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Re: [ARSCLIST] Sound--real vs. recorded--was: discography of "direct-to-disk revival"?
At 12:42 AM 9/23/2006, Phillip Holmes wrote:
I'm glad there's an expert here. From the sounds of things, they
either had lots of variation from one tape to another, OR the tapes
didn't hold up well.
Hello, Phillip,
There appear to be two very different German tapes that were the bulk
of the production during the pre-war and war years. Now, one of the
things that happened -- and happened throughout tape manufacture --
was that there were running changes in the tapes manufacture during
the production run.
The homogeneous PVC matrix Magnetophonband Typ L is holding up very
well but suffered from substantial level variations across the tape's
length, so there can be several dB of level change over a short
period. One thing, apparently, that Mullin did was class all his tape
to sensitivity and assembled reels of equal sensitivity.
The Magnetophonband Typ C is an acetate tape and some of it at least
was stored in sealed steel cans. It's suffering from advanced vinegar
syndrome and stinks. I did some reels this summer and it certainly
cleared out my sinuses. It was the worst I had seen, I suspect
because it was in the steel cans.
I fear this is the path for most acetate tapes (not all people
worrying about this agree with me).
Playing the Magnetophonband Typ C this summer made me VERY glad it
was 30 in/s full-track. Anything narrower or slower would have
sounded VERY BAD.
One other item, the original concept of the Magnetophon did not have
the benefit of all of the later research about levels and overload
and, to my ears, the early engineers would sometimes overload --
especially on some second-generation copies that I've transferred. It
didn't happen all the time, but it certainly contributed.
In addition to the Engel-Hammar article I've referred to,
http://www.richardhess.com/tape/history/Engel_Hammar--Magnetic_Tape_History.pdf
You might also enjoy looking at my AES paper on the transfers of the
first group of tapes.
http://www.aes.org/journal/suppmat/hess_2001_7.pdf
Cheers,
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.