Fairlight-CMI

Thanks for your post Peter. It's good you're still hanging around 
these Forums! There are some cool libraries from big artists on 
these tapes, so hope I can get them recovered.

I got a reply on the Fairlight AU Forum and there is a company in 
the UK that specialise in fixing Streamers, Data Recovery, etc. 
Might come in handy. I've certainly contacted them!!! The web link 
is:

http://www.odrl.co.uk/

Kind regards,
Peter

--- In Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com, "djangokitty2" <pdkaye@v...> 
wrote:
> By sometime in the late eighties/early nineties, it became apperent
> that many of the streaming tapes were failing to recover.
> Sometimes one could get a partial set to comeback, but eventually a
> "cmi error" would abort the process. Most of us at the time 
(including
> myself), made a concerted effort to copy every thing to the newer
> format WORM drive. Still, there were some tapes I never could 
reclaim,
> including some favorite samples such as one named (I think)
> trmbns02.vc that had a particularly good bass trombone on the 
bottom
> (I missed that for years). I also had to go begging to Todd 
Harrimen
> for a replacement of the French Franc coin drop sound effect when I
> needed just such a thing years later (thankfully he had it).
> \
> Andrew (Dr. Bombay) and the crowd at Fairlight at the time, made it
> sound as if it
> was a fatal error that could not be recovered in anyway, and an
> imputus for the replacement of the streamer with the WORM. Maybe 
the
> error correction capacities of the time were too small. Perhaps 
some
> weisenhiemer can figure out how to stream the entire content off, 
find
> the fatal error and patch it.
> 
> As I am sold out, I only watch this board for nostalgic reasons, 
but I
> wish you luck battling these problems. If someone figured out how 
to
> resurect these tapes, there would be some cool stuff laying about 
(if
> it hasn't been recorded over).
> 
> Peter K.
> 
> 
> --- In Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com, "Peter" <PeterC@C...> wrote:
> > Hi everyone,
> > 
> > Just a follow up...
> > 
> > As none of the 30 tapes I was given are readable by my CMI, I 
tried 
> > to write to one of them from my CMI, just to see if the tapes 
are 
> > still functional.
> > 
> > The one I tried seems fine and I can successfully write to and 
from 
> > (using TOTAPE & FROMTAPE commands. I wiped it too during totape 
(-
> > w)). No softerrors whatsoever. This tape, with contents from 
1988, 
> > was previously giving an "Unexpected Tape Error 3) message, but 
as
> I 
> > said it's now fine when formatted with my machine.
> > 
> > What does this mean?
> > 
> > 1) The oringal contents have deteriorated, but the tape is still 
> > intact.
> > 2) The Streamer Heads need re-alligning (is this possible/easy 
to 
> > do?).
> > 
> > ??????
> > 
> > I know these are not easy questions to answer, but if anyone can 
> > shed any light or offer me guidance, that would be superb!
> > 
> > Kind regards,
> > Peter
> > 
> > 
> > --- In Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com, "Peter" <PeterC@C...> 
wrote:
> > > Hi everyone, 
> > > 
> > > I have just got hold of 30 used Tapes, but as I'm browsing 
them 
> > > (DIRTAPE command), my CMI says they're either blank (even 
though 
> > > there are supposed to be files on them) or I get the 
> > > message "Unexpected Tape Error 3". These are all compatible 3M 
> > > DC600A Tapes and most of them are dated around 1988-1989. 
> > > 
> > > I have a couple of other tapes (Memorex MRX600A) which read 
and 
> > > write fine, so does this mean the 30 3M tapes are buggered or 
is 
> > > there a possibility my streamer could be faulty? By faulty, I
> mean 
> > > in need of a clean (no idea when this was last done), in need 
of 
> > re-
> > > allignment (is this possible?) or anything else anyone can
> suggest.
> > > 
> > > I know this is an extension of my previous posts, but these 
tapes 
> > > have quite a cool history and I'm VERY eager to get my hands 
on 
> > > their contents...
> > > 
> > > Thanks in advance! 
> > > 
> > > Kind Regards, 
> > > Peter