The Digitization of Audio Tapes Technical Bulletin 30 Technical Technical Bulletin 30 The Digitization of Audio Tapes Richard Hess, Joe Iraci, and Kimberley Flak © Government of Canada, Canadian Conservation Institute, 2012 Published by: Canadian Conservation Institute Department of Canadian Heritage 1030 Innes Road Ottawa ON K1B 4S7 Canada Cat. No.: CH57-3/1-30-2012E ISSN 0706-4152 ISBN 978-0-660-20257-0 Texte aussi offert en français. Printed in Canada CCI Technical Bulletins Technical Bulletins are published at intervals by the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) in Ottawa as a means of disseminating information on current techniques and principles of conservation of use to curators and conservators of Canada’s cultural artifacts and collection care professionals worldwide. The authors welcome comments. Abstract Many archives and heritage institutions possess audio tapes that are the only record of culturally significant information. Unfortunately, these analog audio storage formats have a finite technology lifetime. If the information is to remain accessible, it must be migrated to new technology. This Technical Bulletin provides information and procedures for digitizing cassettes and reel-to-reel tapes. It is intended to assist small to mid-size heritage institutions that lack the funds for professional digitization. Note that the procedures discussed herein are intended primarily for oral history collections; they will not capture all the fine details extant in high-fidelity recordings. Authors Richard Hess is an expert in the digitization of audio tapes. In 2004, he wrapped up a 21-year career with National Teleconsultants and opened his own business (www.richardhess.com) for audio tape restoration, repair, and mastering in Aurora, Ontario. He was contracted by CCI to write this Technical Bulletin. Joe Iraci is a Senior Conservation Scientist at CCI, Department of Canadian Heritage, Ottawa, Canada. He researches the disaster recovery of optical discs and magnetic tapes and disks, as well as the deterioration and stability of these media. Kimberley Flak was a Conservation Scientist at CCI, Department of Canadian Heritage, Ottawa, Canada, from 2009 to 2011. Her work focused on methodologies and techniques of preserving digital content. Table of Contents Introduction o Analog tapes are near end-of-life o Advantages of digitization Overview of the digitization workflow Evaluation of tape condition o Contaminants o Chemical degradation of tape o Physical damage to tape o Damage to cassette housing or reel o Preparing the tape for playback . Cassettes . Reels Playback equipment and set-up o Selecting and outfitting the space o Cassette playback machine o Reel-to-reel playback machine o Power conditioning o Azimuth adjustment Analog to digital conversion o Digital recorder o Connecting the equipment Playback of tape for digital capture o General precautions and notes Editing and quality control o Computer workstation o Computer software o Metadata and file naming o Monitoring equipment . Speakers . Headphones . Connecting the computer to the playback decks Storage o Digital storage media . CDs . DVDs . Individual hard drives . RAID storage . Cost comparison of different storage media o Care of tapes – storage and handling requirements o Retention of originals Outsourcing o Situations that might require outsourcing o What to look for when outsourcing Technology watch Appendix A: Reel-to-reel tape recorders that may be suitable for digitization Appendix B: Alternative digital capture options analysis Appendix C: Zoom H2 recommended settings for capture Appendix D: Equipment summary Appendix E: Suppliers Appendix F: Cable connections between equipment Footnotes Further reading/Resources Introduction Many small to mid-size archives and heritage institutions possess analog audio tapes (cassettes and/or reel-to-reel) that are the only copy of culturally significant information. These media have a finite technology lifetime. They cannot be stored indefinitely with the expectation that the information will always be retrievable. Analog tapes are near end-of-life Audio cassettes were conceived as a “dictation-quality” format, but their ease-of-use made them popular for a wide variety of purposes. By the early 1980s, more commercial music was available on audio cassettes than on long-playing records. Although not as prevalent as cassettes, 1/4-in. reel-to- reel audio tapes also saw widespread use and are generally capable of much higher fidelity. A brief review of the history of audio cassettes and reel-to-reel tapes indicates that both are now near their end-of-life. Cassettes are no longer a mainstream medium as reported in The New York Times on July 28, 2008.1 Reel tapes have suffered this fate since the 1970s in the consumer marketplace and since the 1990s in the vast majority of professional applications. Players are becoming scarce. Excellent-quality cassette players were discontinued in the 1990s and even most good-quality ones are no longer produced. The last professional reel-to-reel players were manufactured in the 1990s. Magnetic tape is degrading, although the precise timeline for any given tape depends on the specific batch of tape and the long-term storage history. It is clear that the information stored on these analog audio tapes needs to be migrated to a newer format if it is to remain accessible. The best option is digitization. In fact, there is effectively no alternative as there are no analog formats that are widespread, cost-effective, and have any significant expectation of future support.2 Digitization of analog audio recordings will not only preserve them, but also make them more accessible to researchers and other interested parties. Advantages of digitization Although it may look as if archives and heritage institutions are being “forced into” digitizing audio assets, there are many advantages to digital storage. Digitization at even a mid-quality level is better than making more cassette copies; the digital version is much more likely to survive and be accessible in the future. Digitization allows for multiple copies with no further loss of quality. Once an item is digitized, further digital copies can easily be certified as “bit perfect” (i.e. every bit in the copy is the same as in the original). Instead of one “master” tape and inferior copies distributed to other archives, all digital copies are of the same quality. The quality of the digital copy far exceeds most of the cassettes that were recorded, so the original quality on the cassette is maintained throughout the digital process. Digitization allows for easy and remote access. As more and more Internet users have high-speed links, digital content can be distributed at a fraction of the cost of distributing physical media. Internet distribution is also faster — no waiting for the regular mail to arrive. No format is forever, but digitization simplifies (and also enables) ongoing mass transfers from one carrier to another and possibly even one format to another later in time. In contrast, copying analog material is labour-intensive and can allow sonic degradations to creep in. 6 This Technical Bulletin provides information and procedures for digitizing cassettes and reel-to-reel tapes. It is intended for small to mid-size heritage institutions that lack the funds for professional digitization. The emphasis is on oral history collections, which, since the late 1960s, usually reside on cassettes. Most of these comprise impromptu collections of music such as campfire songs and small performances. Although some communities had audiophiles who created high-quality recordings, most of these recordings are fairly far from high fidelity. The few tapes that were recorded with more care (e.g. using reasonable microphones and a good-quality recorder) should be separated for superior digitization as the guidelines provided herein are unlikely to capture all the fidelity that is extant on these tapes. Reel-to-reel tapes were generally used for oral histories in the 1950s. This usage declined with the growing popularity of cassettes, and the conversion to cassettes was probably complete by the late 1970s or early 1980s. The procedures for digitizing reel-to-reel tapes that are included in this Technical Bulletin are intended for oral history and similar quality recordings only. Reel-to-reel tapes that contain music recorded on professional machines should be separated for superior digitization. Oral histories may also appear on other formats, including wire recordings, grooved (and possibly magnetic) discs, and grooved and magnetic dictation belts. However, these and other formats represent a very small percentage of the overall body of this type of work. They are beyond the scope of this Technical Bulletin, and should be sent to a professional specializing in the particular format. Digitization for preservation should generally be performed at the highest quality possible, and many high-end and expensive approaches are available. However, the basic choices and processes suggested in this Technical Bulletin should provide reasonable results. They offer a cost-effective way to create a robust archive of irreplaceable cassette and 1/4-in. reel-to-reel recordings. Overview of the Digitization Workflow The following procedure for digitizing audio recordings (see Figure 1) is cost-effective, scalable to allow more than one tape to be digitized at a time (by using additional tape recorder/digital recorder chains in parallel), and adjustable