Howdy,
I've owned a Tascam 388 for a long time. It's been idle for a few years. I pulled it out to review some of the old library of material from back when. Most of the tapes were recorded about 15 years ago. Ampex 457.
I was horribly suprised to find that the entire library has a deterioration problem. After only a few minutes of playing time, the tapes had deposited a huge amount of gummy crap on the tape path and heads. I tried several and found them all to be the same.
I emailed Quantegy about the problem and they put me in touch with a person who worked for Ampex/Quantegy for 30 years and still does consulting for them. He told me the problem was the binders in the media were breaking down and that the tape had pretty much reached the end of it's life. BUT! there is a way to recondition the tapes so they may be played once or twice to transfer the tracks to another machine or computer. You have to "bake" the tapes at 130F for about 8 hours to remove all the moisture from the tape. He recommended using a FD-50 food dehydrator for the purpose. He has recovered archived material for many people including the Library of Congress and I was very impressed with his knowledge of the subject and his willingness to take the time to go throught the whole process with me.
So now I need to transfer the tracks to another machine or media. I'm thinking maybe the 1010lt PCI card into my computer. That way I can transfer the raw tracks intact onto the harddrive and/or send them back onto new tape. George told me the new Quantegy tape should be good for 30 years or so.
So thinking along the lines of recovering the old tracks AND expanding the capabilities of my recording/editing gear, I'm thinking that the 1010 PCI card, a couple of 8 channel snakes, and a stack of new 457 tape will get me on the way.
Any thoughts on this plan? Other schemes to do the same thing? Appreciate your time!
I 'spose I could just get another 388 too!
GrampZ
SoCa
I've owned a Tascam 388 for a long time. It's been idle for a few years. I pulled it out to review some of the old library of material from back when. Most of the tapes were recorded about 15 years ago. Ampex 457.
I was horribly suprised to find that the entire library has a deterioration problem. After only a few minutes of playing time, the tapes had deposited a huge amount of gummy crap on the tape path and heads. I tried several and found them all to be the same.
I emailed Quantegy about the problem and they put me in touch with a person who worked for Ampex/Quantegy for 30 years and still does consulting for them. He told me the problem was the binders in the media were breaking down and that the tape had pretty much reached the end of it's life. BUT! there is a way to recondition the tapes so they may be played once or twice to transfer the tracks to another machine or computer. You have to "bake" the tapes at 130F for about 8 hours to remove all the moisture from the tape. He recommended using a FD-50 food dehydrator for the purpose. He has recovered archived material for many people including the Library of Congress and I was very impressed with his knowledge of the subject and his willingness to take the time to go throught the whole process with me.
So now I need to transfer the tracks to another machine or media. I'm thinking maybe the 1010lt PCI card into my computer. That way I can transfer the raw tracks intact onto the harddrive and/or send them back onto new tape. George told me the new Quantegy tape should be good for 30 years or so.
So thinking along the lines of recovering the old tracks AND expanding the capabilities of my recording/editing gear, I'm thinking that the 1010 PCI card, a couple of 8 channel snakes, and a stack of new 457 tape will get me on the way.
Any thoughts on this plan? Other schemes to do the same thing? Appreciate your time!
I 'spose I could just get another 388 too!
GrampZ
SoCa