RE: [AV Media Matters] Tape baking

[esth@mail.rochester.edu]

Tommy;

The Eastman Audio Archive has a section of Ampex 456 tape from the
'80s.  To date we have not encountered the leader problem you speak
of, but we generally bake our tapes only 4 to 6 hours. I have thought
about the possibility of leader tape being affected by the baking, but
have not heard of it to date. Also, we have a lot of paper leader (that
we are replacing) so perhaps we have been fortunate. And the fan in our
oven is particularly good.  Please do post the responses.
 Esther.

At 04:32 PM 1/27/2001 -0800, you wrote:

>Greetings from a lurker!
>
>I have for a couple of months been employed at
>DCM, a CD plant in Sweden, to digitize an archive of reel to reel tapes.
>Our mission has been to start with tapes from the early 1980's, for known
>reasons. We have also had to bake quite a few of those tapes, and that
>has worked out well. Recently, however we've encountered a phenomenon I
>haven't heard about before: sticky leader tapes. That wouldn't be so bad
>if not the magnetic layer adjacent to it also stuck to the leader. The
>effect of it is quite stunning - enormous tape echo for one turn of tape,
>coming from the deposited layer on the leader tape, then somewhat quieter
>regular sound.
>
>The tapes concerned are mostly Scotch 226, and
>some Ampex 456, from 1980 to 1985, possibly manufactured earlier, and
>they have been baked for about 8 hours at 50 deg C. Also the tapes
>"behave sticky", i.e. unwinds at an angle, but don't leave any
>deposits. Have anyone out there seen this before, and maybe have a
>remedy? Could the baking have affected the leader tapes
>detrimentally?
>
>Tommy Sjöberg
>Sound Engineer
>+46 8 477 20 22
>DCM Sweden AB
>http://www.dcmsweden.se

Esther Gillie, Sound Recording
Archivist
Phone: 716-274-1330
Eastman Audio Archive
Fax: 716-274-1088
Eastman School of Music,  Sibley Music
Library  esth@mail.rochester.edu
27 Gibbs Street, Rochester, NY 14604