oxide shedding from 1/4" tape - cure?

[Wil Davis]

A friend has some recordings (circa 1983-87) on 1/2 track 1/4" tape. He hasn't played these for years, as his reel to reel machine has been out of order (for at least 10 years!). I offered to transcribe them from tape to CD, and while I was checking the tapes, noticed that the highs has all but disappeared. I examined the heads and noticed that even after a minute or so of playing, they were clogged up with oxide, and the binder or whatever it is used to keep the oxide in place. I remember reading somewhere about baking tapes in this condition, in an oven set to a very low heat. Although this isn't a permanent solution, it will enable the tapes to be played at least long enough to get the data from them. I'm looking for details of how this might be done, or any other method which people might have used - rumours considered, but first-hand knowledge would be preferred. Thanks in advance -

- Wil

 

[bantos]

Wil,
check this out. http://www.audio-restoration.com/baking.htm
hope it helps.

Brett

 

[Wil Davis]

Excellent! Just what I need! Now where did I put those cookie-sheets...

(pauses to tie apron-strings, exits to the strains of "If I knew You Were Coming, I'd Have Baked a Tape"...)

Thanks!

- Wil

 

[kristian]

an alternate.

http://www.tangible-technology.com/tape/baking1.html this dude basically has the same idea. dont use gooed up tapes either because you can be scrubbing off sound, and it makes a mess! bake first.

 

[hixmix]

When Tom Petty put out his retrospective box set a few years ago alot of the analog masters from the 70's were in pretty bad shape. The masters were stored in a warehouse in Florida with all the heat and humidity for almost twenty years. The engineer used the slo/lo baking technique on them. He only got one pass on the masters before they were history. So, when making the transfers he had to, like the song goes, "get it right the first time".