Other Audio Formats

The family collection material that has passed down from our parents and grandparents is sadly lacking in audio material.  It would be great to have tapes of our ancestors sharing their family stories, but alas…  if they exist, we haven’t found them.

But just in case – as we continue searching through the boxes – I thought it might be wise to ask Cassandra Gallegos, Preservation Administrator at George Blood Audio and Video, about the preservation of other audio formats besides tape cassettes.  Do families ever find other audio formats stored in their basements or garage?  And if they do find an old reel-to-reel tape, how do they go about listening to it?

Here’s Cassandra’s response:

“I'd say that any imaginable audio format could find its way into a family collection. Especially if anyone in your family happened to be a pack-rat!  You might find Eight-Tracks, Reel-to-Reel, and various disc formats including Instantaneous, Lacquer, Transcription, and commercial Vinyl discs with cores ranging from glass to cardboard.  We’ve gotten a quite a few queries from people who happened to find this type of material in their attic or packed away in a closet.  It was once common for folks to go down to the local five and dime to record a quick message as a novelty and soldiers overseas often jumped at the chance to record a message to send back to their loved ones.

“If you find an unknown audio format, feel free to take a picture and contact us at George Blood Audio and Video.  We take lots of questions from people who just want some information on what they have.  The audio preservation community is small and tight knit.  If we can’t help you, we can certainly put you in touch with someone in your area that can.  If you happen to live in the area of a university, you might want to see if they have a preservation department in the library or an audio program.  They often have equipment they use for their own collections.  Local/regional archives can also help you.  They may even be interested in having the audio digitized if you are willing to donate the original object to their oral history collection.”

One of the great pleasure of doing this blog is the opportunity to collaborate with some of the finest, most respected people working in the field of preservation today.  Thank you, Cassandra, for sharing your expertise in audio preservation during the past month!

© 2011 Lee Price

Appropriate Care for CDs

George Blood Audio and Video uses these machines from Rimage to create
and thermally print labels on CDs and DVDs.

This is what I want to do:  I want to digitize the taped oral history memories of my mother, save them to CD, and then store the CD in a safe and secure place.  Then many decades later, my great-great great grandchildren will find it, pop it into a 22nd century CD player, and hear the voice of their great-great-great-great grandmother telling the stories of her youth.

Chances are it won’t happen quite like that.  But I at least want to start the process following 21st century protocol for best preservation practices.  For advice, I turned to Cassandra Gallegos, Preservation Administrator at George Blood Audio and Video.  An expert in audio preservation, Cassandra knows the weakness inherent in CD technology and has good recommendations for minimizing their impact:

Thermal printing on CD.

“CDs have a number of preservation concerns.  Optical discs consist of various layers. Their metallic reflective layer categorizes them.  This layer can be either gold or aluminum.  If air reaches the base of an aluminum disc through either a deep scratch or a manufacturing defect in the protective lacquer top coat, the metal will oxidize (rust).  This phenomenon is referred to as CD rot. Gold discs do not suffer from CD rot but have higher starting error rates.  These errors are unnoticeable

at first because of the built in error

CD with writing on hub.

correction system; however, by the time errors start becoming a problem, the CD is very close to being over run by errors that can rendered the CD unplayable.

“The way you label a CD is a preservation concern as well.  CDs should never be labeled using a any pen that could scratch or make indentations on the label.  This is because the information within a CD actually sits closer to the label side.  Many people

lay a CD to rest on its label side thinking this will keep scratches from damaging the CD but a scratch on the reflective side of a CD can often be buffed out while a scratch on the label side might destroy the CD.  There are various CD labeling markers that claim to not harm the informational layer.  These pens have not been around long enough to have any evidence that the ink will not damage the disc.  Paper labels can cause a disc to spin unevenly in a drive and are susceptible to water damage.  We use a special thermal process to print ink directly onto a specially coated CD.  If a special CD printer is beyond your price range, you may safely write on the clear inner hub of a CD without fear of losing the information.”

© 2011 Lee Price

Digitization and Audio Preservation

Some people tout digitization as the answer to all preservation concerns.  But I have my doubts.  Within the past year, I’ve seen hard drives crash, data become mysteriously corrupted, and CDs crack.  The digital world just doesn’t look all that permanent to me.

I posed this concern to Cassandra Gallegos, Preservation Administrator at George Blood Audio and Video.  Do I really need to digitize my cassette tapes or should I just keep the tapes and make duplicate copies?  Cassandra acknowledged that my worries were legitimate but nevertheless sees an important role for digitization in audio preservation:

“The tape copy should be digitized.  Digitization remains your best defense against analog obsolescence – and it’s obsolescence and accessibility that are my two primary concerns here. Obsolescence is a big concern with any media as well as playback devices.  The cassette tape has already reached its obsolescence point with the popularity of optical media.  Playback equipment will become increasing harder to find and it will be even harder to find replacement parts for the equipment if it is to require maintenance.  CDs and digital files also have issues with obsolescence as technology advances.  Digital isn’t forever.

“The idea behind preserving audio materials is to sustain the audio essence from one media/format to the next.  My recommendation is to digitize the cassette and have the file saved to a hard drive (either on your computer or externally) and placed onto a CD for accessibility.  Copies should be stored in geographically separate locations.  Some basic metadata (preferably embedded into the header of the audio file) will also help preserve the object.

“Magnetic tape and CDs each have their own inherent vices.  The actual digital files on the CD will be the easiest to sustain.  By this I mean that although both the cassette and CD will happily sit on the shelf with no physical signs of decay, the CD with digital files is one step ahead of the analog cassette preservation-wise.  Having said this, it is important to remember that CDs are by no means a long-term preservation solution.  Technology changes quickly so who’s to say if 10 years from now the CD is no longer seen as a viable media format.”

© 2011 Lee Price

Proper Storage for Your Old Cassettes

Three of the audio studios at George Blood Audio and Video.

(The fourth entry in a six-part series on audio preservation.)

As part of our June and Art collection, we have four audio cassettes of oral history that my mother recorded in 2003.  Also, we have a strong interest in preserving the audio cassette of our wedding ceremony from 1987 (not technically a June and Art item, but we’d like to think it’s an important part of our family history, too!).  We can’t just put the originals of these tapes anywhere, can we?  They’re way too important!

I asked Cassandra Gallegos, Preservation Administrator at George Blood Audio and Video, for advice regarding how to best store the precious original tapes:

“Tapes should always be stored in a case of some sort. I recommend an inert plastic case that closes securely.  The enclosed cassette should be stored on its longest side with the spine facing up.  This will help keep water out of the case if it gets wet. 

“The recommended storage conditions for magnetic tape are 65°F with 40% relative humidity.  Of course, in practicality, it is hard for even the most advanced archive to remain at these conditions.  Slightly above and below these parameters is perfectly fine.  Luckily these more relaxed conditions are the optimal comfort level for most people.

“The rule of thumb is to keep the cassettes in a cool, dry location away from direct sunlight or contaminants.  Storing in archival boxes or drawers will help protect them from dust, temperature and humidity fluctuation and sunlight.  If nothing else, keep the tapes out of the attic or basement!”

© 2010 Lee Price

That Old Tape Recorder in the Basement...

(The third entry in a six-part series on audio preservation.)

Sometimes I write things that make preservation professionals shudder.  For instance, I’m afraid I may have made Cassandra Gallegos, Preservation Administrator at George Blood Audio and Video, involuntarily shudder when I sent her the following question:

When we went to listen to these tapes, we had trouble finding a working tape cassette player.  We eventually found an old Panasonic SlimLine player that worked.  Should we be concerned about old playback systems damaging the tape when we listen to them?

If this conjures up a scene of me carelessly popping an audio cassette into a dusty tape recorder manufactured a quarter of a century ago…  Well, not only am I guilty this time but I’ve even been through this before with other valued tapes, such as the audio cassette of my wife’s and my wedding service from 23 years ago.  Finding a tape recorder that works is always a hassle.  Our basement is something of a graveyard of unusable tape recorders from years past.  I should have been more careful – both times.

Answering the questions above, Cassandra responded with good information and recommendations.  And I think I sense a gasp in her response as well, as she imagines me popping in the tape and recklessly pressing the “Play” button.

“There is potential for damage every time a tape is played back.  A cassette tape is most vulnerable as the machine pulls the tape from the cassette towards the playback head.  This is the reason that it is suggested that tapes be stored with the tape wound onto one hub.

“It is a real concern that you tried an old playback system that could have potentially damaged the tape.  Do not use old playback equipment or tape recorders without putting them through a thorough inspection, preferably by an expert.  At the very least, test the equipment in various modes (fast forward, play, stop, etc.) with a cassette that is not collection material.  Another concern is that you may accidentally record over the audio when attempting to play back the cassette.  The machines at our

studios always have the record button

removed to ensure this never happens.”

The problem of aging and obsolescent playback equipment is becoming ever more serious as each new generation of audio technology enters the market.  There are relatively few people qualified to repair the old machines and replacement parts can be hard to find.  This being the case, the best solution may be to migrate the audio information to a newer format (say, audio cassette to CD) and then only listen to it in the new version.  Preserve the original, of course.  But only use the new copy.

© 2010 Lee Price

The Shell That Protects the Tape

(The second entry in a six-part series on audio preservation.)

A confession:  In approaching this topic, I thought we’d be saving the cassette shell!  But to a preservation professional, the cassette shell – with its plastic and pins – is a distant secondary concern:  the real focus is always on the tape itself.  Ultimately, you don’t even have to preserve the shell.  It’s just a box that holds the real treats inside.

Cassandra Gallegos, Preservation Administrator for George Blood Audio and Video, makes the process of protecting the precious magnetic tape sound relatively easy:



The pressure pad on this cassette
has deteriorated necessitating
changing the cassette shell.

“The most common cassette problems – such as missing or deteriorated pressure pads, rusty pins, or pest infestation – can be fixed by simply changing the cassette shell.  However, the solution here brings up an additional problem.  Finding empty cassette shells can become a lesson in futility.  We buy as many as possible when we find them.  Another option would be to use the cassette shell from a cassette that you do not wish to keep, making sure to carefully indicate the oral history on the new cassette shell.

“There are two types of cassette shells: sonic welded and 5 screw.

“The halves of a sonic welded cassette shell are sonically vibrated until the plastic fuses together.  If you find yourself in possession of one of these cassettes, carefully score along the welded edge with a sharp blade.

“The 5 screw is screwed together with 4 screws in each corner and one screw in the center (an eye glass screw driver should do the trick).  Make sure the new shell is a 5 screw so you’ll be able to close it up once you’re finished transferring the tape to it.  Always keep the cassette on a flat surface to keep the tape from falling out of the shell as you work with it.  Take note of how the tape is wrapped around the various plastic posts inside its shell.  Transfer the two plastic hubs (the tape will be attached to both) to the new cassette shell (and remember to use gloves!).  You want the cassette to sit in the new shell the same as it did in the old shell with all the same pieces present.  If you are missing some pieces in the new shell, which can be the case if you purchase an empty cassette shell, transfer these pieces over as well.  You’ll probably notice

two rectangular pieces of plastic

Open cassette and
slip sheets.

inside the shell. These are slip sheets.  They keep the tape running smoothly.  Now screw the two new shell halves together again.  Place a pencil or your finger in one of the center gears to make sure your tape moves as it should.  If it doesn’t move, you probably didn’t wind the tape around the plastic posts correctly.  The ease at which you perform this activity depends on manual dexterity and your tolerance level for frustration!

“A good primer on the handling and storage of magnetic tape is Magnetic Tape Storage and Handling by Dr. John W. C. Van Bogart, available as publication #54 through the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR).”

© 2010 Lee Price

The Science of Preserving Sound

With the assistance of my sister, my mother recorded four cassette tapes of her memories of her youth and the old family stories.  These cassette tapes are seven years old now.  As physical items within our family collection, we are concerned with ensuring their long-term survival and accessibility.



The staff at George Blood Audio and Video with
Preservation Administrator Cassandra Gallegos on far left.

During the next two weeks, I will be sharing excerpts from an interview with Cassandra Gallegos, Preservation Administrator for George Blood Audio and Video.  The Safe Sound Archive at George Blood Audio and Video is one of the country’s leading providers in preserving, reformatting, and storing audio and video media.  Their clients have included the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Symphony, the Curtis Institute of Music, the National Park Service, and the Library of Congress.

According to Cassandra, “There are many simple and common sense actions you can perform to protect and preserve these cassettes.”  We’ll start with three of the most basic of Cassandra’s recommendations:

1.  Inspect the Playback Equipment

“Do not use an old playback system or tape machine without putting it through a thorough inspection, preferably by an expert. At the very least, test the equipment in various modes (fast forward, play, stop, etc.) with a cassette that is not collection material.”

2.  Remove Recording Tabs

 “Immediately check to see if the record tabs on each cassette have been removed.  This reduces the chance of accidentally recording over a tape when you mean to listen to it.”

3.  Keep the Tapes Wound to One Side

“Make sure the tape is wound all the way to one side.  A cassette tape is at its most vulnerable when the machine pulls the tape from the cassette towards the playback head.  This is the reason it is recommended that tapes be stored with the tape wound onto one hub.”

© 2010 Lee Price