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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.



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