Reel to Reel Tape Recorder

[Bristol_Jonesey]

Hi Guys

I recently came across a couple of old master tapes that we recorded back in about 1984 on 7" tape

I haven't a clue about getting this transferred to digital, or even if it's possible

I don't know what speed they were recorded at or anything.

Anyone have any suggestions? I'd love to be able to get these into Cakewalk and have a play with them

[User 905133]

Over here (US) consumer tape decks from that era usually had 3 3/4 ips and 7 1/2 ips [inches per second].

The ones we had used RCA plugs (aka phono plugs)--at least those are the names used in the US.  With adapters and/or "Y" cables, they could be plugged into a PC's sound card to digitize.

Lots of reel-to-reel tapes developed issues with squealing causing some people to use a "baking" technique to try to recover the tapes. I researched the technique but never baked any of my tapes.

If they don't have squealing you can just take the audio out from a reel-to-reel deck and run it into a PC's sound card. 

There probably are newer methods, though, and software to clean up the audio.  If you play them even at a slightly incorrect speed, you could pitch shift the digitized audio.

An alternative to the DIY method is to hire someone with professional equipment to digitize the tapes.

Edited August 5, 2023 by User 905133
to add an alternative to the DIY approach I used

[mettelus]

Definitely research this in more detail before jumping in and running those tapes. Because of the age, how it was stored can play heavily into degradation of the tape. There are companies (and some forum members I have seen over the years) that specialize in these services. If you do not have the equipment yourself to run the tape, that may be a better option to look into since they would have more experience on the care and recovery of specific media prior to doing the digitizing run.

[OutrageProductions]

Any tape that old should really be baked first before loading on a machine and only one capture pass attempted. 

Definitely a job for a professional. 

Contact edaudio@tangible-technology(dot)com for a quote. Great guy.

[Bristol_Jonesey]

Thanks everyone. I might have found a company local to me in the UK who offer this type of service, but I will need to check if they can bake the tapes beforehand

[Alan Tubbs]

Yea, that was going to be my suggestion - fins a transfer shop usually in video production house.