Post #355128 by tikibars on Tue, Jan 15, 2008 3:35 PM

Good info there, Tiki Bill.

In the pro audio industry we use the same techniques to rescue pro-format tapes too.
The Ronco beef jerky machines work, but any convection oven will also do the trick.
I don't have the formula handy, but you bake tapes for something like 8 hours at 130 degrees (has to be DRY heat, hence the convection oven) and they're as good as new - for a day or so, just long enough to make backups (these days that means digitizing them at 24-bit).

Anyone remember the new-wave act Skafish?
He lives in northwest Indiana.
About three years ago, I helped him digitize his archives.
He had everything from mono reels from the early 1950s of his mother singing opera (she was apparently somewhat renowned), to the 1970s lil' Skafish formative years demos, to the IRS records era 24-track 2" tapes, to his more recent work. We had several ovens going at once in the basement of the recording studio!

He has a complete LP that was recorded in about 1982 and was never released, and it is amazing: like Devo or Oingo Boingo but better than anything that either of those bands ever did (I am a huge Devo fan, BTW). It is a crime that he has been sitting on this record for 25 years...

Anyway, nice find, Trav, and a bargain to boot.
If anyone in the Chicago area is looking for a reel-to-reel machine, I have an extra one for sale:
http://www.tikiroadtrip.net/stuff.html