Thanks John,
Yes, they are all cassettes. We do have digital recorders, a Marantz PMD 66=
0 and a Marantz PMD 620. However those are mostly for getting recordings in=
the field. Digitizing 700 cassettes can easily take several months so it d=
oesn't make sense to keep them in the lab all that time. Even if we may use=
one of those exclusively in digitizing I think that recording straight to =
a hard drive is much faster and those digital recorders can't do that. So w=
e have to buy a device. I am mostly concerned about the quality of the cass=
ette tape desk. What should be the minimum requirements in order to keep th=
e quality of the recordings? We are applying for funding to get this equipm=
ent so, what would be a good cassette tape desk? One more question: Does t=
he quality of the cable connecting the tape desk with the computer matter?
Cheers
Marcelo Araya
Laboratorio de Bioac=FAstica
UCR
--- In "John" <> wr=
ote:
>
> If your tapes are cassette, then you won't get nearly the quality you wil=
l get on a digital recording. What I would do is borrow (or buy) the best =
cassette tape deck you can find and run it's "outs" into a digital recorder=
with a good pre-amp and good anlogue to digital converter. If you set it =
up this way, then that will record it straight to file as clean as can be d=
one. Then you transfer that file to your computer, which is very simple vi=
a firewire or card reader.
>
> A zoom H2, for instance, will work as an external audio device anyway. W=
hile I haven't tried this, it may even record straight to a hard drive. My=
Sound Devices 702 does that, but it was pricey.
>
> Almost any digital recorder will work because even 44.1 KHz sampling rate=
will supersede the quality of your tapes, most likely. What will preserve=
the quality of your cassette recordings is a good analogue to digital conv=
erter. Are you trusting that quality to a $119 device that also plays tape=
s?? That is why I recommend a good digital recorder. It will be slightly =
more expensive, but will also serve to make future recordings for you.
>
> If you don't already have a digital recorder, then you probably need one =
and this would be a good excuse to get one ;-)
>
> That is just my opinion.
>
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