Magnetic tape doesn’t keep well. It was produced in a range of materials for use with a range of specific technologies. How best can we preserve magnetic tape recordings? This paper discusses a methodology for preservation and gives a brief outline of prototype software designed to aid in the cataloging of digitized tape recordings.

In the first section, the authors give a brief overview of the history of tape recording and some of the issues associated with preserving tape-based analog recordings. These range from problems of maintaining original machines and magnetic tape degradation, to methods, to archiving and cataloging digitized copies of the material.

The last two sections give a rationale for the developed software applications and describe how one of these was assessed. Following paper conservation methods, there are two forms of preservation under consideration: first, passive archiving, when the materials are conserved with the hope of limiting further loss of materials; and active preservation. Active preservation is defined here as virtual representation, which in this case led to the development of the REMIND application for use with Android tablet devices and the similar REWIND software for browsers. The original version of REWIND provided a gramophone interface for playing digitized records. The new versions provide a virtual tape recorder with which to catalog and play digital tape files. The prototype simulates a specific two-track reel-to-reel tape recorder--the Studer A810-VUK. This is a limitation of the user interface since there are several types of tape recorders and associated tape formats, including 4-track and 8-track, and those that run at different speeds; the software provides controls to provide these features for playback, but the faithfulness of the skeuomorphic representation is somewhat reduced as a result. An interesting feature is that which allows the user to distinguish between recording anomalies of the originating media, such as physical faults, intentional tape splicing, or repair work. This is achieved by videoing the tape as it runs over the heads at digitization; this image is available at playback.

The REMIND application was tested by 20 composers and academic musicologists, but not, apparently, by specialists in tape archival processes. If the REWIND user interface was tested, no results are presented here. The bibliography is extensive, which makes the paper a useful introduction to the topic.