and they should be capable of replaying the tapes in question to a reasonably high standard. Incidentally the tapes were only recorded in the mid to late 1990's shortly before my uncle died. The cassettes are in good condition, being modern formulations, mainly TDK's. I don't particularly want to do much processing i.e. with eq or filters when making the back ups, preferring to make a straight copy or clone of the tape.

Playability of the back-up, as Ted said, is important and for this reason I am probably going to make CD-R copies. I suspect the reports of CD-R failure rates apply to some cheaper unbranded makes (but I may be wrong). Taking account of my age (and best case scenario life expectancy) the chosen media has to last maybe 30 to 40 years. Whether CD players will last this long we don't know. I may have to transfer the CD-R's onto another newer format at some stage in the future.

I think it may be wise to make a second back-up CD-R as extra insurance and store this elsewhere just in case. Normally I wouldn't be this cautious but, as I said, these recordings cannot be replaced.

Dave

[paulsherwin]

Originally Posted by Dave Anderson

I suspect the reports of CD-R failure rates apply to some cheaper unbranded makes (but I may be wrong). Taking account of my age (and best case scenario life expectancy) the chosen media has to last maybe 30 to 40 years. Whether CD players will last this long we don't know. I may have to transfer the CD-R's onto another newer format at some stage in the future.

The difficulty with CD-R durability is it's completely unpredictable. The brand of the CD-R is no guide at all as they are routinely OEMd by other manufacturers, often in China or India. Overall they do seem to be getting better though.

Regardless of how you create the CDs, you should make copies on a computer hard disk. If you use an audio CD recorder you can easily rip the resultant CDs. Lame at the highest quality setting will reduce a 70 minute CD of speech to around 50MB and you should then make multiple copies of the compressed files - hard drives, CD-R, DVD-R, pendrives, anything you have. Upload copies to the internet somewhere too. This will allow you to recreate the CDs should any fail.

Good luck, Paul

[dave walsh]

Hi Dave. You seem to have made a decision but it's difficult. I take a chance on digital these days, despite the warnings just on a physical space consideration but still use audio/video cassette as well!
The thread I mentioned [post 8#] has forum members explaining [post 15* onwards] ATIP codes which might differentiate better blank discs. I'd never heard of this myself ! Cheers Dave W

[ppppenguin]

It's difficult to regard any CDR as archival. You need to be very sure of the exact type and in any case they only hold 80 minutes of audio.

Hard drives are inexpensive, hold loads of data, are pretty reliable and are easy to duplicate. Ease of duplication means that you are less likely to shirk the taks of occasional data checking and duplication.

With any medium you can use a lossless compression system such as FLAC to roughly double the capacity. No harm in making MP3 or other highly compressed listening copies but keep the master uncompressed or lossless.

[jamesperrett]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

The difficulty with CD-R durability is it's completely unpredictable. The brand of the CD-R is no guide at all as they are routinely OEMd by other manufacturers, often in China or India. Overall they do seem to be getting better though.

Serious CD-R users know how to find out who really made the discs that they are using and they check each disc they make for errors using a program like Plextor's Plextools. If you don't do this you could be producing marginal quality discs without realising it. I've had a couple of drives that appear to burn discs with no problem but Plextools shows me that the discs have very high error rates which, while they are readable when first burned, shows that they could give problems in future.

Plextools is now free and it will identify disc manufacturers using just about any CD drive but you need the right Plextor drive to run the detailed error checks.

James.

[brenellic2000]

... which proves the point - don't archive on computers, but archive on analogue magnetic tape! QED!

[Roger13]

Originally Posted by brenellic2000

... which proves the point - don't archive on computers, but archive on analogue magnetic tape! QED!

Just don't break it, store it unwisely, leave it in direct sunlight, thoughtlessly rest it on that chassis speaker on the bench, let the wife near it, let the grandchildren anywhere near it..............

I'm a big fan of magnetic tape, but I still think it's best to cover all the bases.

Cheers,

Roger.

[P.Pilcher]

For the record, I acquired my first reel to reel machine (an Elizabethan Princess) in 1959. The tape reel supplied with the machine was a 7@ spool of emitape which tends to shed a bit of red oxide evey time it is played (it always has). It, and sbsequently acquired reels still bear the recordings made on them (some made in 1959) to this day with no percieved loss of quality - not that it was ever very good! Said tapes have been stored in the dark at room temperature.

P.P.

[Dave Anderson]

Last Saturday morning I switched on my laptop computer only to find it wouldn't switch on !!!

Took it to a computer repair shop who examined it. After three days I was told it couldn't be repaired. Not something I would hear from any of the members of this forum, I'm sure.

So, after owning this piece of technology for around 4 years it has let me down. The point of this post is to query the wisdom of archiving recordings to PC. I guess I've been unlucky. I haven't actually lost any valuable data this time.

I have treated myself to a nice new laptop (which I haven't started using yet) and am typing this post from my work PC.

Storing recordings on a fragile medium such as computers is, I am beginning to think, a risky business. Ah well, maybe others will disagree.

Dave.