Re: [ARSCLIST] Sound--real vs. recorded--was: discography of "direct-to-disk revival"?

["Richard L. Hess" <arclists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 12:42 AM 9/23/2006, Phillip Holmes wrote:
> I'm glad there's an expert here.  From the sounds of things, they 
> either had lots of variation from one tape to another, OR the tapes 
> didn't hold up well.

Hello, Phillip,

There appear to be two very different German tapes that were the bulk 
of the production during the pre-war and war years. Now, one of the 
things that happened -- and happened throughout tape manufacture -- 
was that there were running changes in the tapes manufacture during 
the production run.

The homogeneous PVC matrix Magnetophonband Typ L is holding up very 
well but suffered from substantial level variations across the tape's 
length, so there can be several dB of level change over a short 
period. One thing, apparently, that Mullin did was class all his tape 
to sensitivity and assembled reels of equal sensitivity.

The Magnetophonband Typ C is an acetate tape and some of it at least 
was stored in sealed steel cans. It's suffering from advanced vinegar 
syndrome and stinks. I did some reels this summer and it certainly 
cleared out my sinuses. It was the worst I had seen, I suspect 
because it was in the steel cans.

I fear this is the path for most acetate tapes (not all people 
worrying about this agree with me).

Playing the Magnetophonband Typ C this summer made me VERY glad it 
was 30 in/s full-track. Anything narrower or slower would have 
sounded VERY BAD.

One other item, the original concept of the Magnetophon did not have 
the benefit of all of the later research about levels and overload 
and, to my ears, the early engineers would sometimes overload -- 
especially on some second-generation copies that I've transferred. It 
didn't happen all the time, but it certainly contributed.

In addition to the Engel-Hammar article I've referred to,
http://www.richardhess.com/tape/history/Engel_Hammar--Magnetic_Tape_History.pdf 


You might also enjoy looking at my AES paper on the transfers of the 
first group of tapes.
http://www.aes.org/journal/suppmat/hess_2001_7.pdf

Cheers,

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.