Copying Equipment
If the size of the recording programme and the range of material being acquired justifies it, a comprehensive sound archive processing system may need to be set up. This would include an appropriate number and variety of playback and copying machines, with control equipment that provides accurate aural and visual monitoring of the original recording and copies during the transfer operations. The system might also incorporate appropriate tone controls and filters, which -with judicious use - can compensate for certain acoustic shortcomings on original recordings, and include devices that can be used to reduce tape hiss levels without detriment to the original signal quality.
The typical oral history collecting centre would not require such an elaborate arrangement but all libraries and archives concerned with safeguarding their recordings should endeavour to produce a duplicate of each interview and set one of their recordings aside as a preservation copy. For this purpose a basic archival copying facility can be set up with two tape machines which should, ideally, be reserved for this application.
In any transfer operation some quality loss between the copy and the original recording is inevitable. With appropriate equipment and care this loss is very slight, however, and the copy - for all practical purposes - can be made indistinguishable from its parent. To achieve this the copying equipment must be capable of at least an equal technical performance to the machine on which the interview was recorded. If it is of an even higher technical standard, so much the better, as the quality loss which always occurs during copying will then be minimal.
Open reel portable recorders of the kind on which oral history interviews are recorded should be pressed into service for archival processing only if there is no alternative. Such machines are not well suited to this role. They often have performance limitations, particularly as regards the tape types and spool sizes they are capable of handling. There is, however, quite a wide range of table mounting open reel equipment produced for the discriminating domestic market and semi-professional use which meets the requirements of collecting centres. The major manufacturers of such machines are Revox, Ferrograph, Tandberg, Sony and Uher and prices of appropriate models start at about £300.00 in Britain.
If some or all of the interviews are recorded on cassette the copying system will obviously have to include at least one cassette playback machine. As with open reel equipment, the original recorder should not be used for this purpose. Cassette machines which employ Wollensack decks provide the kind of reliability needed for archive purposes; suitable models are manufactured by Neal in Britain and by Advent in the United States. Otherwise any top of the range domestic machines produced by the major manufacturers may be used.
