Re: [ARSCLIST] Audio Material Assessment Survey

[Rick Taylor <rtaylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

For what it's worth, I think trying to pick one tape of each type from each box
for sonic evaluation would play havoc with your random sampling strategy.
Also, keep in mind that the box the tape is in might not be the original box -
somebody long ago might have just grabbed the first box that was handy - so
doing an analysis by brand name might be tricky.

But more to the point, I feel that it's impossible to assess the condition of an
audio collection accurately without listening to every tape in the sample.  I
don't think you have to listen to the whole tape; my last survey, I only
listened to two minutes at the beginning.  But without playing at least a part
of it, you can't even tell if there's a signal present.  Also, you have to
watch it as it plays, because a lot of the time a deformed substrate isn't
obvious until you see the tape moving.  Same goes for sticking and splices and
a couple other things you should keep an eye out for.

I'd love to hear from other people on this, as I'm just about to leave to do my
third audio survey.  I realize that playing only a section of a tape and then
fast-rewinding it can mess up the tape pack and stress the tape, but sometimes
in a survey situation, you don't have the time or the equipment to do it the
right way.  If the collection as a whole exhibits significant tape pack
problems even before you get your hands on it, you'll probably be recommending
re-tensioning anyway.  Steve Smolian writes about uneven tape wind in an
article titled "Preservation, Deterioration and Restoration of Recording Tape"
(ARSC Journal, v. 19 #2-3, Fall-Win 1987, pp. 37 - 53).

By the way, here's a tip I got from Karl Miller:  if you can hook your tape
player up to a computer that has Pro Tools or some other capturing/editing
software on it, then you can capture the signal as it plays.  Then, if you
thought you heard a glitch but weren't sure, you can play it again on the
computer without having to find the spot again on the tape.  You can also
examine the wave form to see if there are any irregularities.  And if the tape
is tails out, you can go ahead and let it play backwards, and then flip the
wave form on the computer to listen to it forwards (of course, any dropouts you
hear will be backwards ... or will they?)  It does add time to the evaluation
process, but for those of us whose ears haven't been fine-tuned by 40 years in
the business, I think capturing the audio is worth the effort.


Rick Taylor
Graduate Student
Preservation and Conservation Studies
School of Information
University of Texas at Austin
rtaylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Quoting Allison Feist <feist@xxxxxxxx>:

> Hello again,
>
> Thank you both Rod and Don! You were correct to assume that I
> was rewinding at a high speed.  Given the size of the
> collection I am looking at, even with a sample, playback
> assessment would be way too time consuming for every reel in a
> box.
>
> Is there a preferred method of practice for playback assessment
> in a collection?  For example with 14 reels in a box would it
> be  acceptable to play and rewind one of each type (type
> meaning brand/material.  So far the boxes I have looked at have
> contained 3 or 4 different brands, 2 different materials and 2
> different speeds.)
>
> Thanks, Allison
> ______________________________________
> Allison Feist, Graduate Assistant
> Modern Languages & Linguistics Library
> 439 Library
> 1408 W. Gregory Drive
> Urbana, IL 61801
>