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Re: [ARSCLIST] Wire recorders
This is a fascinating thread. I don't know the answer to it all other than
a large number of dedicated people like Angie can take on this huge
mountain of archives and help get it transferred.
We've discussed (I think on this list or AMIA-L) the work that Sharon Owen
and her team at Cal State Fullerton have done using me as a sounding board
and otherwise volunteer labor to transfer 5000 reels and several thousand
cassettes of oral history to gold CD-R.
People can set up volunteer operations to do "good enough" or even better
transfers. I'm very impressed with what Sharon is capable of getting done.
The original tapes were recorded on Wollensaks and the like so, we're not
talking about the highest fidelity. I've helped Sharon and the team avoid
some mistakes (I had already made them, years ago <smile>) and they are
getting on with it. It's a shame, too, because they cannot properly store
the tapes, there was damage. Cal State Fullerton is a poster child on many
levels, including what inadequate climate control can do to a tape collection.
I have become so interested in this work that I've just quit my day job, am
moving back to my wife's hometown and going into audio restoration
full-time out of my new home.
I don't know what equipment Angie is using for her transfers of wires, but
I do know that Art Shifrin has invested a huge level of effort (and it
would appear no small amount of money) into a customized wire reproducer
that uses an Ampex tape recorder as its base. Until meeting Angie through
this discussion, Art has been the only person I've been sending wires to.
He, like I, are home-based, not a large corporation.
Cheers,
Richard
At 09:59 AM 7/16/2004 -0500, Angie Dickinson (not the policewoman) wrote:
I agree with both of you here.
I transfer a great deal of wires every year and could charge a lot more
for doing it. As the majority of wires I receive come from individuals
with fixed incomes, helping them preserve their family history became very
important to me.