Re: [ARSCLIST] 1/4" audio tape digitizing

["Richard L. Hess" <arclists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 11:20 AM 2/13/2006, Language Laboratories and Archives (Barbara Need) wrote:
> I agree with Marie. Many spoken word recordings have the potential 
> for phonetic analysis--whether that was the original intention for 
> the recording or not. Get the best digital signal you can (though, 
> frankly, in my experience, more than 24-bit, 48 kHz is a waste of 
> space), which means doing it in real time.
>
> At 9:31 -0600 13/2/06, Marie O'Connell wrote:
> > I work with spoken word/oral histories all the time, and it is my
> > recommendation that to make a digitized preservation copy/master, that it is
> > done in real-time.  I work with both reel-to-reel and cassettes, with speeds
> > ranging from 15/16ths to 15ips.

While in general I agree with what my friend Marie O'Connell has 
said, I would like to suggest that if we're using Barbara Need's 
criteria of anything over 24 bit 48 ks/s as a waste for spoken word 
recordings (and for a variety of record-chain technical reasons I 
agree with her), I would like to point out that if all the 
engineering "i"s are dotted and the "t"s crossed, we can achieve the 
same result at 2x using 96 ks/s digitizing and at 4x using 192 ks/s 
digitizing. But there are issues with recorder reproduce bandwidth, 
equalization, and head gap pole spacing. These can theoretically be 
dealt with -- and have been in the dying art of high-speed analog 
tape duplication, but not in (m)any products that might become 
available for this purpose.

Cheers,

Richard


Richard L. Hess                   email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Vignettes Media                   web:   http://www.richardhess.com/tape/
Aurora, Ontario, Canada       (905) 713 6733     1-877-TAPE-FIX
Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm