Quote:
Originally Posted by srick
I have never heard of baking the tape - what is that achieving?
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Tape is hygroscopic - it absorbs the moisture in the air around it over time. There was a period, roughly 1977-2000, when the tape formulations became worse about this. We didn't know it until years later. The part of the tape that absorbs moisture is the binder or adhesive that holds the oxide and back-coating to the backing. Once it has absorbed moisture two things happen: oxide and back-coating shed and the binder becomes gooey. They both shed onto the tape heads and guides and become a sticky, abrasive mess. This is called "Sticky Shed Syndrome."
Through 3M research we've learned that the best basic, first step treatment to salvage a tape is to bake it at about 120'F for two hours. This removes the humidity, restoring the adhesive property of the binder. Once you bake the tape you have about thirty days to transfer the tape before it reverts to its previous state, as long as you keep it in a cool, dry environment. There are also other treatments that can be done, but you have to send the tape to a specialist to get that treatment. I sent the 2" multitrack masters for a film soundtrack that I recently archived and mastered to CD to Sonicraft in NJ and they did a wonderful job.
Tape needs the exact opposite of guitars. It does pretty well being stored at 40% humidity at 65'F.
Bob