Baked some tape; Sold some gear. ;)

[A Reel Person]

I recently bought a Tascam 38 "parts or repair", with remote, manual, tapes & take up reel. Turns out the "Edit" button was pressed and the 38 was not broken at all, although I did have to remove the bottom panel and press onto the audio cards to freshen up a few contacts. Got it for a song. Although I had to drive a significant amount, I doubled my money within a week!

After IDK how many years I'd had my Snackmaster dehydrator, new in box, I finally used it to bake a couple batches of tapes. IDC what the naysayers say, it worked beautifully! Baked (3) 1/2" reels simultaneously for 18 hours, and the oldest of sticky tapes ran like new! Gave me a glimpse of how horrid my oldest recordings sounded, but I think I've made some progress musically and production-wise in 30 years. (A whole other post). The baking of tapes is a life saver, as I see it. YES!

 

[miroslav]

Baked (3) 1/2" reels simultaneously for 18 hours, and the oldest of sticky tapes ran like new! Gave me a glimpse of how horrid my oldest recordings sounded...

Did you do 18 hours just to be sure, or did they need that much time?
I think the longest I baked some 2" SSS tapes was around 8 hours. I don't think baking longer hurts them, they just may not need it.

Analog Tape Restoration: If I knew you were coming I'd Have Baked a Tape

Tape Width Baking Time varies with temperature and condition.

1/4" - 1 hour to 4 hours - Position near top cover and flip every half-hour
1/2" - 2 hours to 5 hours - Assuming "tail-wind," play backwards after wrapping cloth over heads.
1" - 3 hours to 6 hours - Check for splices and shed
2" - 4 hours to 8 hours - Bake 1/2 hour for each 1/4-inch, flip every 30 ~ 60 minutes.

Anyway.....did you transfer your old music off those baked tapes?

 

[A Reel Person]

...

I just left them in there a lengthy amount of time to be sure they were well done. SSS was significant on the oldest tapes.

I didn't transfer anything. Just reviewed the tapes & put them back in the box & on the shelf, tails out.

 

[miroslav]

Do me (well, all of us) a favor.....keep an eye on those old baked tape that had the SSS, and check them say... every month or so.

I'm curious how long the baking holds before the SSS returns. I'm doing the same for some 2" tapes I baked this past winter, back in March....and so far, they're still holding, but the general belief is that they will not hold forever, so if you have music you want to keep on them, you might want to do a transfer/copy just in case...though the other belief is that you can re-bake them over and over many times....not sure if there is a finite number where the baking no longer works or where it starts to maybe add more damage than benefit.
That's why I interested in the length of time from bake to bake.

 

[mdainsd]

bake>transfer>discard

 

[A Reel Person]

...

The old tape played like new. Absolutely no shed, front or back. I'm quite pleased at the outset.

Looks like to bake 7" reels I'll have to wind the tape onto 10.5" reels, which fit perfectly in the unit.

 

[Beck]

bake>transfer>discard

^^^ yup... that's the right way to do it.

 

[Beck]

The old tapes will play like new and then slowly deteriorate. And that's the trouble.... by the time the tapes are obviously sticky and shedding again they've been deteriorating in more subtle ways. Loss of high frequencies is one of the first things to happen. So if you don't transfer right after baking (and cooling of course) you're going to have to bake them again before transfer even two weeks from now. By the time they are obviously bad they've been unsuitable for a long period before that to get the best from a transfer.

 

[mdainsd]

I guess there is more than one way to look at it.

1) You come across some of your own tapes from yesteryear. Did not remember you had them. Curious to hear them. They wont play so you try the bake. It works and you can hear them again. Your curiosity is taken care of, so you put them away again, if they are good later bonus.

2) Other extreme. Going through some masters, you acquired while buying out studios "old" analog tapes, you come across a reel for a very well known artist and hit. You are bummed because it wont play :-( Then you hear of this method of fixing them if for only a while. What was lost is now retrievable. Apply the fix and get it transferred on the very first pass, it will never get any better.

Im just glad this is possible, with either approach.

 

[TAE]

The old tape played like new. Absolutely no shed, front or back. I'm quite pleased at the outset.

Looks like to bake 7" reels I'll have to wind the tape onto 10.5" reels, which fit perfectly in the unit.

I have several reels of Sony B&W video reel to reel that when I last tried to play them @ 15 years ago they left a mess on the heads of the player..These are the only recordings audio or video left of the pror rock band I was in in the late 70's.... I am tempted to give it a try on my own but then again there is a company down in San Diego that will bake and transfer for what seems a reasonable fee for the baking ...for the transfer I'm not sure. He want's $40 for the first tape , $10 for each one thereafter...the transfer is $1.50 per minute...so $90 an hour. hats putting it on a hard drive that I supply. I have the sony tape machine but am a little nervous about screwing up the tapes...whatchya think?

 

[A Reel Person]

Yeah,...

I've not been so lucky to stumble upon Fleetwood Mac Rumors on a scratch reel, but part of this cache of used 1/2" tapes I got with this 38 deal contained some really well produced original rock music.

After baking, reviewing, debating, I ended up holding onto the 2 mystery reels with the fully produced pro-level band songs (slated for sale with the batch of other gear), and instead threw in 1 brand new/sealed reel of 1/2" 456, non-sticky year 1995, and the buyer was quite pleased.

I decided whatever group or music there was on those reels, it was good enough not to scratch or let out of my hands. Basically, it would provide simple listening enjoyment, a fun mixing-clinic style experience, and needless to say is light years ahead in recording/performance quality all around vs. my own 1983-1986 home recorded dreck.

On the other hand, I'm holding on to said reels of self-recorded dreck for sentimental reasons, not because of their brilliance, as they fall well short of 'lightning in a bottle'. They also point up some serious shortfalls in my original recording/performing techniques, and I have decent mixdowns of them already on the puter archives of my home recordings. However horrible, I was not prepared to let them go or scratch the reels for future use, so back onto the shelf they go.

In practical terms, if they go sticky again over time I will bake them again. One thorough baking in 30 years is not bad, although they had gone sticky on the shelf many years previous. If I have to bake them another time, it's no harm/no foul.

I'm pleased about my first venture into "baking" reels, and I will do more. I'm also very pleased about scoring a nice setup for low dollar to "fix" that wasn't really broken, which I knew intrinsically when I looked at the listing. Although I drove a significant distance, I'm pleased to have doubled my money, while providing a really nice system to another user at a reasonable cost. Then, I scored some interesting reels of really cool music that's too pro-level not to be pro, but I just can't place the sound vs. well known artists. It's someone pro-level & maybe famous, to be sure.

That's win/win/win for me ATM.

 

[A Reel Person]

Yup!

I have several reels of Sony B&W video reel to reel that when I last tried to play them @ 15 years ago they left a mess on the heads of the player..These are the only recordings audio or video left of the pror rock band I was in in the late 70's.... I am tempted to give it a try on my own but then again there is a company down in San Diego that will bake and transfer for what seems a reasonable fee for the baking ...for the transfer I'm not sure. He want's $40 for the first tape , $10 for each one thereafter...the transfer is $1.50 per minute...so $90 an hour. hats putting it on a hard drive that I supply. I have the sony tape machine but am a little nervous about screwing up the tapes...whatchya think?

I have faith in restoring the playability of old tapes thru "baking", i.e., dehydrating w/my Snackmaster dehydrator. Probably a $40 investment. Try it!