How are master tapes preserved

[ericpeters]

:rolleyes: I find that all my over 10 year old cassettes have detoriated in quality. Video tapes have to be winded and rewinded once in a while to keep a bit of the quality. How is that done with original master tapes. I mean I you create a new pressing besed on the orignal master from the vaults of RCA Viktor... this actually also means that those master tapes have been in the vaults of RCA viktor for maybe 35 years or so. Is anything special done to preserve quality?

[Steve Hoffman]

Not really. :eek:

Tape older than 1974 were lubricated with natural oils. Those oils have remained on the tapes to keep them playing nicely. They still sound wonderful.

Tapes after 1973 (and the energy crisis of that time) were manufactured with fake synthetic oil. Well, guess what? This fake oil broke down after about 6 years, rendering the tapes useless. To get them to play again, a smart person discovered that if you heat up these tapes in an oven, they will play for a short time, allowing you to use them.

[Sckott]

I hear pizza does wonders to Scotch 111. I wonder who and where I heard that??

Ahem.. Well....Cassette tapes aren't exactly known for their good storage life and wealth after storage of any kind. Most cassettes using that old cheap stock (pre-recorded) will sound like poop in 8 years, usually. And when I say poop, I mean poop!

But open reels, 10.5" or even them 7" open reels keep well in dry storage, stoed vertically. A LOT of master tapes and pre-recorded reels stand up to age quite well, even past 30-40 years. Depends on the tape stock, the enviornment, and pizza. ;)

I just got an Abbey Road Ampex in 7 1/2 IPS format. Still very solid, if not, barely shows any age, sonically.

Forgot to add, in the libretto for the EMI Cd: Deep Purple "Made In Japan", 3CD set, they said the original unmixed reels were "lovingly wrapped in foil, in a Japanese storage facility". Some tapes merely were wrapped in a polybag, when you buy them. More than not, they're discarded because in time, they'll shrink and warp the reel.