Hi Ben The crease is a known problem but I have felt with it before. It takes a bit of time (and know how) but can be reversed. If the institute is willing to have another vendor work on them let me know, we’ll discuss costs and timetables. Cheers Shai On Thu, 5 Apr 2018 at 16:24 Benjamin Goldstein <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Hello everyone, new member on the ARSCLIST here. > > I am an undergraduate student at Columbia University researching the > history of 20th century foreign correspondents. One of the journalists I > am studying recorded his (unpublished) memoirs on a dictaphone machine in > the 1950s; the 10 dictaphone belts (and the rest of this papers) are kept > at the Hoover Institution Archives in Stanford, California. A few months > ago I sent in a duplication request to the Archives for just 1 dicatphone > belt as a test, and they just informed me that their third party vendor in > charge of duplication determined that the belt "is unplayable due to the > severity of the crease in the belt." > > I am trying to figure out how to proceed and would love any advice that > audio digitization experts have. I am considering trying to send in the > rest of the belts (although this may become expensive), but all of them > have been stored in a completely flattened format (in a file folder between > two sheets of paper) , which makes me wonder if all the belts will have too > many creases to be played. What sort of steps can be taken (short or long > term) to make creased/flattened dictahone belts playable? Are there any new > alternative, digital ways of reading dictaphone belts available to a > general public (such as > > https://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/03/us/tape-of-kennedy-s-killing-is-getting-digital-analysis.html > )? > Any other suggestions for how to proceed? > > Thanks > > Ben Goldstein > Columbia University Class of 2020 > -- בברכה, שי דרורי. 0544-470-420 מומחה לשימור ודיגיטציה של נגטיבים אודיו וידאו ופילם 8-35ממ Cheers Shai Drori Expert digitization services for Audio Video 3K scanning for film 8mm-35mm Timeless Recordings Music Label www.audiovideofilm.com [log in to unmask] Tripadvisor level 6 contributor, level 15 restaurant expert