RE: Old Live Cassette Tapes??!!!

[dannyandamie]

What is everyone doing with their old live cassette tapes??? I've found it hard to part with them over the past 19 years even though CDs, uploads/downloads have made the quality so much better. My wife wants me to get rid of em. What have others done???? Thanks!

[AAR.oner]

transferred em to digital...kept some cassettes in a box somewhere around here...others i just threw out

[uninvited94]

Still transferring them if time allows it. Have an own rack for them.

[dorrcoq]

Get rid of the wife instead

[uninvited94]

Originally Posted by dorrcoq

Get rid of the wife instead

Exactly. Get rid of the wife and send me the tapes.

[GRC]

1. Put them in a box, put some silica gel in the box with them to absorb moisture, consider sealing the box to keep dust, dirt and moisture out, and label the box with a description of the contents.

2. Keep one working cassette deck.

In a few years, some brands of CDRs won't play back properly.
In a few years, some of your HDDs will/may have failed.

In a few years, you'll STILL be able to play the cassettes and make a nnew digital copy.

I've got 'reputable' brand CDRs that I recorded in 1998 that won't play back. I've had hard drives that were bought post-2000 fail on me.

ALL, or ALMOST ALL, of the reel-to-reel tapes and cassettes that I recorded in the 1970s STILL play back. They might have lost some high-end, there may be a drop out here and there, but they're essentially still playing back as they were in the 1970s.

Keep 'em, and keep 'em safe. You'll thank yourself for it one day.

[LeifH12345]

I strongly agree with GRC.

[chinajoe]

depending on what they are, there might be some people on the den who can transfer them to digital for you.

[Five]

Originally Posted by LeifH12345

I strongly agree with GRC.

me, too

[dude87]

Originally Posted by Five

me, too

Some reel-to-reel tapes from the 70s suffer from a poor formulation - careful "baking" is required to get any sort of playback off of them without severe problems. Not to mention that tapes that aren't stored with some degree of care (i.e., don't leave them sitting on your dashboard during the heat of summer) will deteriorate and become unplayable.

No medium is perfect. Old cassettes don't have the highest fidelity (lower frequency response and poor S/N ratio, especially if NR is used inproperly as was often the case). And then, of course, there's generational hiss that's created. If the cassettes are masters I'd recommend transferring to digital using *good* equipment, preferably at 24 bit word size (higher sampling frequency isn't as key since the frequency response of cassettes isn't that high, but it doesn't hurt). Then put the cassettes away someplace safe where you can reasonably control heat and humidity. Then spread the recordings like crazy - massive parallel backups are still the best way to go.

[GRC]

Originally Posted by dude87

Some reel-to-reel tapes from the 70s suffer from a poor formulation - careful "baking" is required to get any sort of playback off of them without severe problems. ........

Then spread the recordings like crazy - massive parallel backups are still the best way to go.

That's why I added the 'almost' rider to my statement - I have, out of thousands of tapes, just TWO Ampex cassettes. As you'll know, it's Ampex that require the baking process to dry them out...luckily, Ampex never really got a sales foothold in the UK, and my collection is mainly TDK, Maxell, BASF and Agfa - all of which seem thus far to be fairly stable. Long may it continue.

I agree massive parallel backups are advisable - but let's be honest, it's still a good feeling to dig out something you recorded years back, slot it in the machine and go down memory lane...... downloading a torrent, whilst it gets to the same end, almost, doesn't trigger any memories for me.

[LeifH12345]

Originally Posted by GRC

I agree massive parallel backups are advisable - but let's be honest, it's still a good feeling to dig out something you recorded years back, slot it in the machine and go down memory lane...... downloading a torrent, whilst it gets to the same end, almost, doesn't trigger any memories for me.

Agreed. If you're listening to a master tape, it's especially cool because that/those tapes were there with you at that show. A digital copy is nice to have, but isn't the same.

[Stick55]

i keep them in a library catalog cabinets that i found years ago, keeps them neat and orderly. but i have thrown some out but not alot...some cdr's have not worked for me either since i started back about 15 years ago.