Syd Curtis, you wrote,
>There has been recent discussion on the Australian mailing list
><birding-aus> concerning the contention that Blackbirds in Australia (whe=
re
>they are not native) don't sing as well as do English Blackbirds. (Turdus
>merula, I assume.)
>
>Years ago, Olivier Messiaen, the French composer (now deceased) sent me a
>two-cassette set of European Birdsong produced by Jean Roche. I turned to
>that to hear at least a French Blackbird. The announcements on the analog=
ue
>cassette were very blurred. Seemed to lack higher frequencies - even with
>my hearing aids to compensate for my age-affected hearing. I could convin=
ce
>myself that I was hearing "Merle noir" because I knew I should be. And I
>think also "Chant du male". But the words were barely distinguishable.
>
>So my query is this: is loss of high frequency sound to be expected with
>long-term storage of analogue magnetic tape? (I have valuable lyrebird
>recordings on Uher reel to reel tape, older than the Roche cassettes.)
Bernie Krause addressed the question of deterioration. Lack of high
frequencies from cassettes can have other causes, too. Either dirty
heads (clean the whole tape path, everything the tape touches), or
mis-alignment of the heads will kill the treble. It is very difficult
to maintain standard azimuth alignment in cassette recorders. When I
transfer a cassette in my studio, I always set the azimuth for best
reproduction of the individual cassette. I often have to re-set it
for the other side of the cassette. This is difficult for a consumer
to do, especially since you need to be able to re-set the machine for
standard azimuth before using the machine for recording. More subtle
errors can be caused by having Dolby on for a non-Dolby tape, or
using the wrong equalization setting (I, II, IV).
-Dan Dugan
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