I NEED HELP...Can you play a cassette tape at half speed?

George Kimery · Post by **George Kimery** » 5 Jun 2013 5:47 pm

I have one 90 minute audio cassette tape that was recorded at half speed, 15/16 ips I believe. My recorder does not work anymore. I need somebody to take this cassette tape and make me a copy of it so that I can play it at normal cassette recorder speed of 1 7/8 ips. CD copies would be even better.

It is a talk tape and was recorded with a bad 60 cycle AC hum. If somebody can reduce the hum, that would be wonderful. If not, I have a local guy that has a computer program that will take it out. I just need something like a CD or mp3 file for him to work with.

This tape is of my best friend, who is no longer living. It has some important information on it that I really need. Hope somebody can help me out.

Jay Fagerlie · Post by **Jay Fagerlie** » 7 Jun 2013 4:14 am

You can get a better result by using a standard cassette player into a computers' sound card and then use software to slow it down.

Should be a fairly simple task.

Jay

George Kimery · Post by **George Kimery** » 12 Jun 2013 6:35 am

Jay, thank you for trying to help. I am not much of a computer guy, but here is what I can do. I have a Zoom H2 digital recorder. I can plug a cassette player into it and make an MP 3 copy of the cassette tape, then hook up the H2 to my computer and down load it in the MP3 format. This is as far as I know what to do. You said I could use software to slow it down to half speed.
All I have on my iMac computer is iTunes. Does iTunes allow me to slow it down to half speed? Or is there other software on my computer that will do it? Will I have to buy software and how much would that cost? It might be expensive to just use one time for this one project.

Any additional help and guidance, much appreciate.

George

Jay Fagerlie · Post by **Jay Fagerlie** » 12 Jun 2013 7:06 am

Hi George-
Upload it to dropbox and I'll do it for you- my pleasure. I have all the tools to do it.
If you do not have a dropbox account- go get one, it's free and it only takes a minute or so to set it up.

Go here:
https://www.dropbox.com/install2

Jay

Gary Shepherd · Post by **Gary Shepherd** » 12 Jun 2013 8:47 pm

You'd have better results lowing down a higher definition recording like a 44.1k (or higher) .wave file. Record it directly as wav, not mp3.

Jay Fagerlie · Post by **Jay Fagerlie** » 13 Jun 2013 3:42 am

Thanks Gary- that's a better plan-

George- record it as a wave file (.wav) or whatever non-compressed format you can.

Did you get your dropbox set up?

Jay

Gary Shepherd · Post by **Gary Shepherd** » 13 Jun 2013 5:30 am

As for the hum, you can remove it with plugins specifically for that, or you can use a sweepable parametric EQ.

George Kimery · Post by **George Kimery** » 13 Jun 2013 7:28 pm

No luck yet downloading dropbox. All I got was a message that said "Sorry, there was a problem loading this page". This was on my iMac versison 9.1. I tried on my iMac OS 10.4.3 and it sort of downloaded. I got a message to go to my browser downloads and click on install, but I never could find the download.

Do I have to have dropbox? I am on dial up, not high speed. I can record it on wav, but here is my concern: The file is going to be huge and my dial up connection comes and goes. I don't think I can stay connected long enough to send it. The tape is 90 minutes on one side, and about half that on the other side.

Jay, if I can record it in wav and then put it on CD's and mail them to you, will that work? That may be my only option with my old, out of date computers.

Thanks,

George

Dennis Detweiler · Post by **Dennis Detweiler** » 13 Jun 2013 8:03 pm

Not sure if this would work:
Connect the cassette player to a rheostat? Probably not good for the player, but I'd bet it would slow it down to a dead stop if necessary?

Gary Shepherd · Post by **Gary Shepherd** » 13 Jun 2013 9:16 pm

I read the original post again. What you NEED to do is get the cassette into digital however you can. You'll need a cassette player that will play at the same speed recorded. Once the source is recorded as a .wave file, all the editing can be done. The hum can be removed, the volume can be normalized, and when the result is to your liking it can be put on CD.

Do you have a cassette player that will play back at the same record speed? The speed can be changed digitally but an analog speed change will yield better sonic results. Removing the noise is easy with the right tools.

Jay Fagerlie · Post by **Jay Fagerlie** » 14 Jun 2013 3:44 am

Yes George, putting on a CD will work.
Do it two ways for me-

Make two passes- one with your recorder set to 88.2K sample rate and another with it set to 96K sample rate.
The bit depth can be 16 or 24 (24 is the norm these days)
These two passes you will need to save on the CD as "data" files (.wav), not .CDA (redbook) files.

I can give you my snail mail address in a PM.

Finding a half speed cassette player would be the optimum, but we can probably get ok results with this approach.

Remember- everything I will do is going to help, but as always, it will only be as good as what you manage to get to CD, so even though it will sound like chipmunks-you need to try to get the best transfer you can.

Jay

George Kimery · Post by **George Kimery** » 14 Jun 2013 5:43 am

Gary, thanks a bunch for you input. The problem is my Marantz recorder that I recorded it on originally has bit the dust. This is what has caused the problem. It was recorded at 15/16 ips instead of the normal cassette speed of 1 7/8 ips. It is just a talk tape and quality was of no concern and I wanted to get as much time on the tape as possible. That is why I used the slow 15/16 speed. I have called all the studio's around here and none of them have anything to play a cassette at 15/16 ips.

Jay, it will be Sunday afternoon before I will have time to see what I can do as far as transfering to CD's in the formats that you asked for. I really appreciate you helping me on this project. It is very important that I be able to hear what is on the tape.

George

Dennis Detweiler · Post by **Dennis Detweiler** » 14 Jun 2013 6:27 am

George, there are Marantz cassette recorders for sale on ebay. I just checked, a newly listed one that records at 1/2 speed for $70 "buy it now". Easy fix to your problem.

Gary Shepherd · Post by **Gary Shepherd** » 14 Jun 2013 6:36 am

Agreed. You need the right cassette playback speed before anything else.

If you can get it onto a CD, I can probably remove the hum, or most of it for you if time permits.

Gary Shepherd · Post by **Gary Shepherd** » 14 Jun 2013 6:39 am

Oh, looks like Jay already offered.

George Kimery · Post by **George Kimery** » 20 Jun 2013 3:16 pm

Jay, before I read your post, I already had a CD recorded at 44.1 16 bit. Should I do it over at 96 24 bit or will what I have work OK? This is just a tape of a guy talking with a bad 60 cycle hum. I am not looking for high quality, just want to be able to understand what he is saying and get the 60 cycle hum reduced or eliminated. Email me your address and I will mail you what I have or make a new CD in the 96/24. My recorder does not have 88 as an option.

I know about the Marantaz recorders. That is what the cassette was recorded on to begin with, but that recorder has bit the dust and I don't want to buy another one just for this project.

Thanks for everybody's help and Jay, thanks so much for being willing to take a crack at this.

Jay Fagerlie · Post by **Jay Fagerlie** » 20 Jun 2013 3:58 pm

Hi George,
That will work fine.

I will PM you my address

Jay

Jeff Metz Jr. · Post by **Jeff Metz Jr.** » 19 Jul 2013 12:10 am

I know that Tascam Makes many cheap 4 track cassette recorders such as the 424MkIII and they all seem to have a knob to slow down the cassette. If you don't know of one to borrow they are on ebay for dirt cheap.

Dennis Detweiler · Post by **Dennis Detweiler** » 19 Jul 2013 6:44 am

The 4 track recorder/players have a normal speed that is twice as fast as a 2 track cassette player. The speed control on the 4 tracks won't bring it below the standard speed of a 2 track. At least that's the the case with my Tascam 4 track.

Walter Killam · Post by **Walter Killam** » 19 Jul 2013 9:09 am

If you know someone local that has a 2x speed cassette deck like my old Yamaha MT120, you can play the original tape at normal speed (in a normal deck) and record it on the 2x machine (at 2x speed). The new tape recorded at 2x should playback normal in a regular machine.

Jay Fagerlie · Post by **Jay Fagerlie** » 19 Jul 2013 10:39 am

Lots of great info guys.

George supplied me a CD of the material at 2X speed.
It was simple to rip it and cut the speed/pitch in half.

The real adventure was lowering the 60 cycle square wave that was considerably louder than the source material.

Think of a guitar chord plugged into an over-driving stomp box into an amp with NO guitar connected...and turned up REAL loud.

GGGRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

That's what it is!

Lucky for me the source material is speech- the hum isn't gone, but at least now you can make out what the conversation is.

Jay

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