Re: [ARSCLIST] Archiving at double speed

[steven c <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard L. Hess" <arclists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> One estimate is there's 400,000,000 hours of recorded sound tapes out 
> there. We're never going to get to them all. 
>
Now, we add the (about) 3,000,000 78's (my estimate) or just short of
6,000,000 3-minute (give or take) sides...a mere 300,000 hours of
content!

I'll have to admit ignorance as far as how many 45's and LP's were
issued during their existence. However, I probably own about 300
hours of that "mystery tape" (counting my R2R only...probably
around a thousand hours of cassette)...and most of that is tapes
of extant 78's, and as such would duplicate the "Ultimate 78 Archive"
once THAT has been compiled!

Then, we can assume that a fair amount of that four hundred million
hours is like some of the things I've either taped, or encountered
due to my habit of buying old tapes and cassettes when the opportunity
arises! I have tapes I made (unfortunately, replayable only on the
AIWA rim-drive mimi-recorders that K-Mart sold for $19.95 in the early
sixties) by hiding the machine under my front seat and recording the
conversation that ensued as we drove...and one less-than-memorable
tape I bought used, which upon audition proved to be an on-the-scene
live tape of someone (the recorder's owner?) indulging in enthusiastic
s*x with an unknown partner! I'm looking for, and rarely find, tapes
of live music or inadvertant "airchecks" made by tape-recording local
radio stations...

Steven C. Barr