I’m an independent voice-over talent and producer. Right up until 2000 or so, all of my contracted production was requested to be on 1/4” tape (half-track, Tails Out) I still own the Otari MX-50 machine I used back then. Most small radio stations continued to use tape into the early 2000’s
The black ones shedding are mostly Ampex. Some of the problem is storage in an uncontrolled environment. I just burn to a short circuit my Akai R2R, fast forwarding a reel! Upon contacting the seller (I know what the problem was! Sound Engineer here with 51 years of experience), he accepted that the tapes were in his warehouse for years taking HEAT! New sealed!
"Baking" tapes is a bad name for a valid process. Use a food dehydrator. The issue is water vapor in the air incorporating itself into the glue. Dry the tape for a few hours in a food dehydrator (2 hours typical, 6 to 8 hours for really bad tapes). This was typical of Ampex mastering tape. 3M (Scotch) had superior glue. I've had 3M tape over 50 years old that plays like it was new. Nearly all Ampex (and Agfa) would turn sticky after 5 to 10 years in storage, especially in more humid climates.
As others have said, the faulty tapes were likely AMPEX 456. This is a very common problem. This issue can be temporarily corrected by baking the tapes in a cheap food dehydrator for 6-8 hours at 122°F/50°C to 133°F/54°C. The thermostat on the food dehydrator will be wrong, so use a thermometer. This would have made the tapes work well enough to digitize them. Eventually, binder hydrolysis will reclaim the tapes, so they should be baked, then transferred. I've done this myself several times using a dehydrator that was only $38.
I unspool tape to discard every day. The best way to do it is to set up some sort of spindle next to a shop-vac. Turn on the vac and toss the end of the tape in. It will unreel a tape way faster than a tape machine can even rewind one. And the canister will hold about two 3600 foot tapes before you have to empty it
What is the groovy music you are playing in the background? It’s production music of some kind. Do you have a title for it? I also heard it on a National Lampoon comedy LP from the ‘70’s.
I don't know the title, but since uploading the video 3 years ago I too have heard it somewhere else, but can't remember where. This music was on the tape labeled "Beep Tone for Rackham" and a lot of chatter is recorded over parts of the music, i.e. the clip at the beginning of this video after he says "echo" someone else says "How come?" and he replies with an explanation like "well you're listening to tape monitor and it's coming out through the speakers..." I am guessing they used this music to test the equipment before one of the sales conferences. Anyway, thanks for the comment and if I hear it again and learn the title, will come back here and update this comment.
Any back-coated tape made before about 2010 is going to suffer from "sticky-shed" syndrome. The black back-coating is porous to air, and it allows humidity to get to the binder, causing binder hydrolysis. This results in the binder expanding and bursting through the oxide coating, which is what causes sticky-shed. Baking can temporarily treat this, but it's not a permanent cure. Some tapes suffer so much damage that they cannot be treated, and the audio is forever lost.
There are ways to get reel tapes, get a refill of tape pancakes or a 10.5 in. reel tapes for refills as well as blank 8-track tapes that no one is using it anymore to refill your reel tapes and save the cartridge for pre-recorded tapes that had the rollers turned to goo and never pried out. Or get a new one by RTM, ATR and others. They still make new reel-to-reel tapes.
I bought my first tape recorder in 1965! It was a Realistic tube, Mono only. The worst squealing tape syndrome experienced was on the Concert Radio Shack brand made from the mid seventies. It was to be expected, as it was labeled as low budget tape, around 2 bucks for 1800" The tapes from the 60s are still playable in 2024! I have a box of Shamrock tapes unopened, I'll give them a shot.........
I never liked to record on used tapes my self. The main reason was that there was ghosting from the previous recording and there was a certain metal oxide one made in the 70's and 80's that wore out 2 sets of playback heads. Of course back then blank tapes were more affordable. I tried BASF tapes but they costed twice as much and were less abrasive. Those I believe held up the best for me. Can't imagine what they would sell for now a days.
Thanks! It was inspired by a real life incident... Once while driving late at night, I noticed long streams of toilet paper floating in the air behind a car in front of me. I pulled up beside the car, and there was a toilet paper roll on his antenna unspooling in the wind as he drove along. Not sure why it was happening. When I looked over at the driver and made eye contact, he flipped the bird at me and then immediately sped off..???
hi if you have a oven that will not go low leave the door open a small bit so it's about 55c i use a gas oven and i fill it up with 2 inch master tapes tap do take in the heat 4 hours at a time after this i let them cool down for 8 hours put one on my soundcraft 760 find they are ok there's no need to over bake them i have baked 100's of tapes in the past
I just got burned by Sony PR-150 from 1969, recorded once but in perfect condition, it screeches horribly and leaves iron oxide all over the heads and rollers.
7.5 is not high speed. The bad tapes will be 3M and AMPEX. 3M and AMPEX tape from the late 70s, 80s and 90s was crap. I have lots of BASF, AGFA and ORWO (ORWO was made in the German Democratic Repuiblic). None of them have sticky shed syndrome. Also I never understood why the Americans use NAB hubs. With AEG reels you can get way more tape and because there is not metal or plastic reels. the tape boxes are lighter.
And finally, I should mention that this is my third comment in the history of UA-cam comments made by me. A lot of adjectives to describe this third thing in history, but still significant. And the first and second are right below and/or above this one.
hi just gpne over to 1/8 tape that is used in cassette tapes there is still alot about still tapeline would sell me the pancakes still i milled done some reels the were coming apart glue was going in them got to be the right kind of spools to pimp up i got some one to cut out the new 5mm new nubs and bolt them with M2 bolts bad heads on my M80 bad wear put on 1/8 heads and made some parts to take the tape on the deck
I’m an independent voice-over talent and producer. Right up until 2000 or so, all of my contracted production was requested to be on 1/4” tape (half-track, Tails Out) I still own the Otari MX-50 machine I used back then. Most small radio stations continued to use tape into the early 2000’s
The black ones shedding are mostly Ampex. Some of the problem is storage in an uncontrolled environment. I just burn to a short circuit my Akai R2R, fast forwarding a reel! Upon contacting the seller (I know what the problem was! Sound Engineer here with 51 years of experience), he accepted that the tapes were in his warehouse for years taking HEAT! New sealed!
"Baking" tapes is a bad name for a valid process. Use a food dehydrator. The issue is water vapor in the air incorporating itself into the glue. Dry the tape for a few hours in a food dehydrator (2 hours typical, 6 to 8 hours for really bad tapes).
This was typical of Ampex mastering tape. 3M (Scotch) had superior glue. I've had 3M tape over 50 years old that plays like it was new. Nearly all Ampex (and Agfa) would turn sticky after 5 to 10 years in storage, especially in more humid climates.
Frank Zappa swore by Scotch-brand recording tape. The master tape(s) for "Freak Out!" were still in pristine condition.
Late payment penalties are convenient, if you like getting payments late. Love the old audio. Another great video.
Thank you! Good to hear from you and I appreciate the kind words!
As others have said, the faulty tapes were likely AMPEX 456. This is a very common problem. This issue can be temporarily corrected by baking the tapes in a cheap food dehydrator for 6-8 hours at 122°F/50°C to 133°F/54°C. The thermostat on the food dehydrator will be wrong, so use a thermometer. This would have made the tapes work well enough to digitize them. Eventually, binder hydrolysis will reclaim the tapes, so they should be baked, then transferred. I've done this myself several times using a dehydrator that was only $38.
I unspool tape to discard every day. The best way to do it is to set up some sort of spindle next to a shop-vac. Turn on the vac and toss the end of the tape in. It will unreel a tape way faster than a tape machine can even rewind one. And the canister will hold about two 3600 foot tapes before you have to empty it
I love that idea! I will try it next time I need to trash tape. Thanks!
I'm sitting here pondering sticky shed syndrome with some of my tapes while using a reel to reel identical to whats been used here.
The tapes that snap are probably acetate, and the ones that don't are mylar (polyester).
What is the groovy music you are playing in the background? It’s production music of some kind. Do you have a title for it? I also heard it on a National Lampoon comedy LP from the ‘70’s.
I don't know the title, but since uploading the video 3 years ago I too have heard it somewhere else, but can't remember where. This music was on the tape labeled "Beep Tone for Rackham" and a lot of chatter is recorded over parts of the music, i.e. the clip at the beginning of this video after he says "echo" someone else says "How come?" and he replies with an explanation like "well you're listening to tape monitor and it's coming out through the speakers..." I am guessing they used this music to test the equipment before one of the sales conferences. Anyway, thanks for the comment and if I hear it again and learn the title, will come back here and update this comment.
Any back-coated tape made before about 2010 is going to suffer from "sticky-shed" syndrome. The black back-coating is porous to air, and it allows humidity to get to the binder, causing binder hydrolysis. This results in the binder expanding and bursting through the oxide coating, which is what causes sticky-shed. Baking can temporarily treat this, but it's not a permanent cure. Some tapes suffer so much damage that they cannot be treated, and the audio is forever lost.
There are ways to get reel tapes, get a refill of tape pancakes or a 10.5 in. reel tapes for refills as well as blank 8-track tapes that no one is using it anymore to refill your reel tapes and save the cartridge for pre-recorded tapes that had the rollers turned to goo and never pried out. Or get a new one by RTM, ATR and others. They still make new reel-to-reel tapes.
I bought my first tape recorder in 1965! It was a Realistic tube, Mono only. The worst squealing tape syndrome experienced was on the Concert Radio Shack brand made from the mid seventies. It was to be expected, as it was labeled as low budget tape, around 2 bucks for 1800" The tapes from the 60s are still playable in 2024! I have a box of Shamrock tapes unopened, I'll give them a shot.........
I never liked to record on used tapes my self. The main reason was that there was ghosting from the previous recording and there was a certain metal oxide one made in the 70's and 80's that wore out 2 sets of playback heads. Of course back then blank tapes were more affordable. I tried BASF tapes but they costed twice as much and were less abrasive. Those I believe held up the best for me. Can't imagine what they would sell for now a days.
An arm, leg, first born child and a Lasagna dinner? 😂
I love your unspooling technique!
Thanks! It was inspired by a real life incident... Once while driving late at night, I noticed long streams of toilet paper floating in the air behind a car in front of me. I pulled up beside the car, and there was a toilet paper roll on his antenna unspooling in the wind as he drove along. Not sure why it was happening. When I looked over at the driver and made eye contact, he flipped the bird at me and then immediately sped off..???
hi if you have a oven that will not go low leave the door open a small bit so it's about 55c i use a gas oven and i fill it up with 2 inch master tapes tap do take in the heat
4 hours at a time after this i let them cool down for 8 hours put one on my soundcraft 760 find they are ok there's no need to over bake them i have baked 100's of tapes
in the past
Thanks for this info! Will definitely try a lower temp and longer process next time..
I just got burned by Sony PR-150 from 1969, recorded once but in perfect condition, it screeches horribly and leaves iron oxide all over the heads and rollers.
Apparently Maxell does pretty good... Thanks for watching and commenting!
7.5 is not high speed. The bad tapes will be 3M and AMPEX.
3M and AMPEX tape from the late 70s, 80s and 90s was crap. I have lots of BASF, AGFA and ORWO (ORWO was made in the German Democratic Repuiblic). None of them have sticky shed syndrome. Also I never understood why the Americans use NAB hubs. With AEG reels you can get way more tape and because there is not metal or plastic reels. the tape boxes are lighter.
I read a certain car wax wiped on the tape will prevent sticky shed ...
Спасибо!
Tails out prevents pre-echoes (Magnetic bleeding) on the tapes.
Also, nothing, and I mean nothing justifies the enormous cost of email. It is a good thing that never caught on. Cost prohibitive frivolity!
And finally, I should mention that this is my third comment in the history of UA-cam comments made by me. A lot of adjectives to describe this third thing in history, but still significant. And the first and second are right below and/or above this one.
I'm kind of glad it's so expensive, just imagine all the junk messages we'd receive otherwise!
hi just gpne over to 1/8 tape that is used in cassette tapes there is still alot about still tapeline would sell me the pancakes
still i milled done some reels the were coming apart glue was going in them got to be the right kind of spools
to pimp up i got some one to cut out the new 5mm new nubs and bolt them with M2 bolts bad heads on my M80 bad wear
put on 1/8 heads and made some parts to take the tape on the deck
Shamrock Tapes is the biggest shit of the world