Category: audio tape

Reel-to-reel, cassette and cartridge audio tape formats restored and digitised in the Greatbear studio

DAT restoration: The High – Martin Hannett Sessions

Record Store Day is usually ‘the one day each year when over 200 independent record shops all across the UK come together to celebrate their unique culture. Special vinyl releases are made exclusively for the day, in what’s become one of the biggest annual events on the music calendar.’ This year, due to COVID-19, Record… Continue reading DAT restoration: The High – Martin Hannett Sessions

Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording – interview with Martin Theophilus

We recently spoke to Martin Theophilus, Executive Director of the Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording based in Austin, Texas.

While the Greatbear studio is a kind of museum – it is full of old machines that we maintain and preserve – we wanted to know more about this ‘proper’ Magnetic Sound Recording Museum.

Pre-Figurative Digital Preservation

How do you start preserving digital objects if your institution or organisation has little or no capacity to do so? Digital preservation can at first be bit-part and modular. You can build your capacity one step at a time. Once you’ve taken a few steps you can then put them together, making a ‘system’. It’s… Continue reading Pre-Figurative Digital Preservation

Happy World Day for Audiovisual Heritage!

World Day for Audiovisual Heritage, which is sponsored by UNESCO and takes place every year on 27 October, is an occasion to celebrate how audio, video and film contribute to the ‘memory of the world.’ The theme for 2016 – ‘It’s your story, don’t lose it!’ – conveys the urgency of audio visual preservation and… Continue reading Happy World Day for Audiovisual Heritage!

Spoking – Treating and Assessing Magnetic Tape

Assessment and treatment is an important part of Greatbear’s audiovisual preservation work. Even before a tape is played back we need to ensure it is in optimum condition. Sometimes it is possible to make a diagnosis through visual assessment alone. A tape we received recently, for example, clearly displayed signs of ‘spoking.’ Spoking is a term used in… Continue reading Spoking – Treating and Assessing Magnetic Tape

The Containers – late ’70s new wave lives again

It might be a familiar story to some people. At one point, say the late 1970s, you were in your early 20s and the main songwriter in a post-punk/ new wave band. You tried really hard to get it off the ground: moved to London, met the right people, played several memorable gigs. You worked… Continue reading The Containers – late ’70s new wave lives again

Monstrous Regiment – Audio Cassette Digitisation

Monstrous Regiment were one of many trailblazing feminist theatre companies active in the 1970s-1990s. They were established as a collective very much built around performers, both (professional) actors such as Mary McCusker and (professional) musicians such as Helen Glavin. Between 1975-1993 Monstrous Regiment produced a significant number of plays and cabarets. These included Scum: Death, Destruction and Dirty… Continue reading Monstrous Regiment – Audio Cassette Digitisation

The Genesis Archive – ¼” reel-to-reel tapes transferred

The early 21st century has been witness to numerous projects that document and interpret popular music histories. Whether dedicated to regional histories, such as the Manchester District Music Archive and Birmingham Music Archive, or genre specific, like the National Jazz archive or the English Folk Dance and Song Society’s ‘Full English’, digitsation has helped curators organise and publish material in new and… Continue reading The Genesis Archive – ¼” reel-to-reel tapes transferred

Going CD-R-less – digital file-based delivery

Often customers ask us to deliver their transferred sound files on CD, in effect an audio CD-R of the transfer. Although these recordings can still be high resolution there remains a world of difference—in an archival sense—between a CD-R, burnt on a computer drive (however high the quality of drive and disc), and CD recordings… Continue reading Going CD-R-less – digital file-based delivery

Guest post: Refurbishment of Magnetic Recording Heads – Terry Summers

Below is a guest post written by Terry Summers from Summertone Ltd. We first encountered Terry because of his expertise refurbishing analogue magnetic tape heads. As one of the few, if not only, specialist UK-based company working in this area, we wanted to know more about Terry’s work. We were keen to understand the secrets of magnetic tape… Continue reading Guest post: Refurbishment of Magnetic Recording Heads – Terry Summers

Grundig C 100 and the early history of the Compact Cassette

The recent arrival of a Grundig C 100 (DC-International) cassette in the Greatbear studio has been an occasion to explore the early history of the compact cassette. The compact cassette has gained counter-cultural kudos in recent times, and more about that later, but once upon a time the format was the new kid on the… Continue reading Grundig C 100 and the early history of the Compact Cassette

Greatbear 2016 Infomercial

Greatbear have just produced our 2016 ‘infomercial’. The 4-page document includes details of our work and all the formats we digitise. We are in the process of sending printed copies to relevant organisations. Please contact us to request a copy and we will pop one in the post for you. You can also download a… Continue reading Greatbear 2016 Infomercial

Hands On History Conference

Media scholars, tinkerers and ‘thinkerers’ gathered in London last week for ADAPT TV‘s Hands on History Conference. ADAPT is a five-year research project based at Royal Holloway, University of London that aims to capture and analyse the complex histories of TV production from the 1950s to the present. A core part of the project methodology… Continue reading Hands On History Conference

Dr Spira and the Human Beings – BASF LGR 50 tape on AEG DIN Hubs

The latest in a long line of esoteric musical recordings moving through the tape transports in the Greatbear studio is a collection belonging to Dušan Mihajlović. Dušan was the main song writer in Yugoslavian new wave band Dr Spira and the Human Beings / Doktor Spira i Ljudska Bića. Dr Spira have a cult status… Continue reading Dr Spira and the Human Beings – BASF LGR 50 tape on AEG DIN Hubs

William Golding’s Lord of the Flies Audio Cassette Transfer

William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is widely heralded as a classic of 20th century English literature. The book adorns English Literature syllabuses throughout the UK, its provocative events continue to inspire debate about the nature of humanity and ‘civilisation.’ We recently transferred an audio cassette recording of the Nobel-prize winning author reading his famous novel.… Continue reading William Golding’s Lord of the Flies Audio Cassette Transfer

ADAT digital multi-track recorders

The Alesis ADAT digital multi-track tape recorder is an iconic piece of early 1990s audio recording equipment. ADATs used consumer S-VHS video tape to record up to 8 tracks of digital audio. They were modular, meaning that each machine could be synched with up to 15 other ADAT machines. It was therefore possible, in theory, to… Continue reading ADAT digital multi-track recorders

Audio Cassette Parallel Ingests

Great Bear Parallel Ingest Stack

The scale of digitisation jobs we do at Greatbear often varies. We are asked by our customers to reformat single items to large quantities of tape and everything else inbetween. Reformatting magnetic tape-based media always takes time and care. Transfers have to be done in real time; if you want a good quality recording there… Continue reading Audio Cassette Parallel Ingests

British Stand Up Comedy Archive’s audiovisual collections

Greatbear have recently worked with the British Stand Up Comedy Archive (BSUCA) to reformat a number of Digital Audio Tapes (DATs) and U-Matic video tapes from their collection. Established in 2013 and based at the University of Kent’s Special Collections, the BSUCA aims ‘to celebrate, preserve, and provide access to the archives and records of… Continue reading British Stand Up Comedy Archive’s audiovisual collections

Save Our Sounds’ £9.5 million boost

This article is a bit late to break this news, but it is worth highlighting again in case you missed it first time round. In May 2015 the British Library were awarded over £9.5 million pounds by the Heritage Lottery Fund to help them deliver their hugely important Save Our Sounds project. We told you… Continue reading Save Our Sounds’ £9.5 million boost

Type IV Metal Cassettes and Robert Chenciner’s Daghestan Collection

We recently received a fascinating collection of tapes from the archive of Robert Chenciner, an ethnographer with over thirty years experience studying the cultures, human rights and current affairs of Daghestan. Daghestan is located in the north Caucasus region, its neighbouring countries are Azerbaijan, Chechnya and Georgia, while its eastern border is flanked by the… Continue reading Type IV Metal Cassettes and Robert Chenciner’s Daghestan Collection

Analogue to analogue – the Courtyard Music Group

Greatbear were recently approached by the Courtyard Music Group to help them complete the 100% analogue re-issue of their 1974 acid-folk album Just Our Way of Saying Hello. Among Britfolk enthusiasts, news of the Courtyard Music Group’s plans to re-issue their album has been greeted with excitement and anticipation. Just Our Way of Saying Hello… Continue reading Analogue to analogue – the Courtyard Music Group

Mouldy DATs

We have previously written on this blog about the problems that can occur when transferring Digital Audio Tapes (DATs). According to preliminary findings from the British Library’s important survey of the UK’s sound collections, there are 3353 DAT tapes in the UK’s archives. While this is by no means a final figure (and does not include the… Continue reading Mouldy DATs

IASA – Resources and Research

There are an astonishing amount of online resources relating to the preservation and re-formatting of magnetic tape collections. Whether you need help identifying and assessing your collection, getting to grips with the latest video codec saga or trying to uncover esoteric technical information relating to particular formats, the internet turns up trumps 95% of the time.… Continue reading IASA – Resources and Research

Digitising small audiovisual collections: making decisions and taking action

Deciding when to digitise your magnetic tape collections can be daunting. The Presto Centre, an advocacy organisation working to help ‘keep audiovisual content alive,’ have a graphic on their website which asks: ‘how digital are our members?’ They chart the different stages of ‘uncertainty,’ ‘awakening’, ‘enlightenment’, ‘wisdom’ and ‘certainty’ that organisations move through as they… Continue reading Digitising small audiovisual collections: making decisions and taking action

Save our Sounds – 2030 and the threat of audiovisual extinction

At the beginning of 2015, the British Library launched the landmark Save Our Sounds project. The press release explained: ‘The nation’s sound collections are under threat, both from physical degradation and as the means of playing them disappear from production. Archival consensus internationally is that we have approximately 15 years in which to save our sound collections… Continue reading Save our Sounds – 2030 and the threat of audiovisual extinction

Reel-to-reel transfer of Anthony Rye, Selborne’s nature poet

We have recently transferred a number of recordings of the poet, Anthony Rye, reading his work. The tapes were sent by his Grandson Gabriel who was kind enough to tell us a bit more about Anthony’s life and work. ‘Anthony Francis Rye is intimately associated with the Hampshire village of Selborne, a village made famous by… Continue reading Reel-to-reel transfer of Anthony Rye, Selborne’s nature poet

World Day for Audiovisual Heritage – digitisation and digital preservation policy and research

Today, October 27, has been declared World Day for Audiovisual Heritage by UNESCO. We also blogged about it last year. Since 2005, UNESCO have used the landmark to highlight the importance of audiovisual archives to ‘our common heritage’ which  contain ‘the primary records of the 20th and 21st centuries.’ Increasingly, however, the day is used to highlight how audio… Continue reading World Day for Audiovisual Heritage – digitisation and digital preservation policy and research

Transferring Digital Audio Tapes (DATs) to digital audio files

At Greatbear, we carefully restore and transfer to digital file all types of content recorded to Digital Audio Tape (DAT), and can support all sample rate and bit depth variations. This post focuses on some of the problems that can arise with the transfer of DATs. An immature recording method (digital) on a mature recording… Continue reading Transferring Digital Audio Tapes (DATs) to digital audio files

Phyllis Tate’s Nocturn for Four Voices 3″ 1/4 inch reel to reel tape transfer

We have recently transferred a previously unpublished 3” ¼ inch tape recording of British 20th century composer Phyllis Tate’s Nocturn for Four Voices. The tape is a 2-track stereo recording made at 7.5 inches per second (in/s) at the Purcell Room in London’s Southbank Centre in 1975, and was broadcast on 16 September 1976. When… Continue reading Phyllis Tate’s Nocturn for Four Voices 3″ 1/4 inch reel to reel tape transfer

Obsolete technologies and contemporary sound art

At the recent Supernormal experimental arts and music festival held at Braziers Park, Oxfordshire, a number of artists were using analogue technologies to explore concepts that dovetail nicely with the work we do at Greatbear collecting, servicing and repairing obsolete tape machines. Hacker Farm, for example, keep ‘obsolete tech and discarded, post-consumerist debris’ alive using ‘salvaged… Continue reading Obsolete technologies and contemporary sound art

Reports from the ‘bleeding edge’ – The PrestoCentre’s AV Digitisation TechWatch Report #02

The PrestoCentre’s* AV Digitisation and Digital Preservation TechWatch Report #02, published July 2014, introduces readers to what they describe as the ‘bleeding edge’ of AV Digitisation and Archive technology. Written in an engaging style, the report is well worth a read. If you don’t have time, however, here are some choice selections from the report… Continue reading Reports from the ‘bleeding edge’ – The PrestoCentre’s AV Digitisation TechWatch Report #02

Digital preservations, aesthetics and approaches

Digital Preservation 2014, the annual meeting of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program and the National Digital Stewardship Alliance is currently taking place in Washington, DC in the US. The Library of Congress’s digital preservation blog The Signal is a regular reading stop for us, largely because it contains articles and interviews that… Continue reading Digital preservations, aesthetics and approaches

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