New Project - Bringing my Dad's voice back to life

[toastedhippo]

Dear all,

I posted over six years ago a Tandberg I'd bought. I then sold it on because the tapes I was looking to transfer couldn't be found. However, a couple of years ago after my Dad passed away, I found the magnetic tapes I'd been looking for. So, I found an old Ultra to buy, and I'm now ready for the project. Here's the plan.

My late Dad lived and worked in the South Pacific (Solomon Islands). Aged 18, my mum travelled out by boat to join him, and they married out there in the 1960s. He did a fair bit of radio broadcasting, but also brought tapes out from the UK to listen to while he was out there. I've got a small box of these tapes, some of them quite unusual (Solomon Island Broadcasting Service, United Nations, etc). One tape is a recording of their wedding, including tribal music. My mission is to finally get these transferred to digital format so I can send to my mum, the rest of the family, and put anything of interest online. I also just want to enjoy listening to them in the original format, on a real original machine.

I'm obviously going to need help doing this, but I am willing to share some of the outputs of this work with the lovely people on this forum - if you're interested. Think of this as audio resuscitation.

I've attached some pictures below of the tapes and the machine. Next, I would be grateful of some advice on the steps to follow to achieve this mission.

(If you're considering replying, "Why don't you read the forum and what's already out there?", I of course intend to do this anyway. I'm not here to waste anybody's time. But, hopefully you will see that this piece of work could be quite gratifying for everyone involved - and I'm a complete novice when it comes to magnetic reel-to-reel tape recorders.

Please do let me know your thoughts - and thanks in advance for helping to bring my late father's voice back to life.

[paulsherwin]

The simplest solution is to hand the tapes over to a professional to digitize. There will obviously be a cost involved in doing this, but you will get much better results than trying to digitize them on some half restored 1960s domestic tape recorder.

There are a number of forum members that may be able to help.

These are important recordings to you (and possibly to others too) so skimping on archiving them isn't a sensible approach.

[Radio Wrangler]

Playing the tapes with a faulty machine with say the erase oscillator on due to a stuck switch could lose you some of your archive, so you need to get some non-valuable tape to try things out with.

Similarly heads and everything in the tape path need to be de-magnetised so they don't degrade your original recordings.

Some tape formulations were fine quality back in the day, but nowadays shed binder and oxide in a horrible sticky goo. Read up on 'sticky shed' and you'll find which types to beware of. Some tapes you may only get one go at playing.

For valued archives like these, I agree with Paul's recommendation. It is worth paying to have them transcribed with a high grade professional machine, and then you can enjoy them with the period machine knowing the content is safe.

David

[Ted Kendall]

Didn't like to be first to say it, for obvious reasons, but absolutely agree. You may only get one shot at some of this stuff, and if it's that valuable to you, it is unwise to gain experience at the the cost of damage to, or loss of, the material.

[Courtney Louise]

I have sent you a PM.

[dave walsh]

This is what recovering archived material is all about at the personal and public level. Amazingly, to me, the majority of people seem to have no interest whatsoever in rehearsing the past [of course some may have very good reasons for this]. They live in the present like small children and are openly dismissive of the whole idea! I've got a number of these tapes which seem to have been in fairly widespread use at one time but not necessarily so well known about [at least not to me in the sixties]. They would have been a godsend in times when there was no phone connection or it was prohibitively expensive [and it generally was] leaving only the letter post. Do you know what sort of machine you're dad would have been using ie something studio based or did he have a battery portable [maybe a Philips] of his own which were restricted to the smaller reels and were the Walkmans of their day? I've got one of those. My tapes play ok on the mains decks I have and know to be functioning fairly correctly but it's not my relatives on the recordings. You would perhaps be unlucky to have faults in your deck or on the tapes that obscured you're dad's messages but [as already said] if you don't have the technical knowledge why risk it Good luck with you're endeavours and it will be of interest to "hear" how you get on.
Dave W

Given the South Seas aspect mentioned, you may be interested in the work of the ebulient and fascinating David Fanshawe [sadly now deceased himself] who made recordings there and all over the world. He produced fascinating programs for the BBC and others-check Wikki and You Tube. He could be seen in the sea or in middle of a tribal occasion dancing with a pair of large stereo mikes on a stick and clutching his [not at all very] portable recording gear-a treat!

[toastedhippo]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

These are important recordings to you (and possibly to others too) so skimping on archiving them isn't a sensible approach.

Thanks for your reply Paul - it's a good point.

[toastedhippo]

Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler

For valued archives like these, I agree with Paul's recommendation. It is worth paying to have them transcribed with a high grade professional machine, and then you can enjoy them with the period machine knowing the content is safe.

Thanks David - I think you're absolutely right. I guess there are no short-cuts with this kind of thing. I'll get someone who knows that they're doing to have a go at it first. I'll probably need to remortgage the house too!

[toastedhippo]

Originally Posted by Ted Kendall

Didn't like to be first to say it, for obvious reasons, but absolutely agree. You may only get one shot at some of this stuff, and if it's that valuable to you, it is unwise to gain experience at the the cost of damage to, or loss of, the material.

Cheers Ted - absolutely right. Common sense - something I'm clearly lacking!

[toastedhippo]

Originally Posted by dave walsh

Given the South Seas aspect mentioned, you may be interested in the work of the ebulient and fascinating David Fanshawe [sadly now deceased himself] who made recordings there and all over the world. He produced fascinating programs for the BBC and others-check Wikki and You Tube. He could be seen in the sea or in middle of a tribal occasion dancing with a pair of large stereo mikes on a stick and clutching his [not at all very] portable recording gear-a treat!

Hi Dave - thanks for the advice. I'll certainly look up David Fanshawe as you suggest, and I'll post the results on here when the work has been completed. Thanks again for taking the time to write.

[GMB]

If any of the material might be of historic interest generally then you might be able to get it professionally transcribed at zero cost by an archive with an interest in it.

I have done this with film and it saved a lot of cost.

[jamesperrett]

Originally Posted by toastedhippo

I'll probably need to remortgage the house too!

Or it could be cheaper than you think

Interesting comments about David Fanshawe too - I have an old BBC tape containing the soundtrack to a TV programme about his African Sanctus which I must get around to digitising one day.

[Ted Kendall]

I'm not about to get into a Dutch auction here, but would point out that digital transfer from audio media need not cost an arm and a leg. Film and video can be a different story, for perfectly sensible reasons...like explosions.

[paulsherwin]

I've no idea what Ted (or anybody else) charges, but the basic transfer of the tapes to a digital format shouldn't cost a huge amount - certainly less than buying a fully restored high quality tape recorder. Once the material is in the digital domain you can work on it yourself using a PC and cheap or free software.

The costs will start to mount rapidly if there are serious physical problems with the tape such as sticky shed, or if you want lots of manual editing and digital restoration done.

[TIMTAPE]

If the tape boxes pictured are any indication, there are probably no Sticky Shed Syndrome tapes in that lot. SSS came later. The main physical problems will probably be old splices letting go and needing to be cleaned and ends respliced before attempting a play.

Possibly also some acetate based tapes which need care as they can snap easily (but they break cleanly and they can be respliced) and are subject to "cupping".

[HamishBoxer]

I certainly on tape as valuable to you as this would only want to play it once while being copied onto other media.
If it ends up on cd then I would further copy (backup) on to hardrive (s).Never rely on just one working copy.

[toastedhippo]

Originally Posted by GMB

If any of the material might be of historic interest generally then you might be able to get it professionally transcribed at zero cost by an archive with an interest in it.

I have done this with film and it saved a lot of cost.

This is a good shout - there is an organisation that I can think of that will certainly take an interest in this. I'll let you know how I get on. Thanks for the advice.