Re: [ARSCLIST] Archiving at double speed

[David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ganesh.Irelan@xxxxxxxx wrote:

> Here's an ethical / quality question, if one wanted to speed up the archiving of a batch of standard  cassette tapes by playing them back at double speed (3 3/4 ips), recording into a workstation, then resampling the saved files so they are at normal speed, what would be the consequences / loss of quality?
>
> Thanks.
> Kevin

I wouldn't do this, for the simple reason that unless you are absolutely certain that your playback heads are aligned with what's on the cassette (which is often not the case), you'll lose information forever and not be aware of it because you aren't playing or monitoring in real time. You also have no
guarantee that the recordings were made at normal speed, use of Dolby may not be indicated on the tape or it may have been made on more than one machine, and in my opinion cassettes need more focused attention, not less.

dl