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Handling old tape

earshot

earshot

I lucked out and have a boss who came from a radio family. Her dad owned one of the AM/FMs in the market before he retired and sold to Clear Channel. He passed away last year, so she, her mom and sisters are going through his stuff. He started as a DJ (late 50s), went to sales, GM and finally, owner. As you might imagine, he's left a treasure trove of reels. They believe a lot of the recordings are him announcing the high school football games he continued doing into the early 80s (IDs, spots and all), recorded straight off the board, but there could be essentially anything on them.

You can see where I'm going: Old tape AND it's been stored in attics, sheds, on a shelf above the laundry dryer(!), over the years. I've not seen it yet and have no idea what condition these reels are in.

They've asked me to transfer the reels onto digital storage. This project won't take off for awhile, so if months go by, I'll still be checking here for ideas.

Other than being careful/gentle, does anyone have suggestions for handling this kind of tape condition? I'm sure it'll be brittle. Is there something one can do beforehand to improve my odds? Store it at a certain temperature before I thread them up? Put them in a room and set the humidity level at a certain point?

This is a great family and I'd love to be able to bring back their dad's/husband's memories if I'm able.
 
If the tape is non-black back, you could carefully play these tapes without much issue assuming there isn't splicing tape involved. If you have a place you can stop the tape, then take advantage for a cleaning of the heads and other things in the path. If there is splicing tape and it separates, regular adhesive tape will work in a pinch.

Black back tape (Ampex 400 series or 3M 200 or 800 series) are an interesting challenge. Here is a crash course.

http://www.wendycarlos.com/bake a tape/baketape.html

Also, as you might remember, some reel to reel machines have transports that are as subtle as a bull in a china shop. So be careful with fast wind.
 
Old tapes can range from very good condition with little or no shedding to the oxide falling of of the backing in big chunks. I have about 50 boxes of tape and most of it has remained in excellent condition despite its age 30-40 year old age. A few are falling apart, but that is a small percentage of them. Chances are that if you're careful, then the results will be good. You should expect to clean the heads between reels and possibly more frequently.

Last, remember that digital does not necessarily mean forever. Consumer CDs and DVDs degrade over time, with the predicted life of some being only about 5 years (though I have some well over 10 that still work fine). Be choosy when selecting your digital medium, or be prepaired to make copies periodically in order to preserve the library.
 
Hi:

If this audio was in the 60s or early 70s. your tape is probably the brown acetate tape like old Scotch 111 or Irish tape. This does not suffer from Sticky-shed syndrome as the Ampex 406 and 456 did in the 1980's, but can have cupping and be brittle. If the tape has sticky-shed, it can possibly be baked for a play.

You should use a tape deck that has tension settings. Set it to low where the tape still contacts the play head well and you retain high frequency response. Be prepared to replace splices that fall apart.

Transfer the tape with a lossless codec (i.e. PCM WAV), then when ready get copies around to a few people. Keep the original tape, as digital copies can go away easier than old tape.

Richard Hess has some info on his web site: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/

Dan
 
W1DAN said:
Transfer the tape with a lossless codec (i.e. PCM WAV), then when ready get copies around to a few people. Keep the original tape, as digital copies can go away easier than old tape.
Click to expand...

FLAC is a lossless compression scheme that produces about 4:1 ratios, and suffers from no artifacts.
 
I recall the band Boston having the same problem remastering their albums. If my memory is correct, they used silicone spray (like you find at auto parts stores). By constantly spraying the tape and rollers as it passed to prevent from sticking and getting destroyed.
 
Kmagrill said:
Old tapes can range from very good condition with little or no shedding to the oxide falling of of the backing in big chunks. I have about 50 boxes of tape and most of it has remained in excellent condition despite its age 30-40 year old age. A few are falling apart, but that is a small percentage of them. Chances are that if you're careful, then the results will be good. You should expect to clean the heads between reels and possibly more frequently.

Last, remember that digital does not necessarily mean forever. Consumer CDs and DVDs degrade over time, with the predicted life of some being only about 5 years (though I have some well over 10 that still work fine). Be choosy when selecting your digital medium, or be prepaired to make copies periodically in order to preserve the library.
Click to expand...

Yes flakeing.Decoloring problem.use of sticky labels. Ok I have a question .When I master my tapes in .wav format which I prefer.How bout if I store them on one of those outboard box drives like those WD external drives. Plus mirror the files on another one .I have not backed up onto a cd in years do to the cheapness and the quility of them.
 
Folks:

If your tape has sticky-shed (i.e. Ampex 406 and 456 tape), it possibly can be baked. I have done this successfully to get transfers done. Looky here:

http://www.tangible-technology.com/tape/baking1.html

As far as using external USB hard drives, this is a viable method, but remember to duplicate your media to a newer drive every few years. The cheap external drives have poor power supplies that are prone to failure, and most drives like to be spun up occasionally.

I have my audio on an internal drive as well as two different manufacturer external USB drives. Stuff I really care about is also copied to a friend or two on other states.

Dan
 
W1DAN said:
Folks:

If your tape has sticky-shed (i.e. Ampex 406 and 456 tape), it possibly can be baked. I have done this successfully to get transfers done. Looky here:

http://www.tangible-technology.com/tape/baking1.html

As far as using external USB hard drives, this is a viable method, but remember to duplicate your media to a newer drive every few years. The cheap external drives have poor power supplies that are prone to failure, and most drives like to be spun up occasionally.

I have my audio on an internal drive as well as two different manufacturer external USB drives. Stuff I really care about is also copied to a friend or two on other states.

Dan
Click to expand...



Thanks for the great tips.
 
Thanks to all for your suggestions and the great links. I wouldn't have believed some of those remedies in those links had someone described them to me! Meanwhile, the reels are by my desk in a friendlier environment until I have time to work on them. That'll probably be a late summer project. It looks like a lot of high school football, perhaps from the 70s. Curious to hear exactly what's on them.
 
I find this topic very interesting, as I have a lot of old taped stuff to archive. Boise Engineer, do you have any other info on the 24K gold archive CD's, know if they can be recorded by an audio CD recorder, etc.? Or can you send me to a link where I can access more info?

Thank you in advance for all your help. You may e-mail me at [email protected] or respond here, if you prefer.
 
PT said:
I recall the band Boston having the same problem remastering their albums. If my memory is correct, they used silicone spray (like you find at auto parts stores). By constantly spraying the tape and rollers as it passed to prevent from sticking and getting destroyed.
Click to expand...

Actually, it was during the work on the "Third Stage" album that that happened. Tom Scholz writes about it in the liner notes. He'd been workin on TS for so long (think it took 8 years in total to produce the album) that the tapes actually started to stick together towards the end. Great album btw. But who knows, it might've happened during remastering as well, I have no idea. I didn't even know they'd remastered their albums.
 
petsy said:
PT said:
I recall the band Boston having the same problem remastering their albums. If my memory is correct, they used silicone spray (like you find at auto parts stores). By constantly spraying the tape and rollers as it passed to prevent from sticking and getting destroyed.
Click to expand...

Actually, it was during the work on the "Third Stage" album that that happened. Tom Scholz writes about it in the liner notes. He'd been workin on TS for so long (think it took 8 years in total to produce the album) that the tapes actually started to stick together towards the end. Great album btw. But who knows, it might've happened during remastering as well, I have no idea. I didn't even know they'd remastered their albums.
Click to expand...

I don't think silicon spray would be advised due to the mess it would leave.

It has been years since reading the article but I remember the baking method was determined by Ampex, 3M and possibly NPR as a method of saving material. It was about the time record companies started to remaster their libraries for CD releases that this issue became a real problem. More than anything else it was Ampex and 3M finding a solution to avoid possible legal action from the recording industry and program providers.
 
Those 24KT Gold Archival CD-R discs are for computer use and professional standalone recorder use only. Which means the consumer type standalone recorders which use Music CD-R media won't work.
 
How much does a professional stand-alone unit cost? Can you play the recording on any CD player? In my case, some of the things I'm archiving have value beyond just archiving it and sticking it in a special box. People ask for copies.
 
johnbasalla said:
How much does a professional stand-alone unit cost? Can you play the recording on any CD player? In my case, some of the things I'm archiving have value beyond just archiving it and sticking it in a special box. People ask for copies.
Click to expand...

I don't know if I would call it professional, but Guitar Center has a Tascam 900 unit for sale right now for about $500. It doesn't have balanced inputs and outputs, only RCA connectors. I was contemplating picking one up for myself for a second deck. I already have a Tascam Pro deck I bought about five years ago, the model is CD-RW402. It has balanced connectors and it's a two tray device. I paid about $800 USD back then. The 402 discs will play back in just about anything after being finalized.

Denny
 
Anyone with old, deteriorating audio tapes and a need/desire to bring them back to life for the purpose of transferring to the digital domain needs to get in touch with the Sonicraft A2DX Lab.

http://www.sonicraft.com

Steve owns, has reconditioned (and improved) and has on-site the classic studio tape machines of every recording track and noise-reduction format known to mankind. Yes, including 3- and 12-track. The improvements he has made to these machines includes not only newer and quieter electronic components, but also - and more importantly in this case - additional measures to reduce physical stress on the tape itself as it travels between one reel and the other. This is, of course, after tapes have been meticulously baked in a scientific incubator.

Let me just say this: if Steve were a doctor, this is the doctor you would want.

He has resurrected and transferred studio masters for more than several major recording artists and record labels.

Quite simply, if you own tapes with content you'd like to keep and cherish forever, do yourself a favor and get in touch with the Steve and the Sonicraft A2DX Lab.
 
Folks:

Keep in mind that CDR's and other digital media need to be occasionally duplicated for continued preservation. Often the original tape or disk will outlast a digital copy unless copying is done.

Saw Steve's site. Nice setup and he has great ideas. I am slowly refurbing an MCI JH110 for future transfer work.

Dan
www.dbaudio.net
 
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