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Grateful Dead Hour Shows: Transferred to CD's??

I have about 50 Grateful Dead Hour shows on tape recorded off of FM. They were all recorded on a Nakamichi LX-3, and many shows were recorded using Dolby "B" Unfortunately, the LX-3 is too bulky to transport, and also too expensive to ship (30 lbs boxed) I could buy either a used a Nakamichi BX-1 or BX-2 after I move and settle in, but I would have to find one in good condition

Therefore, my question is: could these tapes be tranferred to CD's, possibly even cleaned up or even re-equalized. BTW, many of the tapes offer some of the Dead's best performance over the years; some are just OK.

Unfortunately, it may be very expensive to professionally transfer the tapes. And I don't know if there are any quality "tape to CD" machines out there for sale. I really don't want to buy a transcription component that I will use only for a short period. ANY SUGGESTIONS WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED' Thanks, Jim

sunnyjim
sunnyjim OP
927 posts
 
Raymondo and Zd542.... Thank you both for the advice. Ray if I need a particular GD show that I can't find, I will give you a shout.

ZD542. I am not that computer savvy, but I wish I had known about transferring by using a CD burner to transfer the tapes, I still have the tapes, but the Nakamichi LX-3 is gone. I just did not want to ship it with the rest of the load, so I gave it to a young guy who likes to tape local Hawaiian musicians off of FM..... Aloha for now!!!
zd542
5,339 posts
 
"ZD542. I am not that computer savvy, but I wish I had known about transferring by using a CD burner to transfer the tapes"

Just to clarify, I was talking about an audio component type CD burner, not the ones that are in a PC. Also, I forgot to mention another possible solution. They make cassette decks specifically designed for what you need to do. Do a search for "digital cassette tape converter", and you'll see what I talking about.
jafant
18,824 posts
 
SunnyJim-

where are you located?
Perhaps, there is a local radio station (college preferred) or transcriptionist that may be of asssitance?
Keep us posted and Happy Listening!
sunnyjim OP
927 posts
 
ZD542, I mentioned above that Hammeker/Schemmer on line catalogue shows a Teac tape to CD machine to transfer audio cassettes to CD's. I assume this is what you mean by...."audio component CD burner....." The Teac is $500 plus shipping. The H$S catalogue online reviews of this product warn that standard blank CD will not work. Though H&S offers a 30 pack of blank CD's for $19.95.

I really did not want to spend $500 to transfer the tapes of Grateful Dead shows which are available on archive.org. Nevertheless, thanks for the heads up.
lloydc's avatar
lloydc
734 posts
 
you really need to eq old bootleg tapes when turning them into cd's. Even though eq causes various artifacts (phase shifts, particularly), it is still a necessity. That eliminates using those one-box cassette-to-cd machines; you really need daw software to make them listenable.

I actually bought (and had rebuilt) a Dragon, an M-audio delta 1010 ADC, and Wavelab software, for this purpose. Works well (ok, I'd rather have the expensive Aire converter, but...), but expensive and very time-consuming, tedious work. Worth the effort for dead blues guys' tapes, but too much work for Dead bootlegs, considering the alternatives.

Raymonda had the best suggestion, just go find those shows online, which most likely someone has already done. or keep playing the tapes.

A friend of mine said he finally got rid of his old Dead bootlegs. But when pressed, he finally admitted that he kept "a few thousand".
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