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1/4 inch Tape HELP!

pointmanpointman 1,042 Posts
edited December 2007 in Strut Central
So this guy has some 1/4 tapes that have been sitting in his garage for probably 40 years now. Well I want to go through this stuff with him but all I know is 1/4 inch tapes go on a reel to reel. I'm scared I could ruin them, I've heard something about baking them first, which I know nothing about. So basically, can I throw these things on a reel to reel or are there special precautions I should take?

  Comments

  • Controller_7Controller_7 4,052 Posts
    I think the baking is more for re-using old tape. Not totally sure. Maybe it is for playback too. I had some 1/2 inch reels I found in front of a studio and I ended up selling them to some guy. He was telling me that after awhile tapes will sort of get mushy. You can test this by taking a paper towel or a tissue and running it along the tape. If a lot of the tape rubs off, then baking them could give you a brief window to solidify what's on there. You may run the risk of making them brittle or melting them though. I am sure there are som experts on this.

    I don't think there should be too much of a concern if you are just going to do a playback and copy what's on there. I guess baking may give them some strength so they won't stretch, but I wouldn't bake some other dude's reels unless you knew what you were doing.
  • Insulin1200Insulin1200 396 Posts
    yeah, baking them returns them to their og pliability. take caution because that also means though that they'll disintegrate shortly after, so you'll have to transfer the recordings asap.

    there are folks who professionally do this, otherwise i heard that if you have one of those vertical plate-warmer compartments in your oven you can DIY..
  • grandpa_shiggrandpa_shig 5,799 Posts
    i am no expert on the subject, but its nothing some tape wouldnt fix. i mean, really the only problem youd have is if the tape broke. if theres hella dropouts on the tape already, theres nothing u can do about it and baking it will prolly just keep the mag in place temporarily.

    ive also put old tape on a reel to reel and just rolled out a ton of slack on one end and slowly let it feed by hand. this way u can put a lil less tension on the tape. at least thats what i thought i was doing.
  • pointmanpointman 1,042 Posts
    So you guys think I can just throw these things on a reel to reel to play once and not have to worry about it damaging them?
  • grandpa_shiggrandpa_shig 5,799 Posts
    not at all. i mean, everytime u play old mag tape u loose quality. im just saying, its just a one time thing. test them out!
  • Insulin1200Insulin1200 396 Posts
    no.
    you can damage them and/or your heads.

    what kind of a job is it? something you might potentially release or issue?
    id say get help locally if you can.
  • pointmanpointman 1,042 Posts
    It's potential release material. I'm going to go through it, take inventory without playing them and talk to some studios.
  • 4YearGraduate4YearGraduate 2,945 Posts
    Everything said here is correct. Basically the tape is magnetic, and those particles (excuse the laymen-ess of this any techs reading out there) can be left all over your heads with one pass of the old tape, ruining both your heads and the masters in the process. I would absolutely not try to bake your own tapes unless you have a professional oven capable of holding a super consistent temp over a long period of time. The best thing to do is to rent time at a studio with a well calibrated 1/4 machine (studer, ampex or the sort), ask them their opinion of the tape (it may not need baking for one archive playback) and then take it from there.
  • Insulin1200Insulin1200 396 Posts
    th*s, you're going to have to change your avatar soon.

    to this guy:
  • pointmanpointman 1,042 Posts
    More than anything I don't want these tapes to get screwed. I'll probably take them to a decent studio.
  • 4YearGraduate4YearGraduate 2,945 Posts
    th*s, you're going to have to change your avatar soon.

    to this guy:

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
  • johmbolayajohmbolaya 4,472 Posts
    If the tapes are over 40 years old, they *should* be fine, but one also has to consider how they were stored too, perhaps not in the best of conditions. While baking is generally recommended, it usually applies to tape in the mid-70's, or at least that's what I read, since tape manufacturers started making their tapes differently. Oxidation, stickiness, stuff like that.

    I did a quick search and found some links you may want to check out:
    http://www.loopers-delight.com/tips/tape/Baking_Tapes.html
    http://www.tangible-technology.com/tape/baking1.html
    http://radiomagonline.com/notebook/radio_baking_magnetic_recording_2/
  • Insulin1200Insulin1200 396 Posts
    th*s, you're going to have to change your avatar soon.

    to this guy:

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

    *empty thy pm's*
  • 4YearGraduate4YearGraduate 2,945 Posts
    CLEARed. .. holluer
  • bthavbthav 1,538 Posts
    i did 1/4" transfers for a bout 2 years. heres what i would do for each potential transfer:


    play a 10 second clip of the reel on a machine and play real close attention to the sound and to what is physically going on on the tape machine.
    -if the pitch is way off (and the machine is totaly calibrated), then you should bake it
    -if you see that the reels are slowing down while the tape is playing... STOP THE MACHINE! this usually means that the tape is sticky and.. well.. all the magic is sticking to your head


    people throw a bunch of smoke an mirrors around the baking process. i used a food dehydrater/jerky machine and if you do your research, you'll probably find out that most studios do (esp now a days when theres no need for this stuff anymore). Time baking the tape depends on the thickness. 1/4" is a total of 2hrs while fliping the tape over every half hour. After baking, you let the tape cool for the amount of time you back. For really nasty xfers, i would immediately digitize the real after it had cooled, but usually you can do the transfer within the first 24 hrs after baking.

    that said, there are some tapes that are just plain fucked. baking does nothing to them, and you only find this out after baking them.

    there tons of other stuff involved with how it was stored, if it was kept tails out, and it was heavily spliced that will def through a wrench in all of this.

    all in all if you have the stuff to do it, i would not pay for a studio to do it. but if you want to wash your hands of it and hand it to a studio, keep in mind they will charge you a shit load just to tell you that you cant do anything with the tapes.


    pm me if you got any questions.
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