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Electroacoustic music on analog magnetic tape is characterized by several carrier-related specificities that must be considered when creating a copy for digital preservation. The tape recorder needs to be set to the correct speed and equalization, and the magnetic tape could have some intentional or unintentional alterations. During both the creation and the musicological analysis of a digital preservation copy, the quality of the work may be affected by human inattention. This article presents a methodology based on neural networks to recognize and classify the alterations of a magnetic tape from the video of the tape as it passes in front of the tape recorder's playback head. Furthermore, some machine-learning techniques have been tested to recognize a tape's equalization from its background noise. The encouraging results open the way to innovative tools able to unburden audio technicians and musicologists from repetitive tasks and to improve the quality of their work.

Multimedia archives face the problem of obsolescing and degrading analogue media (e.g., speech and music recordings and video art). In response, researchers in the field have recently begun studying ad hoc tools for the preservation and access of historical analogue documents. This paper investigates the active preservation process of audio tape recordings, specifically focusing on possible means for compensating equalization errors introduced in the digitization process. If the accuracy of corrective equalization filters is validated, an archivist or musicologist would be able to experience the audio as a historically authentic document such that their listening experience would not require the recovery of the original analogue audio document or the redigitization of the audio. Thus, we conducted a MUSHRA-inspired perception test (n = 14) containing 6 excerpts of electronic music (3 stimuli recorded NAB and 3 recorded CCIR). Participants listened to 6 different equalization filters for each stimulus and rated them in terms of similarity. Filters included a correctly digitized “Reference,” an intentionally incorrect “Foil” filter, and a subsequent digital correction of the Foil filter that was produced with a MATLAB script. When stimuli were collapsed according to their filter type (NAB or CCIR), no significant differences were observed between the Reference and MATLAB correction filters. As such, the digital correction appears to be a promising method for compensation of equalization errors although future study is recommended, specifically containing an increased sample size and additional correction filters for comparison.

Digital technology in museum practice provides new means of interaction with artifacts and collections. In particular, we need interactive installations in order to encourage and stimulate visitors to learn and understand archaeological musical instruments through engagement and active participation: these instruments (i.e., interactive artifacts per se ) are de facto unplayable and inaccessible to visitors, as a consequence of their preservation issues. However, presenting artifacts to the general public is a complex task for their multifaceted nature, and digital technology must not sacrifice accuracy or depth of information for the sake of entertainment. Moreover, deploying digital technology is a multidisciplinary effort that requires an interplay among different fields, from history and archaeology to information engineering and craftsmanship. In this article, we present a methodology to relate such disciplines in order to design a digital multimedia installation that promotes archaeological musical instruments in a museum. In defining the problem, we identify four different aspects to consider: the museum collection, the museum environment, the manufacturing opportunities for the installation, and the user experience. Such aspects are integrated in a design approach that is centered on Design Thinking . The proposed methodology is exemplified in the designing and manufacturing of an installation for a Pan flute from Egypt dated back to 700 A.D., a case in which multisensory interaction is particularly important to convey the lost sound of the instrument. We describe in detail an installation (exhibited at the Museum of Archaeological Science and Art at the University of Padova), which virtually recreates the Pan flute and communicates information related to its history, iconography, acoustics, and musicology. Just after the deployment of the installation, we also carried out an assessment with a group of experts in the fields of information engineering, music, musicology, and archaeology. The good results obtained demonstrate that the installation is a convenient way of interaction, simple to use and aesthetically integrated in the museum context.

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