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Transferring reel to reel to cd

The cheapest way is simply to connect your RtR to the PC though RCA jacks into your sound card recording port. Use a freebie program like Wavepad to record the audio (it will also edit and convert from one format to another if desired) then burn a CD using any of the popular burners.
 
landtuna said:
The cheapest way is simply to connect your RtR to the PC though RCA jacks into your sound card recording port. Use a freebie program like Wavepad to record the audio (it will also edit and convert from one format to another if desired) then burn a CD using any of the popular burners.
Click to expand...

I don't have a RtR player.
 
Depending upon the number of reels you have I may be able to help you out. I have two 60's-era Sony RtR (7-inch if memory serves so I can do 7" or smaller reels but not the 10").

Shoot me a PM with the above info and your location. I am in central AZ.
 
What kind of reels? I've got a couple of Ampex machines that could be put into service. How much did they want at the other sites?
 
I did this about 7 years ago. I rented a reel to reel machine from some music store for like 50 bucks. Then I just transferred tapes for two straight days and then brought the machine back. It worked for me. I've since converted those recordings into MP3 files. I'm sure glad I made those tape transfers. The sooner the better. Sometimes tapes can get brittle with age. Make the transfers now before the tapes end up having problems.
 
Here's a proactive hint: some tape formulations popular in the eighties had a tendency to attract and hold moisture, which causes the oxide to cake up as sludge on the tape heads and/or drop off the plastic/polyester/acetate backing. If you find this happening, there are step-by-step processes on the Web available involving baking (yes, *baking*) the tapes. You'll need an electric oven with a precise temperature readout so that it maintain a temperature of 135 degrees - not hot enough to melt the tape or the reel, but hot enough to extract the moisture.

Here's Thomas Dolby (the Alton Brown of the music industry) on the subject...

http://blog.thomasdolby.com/?p=710

...and here's the how-to he links off to:

http://www.tangible-technology.com/tape/baking1.html
 
hubcity said:
Here's a proactive hint: some tape formulations popular in the eighties had a tendency to attract and hold moisture, which causes the oxide to cake up as sludge on the tape heads and/or drop off the plastic/polyester/acetate backing. If you find this happening, there are step-by-step processes on the Web available involving baking (yes, *baking*) the tapes. You'll need an electric oven with a precise temperature readout so that it maintain a temperature of 135 degrees - not hot enough to melt the tape or the reel, but hot enough to extract the moisture.

Here's Thomas Dolby (the Alton Brown of the music industry) on the subject...

http://blog.thomasdolby.com/?p=710

...and here's the how-to he links off to:

http://www.tangible-technology.com/tape/baking1.html
Click to expand...

The Ampex backcoated reel-to-reel tape (like 407 and 456) were the ones that turned to crap because of the tape formulation change...

Ampex videotape from that era also has the same problem.

Besides shedding on the heads & tape guides, the 80's era Ampex tape also tends to have part of the oxide stick to the backing of the layer of tape wound on top of it on the reel...So without baking, part of your audio is gone before you even try to play it..But if baked, it reattaches itself to the tape before you try to play it..

3M tape from that era (like 207 series reel-to-reel) and videotape did not have that same problem.

I have done the baking on old tape and it does work well enough to at least make one pass on the reel to reel with it. I use a food dehydrator to do the baking. Works well for constant low-temperature baking..
 
I've got some commercial audio tape from the early 60's. It's been hauled around the country and lived most of its life in the desert heat but hasn't gotten brittle and still plays as originally recorded. There are some pre-recorded reels and others that I "acquired" from a closing air force base (old tower monitor tapes).

A few years ago I copied 'em all to the PC and burned them to CD (but kept the original digital copy on hard drive).
 
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