Re: [ARSCLIST] MAGNA-REEL Sound Recording Tape

[David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My dear old dad taped everything beginning around 1959..on quarter track, at slow speed, and re-using
old paper tapes he'd bought in the early 50s. Finally he began buying white box stuff (yeah, I know).
Hundreds of tapes are in his basement (which is dry, you'll be happy to know). I pulled out one pile the
other day and saw Jack Paar in London, 1961, guests like Spike Milligan and Larry Adler..stuff that may
not exist anywhere else. I can hardly wait to start salvaging that stuff..and I know I won't have the
time for the next 10 years......

dl

Tom Fine wrote:

> And then there's always the mold that comes with moisture, which I've seen literally eat away old
> Scotch 111 acetate tape. So here's the typical options for typical old tapes stored in typical old
> private collection -- keep those tapes in the cold/moist/likely moldy garage or basement or keep
> those tapes in the hot attic. Basement -- they can get eaten away and/or warp.  Attic -- they warp
> and might get so brittle that they won't play or get something akin to lost lubricant.
>
> Yeah, folks, if you have something valuable to you or to posterity on reels, for heaven's sake
> transfer the darn thing and till your digital garden regularly!
>
> -- Tom Fine
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Richard L. Hess" <arclists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 9:25 PM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] MAGNA-REEL Sound Recording Tape
>
> > At 08:32 PM 9/18/2006, steven c wrote:
> >
> >>Thus the problem would appear to be to decide whether the tape should
> >>be baked...or frozen...
> >
> > Well, you never bake acetate tapes.
> >
> > Freezing tapes is also problematic, but hopefully we'll know more about that in a year or so.
> >
> > Theoretically, freezing acetate tapes (WHICH IS NOT RECOMMENDED AT THIS POINT) is the only known
> > way to preserver them, but freezing tape is supposed to do irreparable damage to the tapes.
> >
> > I believe this is what is known as a Catch-22. So, we need to find out how bad the freezing really
> > is for acetate and polyester tapes.
> >
> > Moisture is the big culprit in all the degradation, as far as I know, with heat being second. In
> > fact, within reason, heat is a non-issue with polyester-based polyester-polyurethane binders. It's
> > moisture that kills. Of course, there is more available moisture at higher temperatures.
> >
> > Richard
> >
> > Richard L. Hess                   email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Aurora, Ontario, Canada       (905) 713 6733     1-877-TAPE-FIX
> > Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
> > Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.