Entering the New Digital Age

By Rachel Dworkin, Archivist

Like historical music? How about old radio broadcasts or oral histories? CCHS has them all. In fact, we have over 300 audio recordings in a number of formats including wax cylinder, record, reel-to-reel tape, 8-track, and audio cassette.  The problem is, we don’t have the necessary equipment to actually listen to half of it, let alone share it with the world. Now, thanks to several recent technology donations, we can finally play our reel-to-reel and cassette tapes. More importantly, we can digitize them.

Why is it important to digitize our audio recordings? Because they are inherently fragile and each play back risks damaging the original. As anyone who remembers destroying their favorite tape can attest, audio cassettes can unspool, tear, or become demagnetized. Reel-to-reel tapes are especially vulnerable to tearing as they lack the cassette’s protective shell. Digitization also makes it easier to share. Save a tape as an audio file and it can be burned to CDs, stored on a flashdrive, or posted on-line somewhere. Our mission as a museum is to share the history of Chemung County and digitization allows us to do that easily with minimal risk to the original recording.

The great thing about audio digitization is it’s not even that hard!

Step 1 – Acquire the right equipment. This includes not only the playback equipment, but also a computer and the necessary cables. Our cassette player was donated by the late Lee Kiesling while the reel-to-reel tape deck was donated by my parents. They each have different audio outputs and required different cables to connect them to the computer. The cables ranged in price from $6 to $12 and were available on-line and at Staples.

Reel-to-reel tape deck with appropriate wires.

Audio cassette player with appropriate wires

Step 2 – Acquire the right software. We use Audacity. It’s a free, open-source audio recording/editing software available for download for Mac and PC. There are on-line training videos plus a handy help guide. I hardily recommend it, but if you have another program you like, well, you do you.

Step 3 – Que up the tape. Before you record, take some time to listen to the tape. Make sure the volume is just right. Make sure it’s rewound to the right place.

Step 4 – Connect the player to your computer. The cable should go from the audio output of the player to the audio input on the computer.

Step 5 – Start recording. Make sure you have selected the right audio input in the program and then hit record. Always hit record before you hit play on the tape or you’ll miss the first few moments. Yes, I learned that the hard way.

Step 6 – Press play and let the digitization begin. Once you press play, you can just sit back while it records. Be sure to check in occasionally to see if it’s done. Then press stop on both and rewind the tape.

Step 7 – Save and edit your audio file. Save the file before you make any edits. Give it the most detailed descriptive name you can including what the recoding is and when it was made. Then you can edit the file. Hitting record before hitting play leaves a bunch of dead air at the beginning, but you can just cut that out. You can also create multiple tracks, play with sound quality, or add effects. Be sure to save again after every modification you make.

I’ve talked specifically about tapes here, but you can follow these steps with any audio format. Speaking of which, if anyone has a working phonograph, record player, or 8-track, we would love to have it.

Play It Forward: The Great Digital Migration

By Rachel Dworkin, Archivist

Do you have VHS tapes?  Or Beta?  How about some 8mm film?  Now, here’s the tricky question…how many of you can actually play those back? 

Technology marches on.  New formats come, old equipment breaks and we’re left with valuable information trapped on deteriorating mediums that we can’t watch.  So, this year we are embarking on phase 1 of our digitization project.  The ultimate goal of this project is to produce digital versions of all of our videos and films so that we can watch and share them once again.

Here at the Chemung County Historical Society we have a dozen rolls of 16mm film, 30 or so rolls of 8mm film, over 200 video cassettes in various formats, and nearly 400 audio cassette tapes.  Converting these items into digital format costs money, a lot of money, so phase 1 of our digitization project is to establish conversion priorities. 

What are our priorities?  Our first priority is to save information which is in danger of being lost.  Take, for example, a series of oral histories on VHS tape done in the 1990s of Asian immigrants in Chemung County.  VHS is a magnetic film format inside a hard shell with a series of moving parts.  Both the film itself and the mechanical bits that make it play back can be damaged over time making it hard to view the information on the tape.  In the case of the oral histories, some mechanical difficulty makes it so the tape can’t be fully rewound, thus making it a priority for digital conversion.

Once we’ve rescued the information in immediate danger of being lost, our next priority is usefulness.  We have a number of exhibits and projects planned on a range of topics including floods in Chemung County and growing up in Chemung County.  Our second priority, then, is to convert the material associated with those topics so we can use them in our exhibits and programs.

Of course, just converting stuff to digital format doesn’t mean that all the work is done.  After all, technology marches on and DVDs are on their way out while BlueRays are on their way in.  In order to ensure that the information we’ve just paid to have converted lasts, we have to make sure to save the digital information not only on its new DVD, but also on our servers and to keep updating it as new stuff comes along.  It will be a lot of work, but, in the end, it should be worth it.