Tascam Portastudio for cassette archiving?

[babyseal]

Hello everyone,

I may be doing a job archiving hundreds of audio cassettes into Pro Tools. Many of them are from the 70's and aren't in good shape. In order to minimize further deterioration to the tape, I thought of playing them in Tascam Portastudio or something similar so that both sides can be recorded into Pro Tools simultaneously, thereby cutting the transfer time in half. The audio for side B would be in reverse, but it can easily be flipped by "Reverse" plugin. So would there be any negative aspects in terms of audio quality, since Portastudio doesn't have fine adjustment like bias, etc?

Thanks in advance!!!

[mjslakeridge]

About all you can do is give it a try. Ideally, the cassettes should be played back on the same machine that they were recorded on, but that is likely not possible. I did a project a few years ago of archiving a bunch of 2 1/2 inch reel to reel tapes that were recorded by a military officer during the Vietnam war and sent back and forth to his family. Amazingly, they still had the portable reel to reel recorder that I was able to clean up and use as the playback device. I got pretty good results, applying a little compression and EQ. But the tapes I was working with were mono (2 sides), and mostly just someone talking, so that made it easier.

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by babyseal

Hello everyone,

I may be doing a job archiving hundreds of audio cassettes into Pro Tools. Many of them are from the 70's and aren't in good shape. In order to minimize further deterioration to the tape, I thought of playing them in Tascam Portastudio or something similar so that both sides can be recorded into Pro Tools simultaneously, thereby cutting the transfer time in half. The audio for side B would be in reverse, but it can easily be flipped by "Reverse" plugin. So would there be any negative aspects in terms of audio quality, since Portastudio doesn't have fine adjustment like bias, etc?

Thanks in advance!!!

I agree with your logic Maybe give the player a clean after each tape is run thru

[babyseal]

Thanks for quick reply guys! My only question is that Portastudio is designed for Type-II (Chrome) tapes, and our source tapes are Type-I (Normal). Not sure if the playback EQ is something I need to re-compensate during or after the transfer?

[Neale]

You will only be getting half the audio info per track. Think of the width of the tape. You have side A and side B taking up half the width each. Then think of the Portastudio having a head that reads FOUR tracks on the same width of tape... so it will only read a quarter of the width of the tape at a time... Nope. Put it this way, I wouldn't hire you, knowing that you're doing it that way, ha ha.

Not sure what you mean by the tapes not being in good shape. They either play or they don't. They are not typically subject to the same sticky-shed syndrome as larger, open-reel formats. So either someone left them in the car/next to a radiator/other heat source and the casing melted (get out your jeweller's screwdriver, some blanks from wherever you can get them, and swap the enclosures) or they're in such bad shape that you should get a pro transport to minimize any further stress on the tapes themselves. You can still get Tascam pro decks for less than $200. If it mattered, get a fancy Namamichi Dragon of some sort, in good condition of course.

Bottom line: no. Get a good stereo tape deck and a bunch of blanks in case you need to swap casings. No to the Portastudio (hey, it was my first multi-tracker and I loved it).

[mjslakeridge]

I think Neale is off-base. The stereo cassettes have 4 tracks, side 1 left and right going in one direction and side 2 left and right going in the opposite direction. So the Portastudio will read all 4 tracks, although 2 will have to be reversed once in Pro Tools. (Had to think about this overnight before posting).

[Ben Jenssen]

Originally Posted by mjslakeridge

I think Neale is off-base. The stereo cassettes have 4 tracks, side 1 left and right going in one direction and side 2 left and right going in the opposite direction. So the Portastudio will read all 4 tracks, although 2 will have to be reversed once in Pro Tools. (Had to think about this overnight before posting).

I agree. Pretty shure it's been done before.

If it was me, I would worry about type 1 cassettes on a type 2 player. Not shure it's just a matter of applying a correting EQ later.

[Neale]

Originally Posted by mjslakeridge

I think Neale is off-base. The stereo cassettes have 4 tracks, side 1 left and right going in one direction and side 2 left and right going in the opposite direction. So the Portastudio will read all 4 tracks, although 2 will have to be reversed once in Pro Tools. (Had to think about this overnight before posting).

Duh. Somehow I forgot about the math of two sides. I was thinking about half- vs- quarter track open reels and somehow lost sight of the fact that you can flip cassettes. You may be right, and I stand corrected if so. Been about two decades since I had to think about bouncing down to two tracks on the ol' Portastudio to get two more free tracks. Sorry!

I would still rather invest in a better transport, especially as others have mentioned, one that accounts for Types.

[DDDaniel]

If they are consumer stereo cassettes they most likely use dolby B or C as noise reduction. I think the Tascam has DBX. That would be my main worry.
Also, if I remember correctly all these (maybe only Dolby C and DBX) noise reduction systems use some form of dynamic compression/expansion, I wonder if they would work the same on backwards played material.
I had to do a job like this many years ago, I drilled a small hole above the screw to adjust the azimuth so I could align the head for each tape. (With a plastic screw driver

Good luck!

Daniel

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Actionmusic]

i'm doing the same thing but with a fostex 4 track, reversing the B-Side tracks. Works well and in my case as there's no real need for it to be "master" quality, the benefit of the soundfield/EQ/repair tools in PT far outstrips the problem of whether the machine matches up spec wise with the original recording machine.

Yes clean the heads and have some sellotape or similar handy for when you need to splice the twisted tape!