Access to recordings on outdated media is subject to the physical condition of the items and the library's ability to support playback. Contact the Arthur Friedheim Library Archives at peabodyarchives@lists.jhu.edu for more information.

From the donor's notes: "Some of these [reel-to-reel] tapes date from the 1950s when the recording equipment available for home use was not at the level of a professional studio. In the early 1980s Spencer purchased a large 8-track reel-to-reel which was used for the later recordings in this collection. Many original reel-to-reel tapes were discarded at some point because of tape damage but copies were made on various cassettes.

"Spencer bought several different cassette tape decks over the years including Tascam 242, 246, 288, 302, 424 and 488. He re-copied tapes on the new tape decks as they were purchased, and kept the previous copies, so in many cases I had multiple copies of the same recording. I made an effort to select recordings with the best sound quality, but from difference tape deck units.

"Tapes vary from those mixed down to 2-channel vs. those recorded on 4-channel. I no longer have a working 4-CH tape deck, so I was not able to test all of the 4-CH tapes accurately.

"If the tape is marked 'discrete' you should be able to set the balance between the two channels for best effect before digitizing. These tapes are helpful for rehearsal as you can eliminate the solo track, leaving only the piano track. I’m not sure to what extent this will be controllable once the tape is digitized.

"Some tapes will have a small green dot on the tape and/or container. These tapes were in a special collection that Spencer had of 'best' tapes – at least on his current equipment.

"Clock times written on boxes such as 11:00 or 1:00 refer to the position of the pitch change dial on the Tascam equipment.

"Spencer always left a good amount of blank space at the beginning of the tapes. In a few cases it is as much as 60 [seconds]. For most tapes, the sound starts between 25 and 40."