BROWNIAN NATURE OF THE TIME-BASE ERROR IN TAPE RECORDINGS

Wow and flutter is the instantaneous tape-speed error between recording and reproduction epochs. The time-base error (TBE) in the reproduced signal is a function of the wow and flutter. The random and chaotic nature of the TBE is studied and shown to be fractional Brownian motion. The corollary of this is that the nonperiodic flutter is fractional Gaussian, and a blind TBE compensation system is impractical. This is an important conclusion when considering the FM distortion of a recorded signal, and in designing a TBE compensation system.