Re: [ARSCLIST] MAGNA-REEL Sound Recording Tape

[Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi David:

If you can gain access to a 4-track 1/4-inch machine, this can go faster. I did a job for an old guy 
with a pile of old radio tapes this way. One can assume that slow-speed recordings of old 
spoken-words stuff, off TV especially (remember, audio was second fiddle to video throughout the 
history of TV anyway), is not of the highest fidelity. So it's kind of a waste of time, with limited 
improvement possibilities, to treat this stuff like the lost stereo hi-fi recordings of (name your 
favorite musician here). What I did was play the OTR tapes back on my Teac A3440 at 7.5IPS and suck 
in all 4 channels at once at 88.2/24. Halve the pitch (speed), split into 4 files, reverse the 
tracks that need it and voila. Still time-consuming but much less so than dubbing in 2 directions at 
slow speed.

In this guy's case, he was thrilled to be able to listen again. The tapes were sometimes copies of 
copies of copies. It was sort of interesting because they were sometimes lesser-known "Hollywood 
stars recreate movies over the air" shows that never show up in anthologies from Radio Spirits, for 
example. And, in most cases, even though they were at least a few generations from the 
transcriptions, the end quality was better than a lot of what Radio Spirits does (someone needs to 
teach those guys to go light on the digi-NR so they don't get annoying pumping behind the voices). 
Unfortunately, he didn't have what I keep seeking -- episodes of Murrow's short-lived "Hear It Now" 
news magazine from 1951. Anyone who's got any of those that I don't have already -- standing offer 
for a free transfer.

-- Tom Fine


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Lennick" <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 10:15 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] MAGNA-REEL Sound Recording Tape


> My dear old dad taped everything beginning around 1959..on quarter track, at slow speed, and 
> re-using
> old paper tapes he'd bought in the early 50s. Finally he began buying white box stuff (yeah, I 
> know).
> Hundreds of tapes are in his basement (which is dry, you'll be happy to know). I pulled out one 
> pile the
> other day and saw Jack Paar in London, 1961, guests like Spike Milligan and Larry Adler..stuff 
> that may
> not exist anywhere else. I can hardly wait to start salvaging that stuff..and I know I won't have 
> the
> time for the next 10 years......
>
> dl
>
> Tom Fine wrote:
>
> > And then there's always the mold that comes with moisture, which I've seen literally eat away old
> > Scotch 111 acetate tape. So here's the typical options for typical old tapes stored in typical 
> > old
> > private collection -- keep those tapes in the cold/moist/likely moldy garage or basement or keep
> > those tapes in the hot attic. Basement -- they can get eaten away and/or warp.  Attic -- they 
> > warp
> > and might get so brittle that they won't play or get something akin to lost lubricant.
> >
> > Yeah, folks, if you have something valuable to you or to posterity on reels, for heaven's sake
> > transfer the darn thing and till your digital garden regularly!
> >
> > -- Tom Fine
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Richard L. Hess" <arclists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 9:25 PM
> > Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] MAGNA-REEL Sound Recording Tape
> >
> > > At 08:32 PM 9/18/2006, steven c wrote:
> > >
> > >>Thus the problem would appear to be to decide whether the tape should
> > >>be baked...or frozen...
> > >
> > > Well, you never bake acetate tapes.
> > >
> > > Freezing tapes is also problematic, but hopefully we'll know more about that in a year or so.
> > >
> > > Theoretically, freezing acetate tapes (WHICH IS NOT RECOMMENDED AT THIS POINT) is the only 
> > > known
> > > way to preserver them, but freezing tape is supposed to do irreparable damage to the tapes.
> > >
> > > I believe this is what is known as a Catch-22. So, we need to find out how bad the freezing 
> > > really
> > > is for acetate and polyester tapes.
> > >
> > > Moisture is the big culprit in all the degradation, as far as I know, with heat being second. 
> > > In
> > > fact, within reason, heat is a non-issue with polyester-based polyester-polyurethane binders. 
> > > It's
> > > moisture that kills. Of course, there is more available moisture at higher temperatures.
> > >
> > > Richard
> > >
> > > Richard L. Hess                   email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > Aurora, Ontario, Canada       (905) 713 6733     1-877-TAPE-FIX
> > > Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
> > > Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.