Annabelle, It may be that the tape itself is just deteriorated, or has been near a magnetic device like a computer display, TV set, or phone charger, and itself has become slightly magnetized. Nothing you can do except capture the audio and try to clean it up with Sonar or Sound Forge. The older a magnetic tape gets, the more it is affected by pervasive EM radiation in our environment. That's why old VHS tapes start to look bad, even if they've never been played. They are affected by the earth's magnetic field, a constant unidirectional field that pounds on us 24x7. If those tapes are precious, they need to be archived to an optical or flash media form. Dave Composed on a Dell Latitude 630 in the general vicinity of my Audio Recording and Mixing Studios, San Jose, California ----- Original Message ----- From: Annabelle Susan Morison To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2010 08:59 Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Demagnetizing a Microcassette Recorder I've tried the fast forward and Rewind, but it didn't change anything. I had recorded this tape in 2007, but I hadn't listened to it but maybe once or twice since then. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Farfar Carlson Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2010 8:25 AM To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Demagnetizing a Microcassette Recorder Annabel, This is more likely due to your tape having stretched or being wound loosely, causing the variance in volume. Have you done a fast-forward and rewind a couple times, to "settle" the tape? If it still has volume variance, then it could be an old tape. I have a demagnetizer cassette for my standard-size cassette, but have never seen one for a micro cassette. You may have to take your player to a repair shop and have someone use a hand-held demagnetizer. Just be sure they know what they're doing, or you can really mess up or damage your playback heads, if not done properly. Dave Composed on a Dell Latitude 630 in the general vicinity of my Audio Recording and Mixing Studios, San Jose, California ----- Original Message ----- From: Annabelle Susan Morison To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2010 07:43 Subject: [ddots-l] Demagnetizing a Microcassette Recorder Hi, it's Annabelle. I'm wondering, what's the best way for a blind customer like me to demagnetize a Microcassette Recorder? The reason why is because I want to convert one of my microcassettes to a digital recording in Sonar, and I don't want it to sound like the volume keeps going up and down all the time. Anybody have any suggestions for me? No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.449 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3314 - Release Date: 12/13/10 19:34:00 No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.449 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3314 - Release Date: 12/13/10 19:34:00 No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.449 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3314 - Release Date: 12/13/10 19:34:00