Ha, I too have a Roberts 800X/AKAI M-10 Reel to Reel. Those have those pig metal cams that eventually turn to dust. Had mine all replaced with real metal ones that a friend made.
Great info Rick! As always I appreciate your hard work and all the nuggets of information you provide for us. Question for you: I know you may not have experienced this with modern video/audiotape but have you encountered “vinegar syndrome” with any old videotapes you’ve received? Just curious because I have done some research on this topic. Thank you!🙏🏻
I feel your pain, Rick. Having dealt with several formats and formulations of open reel tape! Sticky shed from Ampex, and Scotch especially. Years ago, I had an NOS box of Scotch that was BLACK oxide, and it was so sticky that it made my Pioneer RT-707 come to a halt! A direct drive machine. Thank you for your great work; I always enjoy your videos and seeing all these "time capsules" that you find along the way.
I have seen oxide flaking off the base (the Webcor stuff is acetate, not Mylar-you should know better) of one reel of 1950s vintage tape of unknown manufacture. But that's the only one. I have many other old reels that remain quite playable. I don't think painting all old tapes with a broad brush as "deteriorating" is helpful. We know about sticky shed, and which types have that problem, but those are a small subset of the overall number of products, and they can be treated and recovered. To me, the most likely issue with old tapes is splices that dry up and refuse to hold. A pain, but not a barrier to preservation if you're willing to put in the effort.
As soon as I inherited my parent's super 8 films (70s stuff) I had them digitally transfered - because - as you pointed out - they don't get any better!
While I may agree it is practical to convert your stuff to digital (let's be real, most people already did) I strongly disagree, I have thousands of tapes none of them degraded this way
This kind of thing happens in professional situations as well. I remember reading about when Rhino records did a lot of their remastering in the 1990s, particularly songs and albums from the 50s in some cases the master tapes were in such bad shape that actual records had to be used for the transfers because the tapes were poorly stored or had been mishandled over the years. reel-to-reel audio tape must be kept in a cool dry environment if not as you have pointed out, that the banking separates and what you're left with are large rolls of unusable crap. and that's just the way it is.
The hell of tape storage, ferric oxide loves to fall off the plastic, chrome loves to randomly forget high frequencies and metal basically doesn't exist
Whenever I come across old Compact Cassette tapes from the 60s through the mid 70s, there are certain brands and places of manufacture that make me cringe simply due to a particular way the leader was spliced on to the tape. With these particular tapes, the leader wasn't attached to the back of the tape where the mylar is, it was instead stuck on the top where the magnetic formulation is! These splices are barely hanging on at this point, and all it takes for it to snap is running it through any cassette deck's pinch roller. The pressure causes the splicing tape to break off from the magnetic side of the splice, while it remains stuck to the mylar leader. These kinds of tapes are ones that you'd find in 3-pack plastic bags at discount stores under many brand names (Certron, Sun Mark, AudioMagnetics, etc) and sometimes with no branding at all (completely generic with only the Compact Cassette logo and "Instant Loading Tape Cartridge" on the tape label). Another common trait with these affected cassettes is they were either manufactured or assembled in Mexico. I don't know if this was endemic with any kind of discount cassette tape from this period, but it makes transferring the memories off these tapes extremely challenging due to the weak splices and decaying tape stock.
I have a large collection of acetate reels from the 60's that I have been working on transferring for a few years as time permits. I always run them back and forth a couple of times bypassing the heads. When I do this I take a small piece of Hoppe's 9 Silicone Gun Cloth and fold it over the tape and gently let the tape pass through it. It cleans and relubricates the tape for superior playback. After one pass in each direction with the silicone cloth and repeat with a clean, dry cloth. I had one tape from the 70's that had completely stopped working. After the procedure I just described I was able to get a beautiful dub.
I first got into audio tape in 1962. I haven't looked at the condition of my tapes from that era in years. Maybe I should but you know the saying: ignorance is bliss. Audio tape in the '50s and '60s was mostly acetate base. So besides the oxide flaking the tape itself could easily break. BTW, Webcor was a big name in audio tape (and wire) recorders in the '40s and '50s. One of my first reel to reel audio tape recorders is a Webcor. I got it in 1963. I still have it (buried in the bottom of a closet).
In the early years of audio tape, there was acetate backing, but I have so many of these, but it had no problems, but when the polyester backing came in, it does quite as good without any problems.
@@Musicradio77Network I performed a transfer to Pro Tools @ 192/24 of some late 1950's open reel tapes that were recorded of live jazz concerts that were recorded at a long defunct jazz club in Nashville. I did a slow wind and inspection to determine if there were any issues. The tape brand was Shamrock, and they didn't give me any issues. I did clean heads and transport guides after each reel. The tapes were well recorded and sounded amazing.
I have so many reel-to-reel tapes and it sounds pretty good without having any problems, but sometimes, it gets worse overtime, but it needs a refill of using 10.5” reels.
hi i had this with some ampex 1 inch it came of all over my otari mx70 i rew on to a baking spool slow i find the tape was very bad i have zonal of the same age that was ok in the uk i don't see alot of 1/4 tape that is bad alot in the uk are doing it them self now in the south of the uk there's some like me not many i know because i get gear from them still working ok ADAT betacam still have alot of life in them still 1/4 studio tapes are bad news
