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Re: arsclist Assistance for Armenian Ethnomusicology Archive
At 03:20 PM 10/28/2002 -0800, John Ross wrote:
Playing tapes in Armenia on equipment for the American market is possible,
but not easy, for several reasons:
First, the AC power standard is 50 Hz rather than 60 Hz, so most motors
won't run at the right speed.
The AC power standard is 220 VAC, so they would need a step-up converter
to run gear designed for 110 VAC.
The tape speeds were essentially the same, but they were expressed in some
metric value (I'm halfway remembering 17 and 38 cm per second, but that
may not be correct.
If the recordings were made on East-bloc equipment, there's a strong
possibility that the reels have a different-shape hole in the center, and
the tapes may have been wound with the oxide out. Neither of these is an
insurmountable problem, but they're nuisances.
I am far from expert in this area, but do have some comments to offer. The
problem of power would apply only to consumer equipment. Professional
decks, such as the Studer A807, allow selection of line voltage. (I cite
that one because it's the model I bought through the notice on this list.)
I believe that any deck with continuously variable playback speed such as
the Studer will rely on an internal clock rather than line frequency for
speed control.
Since the post indicates that these are field recordings, there is a
distinct probability that speed will have to be adjusted from nominal.
Those nominal values are the usual 30 ips, 15 ips, ... 15/16 ips. The
metric designation of 75, 37.5 and lower cps values are simplified
statements of the speeds in English units. According to my reading and my
limited experience with tapes recorded in Europe, actual speeds are in ips.
Mike
mrichter@xxxxxxx
http://www.mrichter.com/
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