Remastering: is the tape too old?

July 2, 2018 1:37 PM

I have a reel to reel tape from a recording my band made in 2002. We never got the record properly mastered, and this tape was never used. Is it too old to use for remastering?

It’s the smaller tape that’s used to send to mastering companies. It’s been sitting in a box in my parents’ closet the whole time, with not so great temperature control. Is it worth trying to get this tape mastered? Will it be in too terrible shape? I don’t have a reel to reel to test it on. Is there any way I could somehow tell by looking at it?

posted by degoao to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

A long time ago, I emailed a person I know who has a business that digitizes old media with a similar question. He replied as follows:

Ironically enough, of all the forms of magnetic media (cassette, 8-track, VHS, camcorder tapes), the most stable and likely to be in good shape is its oldest form: Reel-to-reel tapes. I’ve had great success digitizing reel to reel tapes dating back to 1950. And they sound wonderful.

posted by FencingGal at 1:44 PM on July 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

My dad is 75 and a few years ago had reel-to-reels from his 1950's band remastered after they were found in a garage. They're great.
posted by DarlingBri at 3:29 PM on July 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

The tape is very likely in good enough condition to be remastered but you want to use care with it. The adhesive that holds the magnetic particles to the tape degrades with time. There is a process called baking, which if needed, can help hold it together well enough to get a good digital copy made. Look for a well recommended company that offers baking as a service. Don't try to play it yourself if you deeply care about the content, as playing it before it's been evaluated for whether it needs extra TLC could damage the quality.

The other thing that might come into play is that there could be magnetic bleed through from where tape affected other parts of the tape that it was side by side with in the roll. If that happens, it's generally fairly mild.
posted by Candleman at 3:48 PM on July 2, 2018 [3 favorites]

Don't have much to add, but it's fun when there are questions I can phone a friend on. My brother had the following to say. "Definitely not too old. Magnetic tape is actually a fairly robust archival format and tapes going back to the 1940's play back fine. Depending on what type of tape was used it may need to be baked before playback but any good mastering house can do that".
posted by phil at 4:10 PM on July 2, 2018 [2 favorites]