Hi All,
I have a crazy client who needs to recover an erased audio recording from a micro cassette recorder (tape). The tape containing a deposition was transcribed and then purposely erased by the transcriber as per standard procedures. Now, they want it back.
I expressed doubt that such a thing was possible. The client seemed to think it was possible to recover the recording, if not from the tape itself then from the "heads" on the recorder.
Anyone have any thoughts on this. Is my client crazy, or am I!
Robert Kelso
Forensic Pursuit
303-495-2082
If a degausser (the easiest and fastest way to erase recordable media) was used there is usually no way to recover the recording. However if the degausser was weak or was not used long enough you may find some remnants. Unfortunately (in your case) micro cassettes erase thoroughly due to their small size.
Do you think your tape was handled better or worse than the Watergate tapes? They (meaning organisations with lots more money than you) got nothing off that thing, and it sounds like a similar situation.
Why someone thinks you can recover recordings off the heads is anyone's guess. Do they think they work like a printing press or something?