Sinclair ZX80 / ZX81 / Z88 Forums

Hi there.

I'm trying to archive some tapes and while I know what a Spectrum should sound like and can tweak the tone/volume right I'm struggling with the ZX81 (well, the TS1000 specifically) as I acquired these tapes from somebody else.

Can you provide a screenshot of what the WAV manager should look like when loading a good tape? I'm tweaking the two sliders but am not sure what the recording should look like relative to the red and green lines for a successful load.

Also my Tape Source > Audio In is greyed out - any idea why that might be? (I'm currently sampling in Audacity at 44.1KHz/16-bit/mono and then trying the resulting WAV file in EightyOne in TS1000 mode with the 16K pack option set).

Hi Damieng,

Just get your sound file in a Wav file format with a sound capture tool. (the direct sound input can be corrupt by the system sound pooling)
Open the Wav input window, and select the green line (bits volume trigger) to 2/3 of the max higher harmonics volume.
Select the tape converter (tape icon), and check the file in the TZX window.
To create a 'P' file, you need to convert a single file… you had to delete all other one.

If a LOAD"" don't work, you had to use a specific tool (or host wavs files on a backup web site to allow us to fix it).

Have fun…

My greatest succes with reading bad tapes has been with the Java ZX81 Tape Converter.

It can be a little difficult to find the right default values, but you can correct any bit that is interpreted wrong.

mrtinb wrote: ↑Thu May 21, 2020 1:32 pm My greatest succes with reading bad tapes has been with the Java ZX81 Tape Converter.

It can be a little difficult to find the right default values, but you can correct any bit that is interpreted wrong.

I totally agree, Martin. This is a great tool and also is the best at generating wave files, I believe.

"Tape Doctor" (java by Arnaud Guyon‎)
https://github.com/smart-fun/TapeDoctor

Keep your smartphone away !!!

over 30 years ago a friend of mine wrote a couple of adventure games for the 16K ZX81. Two year ago he passed the only cassette copy he has to me, knowing that I had both a real Zeddy and an emulator. I've tried but can't get it to load into either. There aren't any drop outs as such but the cassette wasn't stored well and the volume does go up and down.

Would anyone be willing to give it a try if I provide a WAV file? I'm not an expert at all with Eighty One and loading programs into it. But I can provide WAV files at any preferred sampling rate or bit depth played on anything from a handheld cassette player to a high end hi-fi deck.

Any takers?

angus wrote: ↑Sat Jun 27, 2020 12:59 pm Would anyone be willing to give it a try if I provide a WAV file? I'm not an expert at all with Eighty One and loading programs into it. But I can provide WAV files at any preferred sampling rate or bit depth played on anything from a handheld cassette player to a high end hi-fi deck.

If you can provide a wav file then I'll give it a go for you.

Sent over PM with further details.

Can try too…
Send me a PM this a link to a web files host.