ampex 465

beyond_therapy

beyond_therapy

New member
yesterday i helped a friend, who had a box of 10 Ampex 465 from the late 80's with all his own originals on them although they had been boxed and stored as to there specs the tape left is oxide all over every part that it came in contact with, witch made my job a pain in the ass. I cleaned my tascam 3400 on every pass and got a good clean sound on the computer, i understand that these tapes do this but how many others are still in the dark and think there music will live forever if storded correctly, my friend did not belive that his tapes would do what they had done, so i made him sit through 10 hrs of playbacks and transfers.
Beyond Therapy
www.beyondtherapy.turbonet.com.au
 
beyond_therapy said:
yesterday i helped a friend, who had a box of 10 Ampex 465 from the late 80's with all his own originals on them although they had been boxed and stored as to there specs the tape left is oxide all over every part that it came in contact with, witch made my job a pain in the ass. I cleaned my tascam 3400 on every pass and got a good clean sound on the computer, i understand that these tapes do this but how many others are still in the dark and think there music will live forever if storded correctly, my friend did not belive that his tapes would do what they had done, so i made him sit through 10 hrs of playbacks and transfers.
Beyond Therapy
www.beyondtherapy.turbonet.com.au
Click to expand...

I know you're not stabbing at the storing of analog masters, right? Yeah, even digital isn't proven to last forever even under the right conditions. It may last longer but I have old CD-R's and especially DATS that have become corrupted for no reason but age. I always tell my clients nothing is forever.

Experts in media storage say any medium corrupts over time and all they can do is slow the process with huge multi-million dollar rooms designed to store film, audio, and digital medium.

--AdamLazlo
 
There is a way to restore the tape so you can have it transfered to another reel. I think the Tape your talking about is Ampex 456, which I think is now called Quategy 456. The process of restoring the tape where you get to keep the FO on the Polyester backing is called baking. Search the web for Baking Tape and you should find a few links. Basically a food dehydrator big enough to hold 10 1/2" reels, you place the reel on the top level for 6 hours at 130 degrees or so. You not supposed use old tape because it can clog the heads and ruin the tape, once the FO comes off, you can't put it back. I have a few reel I have to bake myself, but I haven't gotten around to it.


Peace,
SoMm
 
At least now I'm warned about all this... I use Quantegy 456 tapes ofter, having my master recordings on them ... Should I expect the loss of the material over the years ?...
 
Well, as said above, any medium will degrade. Tapes should be re-wound now and then, I've ben told. And digital backups is always a good thing to have. They are easier to keep in good quality since you can transfer them to new mediums without quality loss.

However, the tape shed described above is probably a special case. All tapes done during a certain time period has this problem, becuase they used a adhesive that degraded badly with time.
 
Nothing lasts forever. But tapes can last a pretty long time if stored carefully, constant temperature and low humidity are best. You might try some of the silicate packets inside with the reel using zip lock bag to minimize the moisture in the air from breaking down the glue plolymers.

Peace,
SoMm
 
All tapes done during a certain time period has this problem
Click to expand...

So the tapes manufactured today lack this type of problem ?

How do they store Elvis or Beatles tapes for example ?

There're about 50 years old ...;)
 
gilwe said:
So the tapes manufactured today lack this type of problem ?

How do they store Elvis or Beatles tapes for example ?
Click to expand...

They lack that problem to. Look on the internet for "baking tapes", I think you should somewhere find the full story.
 
my understanding is that there was a relatively short and specific period of time in the 80's when Quantegy 456 used a glue which resulted in long term breakdown and tape shed. That was not true before then, and not true after the problem was fixed.

I have some tapes left from the 60's which are fine to this day, and can be played or re-recorded to without any tape shed - which doesn't mean that heads still don't need periodic cleaning - and current production Q-456 is also fine and exhibits no shed.

Clean, dry, room temp, lo-humidity storage, and good tapes will last a darn long time.

b-h
 
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