How to transfer 15 ips to 7 1/2

GreyOwl

Active Member
I have collected several 10 1/2" reels of tape that were recorded @ 15 ips. I have a Pioneer 1020L that only has 7 1/2 and 3 3/4 speeds. My question, is there any way to re record them to a cassette deck or something so that I can eventually be able to listen to them? I don't have access to a deck with 15 ips.
 
I have collected several 10 1/2" reels of tape that were recorded @ 15 ips. I have a Pioneer 1020L that only has 7 1/2 and 3 3/4 speeds. My question, is there any way to re record them to a cassette deck or something so that I can eventually be able to listen to them? I don't have access to a deck with 15 ips.

You cant get around having to use a reel to reel with a 15ips transport. If you dont want to buy a machine there are a lot of transfer services that do it for a fee - or maybe someone here will offer to assist you. What kind of music is on the tapes?
 
If you have 24/96 sound card and some software to record with, you could play it at 7.5 ips record it at 24/44.1 on the computer and then change the properties of your wave file to 24/88.2 after you have finished recording. This will double the playback speed. Your playback equalization will be way off (by at least 10dB), but your speed will at least be correct.
 
Find a person with the correct deck and bring yours along.

If you're ever near StL I'll run the tapes for you for free.
 
A bigger problem might be that the 15ips recordings are half-track, while consumer machines that do only up to 7.5IPS are most often quarter track. *IF* the track format is compatible, you can do a conversion by computer quite easily.
 
15 ips Tapes

I have collected several 10 1/2" reels of tape that were recorded @ 15 ips. I have a Pioneer 1020L that only has 7 1/2 and 3 3/4 speeds. My question, is there any way to re record them to a cassette deck or something so that I can eventually be able to listen to them? I don't have access to a deck with 15 ips.

Hi,

Probably not a lot of use to you but I have a high speed tape deck and would be more than happy to copy your tapes to cd, cassette or whatever but I am based in the UK so the tapes would have to be shipped over.

Hope you get sorted but the offer is there if not.

Kind Regards

Steve
 
Your best bet is going to be go digital.

Half speed transferring is actually the way I do my tapes. I record at 96/24 then modify the sample rate (different than resampling, I'm just telling the editor to change rate, not modify the audio) to 192khz. That effectively doubles the rate without doing a resampling.

Then after I'm done doing whatever, I can downsample it, properly, to cd format.

Half-speed transferring can actually give you a slightly more accurate transfer.
 
Your best bet is going to be go digital.

Half speed transferring is actually the way I do my tapes. I record at 96/24 then modify the sample rate (different than resampling, I'm just telling the editor to change rate, not modify the audio) to 192khz. That effectively doubles the rate without doing a resampling.

Then after I'm done doing whatever, I can downsample it, properly, to cd format.

Half-speed transferring can actually give you a slightly more accurate transfer.

I agree that you could do it this way, but as Steerpike2 says most (if not all) 15ips recording are half track, whereas consumer format running at 7.5 ips or slower are usually quarter track. So he might well have a problem playing the tapes back on his machine even accepting the speed drop.

hth

Regards

Steve
 
EQ wise, a lot depends on where and when the tapes were recorded. The original NAB EQ curves for 7.5 ips and 15 ips were the same. But the later IEC curves differ between the two speeds. See the link below:

http://www.tapeheads.net/showpost.php?p=157783&postcount=4

There usually isn't too much of a problem playing back a half-track stereo (or mono) tape on a quarter-track stereo machine. You get some bass boost because of the head bump, and the right channel will be lower in level than the left, but you won't be missing anything and it certainly won't sound bad. The lower level right channel could present some hiss/noise issues when boosted to match the left if the electronics in the deck you're playing it on aren't up to snuff, but provided the deck is a good one, after level balancing it should sound fine. Afterwards, a little EQ will smooth things out quite nicely.
 
Your best bet is going to be go digital.

Half speed transferring is actually the way I do my tapes. I record at 96/24 then modify the sample rate (different than resampling, I'm just telling the editor to change rate, not modify the audio) to 192khz. That effectively doubles the rate without doing a resampling.

Then after I'm done doing whatever, I can downsample it, properly, to cd format.

Half-speed transferring can actually give you a slightly more accurate transfer.
That's exactly what I suggested above, only with a lower sampling rate. The EQ discrepancies will cause the frequency response to be off by at least 10dB when using this technique though.
 
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Doing a tape to digital transfer is your best bet form a 15 IPS tape machine with the appropriate head configuration. There are problems with downsampling, which can be read here quicker than I can type.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downsampling
I agree. However any properly-written down sampling algorithm will include the low-pass filtering which is necessary to down sample without aliasing effects. Frankly I've had far more problems with aliasing effects when sampling at 44.1kHz to begin with than I have had when sampling at much higher frequencies, and then down-sampling. So I really don't see the issue.
 
I have collected several 10 1/2" reels of tape that were recorded @ 15 ips. I have a Pioneer 1020L that only has 7 1/2 and 3 3/4 speeds. My question, is there any way to re record them to a cassette deck or something so that I can eventually be able to listen to them? I don't have access to a deck with 15 ips.

From his post I figured he wanted to stay in the analog domain. I asked him what was on the tapes so it might generate interest in others to assisting him (to obtain copies of the program material).

Personally, I wouldn't have considered analog to digital but then again I am not limited in this respect. And yes if his tapes are two track the digital transfer isn't going to work.
 
There are problems with downsampling,

The suggestion was to simply change the playback sample rate.
This is not the same thing as downsampling. Downsampling is a mathematical process to change the sampling rate without altering the pitch or duration of the recording - this is not what is desired in this case.
 
From his post I figured he wanted to stay in the analog domain. I asked him what was on the tapes so it might generate interest in others to assisting him (to obtain copies of the program material).

Personally, I wouldn't have considered analog to digital but then again I am not limited in this respect. And yes if his tapes are two track the digital transfer isn't going to work.
If he wants to keep it all analog and doesn't mind adding some extremely lossy generations, he could also do the following:

Play at 7.5 ips while recording to cassette.
Then play the cassette while recording at 3.75 ips on the R2R.
Lastly: Play this tape at 7.5 ips.

It will sound like crap, and the Frequency response will be even more wonky than it would have been when using the digital technique that I suggested above. But it will work.
 
Where are you located in KS? I'm in south central KS and I have a Pioneer that will do 15 IPS.

Kim
 
I have a 15 ips 2 track machine and would be more than happy to transfer the tapes to CD for you. I'm located in South Georgia.

How many tapes do you have? A flat rate Priority Mail box is a wonderful thing.

Dave
 
Thanks for all the ideas on this. For now it is just to see what is on the reels. I have 2 with unknown music content and 1 with what is labeled to be "Art Munson Showcase, duplicate". For now I think I will try the cassette option just to get an idea of what I have. I also have no idea whether they are half or quarter track but, I think the Munson reel may be half since the right channel does seem to be at a lower volume. If there is anything worthwhile, I will try to find a machine that will do 15.
I forgot all about Audacity. I think I even have it on my laptop so it wouldn't be too much trouble to set that up. I even have a Behringer UCA202 interface that might do the trick.
Kim G--- I may get in touch with you at a later date if I find anything worth it. I am in Dodge City
 
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