Exotica time machine - Tiki Music

TB Tiki Bill Member Holiday Florida Joined: Jun 26, 2007 Posts: 112	TB Tiki Bill Posted posted on Tue, Jan 15, 2008 10:11 AM I LOVE the open reel format! I still have a nice Tascam 32-2B open reel machine in the "dead format" rack in my studio (along with a turntable, a cassette deck, and a DAT machine). A recording at 7-1/2 IPS sounds MUCH better than vinyl, with better dynamic range as well. My wife brought home a nice 7" reel (with box) called "Hawaiian Luau" that was in TOP shape, and very dry. I slapped it on the deck and ran a copy to CD right away. WARNING! AUDIO GEEK INFO FOR COLLECTORS AHEAD*** Magnetic tape is just metallic oxide (powdered rust) glued to a strip of Mylar tape. The oxide will suck up moisture, just like a rusty old muffler on your car, if not stored properly (cool and dry). When you try to play "wet" tapes, the oxide layer gets striped off in the transport and heads of the tape deck, ruining the tape and gumming up the deck. If the tape is stored too warm, the glue holding the oxide layer on can dry out and flake off, leaving chunks of "missing" information. "Wet" tapes can be fixed by putting them in a dehydrator, like a big "Ronco jerkey maker", for a couple of hours, then "loose pack" the tape onto another reel by running it straight from one reel to another WITHOUT going through the transport of the deck, the back into the dehydrator for a couple more hours. Just some advice to collectors from an old timer engineer who used tape for a long time in the studio many moons ago, and still dose audio restoration work from time to time. Keep you tapes in a cool dry place! Tiki Bill.

I LOVE the open reel format! I still have a nice Tascam 32-2B open reel machine in the "dead format" rack in my studio (along with a turntable, a cassette deck, and a DAT machine). A recording at 7-1/2 IPS sounds MUCH better than vinyl, with better dynamic range as well. My wife brought home a nice 7" reel (with box) called "Hawaiian Luau" that was in TOP shape, and very dry. I slapped it on the deck and ran a copy to CD right away.

WARNING! AUDIO GEEK INFO FOR COLLECTORS AHEAD***

Magnetic tape is just metallic oxide (powdered rust) glued to a strip of Mylar tape. The oxide will suck up moisture, just like a rusty old muffler on your car, if not stored properly (cool and dry). When you try to play "wet" tapes, the oxide layer gets striped off in the transport and heads of the tape deck, ruining the tape and gumming up the deck. If the tape is stored too warm, the glue holding the oxide layer on can dry out and flake off, leaving chunks of "missing" information. "Wet" tapes can be fixed by putting them in a dehydrator, like a big "Ronco jerkey maker", for a couple of hours, then "loose pack" the tape onto another reel by running it straight from one reel to another WITHOUT going through the transport of the deck, the back into the dehydrator for a couple more hours.

Just some advice to collectors from an old timer engineer who used tape for a long time in the studio many moons ago, and still dose audio restoration work from time to time. Keep you tapes in a cool dry place!

Tiki Bill.

Post #355042 by Tiki Bill on Tue, Jan 15, 2008 10:11 AM