(no subject)

[42itous]

Can someone please give me a clue as to how to transfer an audio tape to a digital medium? Specifically, I have taped an interview that I want to place in five time capsules -- most of these will be opened in the next decade or so, but one needs to last 43 years, so if you want to debate what media will still be readable then, now's your chance.

Comments

[zzbottom.livejournal.com]

Well, I know you can get a cord that will plug into the headphone jack of the master device, and into the mic jack of the digital recording device (Radio Shack or Micro Center should have one) and you can record just like speaking into a microphone on your computer or other digital recording device. From there you can convert to whatever sound file you'd like.

As for what's going to last 43 years, I have zero clue. You might call someone at, say, Emerson, where they have a good sound engineering department and pose the question there.

[moechus.livejournal.com]

I suspect that most media will last that long. I have lots of vinyl that I still play that's older than that and I heard a story on the radio (must have been NPR) in the last week or two about a tape of the radio call of a Sandy Koufax no-hitter (early 60s) that just turned up in the back of someone's closet. I'm pretty sure it was the old fashioned reel-to-reel tape. I wouldn't be surprised if some analog media (e.g. unplayed vinyl) outlasted at least some digital media.

[hahathor.livejournal.com]

Fifteen years ago, most of my analog music was on LPs and audiocassettes. Most of my analog video was on VHS. Digital data was on 5-1/4" floppies. Digital video was on laser disks.

Now, although much of my music is in the form of mp3s and CDs, I have a turntable & a cassette player. Though some of my video is in the form of DVDs, I have a VCR. The floppies and the laser disks are pretty much a dead loss though.

If you really want to convert it though, just get a simple Y-connector with RCA plugs on one end (you stick 'em onto the Tape Output jacks of your stereo) and a plug that fits into your mic jack on the other. If you want to improve the quality, you can get something like an iMic, which is an external audio card that plugs into a USB port. It has the same type of jack that you put the mic into, but it will sound much better. Just record in and make a .wav file. There's a variety of software that will let you edit or improve the sound of audio files. I use something called Magix Audio Cleaning Lab, which has functions that are optimized for analog sound (gets rid of tape hiss, or phono pops), but you'd probably be fine with freeware you can find on line.

[42itous.livejournal.com]

I'm getting a lot of good advice in the comments here, most of which goes right over my head... but I guess I'll learn fast. Probably it'll all make sense to my in-house geek.

ask a digital librarian...

[athene.livejournal.com]

it's what I'm all about...

what you need is an analog to digital converter to go between the tape player and the computer. I'm not sure where these can be found other than at digitization labs.

You'll then need the software to record the audio. For the PC, Sony's Sound Forge is a pretty good program. You can DL a fully functional trial version. There's also Audacity which is Open Source and is for both Mac and PC, but I find it a little tricky to use.

In terms of formatting, you should probably go with open-source, lossless format. Of course formats change very quickly, but if it's open-source then there is a good chance that it will be able to be migrated or emulated. The best way to make sure of this would be to leave a set of analog (paper) instructions about how it was digitized, what program, and was type of music file it is. That way when they find it they can go back and try to either migrate or emulate it in concurrence with practices at the time.

I could ask my friends who are in the "Intro to Audio Preservation" course for even more information if you are interested.

Can you tell that this is stuff i want to be doing??

More resources:

This is the page/walkthrough that we used in my digitzation class when we did audio digitzation (http://www.jasonmolin.net/projects/audio_digitization/).

These are the readings for the digitization class (http://courses.ischool.utexas.edu/megan/2007/Spring/INF385R/readings.php#audio).

Re: ask a digital librarian...

[athene.livejournal.com]

ps. if you have any questions, feel free to e-mail/call me. Contact info on f-locked post on birthdate.

Re: ask a digital librarian...

[42itous.livejournal.com]

That's awesome! I didn't know that was your specialty. Thanks for your expertise.

[volta]

Analog tape to digital is not too hard, if you have a computer with audio in (virtually every computer made in the last 10 years does), and a tape deck with audio out. For media longevity, high quality digital tape, properly stored, can reliably be expected to last ~30 years without maintenance. Typical consumer-grade recordable CD/DVD media, not so much; 10 years at the outside, in near ideal conditions. Archival-grade recordable CD/DVD media should last longer, but I do not know if 43 years is within the design spec even on that. A "pressed" CD should outlast any recordable media easily, as would an analog record. Analog audio tape will almost certainly still be playable in 50 years, though the quality will likely have degraded noticably--I have some reel-to-reel tape that is nearly that old, stored in less-than-optimal conditions, and is still playable.

[xuth.livejournal.com]

Kodak gold (to my knowledge no longer made) and Mitsui gold (expect to pay a bit more than a dollar a disk online) recordable cd media are expected to last about 100 years (some people say longer, others have their doubts but all agree that these disks have much better dye longevity than typical disks). This of course assumes that the disk is taken care of. The big things are to keep the cd in a dark, cool area and DO NOT USE AN ADHESIVE LABEL on the cd. Depending on the label that can cut the usable lifetime of the disk to months. And of course don't physically abuse the disk.

Because the CD has become as ubiquitous as it has, it is as likely as any media format to still have players/readers around in 43 years but I'm hesitant to believe that they'll be at all common. But I would guess that in 43 years there will still be thousands of geeks of varying stripes with their 25 year old ultradvd player/drive that can also read blueray/hddvd/dvd/cd.

Making a standard audio cd (rather than a data cd with audio tracks) is imho the best solution for audio. This is a standard that billions of disks are pressed in, and is a well published standard. While it has less data redundency on disk (data cds have some redundent bits so that if a few bits go away the data is still there, audio cds don't) if an audio cd loses a few bits you'll just get a few holes in the audio stream and the cd player will recognize they're bad and smooth over them. If a data cd loses more bits than the error correction can handle it takes someone or something knowledgeable in data recovery (and possibly the specific file format) to get anything useful off of the disk at all.

[xuth.livejournal.com]

If you really want to make sure that someone can play this in 43 years, include a cheap cd player. Make sure that there are no batteries inside (or outside).

[merilisa.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this! I found an audiotape of my Oma and Opa from 25 years ago and I was thinking that if it wasn't too late, we would transfer it...and I had no idea how. Thanks!

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I have a toy (http://gnomi.livejournal.com/307795.html) that does it very nicely (and the toy is relatively expensive).

[42itous.livejournal.com]

[sorry, K was still logged in when I posted, so I deleted that comment and am posting the same one from my own account.]

Is that an offer? If I could borrow your toy, or come over and use it, I'd be much obliged. How does it feel about dealing with 90 minutes of material?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

That is an offer. It's fine with any length of material. If you can get the tape to me, I can make it into a CD for you.

(it requires software that's installed on my laptop, so I can't loan you the toy, but I'm happy to do onesies and twosies like this)

[42itous.livejournal.com]

I would like to take you up on that offer. I'd like to have the recording copied by mid-June. What flavor of days are you free? Should I drop off the tape at your house, or should we plan to get together for a meal, or what? I'd be happy to barter a home-cooked meal for your 1334 technological sk1llz, but my kitchen is not kosher. If you would be confortable with my cooking in your kitchen, I'd love to do that.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Mid-June is completely doable. I am not really free any weekday, but I do work in Kendall, so if you're in the Kendall area at any point, that could be a good time to affect a transfer. Otherwise, I could meet you somewhere to get the tapes and then meet up with you again to give you the CD and tapes.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Sorry -- that should've been "inexpensive" -- I was exhausted when I posted this. The toy was only $60 for the Mac version (it's only $50 for the PC version).