Much has been written about the demise of physical media. Long considered the measure of technological progress in audiovisual and computing fields, the 2000s saw this metric seemingly rendered obs…
i was a recording engineer during the time analog recording was just starting to get surpassed by digital, and of course there are still people who will die on the “analog is always best forever and ever” hill
but it’s to the point where if you’re not a completely-obsessed-to-the-point-no-one-can-stand-being-around-you audiophile, you’re not going to be able to tell the difference between an analog source and a digital one pretending to be analog
the pros of digital just simply can’t be outweighed by the pros of analog anymore
photography might be an area where digital hasn’t caught up, since film’s resolution is down to the molecular level, but that won’t be the case forever (if it even is the case, i’m not a photographer)
i was a recording engineer during the time analog recording was just starting to get surpassed by digital
I’ve got a cassette of some parody songs made by a local radio station that’s basically going to become lost media if I don’t digitize it myself. The only cassette players I currently own are a Walkman and one of those retro-style-but-not-old CD/cassette/record combo players. Do you have any advice on what I should do to get the best quality transfer that I can?
While the quality won’t be particularly good, a cheap cassette-to-MP3 converter off Amazon can ensure that the material at least isn’t lost forever. Run the tape through 2-3 times to make sure you get at least one decent copy of everything. Once you’ve got that done, escalate as suggested by solsangraal to get a better transfer.
1st thing i would do would be call the radio station–they might have a digital copy already, since it’s a performance. or they might have the equipment you’d need to get it digitized. just don’t leave the tape with them, unless you make a copy.
failing that, the public library might also have tape to digital conversion gear, depending on how big/well funded the library is.
last resort would be a recording studio, which might cost lots of money per hour, and it’ll have to be converted in real time–play the tape from start to finish, while the computer ‘records’ it. if the studio don’t have a top of the line gourmet tape deck, then they can take just take the output of your own player and plug it into protools, just ask for the highest resolution/bitrate in a lossless format
edit: i forgot another option, if you’re in the states. you might try your state archives, just google the name of your state along with “archive”, it should be a .gov address. they might actually be interested in the recording for their own digital collection, and would definitely have the necessary gear to get it digitized. the tricky part is they would need the permission of the radio station and/or whoever owns the copyright to post it publicly
i do analog photography for a hobby, in the grand scheme professional analog photographers only account for like less than 1 percent and current film manufacturers are only able to exist because some high profile film directors insist on shooting film (think nolan) and film students. when theyre no longer around film will die soon.
there is almost no new film camera produced and the price of film keeps increasing to unreasonable prices.
it’s the same with analog audio. reel to reel tape actually disappeared for a bit because no one manufactured it anymore, but some company (forget who) finally started making it again for the audiophiles. one reel of tape is was, 10 years ago, ~$300 and gives you 15 minutes of recording time, if you’re running it at high speed for the best quality. no idea what the state of the business is in now, i was never a gear head and never kept up with any of it
i was a recording engineer during the time analog recording was just starting to get surpassed by digital, and of course there are still people who will die on the “analog is always best forever and ever” hill
but it’s to the point where if you’re not a completely-obsessed-to-the-point-no-one-can-stand-being-around-you audiophile, you’re not going to be able to tell the difference between an analog source and a digital one pretending to be analog
the pros of digital just simply can’t be outweighed by the pros of analog anymore
photography might be an area where digital hasn’t caught up, since film’s resolution is down to the molecular level, but that won’t be the case forever (if it even is the case, i’m not a photographer)
I’ve got a cassette of some parody songs made by a local radio station that’s basically going to become lost media if I don’t digitize it myself. The only cassette players I currently own are a Walkman and one of those retro-style-but-not-old CD/cassette/record combo players. Do you have any advice on what I should do to get the best quality transfer that I can?
While the quality won’t be particularly good, a cheap cassette-to-MP3 converter off Amazon can ensure that the material at least isn’t lost forever. Run the tape through 2-3 times to make sure you get at least one decent copy of everything. Once you’ve got that done, escalate as suggested by solsangraal to get a better transfer.
1st thing i would do would be call the radio station–they might have a digital copy already, since it’s a performance. or they might have the equipment you’d need to get it digitized. just don’t leave the tape with them, unless you make a copy.
failing that, the public library might also have tape to digital conversion gear, depending on how big/well funded the library is.
last resort would be a recording studio, which might cost lots of money per hour, and it’ll have to be converted in real time–play the tape from start to finish, while the computer ‘records’ it. if the studio don’t have a top of the line gourmet tape deck, then they can take just take the output of your own player and plug it into protools, just ask for the highest resolution/bitrate in a lossless format
edit: i forgot another option, if you’re in the states. you might try your state archives, just google the name of your state along with “archive”, it should be a .gov address. they might actually be interested in the recording for their own digital collection, and would definitely have the necessary gear to get it digitized. the tricky part is they would need the permission of the radio station and/or whoever owns the copyright to post it publicly
i do analog photography for a hobby, in the grand scheme professional analog photographers only account for like less than 1 percent and current film manufacturers are only able to exist because some high profile film directors insist on shooting film (think nolan) and film students. when theyre no longer around film will die soon.
there is almost no new film camera produced and the price of film keeps increasing to unreasonable prices.
it’s the same with analog audio. reel to reel tape actually disappeared for a bit because no one manufactured it anymore, but some company (forget who) finally started making it again for the audiophiles. one reel of tape
iswas, 10 years ago, ~$300 and gives you 15 minutes of recording time, if you’re running it at high speed for the best quality. no idea what the state of the business is in now, i was never a gear head and never kept up with any of itI still enjoy looking through my albums and the process (and sound) of playing a record.