[ale] HOW2 burn reel2reel tapes to CDs ?

[Jeff Hubbs]

Yes; I've done hours' worth and still have more to do!

First thing you need, of course, is an R2R deck.  It's good to know 
ahead of time if the tapes you're dealing with (I assume this is 1/4" 
tape) are half-track (i.e., two channels across the whole width of the 
tape) or quarter-track (i.e., two channels on one "side" of the tape and 
two more on the other "side") because that will determine what kind of 
deck you need.  You will probably not find a deck that has heads to play 
back both, however, a quarter-track deck will properly play back a 
half-track tape (not vice-versa unless the quarter-track tape is 
recorded only on one side, in which case it will work but at roughly 6dB 
worse S/N). 

I should tell you that it is difficult to find an R2R deck in good 
working order.  I had my Teac (consumer Tascam) deck from c. 1982 
serviced last Spring and it works very well, but almost any deck you'd 
buy used today almost certainly needs attending to.  Many are likely 
unserviceable.

Consumer decks typically run at 3-3/4 in/s and 7-1/2 in/s; some 
portables that only take 3" or 5" reels went down to 1-7/8 in/s.  Pro 
decks run at 15 and 30 in/s.

Different tapes of different ages shed oxide at different rates.  I've 
had 40-year-old tapes hold up better than 10-year-old tapes.  You may 
have to stop mid-reel for cleaning.

Depending on the quality of the recording, you may want to interpose a 
compressor/limiter between the deck and the computer. 

You really should get a more serious audio input than your motherboard's 
mic/line-in jack.  Used to be, you'd get an esoteric sound card, but 
these days, audio I/O seems to be being moved outside the machine to a 
Firewire or USB device. 

Lastly, you'll need editing and burning software.  Audactity appears to 
be the app-of-choice in Linux-land;  I do my tape ripping in WinME 
because my high-end ISA-bus sound card will likely never have a Linux 
driver.



Courtney Thomas wrote:

>Anyone successfully done this ?
>
>How, please ?
>
>Thank you.
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