One blessing that a digital work station provides is that of being able to
move the pieces around without resplicing every time. I put leader between
segments of convenient length and assemble these. Since it is also possible
to reverse segments, the back-to-front issue is mitigated. High-quality
master tapes may not yield to this process with as high fidelity results as
other program material (running tape backwards may create less-than-perfect
sound when reversed), but I've used it countless times (maybe 30) when the
delivered tape is chaotic. Having scores helps if it's classical music.
I've had to write scripts for spoken word stuff- mangled casssettes, etc- to
figure out where the pieces go. Doing speech jobs from unknown languages
often requires a collaborator. The worst is higly alliterative poetry.
Steve Smolian
-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Richard L. Hess
Sent: Monday, January 23, 2012 10:02 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Disentangling a pancake
It all depends what you are left with. Keep the Excedrin handy.
Do you have Medusa's hair (or scouring pad) or is there still a "big donut"
with the centre dropped out? If the latter, you can use a very slightly
conical pair of flanges to centre and wind off the tape. If the former, you
need a great dose of patience. I wonder, would listening to the Gilbert and
Sullivan operetta "Patience" help?
I once was given a 1200-foot reel's worth of tape in a shoebox. It was in
several pieces. It took about half a day to deal with it.
I have someone who had wrapped the tape up on toilet paper rolls, and when I
suggested it would take me 2-3 hours to get the tape back right, they asked
me to send them a reel so they could put it on...the lady and her husband
would work at it together as they didn't want to generate that type of
billing from me. I'll be sending them the reel this week.
It's only an 8-track cartridge with what 300 feet?
After digitizing some of the oldest tapes in the U.S., I wrote an article
about the experience for the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society. It is
available on their website:
http://www.aes.org/journal/suppmat/hess_2001_7.pdf
In this article there is a photo of Jim Wheeler holding a paper bag.
Neither of us WANTED to do this in addition to the 51 reels, so it went toe
Stanford as is. The follow-on story is Stanford archivists re-spooled all
the pieces and I got to digitize them a few years ago.
They were snippets of a Philco Radio Time with Bing Crosby show. After the
paper bag treatment, we were happy it was 30 in/s full-track. Higher areal
density will make the creases and twists more audible.
Cheers,
Richard
On 2012-01-23 4:59 AM, Gregorio Garcia Karman wrote:
> Dear list,
>
> a good friend has just written asking what to do in case of a open reel
"pancake" comes apart. I have not had the experience, but always feared
something like that could happen. Are there any standard procedures of how
to proceed with the resulting mess?
>
> Many thanks
>
> Gregorio Garcia Karman
> [log in to unmask]
>
--
Richard L. Hess email: [log in to unmask]
Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX
http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.
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