Resto/x-fer of Fostex A-series recordings, from the mid-80's

A

allegro1650

New member
How can I possibly transfer this to digital for archival purposes, or should I blow "taps" over the boxes, pile them in the fire pit and light a match?

First of all, Fostex quarter-inch 8 track. Not the smartest idea, but it was my buddy's tape deck.

Second, the Fostex A-series was encoded in Dolby C (built into the electronics). I don't know anyone that makes a Dolby plugin, so even if I get them to digital, I can't correct for the variable-ratio compression in the different frequency bands.

Third, pre-Quantegy 456! I haven't played these reels in ages, but I've got a feeling that sticky-shed will rear its' ugly head. Not only that, there was some TDK, 3M and Maxell stuff as well. My late friend didn't care too much where he got the tape; some of it was bulk-erased.

Any thoughts?
 
I'm not getting whether you have the Fostex A-8 or another 1/4" 8-track to do the transfer. What do you have now to work with?

The other issues are minor. If you have the equipment this is a pretty basic transfer. The Ampex tapes may or may not be bad, depending on year of manufacture. The 3M might as well, but no problems with the TDK and Maxell. Tapes with issues can be easily restored for the transfer.
 
To amplify what Beck said, any 1/4" 8-track Fostex deck should be able to play these back, since the noise-reduction is built in to them. Unless you deliberately turn off the noise reduction on the machine, they will be decoded during playback and should not need any further correction once they are digitized.

What you will need is an 8-channel interface or DAW to connect the deck to - do not try to digitize them as stereo pairs, you'll have a major problem trying to line them up inside the DAW.

The Ampex tapes are likely sticky, and if so should be baked before playback - this is achieved using a food dehydrator - do NOT just put them in the oven. I've not needed to do this myself so someone else will have to make recommendations.

The simplest, but possibly more expensive way is to find a transfer shop or someone else who has experience of digitizing sticky tapes and can play back A8 or R8 tapes.
 
allegro1650 said:
How can I possibly transfer this to digital for archival purposes, or should I blow "taps" over the boxes, pile them in the fire pit and light a match?

First of all, Fostex quarter-inch 8 track. Not the smartest idea, but it was my buddy's tape deck.

Second, the Fostex A-series was encoded in Dolby C (built into the electronics). I don't know anyone that makes a Dolby plugin, so even if I get them to digital, I can't correct for the variable-ratio compression in the different frequency bands.

Third, pre-Quantegy 456! I haven't played these reels in ages, but I've got a feeling that sticky-shed will rear its' ugly head. Not only that, there was some TDK, 3M and Maxell stuff as well. My late friend didn't care too much where he got the tape; some of it was bulk-erased.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

I have an R8 (later machine but same format) and do this kind of work all the time. PM me if you want to discuss further.
 
Hey bro, I just got my A1 2 Track A series Fostex back in my studio, I simply run the stereo outs from the Fostex into my Digital Mixer and record the signal in Logic or Protools and burn a CD, but if the tape is sticky it will need to be baked, as a previous member stated, but not in the oven as also stated. You could record 8 separate tracks in a Daw and mix down to 2 tracks and burn a CD as well.
 
Not sure the A-series got NR, at least not A4. Though it wouldn't be surprising if Fostex found it more urgent on the A8 because of the narrow tracks.

If you're without a built-in Dolby C and the recordings was made Dolby encoded, it's no disaster. I prefer the sound of Fostex-machines with no NR (does only work with high recording levels and very minimal compression though - or NR during mastering), and once I had the NR enabled by accident we still did the mixdown without it. Just had to roll of some treble and high-mid during mixing. If the hiss is too much there's decent NRs available in Pro Tools.

The other way around, recording with Dolby off and enabling it afterwards sounds like muffled shit caught under a pillow.
 
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