Word: taping
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...expert would need in the way of equipment to alter tapes would be a recording studio, two to four quality tape recorders, a variety of auxiliary gadgets and perhaps an echo chamber. First he would listen to the tape over and over again until he felt at home with the speech patterns-voice modulation as well as breathing space. When he was satisfied that he knew the voices as well as his own, he would do the easy part first-simply cutting out certain words or sentences with a razor blade and splicing the tapes together. This would probably constitute...
...Once the tape was recomposed, he would have to make sure that it flowed smoothly from beginning to end, with no telltale shift in tone of voice. Inflections can now be modified with a device known as a variable-speed constant-pitch tape recorder. "When we increased the speed in the past," says Goldberg, "we increased the pitch too. The voice sounded like Donald Duck's. Now we can pick up or slow down without changing the pitch." Background noise can be simulated by playing a second tape behind the voice tape. Thus, if in the original tapes, doors...
...When the tape is completed, it is recorded on another, unspliced tape. This is done on the original machine, since each recorder leaves its particular markings on tapes. As exacting as open-heart surgery, the process of altering a tape is extremely timeconsuming. It may take as long as an hour to change a word; to alter a one-hour tape could consume a full day. The result of all this fastidious enterprise can be startling. A record is available of one of Nixon's speeches defending his role in Watergate; on the flip side is a doctored version...
Aware of these doctoring techniques, Judge John J. Sirica has indicated that he would like experts to examine the Watergate tapes. But there is a problem; anyone who listens to the tapes will learn what is on them-a breach of confidentiality. Under the U.S. Court of Appeals order, only Sirica is supposed to hear the tapes initially. Even if Sirica wins authorization to have the tapes examined, the fact remains that the technology of detection is not so far advanced as the technology of deception.* The detector must rely on an oscilloscope, which translates electrical impulses of sound into...
Though some audio experts believe that they can uncover almost any kind of tampering, the hard evidence seems to dispute this. Last August the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. put on a radio show in which nine audio specialists were asked to identify parts of a tape that had been doctored. They were unable to detect 90% of the edits-but reported finding numerous nonexistent changes. Producer Max Allen explained: "In a speech by Roy Cohn [Joe McCarthy's onetime protégé], they said they had looked at their oscilloscopes and swore they saw edits. But it was just...