Reply-to: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx>
At 03:52 PM 1/6/2006, Casey, Michael T wrote:
Does anyone have experience with these off-brands (all of which, plus
many more, are represented here in the Archives):
Audiotape
This was not an off-brand tape, as far as I know, but rather the tape
entry from Audio Devices who made the disc masters for a long time. A
lot of professionals used Audio Tape.
Emerald
Crescendo
Knight
This was Allied Radio's own brand if it was a help. You cold
mail-order it, but I suspect a lot was picked up in Chicago-area stores.
Lafayette
This company was originally from Jamaica and Syosset New York (Queens
and Long Island) and was a competitor to Allied Radio (and had
junkier stuff). They had a big catalog. Don't know who made their tape.
Magictape
Tonemaster
The Cal State Fullerton Oral History archives was done almost
exclusively on white-box tape bought by the purchasing department. A
large percentage of these tapes had clear leaders on them - but they
weren't spliced on - they were made by oxide shedding off with the
slightest mechanical stress. But this appeared to be due to the
economizer-cycle-overnight storage conditions that pushed humidity up
to 75% or so some nights. When I brought one of these reels to my dry
Glendale CA home for a few months, the problem would not repeat. The
entire archive has been CD'd.
We really need to understand the difference between Loss-of-Lubricant
(LoL) and binder hydrolysis. These are two different mechanisms that
are cured by different processes.