Dr. James E. McDonald's Complete Audio Tape
Archives/Recordings
Audio Recordings by:
Dr.
James E. McDonald
Senior Physicist, Institute of Atmospheric
Physics
University of Arizona – Tucson
Selections from MS 328 Dr. James E. McDonald Papers,
University of Arizona Library, Tucson Arizona.
All contents copyright 2005.
Arizona Board of Regents.
All rights reserved.
Recorded from the period of 1967 through 1968
110 disc CD-R archive
(CDDA files)
18 disc DVD-R data archive of digitized .wav files (Edited
Master from Original Recordings)
Recorded, Edited and Transferred by:
Ralph
McCarron
March 2002 - February 2006
Wolf Video
email: support@wolfvideo.net
web:
www.wolfvideo.net
Coordinated by Ann Druffel and Vince Uhlenkott from a
grant provided by the "Fund for UFO Research"
Note: This project took 4 years to
complete. I’m self-employed and run my own business from my home. My main
business is video editing, video production, CD/DVD-Rom authoring and web
design. The project turned out to be a huge undertaking, encompassing many more
hours than I initially thought, however I'm happy to have been given the
opportunity to have cataloged the amazing life's work (in audio form) of Dr.
James E. McDonald's UFO research.
Once finished, the project ended
up being archived on 110 CD-R’s for playback in a car radio, portable CD player
or boom box. The original uncompressed (WAV) files were backed up on 18 data
DVD-R’s. After this was done I also processed the files to Windows Media Audio
(WMA) files and MP3 (MP3) files. The WMA or MP3 files could be used for
streaming off a web server for internet playback. Also WMA and MP3 files can be
played on most new media players like the iPod or any other current DVD/CD
players. The beauty of the WMA and MP3 files is that I was able to compress
roughly 81 gigabytes of Dr. James McDonald’s complete archive to fit on one (1)
DVD, just being under 4.5 gigabytes.
Where do I start…
In March of 2002, Ann Druffel and Vince Uhlenkott asked me for
their help in converting all of Dr. James McDonald’s reel to reel tapes to
digital format. At that time my business was a little slow so I said I would
help them out. Ann and Vince then supplied me with the whole archive of Dr.
McDonald’s reel to reel tapes. They consisted of:
* Eighty Three (83), 1 7/8 ips (inches per second), 3 inch reel
to reel tapes, record time 1 hour per side, 2 hours of record time per reel =
166 hours of record time.
* Ten (10) , 3 ¾ ips, 5 inch reel to reel tapes, record time 1
hour per side, 2 hours of record time per reel = 20 hours of record time.
* Twenty (20), 3 ¾ ips, 7 inch reel to reel tapes, record time
2 hours per side, 4 hours of record time per reel = 80 hours of record time.
(See Fig. 1).
(Fig. 1)
Collage of Dr. James
McDonald’s original audio tapes and notes.
Total record time = 266 hours, just to record the audio into
the computer.
The editing time probably quadrupled that.
The recording and editing process consisted of these five
steps:
1. Recording all of Dr. James McDonald’s reel to reel archive
into the computer as uncompressed (WAV) files.
2. Editing of each reel. (Each reel could contain either 4 to 5
telephone interviews, recordings of symposiums or recordings of television/radio
shows). The WAV files would have to be split up into each of their own
segments.
3. Processing of limiter and noise/hum reduction to each file
depending on how bad the file was recorded. Almost all of his recordings needed
this process done to every file.
4. Cataloging and naming of each computer file. (I would have
to listen to every file after the recording process and use Ann Druffel’s
original notes to make sure names, spellings and dates were correct). I had to
figure out an easy way to name the files so they could be organized easily. I
wanted each file to correspond with the existing reel to reel tape for a
reference. That way, if I looked back to my original WAV files I could tell
exactly what reel they came from and what side the recording was from. So a 3
inch reel, tape #27, Side 2 would be named: 3T27S2 and then what the filename
was.
Example: 3T27S2 James McDonald Interviews Dr Allen
Hynek.wav
This stands for 3 (being a 3 inch reel), T means tape, so 3T
means 3 inch tape. 27 means reel #27, S2 means Side 2. If there were four
interviews or segments on one side I would split up the files each into their
own file and name the file:
Example (segment one would be called): 3T36S101 James McDonald
Interviews Paul Hill.wav
Example (segment two would be called): 3T36S102
James McDonald Interviews Lt Col Chase.wav
In these two examples this stands for 3 (being a 3 inch reel),
T means tape, so 3T means 3 inch tape. 36 means reel #36, S2 means Side 2. 01
means segment #1. In the second example it would be the same except that 02
would stand for segment #2. So I could tell by looking quickly at this that:
3T36S102 James McDonald Interviews Lt Col Chase.wav was an interview that came
from Dr. McDonalds 3 inch reel, tape #36, Side 1, Segment 2.
5. CD burning and labeling of each CD and/or DVD. I had to
create a separate label, corresponding to Dr. McDonald’s original reels. (See
Fig. 2)
(Fig. 2)
Image of CD-R Tape
7, Side 1 & 2, 7 inch reel, Disc 9.
The files would have to be recorded first. Then audio noise
reduction software tools were used to remove hum, crackle, hiss, etc. Some one
hour files would take four hours to edit. I would have to do one to four passes
on the file just to remove hum and background noise. Since Dr. McDonald wasn’t a
recording engineer or an audio expert, the recordings weren’t always recorded in
a noise free environment. A couple of times he did interviews in the witness’s
car on the way to the location, which is very noisy. I had to deal with removing
engine, traffic and wind noises.
This doesn’t include the time it took me to edit the actual
files and listen to them to figure out names, dates etc. so I could name each
file correctly. Ann Druffel’s original notes on the cataloging of Dr. McDonald’s
files helped a lot for referencing names, dates etc. I would also call Rob
Swiatek or email Richard Hall from the Fund for UFO Research to help me with
names and dates to make sure they were correct. Dr. McDonald would record his
voice before most interviews and say the date, time, and location and spell out
the name of each witness. And other times there would be nothing recorded before
the interview. Sometimes I would have to look up witness’s names and dates of
UFO events on the internet. This way I could double check if the dates were
correct and the names of the witnesses were spelled correctly. And sometimes,
unless it was a famous UFO case, I wouldn’t be able to find anything on the
internet about it. So some spellings of people’s names maybe spelled
incorrectly. If I wasn’t sure of a name or date I added a question mark next to
the name or date. Some witnesses were also unknowns so I would list the person
in my notes as, “Dr. James McDonald Interviews Unknown Man”, or “Dr. James
McDonald Interviews Frank (Last Name Unknown?)”. If there are words misspelled
or incorrect dates, please forgive me. Recording and editing the data was a big
enough job in itself.
The first problem in recording the files was that Dr.
McDonald’s original 3 inch, 1 7/8 speed reel to reel tape recorder was of no use
being an old belt driven unit. Sometimes the audio would play at a correct speed
and then slow down, so recording was useless. The audio would sound like Dr.
McDonald was talking underwater. So the next thing I did was search on eBay for
another recorder. Since the older recorders are pretty cheap ($20 to $50
dollars), I figured I would buy one to see if it would solve my problem. I found
a Sony TC-123 reel to reel tape recorder that would play at 1 7/8 ips on eBay
for $23.17 with shipping and handling. (See Fig. 3).
(Fig. 3)
Vintage Sony
TC-123 reel-to-reel tape recorder.
I tried to use this recorder to record the 3 inch, 1 7/8 ips
reel to reel tapes into my computer, but again this machine was old, belt driven
and also had playback speed problems. It also had problems with major hum once
it was connected to my computer for recording, due to the fact of grounding
problems.
I called Vince Uhlenkott and he told me he had a reel to reel
tape recorder that could play 3 ¾ ips. So we suggested to use this recorder to
start the job and would try to find another player that was able to play 1 7/8
ips and 3 ¾ ips. The problem with this would mean that the job was basically
started and recorded in reverse order. This being that Dr. McDonald originally,
(at that time) recorded on 3 inch reels. Then when the technology got better he
recorded on 5 inch reels and then 7 inch reels. Since we didn’t want to waste
any time we started recording the 7 inch reels right away.
After I had recorded 10 or more files I would edit out long
pauses, coughs or spaces between the interviews. This way the listener didn’t
have to wait for long breaks while listening to the audio. Then limiting and
noise/hum removal would be applied so the files would sound clean and wouldn’t
have any background noise. I would then take notes on each file, name them, burn
a CD and label them. This is a very tedious process as you can see and could
only be done, as I mentioned earlier, on my time off.
After some time it got to the point that Vince Uhlenkott’s tape
player/recorder started also having playback problems. Since we both knew that
we would eventually need another playback machine that could playback 1 7/8 ips
speed, Vince told me to go ahead and look on eBay for another one. I was able to
eventually find a really clean vintage reel to reel Sony TC-155 player.
(See
Fig. 4).
(Fig. 4)
Vintage Sony
TC-155 reel to reel tape player.
This one was recently serviced by an audio specialist so I knew
it would not have any playback problems for awhile. Over the next few years I
recorded the rest of the 7 inch, 5 inch then 3 inch reels. I found that it was
easier just to record the whole archive first and then concentrate on editing,
noise reduction, cataloging, burning and finally labeling. For anyone
technically interested I used Sony’s Sound Forge software to record the WAV
files to my hard drive on the PC. Originally I used Sony’s Noise Reduction
software to remove noise and hum but as the technology got better I used Bias’s
SoundSoap Pro. I found this to be a lot better at removing noise and hum than
Sony’s Noise Reduction software. (See Fig. 5)
(Fig. 5)
The editing and
noise/hum removal process of Dr. James McDonald’s
audio recordings with
Sound Forge and SoundSoap Pro software.
At the end of February of 2006 I finally had the whole project
completed, burned and labeled. (See Figures 6 & 7).
(Fig. 6)
The 3-ring binder
of the complete 110 CD-R archive of Dr. James McDonald’s audio
recordings.
(Fig. 7)
A peek inside the
3-ring binder housing Dr. James McDonald’s audio recordings.
I’m glad that this could finally be completed and I’m sure it
will become a huge research tool for the whole UFO community. There a probably
references, or info in these interviews that could have been missed by other
researchers in the past. Also new info could be gleaned from any of these past
UFO cases. I hope eventually that these files will be streamed on the University
of Tucson’s website for all UFO researchers to be able to have access to
them.