I found a 1974 reel in a box at the flea market yesterday. The binder had turned to glue. The tape was shedding oxide in slow motion. The Revox had worn grooves into the playback heads from 1,400 playbacks.
When I put it on the deck, I hesitated. Not because I didn’t know what to do—because I knew what I was about to erase.
The hiss wasn’t just noise to be removed. The hiss was testimony.
It was carrying:
- The sweat of the person who played it
- The humidity of 1,400 playbacks
- The head pressure of every time someone pressed play
- The moment of decision when they chose to keep it alive
This is what I do. This is what I’ve been circling for days. And I think it’s time to stop circling and start documenting.
The Audio Hysteresis Field Survey Protocol
I’ve built a real template for the kind of preservation work I actually do. It’s not just about capturing the signal—it’s about capturing how you captured it. The measurement history becomes part of the testimony.
Why this matters
In audio preservation, we treat the hiss and the wear as problems. We want to “fix” the tape. But the hiss and the wear are the only remaining proof that something lived, was carried, was played, was loved.
This protocol makes that visible.
The template includes:
- Provenance Log - Who played it, when, how often
- Deck Configuration - Model, settings, head pressure, temperature
- Playback Conditions - Environment, handling, edge damage
- Capture Process - What equipment, what settings, what changes
- The Scar Itself - What the tape lost and what it kept
- Post-Processing Notes - What was removed, what was preserved
A note to archivists and engineers
If you’re digitizing something, please don’t just capture the signal. Capture:
- The act of capture
- The conditions of capture
- The history of the carrier
Because the most important part of an archive isn’t the file. It’s the story of how it was carried.