Recording Analog Tapes To Digital

Recording Analog Tapes To Digital

Perhaps you're in your senior years with a closet full of old cassettes and reel-to-reel tapes that are fading away due to the gravitational pull of old Planet Earth. Perhaps you're just in the second decade of existence and are eager to preserve a bit of the past. This article is for you all!

Remember that you should not record copyrighted material unless you are the copyright owner.

REEL-TO-REEL

If you have a workable reel-to-reel tape recorder, you may be in luck in transferring those old tapes to digital. Most of the old ones have two pin type aux female outlets on the back or side of the machine. Check yours. If so, it may be possible to attach the left and right male pin type connections to the Aux Out, then attach the other end to your digital recorder-Aux In or , as sometime called, Line In. Check your digital recorder manual to see if this is the proper connection that you want to use.

Check with a technician to see if the impedance matches on both machines. If it's a no go, you can purchase an old "tape deck" on the web that should do the job. The tape deck is just a bare bones motor and transport part of the tape recorder- some have a pre-amp. Make sure that you are safe in doing this. Check with a technician familiar with electronics.

PRE-RECORDING

I have covered the connections above. Now, you want to prepare that old tape deck or reel-to-reel to play your analog material. With the tape recorder or tape deck unplugged, take an alcohol wetted cotton tip swap and clean the playback heads. Use wood alcohol and not Jim Beam.Make sure the swap is slightly wetted and not dripping with fluid. Most of these old recorders have included the playback and record head as one so you can't miss it. The tape heads are usually near the center of your machine where you thread the tape through. The heads are in a plastic or metal housing that has a slit. Once you clean the heads with the swap, take a clean, dry swap and wipe away any excess alcohol. What you are doing is removing any metal particles that adhered to the heads from previous recordings.

Look at what you are doing! There a round wheel about one inch in diameter near the tape heads. If possible, clean this rubber type wheel using the cotton swap-first with an alcohol wetted swap and then with a dry swab. This is the pressure roller that allows the tape to be driven at a certain speed between a metal capstan (a small rotating bar) and the roller itself.

In the unlikely event that the capstan is dirty, clean it too with a cotton swap.

Now, make sure your machine is dry before you plug it in and start the playback procedure. Give it about 10 minutes to dry. Better to be safe than sorry.

RECORDING ANALOG TAPES TO DIGITAL

Load your old tape onto the supply spindle. Thread the tape through the head housing and onto the take-up reel. Some old machines have the capstan and pressure roller outside the housing and to the right of the tape head housing. Make sure the tape threads between the capstan and the pressure roller.

Check your tape speed by playing a porting of your tape. There are usually two or more tape speeds available on the old machines. You can quickly tell if the machine is on the right speed. The switch for the tape speed should be on the front of your reel-to-reel machine.

If the speed is good. Set up your digital recorder with a raw disc, press record and pause. Start you reel-to-reel. Check the volume levels on your digital player. Peaks should be below "O". Digital recording is different than analog. If you are over "O", the information tends to just drop off-like a cliff rather than come out muffled. Try to keep the recording level below "O" for the entire transfer.

Now, reset you reel-to-reel machine to the start of what you want to play. Start recording by starting your digital recorder first, then start your tape recorder. When the info on the tape is finished, stop you CD recorder. Please check your manual on the CD recorder to see the proper procedure for recording multiple tracks, etc. Or a couple hit-and-miss episodes should teach you the optimum way.

CASSETTE TAPES

Just about the same as above. Aux Out to Line In. Use a tape head cleaner cassette before you record. They can be purchased at many stores like electronic stores.

IF THERE ARE NO CONNECTIONS ON YOUR REEL-TO REEL TO CONNECT IT TO ANOTHER DEVICE

Don't hotwire it. That can be dangerous. Check around. See if you can find a reel-to-reel with line out capabilities. Seek advice from someone who is an expert in electronics.

END NOTES

As far as that hiss, you ain't gonna get rid of it even though you went digital. However, you will preserve the voice or music of the analog material at its present state. You old tapes aren't going to get any better.

However, with a little practice, you will be able to preserve that first song that you sang when you were three years old, mom's voice telling you to clean up your room, your silly sister telling you get out of the bathroom and much more. Maybe your grandchildren will have a laugh too.