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Live Tapes

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I have many live tapes from 73 onwards from the Mecca with Levine in his prime, Wigan from October 73 onwards and one from the Pendelum. Problem is they are ageing and I daren't play them. Can anyone tell me how to transfer them to CD? The Mecca one shows just how poor Levine was at setting up the discs on the decks, but shows the sheer quality of the records he was breaking in 73.

Thanks

Brian

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Brian

You need to transfer your tapes to a computer. It is quite easy with the proper gear. Lots of instructions around on how to do this.

I had tapes that were recorded in the 70,s and i,ve managed to save them all.

Try the following website for help and advice. Good look mate and all the best.

www.computeractive.co.uk

:shades:

I have many live tapes from 73 onwards from the Mecca with Levine in his prime, Wigan from October 73 onwards and one from the Pendelum. Problem is they are ageing and I daren't play them. Can anyone tell me how to transfer them to CD? The Mecca one shows just how poor Levine was at setting up the discs on the decks, but shows the sheer quality of the records he was breaking in 73.

Thanks

Brian

The safest way to back them up is to record them straight to a recordable CD and then transfer that recording to a PC to clean them up and burn them back to CD. Luckily, with a tape deck you don’t need a pre-amp and so you can use the ‘out’ phone plugs to plug directly into the ‘in’ of a CD recorder or line of your PC’s sound card.

After a few years the iron oxide on the tapes breaks down and if you are unlucky you might only get the chance to play it once before it’s all displaced on to the tape head and that’s the end of the story. Also, inside the cassettes there usually a layer of ‘bubbled’ paper each side of the spools to cushion the spools and stop the friction of plastic on plastic occurring; again these usually get damp and puffed up and so in fact stop the spools running smoothly.

Assume that you’re only getting a once chance to get a decent recording:

1. Clean the tape heads thoroughly with some alcohol and let them dry thoroughly.

2. Fast forward and rewind the tape a couple of times to loosen the tape up and hopefully get it play without jamming up.

3. Set the recording levels to about 75% (put in a decent tape to calibrate the recording levels to just touching the ‘reds’) so that you should get a fairly decent level of recording.

4. If and when the sound / recording levels start to drop off, stop the tape at a point between tunes and clean the heads again. You don’t need to bother about the CD recorder / PC recording as one side of a C90 is obviously 45 minutes and CD-Rs are around 74 minutes.

5. Once you’ve finished recording one side of the tape ‘finalise’ the CD and ‘grab’ to your PC to clean up, amplify etc

6. Finally, ‘burn’ your recordings at a low speed to a good quality CD.

Alternatively, send them to me and I’ll do them for you!

  • Author

Thanks for your replies and PMs, particularly Mark (Wiganer1) and Pete S.

My tape player has packed in so I may be asking for a little help in transferring them. Didn't realise that they may have degraded so much, so maybe a kind soul sourcer might be my best option as I am a bit baffled by some of the technicalities of the operation!. Pete has offered to transfer them for me, but once I get them on CD if you want a copy just let me know and for the price of the postage they are yours.

Thanks again,

Brian

I HAVE JACKIE WILSON LIVE AT WIGAN ON MY BROTHERS STOLEN ROLLING STONES STICKY FINGERS TAPE,

I HAVE JACKIE WILSON LIVE AT WIGAN ON MY BROTHERS STOLEN ROLLING STONES STICKY FINGERS TAPE,

YOU DID THE RIGHT THING !!!!!!!!!!! WILL ANY OF YOU GUYS BE FLOGGING COPIES OF THESE TAPES ON CD??? WOW !!WHAT MEMORIES !!!!!

Thanks for your replies and PMs, particularly Mark (Wiganer1) and Pete S.

My tape player has packed in so I may be asking for a little help in transferring them. Didn't realise that they may have degraded so much, so maybe a kind soul sourcer might be my best option as I am a bit baffled by some of the technicalities of the operation!. Pete has offered to transfer them for me, but once I get them on CD if you want a copy just let me know and for the price of the postage they are yours.

Thanks again,

Brian

WOULD LOVE COPIES !!!!!

CHRIS M blush.gif

[quote name='Simon T' date='Feb 24 2006, 08:26 AM' post='255620' use the 'out' phone plugs to plug directly into the 'in' of a CD recorder or line of your PC's sound card.

You can't really plug a record deck into your PC's sound card because the signal from the stylus is so low. Old amps with a phono / record deck input have a preamp built in where as most new amps don't so you need an external pre-amp; you can use this kind of pre-amp between your record deck and the line in on the PC's sound card (blue socket). You can buy them with music cleaning software from PC world, but for about £40 can buy a better quality basic on from hi-fi shops.

Edited by Simon T

You can't really plug a record deck into your PC's sound card because the signal from the stylus is so low. Old amps with a phono / record deck input have a preamp built in where as most new amps don't so you need an external pre-amp; you can use this kind of pre-amp between your record deck and the line in on the PC's sound card (blue socket). You can buy them with music cleaning software from PC world, but for about £40 can buy a better quality basic on from hi-fi shops.

What about this new USB deck they've bought out then??

Thanks for your replies and PMs, particularly Mark (Wiganer1) and Pete S.

My tape player has packed in so I may be asking for a little help in transferring them. Didn't realise that they may have degraded so much, so maybe a kind soul sourcer might be my best option as I am a bit baffled by some of the technicalities of the operation!. Pete has offered to transfer them for me, but once I get them on CD if you want a copy just let me know and for the price of the postage they are yours.

Thanks again,

Brian

I would love copies too please.... good luck transfering them

You can't really plug a record deck into your PC's sound card because the signal from the stylus is so low. Old amps with a phono / record deck input have a preamp built in where as most new amps don't so you need an external pre-amp; you can use this kind of pre-amp between your record deck and the line in on the PC's sound card (blue socket). You can buy them with music cleaning software from PC world, but for about £40 can buy a better quality basic on from hi-fi shops.

Ah. Thanks mate. My old Sony deck packed up and the replacement deck does have a built in amp that can be switched on. So may give that a go in the first instance.

Sorry for thread hijack btw.

  • Author

I would love copies too please.... good luck transfering them

I will be sending the tapes to Pete S this weekend. I'll let everyone know on this thread when I get them. I'll do copies for Soul Sourcers for the price of postage only. My Mecca tape is in bloody Staffordshire at the moment, but my Wigan and Pendelum ones are all available.

Thanks again for all the PMs and assistance.

Brian

I will be sending the tapes to Pete S this weekend. I'll let everyone know on this thread when I get them. I'll do copies for Soul Sourcers for the price of postage only. My Mecca tape is in bloody Staffordshire at the moment, but my Wigan and Pendelum ones are all available.

Thanks again for all the PMs and assistance.

Brian

me too please :thumbsup:

Have I got to copy and distribute them???

I'd like a copy too, would be happy to pay for them. I think most people would be happy to pay.

Alan

I'd like a copy too, would be happy to pay for them. I think most people would be happy to pay.

Alan

Me too father. One for me and another 3 for the lads. Looks like you're going to be a busy lad!

  • Author

Have I got to copy and distribute them???

Pete

Sorry for any confusion. Please can you copy them for me and you keep what copies you want. When I get them back from you, I'll let everyone know who's interested through this thread, and I'll do the copying and distribution.

I do not want any money for them, but if there is going to be a lot of people wanting copies, a quid or so for the price of a disc, and whatever the postage comes to will be fine.

Have a good weekend everyone, and thanks for the help in (hopefully) copying them Pete.

You can't really plug a record deck into your PC's sound card because the signal from the stylus is so low. Old amps with a phono / record deck input have a preamp built in where as most new amps don't so you need an external pre-amp; you can use this kind of pre-amp between your record deck and the line in on the PC's sound card (blue socket). You can buy them with music cleaning software from PC world, but for about £40 can buy a better quality basic on from hi-fi shops.

What if you use a jack plug from the headphone socket to line in?

Does this effect the sound quality in reproduction would you say?

https://www.soul-source.co.uk/index.p...md=si&img=11653

Edited by Simsy

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