These
are several things to consider when planing on having your tapes converted
to CD:
- Reel to reel audio
tape has several different speeds as well as the ability to record audio
in one direction (one-sided) or in both directions (two sided, like
an audio casette). To determine how long your tapes will run, use the
following chart to estimate the length based on the size of the reel:
|
|
Single
Sided
|
Double
Sided
|
|
Speed |
3
3/4 ips
|
7
1/2 ips
|
15
ips
|
3
3/4 ips
|
7
1/2 ips
|
15
ips
|
| Length |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 600' |
|
32
min.
|
16
min.
|
8
min.
|
64
min.
|
32
min.
|
16
min.
|
| 1200' |
|
64
min.
|
32
min.
|
16
min.
|
128
min.
|
64
min.
|
32
min.
|
| 1800' |
|
96
min.
|
48
min.
|
24
min.
|
192
min.
|
96
min.
|
48
min.
|
| 2400' |
|
128
min.
|
64
min.
|
32
min.
|
256
min.
|
128
min.
|
64
min.
|
Unfortunately with
so many variables to choose from it is difficult to determine just by
looking at avreel as to how long it will run. Typically most consumer-bases
audio recorders ran at a speed of 3 3/4 ips (inches per second). At
this speed, a 7", 1800 foot reel would hold about one and a half
hours of audio in one direction.
-
Some
machines recorded the "side 1" sound on the odd (1 &
3) tracks, with tracks 2 & 4 reserved for sound going in the ooposite
direction. Other machines used tracks in pairs (1&2 and 3&4),
making it difficult to play back properly without the original machine
used for the recording. Our transfer machine is a professional level
4-track tape recorder which allows us to monitor the audio on all
4 tracks at once and determine which ones are going in the proper
"direction". It is also a multi-speed machine so we have
the ability to play back audio recorded on any brand of 1/4"
tape recorder.
- When possible,
your transferred audio will be placed onto a single CD. In the case
of tapes holding more than 80 minutes, we will split the audio program
onto 2 or 3 discs depending on the total length. We will also split
the audio into separate tracks so you will be able to skip forward or
back through the program material as you would with a regular CD. For
tapes cotaining music, we will look for the "quiet spots"
between songs to place these track splits; in the case of spoken material,
we will insert splits approximately every 5 to 10 minutes and attempt
to put them at logical, quiet locations. Regardless of where traks are
split, when played back they will be able to play smoothly from track
to track and the splits will not be noticeable.
- The quality of
many old audio tapes still hold up fairly well even after a number of
years. Because of its wider tape width and increased speed, reel to
reel tapes still have a much grater sound quality than audio cassettes.
If program material contains large amounts of hiss or other noise, we
can provide audio electronic "cleaning" for an additonal fee.
|
