I've been working with old tapes recently - and have had some fantastic help on the forum from Miroslav and other guys trying to remaster a track from a digital copy made 15 years ago from 40 year old studio tape. This got me thinking about an odd incident from the time of the recordings which I'd appreciate some thoughts about. It is kind of weird - maybe not quite but interesting. Apologies in advance if it is not quite the sort of thing for the forum.
My late brother, Mick, was recording at a studio in Cambridge here in the UK during April-August 1979. One night, i think it would have been in June '79, he was driving back from the studio early one morning - about 3 am and an strange incident occurred (will say more later if anyone is interested!) As a result, the car lost power for a few minutes and slowed to a crawl despite attempts to accelerate. After finally being able to pull away he came home (in a state of shock) and found that the cassette (TDK SA C60) copy of his sessions which he had with him in the car had been wiped - that is completely erased, no sound at all, zilch. The car was subsequently checked and found to have been magnetised - to the extent that its magnetic field could be mapped. So for 40 years I've wondered what level of external magnetic field you would need to completely erase a tape within a car? My limited experience of erasing tapes has been that you need a pretty high field from a head in intimate contact with the tape and that bull tape erasers applied externally aren't very effective. Anyone any experience/ideas on this? Any thoughts appreciated.
My late brother, Mick, was recording at a studio in Cambridge here in the UK during April-August 1979. One night, i think it would have been in June '79, he was driving back from the studio early one morning - about 3 am and an strange incident occurred (will say more later if anyone is interested!) As a result, the car lost power for a few minutes and slowed to a crawl despite attempts to accelerate. After finally being able to pull away he came home (in a state of shock) and found that the cassette (TDK SA C60) copy of his sessions which he had with him in the car had been wiped - that is completely erased, no sound at all, zilch. The car was subsequently checked and found to have been magnetised - to the extent that its magnetic field could be mapped. So for 40 years I've wondered what level of external magnetic field you would need to completely erase a tape within a car? My limited experience of erasing tapes has been that you need a pretty high field from a head in intimate contact with the tape and that bull tape erasers applied externally aren't very effective. Anyone any experience/ideas on this? Any thoughts appreciated.