RE: arsclist reel to reel player/recorder

[Holly Robertson <hollybry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mr. Copeland, you mean there is no panacea?
Ha ha, just kidding.  In an effort to invite all sorts of experiences with
audio reel machines, I thought I'd just toss the general question out
there, but I should've footnoted it for the technically inclined.  I'm
from a primarily manuscripts archive with rich non-traditional (read:
non-paper) formats.  We are investigating methods to better handle the
preservation and accessibility of our audio recordings, going through the
growing pains of realizing what we can do (i.e., what equipment we can
purchase, what expertise we have, what sort of committment we can make -
in terms of time as well as budget) versus sending our materials out to
have preservation copies made elsewhere.

We have a bevy of reel tapes from a variety of sources -- every size from
about 3" to 10.5" most of which seem to be 7.5 ips and 15 ips, but so many
are unlabeled and as of now we have no way to know as we have no reel
player.  And while I don't have records that our reels are anything but
full or 2 track, I can't rule out 4 track as once again many are unlabeled
as to their tecnical specifications.  To boot, most of our reels come from
the "problem" times: a lot of the cellulose acetate tapes are 30-50 years
old and fragile and brittle; we also have a fair number of polyester tapes
from the mid 1970-1980's that we suspect of sticky shed.  

Right now, it seems to me most sensible to send out our current holdings
of original audio reels to a professional in audio migration/engineering
and purchase a reel recorder (here's where I'll attempt to define formats)
for the soul purpose of making those ordained preservation copies (from
original recordings currently on cassette, phonograph, CD, etc.) on to
1/4" audio reel, freshly obtained from a recognized manufacturer, at full
track for the more important items and half track for those of lessor
judged importance, and at 7.5 ips and reel spool measuring 7" in diameter.
At least until a uncompressed, non-sampling format appears heaven
sent, and from all the salesmen I've talk to lately that answer currently
appears to be flash memory (whole other can of worms).

>From all the email today, it seems there are two companies that still make
these monsters new (Tascam, Otari) and other brands available used
(Studer, Sony, Tandberg, and others, I'm sure).  And while I've heard
several recommendations on the Tascam BR-20 and the Otari 50-50BIII, 
does anyone use what looks like the lower end Tascam model, the Tascam 32?  

Thanks to everyone for their response and interest, off list and on.
And if anyone has any horror stories or words of inspiration and survival
re: making-analog-copies-on-audio-reels-in-the-digital-age-in-a-non-sound
recordings-focused-archive, I'd love to hear them.

Holly Robertson
Associate Archivist
Russell Library for Political Research and Studies
University of Georgia Libraries 
Athens, GA 30602-1641
www.libs.uga.edu/russell/russell.html


On Tue, 12 Jun 2001, Copeland, Peter wrote:

> Here at the British Library National Sound Archive, we do not know of a
> machine which will play all track-formats and all spool-sizes and all tape
> speeds and all equalisation curves, even if we only confine ourselves to
> *quarter-inch* tape! I'm afraid you must define the formats you're talking
> about first.
> Peter Copeland
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Holly Robertson [mailto:hollybry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: 12 June 2001 13:54
> To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: arsclist reel to reel player/recorder
> 
> 
> 
> Could anyone recommend an audio reel to reel (player/recorder) brand and
> vendor? 
> 
> Thanks in advance, 
> 
> 
> Holly Robertson
> Russell Library for Political Research and Studies 
> University of Georgia Libraries
> Athens, GA 30602-1641
> www.libs.uga.edu/russell/russell.html
> 
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