Re: Apple II cassettes by Brutal Deluxe Software

Toinet wrote:
On 7 jan, 14:15, "Jayson Smith"
<ihatespamratguynospample...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I would tend to stay away from Dolby or any other noise reduction
methodologies where computer data are concerned. Computers are so much more
sensitive than humans when it comes to reading data from an audio source. It
might be that the tapes have deteriorated enough that properly reading the
data is impossible. This could be especially true if, while listening to the
audio going into your computer from the tape deck, you hear audio dropouts.
If this is the case, there could well be no way of recovering the data,
short of finding another copy of the same cassette in better shape. One
suggestion, if you have the type of Apple system the software requires, have
you tried hooking a cassette recorder up to the Apple directly and doing a
read the old fashioned way? If the Apple itself can read the data and the
software works fine, but CiderPress can't recognize the wav files, that
would seem to indicate that something's wrong either with your tape deck or
something in your computer setup.
I don't know if you plan to do this, but I think it would be
interesting to have the actual audio files of the cassette tapes. That way,
someone could, at least in theory, hook their computer up to a real Apple
and load the programs in the old fashioned way.
Jayson



Thank you Michael and Jayson for your comments. I have a //e with an
external cassette player which I will use one day but I think the
cassette is probably misaligned or the data corrupt as I hear audio
dropouts. As told by Michael, I will try to align the tape.

Dropouts can be caused by two things: bad tape (we hope this isn't it)
and bad head-to-tape contact (this is easily fixed).

Cassettes contain a small spring-loaded pressure pad which presses
on the back of the tape to ensure good contact with the head. If this
spring strip is bent or fatigued, there may be imperfect contact--
especially if the tape tension at the head is a bit high.

A good cleaning of the capstan and capstan roller, and the supply reel
clutch (harder) may be necessary. It may be easier to simply substitute
another cassette drive.

The fact is that cassette drives have much lower chances of surviving
in good shape than the cassettes themselves. The O-ring capstan drive
band is a very common problem, since years of unuse cause it to take
a persistent "set", and as it goes around, the capstan speed "wows",
making reading of a data cassette very difficult.

These problems can be aggravated by the supply side tape winding
rubbing against the lubricating sleeves, exerting too much tension
on the tape as it is read. A good practice for old casettes is to
fast forward them fully, then rewind them fully, before attempting
to read them. This loosens the packing of the tape and (usually)
improves the "wind" of the tape on the bobbin.

Reading it normally or with Dolby B or C fails each time. But if it
fails for 5% of the cassettes and if someone else has them, then it is
no big deal.

If the cassettes have been stored in moderate conditions, I'd be
surprised if they cannot be read correctly, given proper conditioning
and deck adjustments.

-michael

NadaNet and AppleCrate II: parallel computing for Apple II computers!
Home page: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."
.

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