tape baking

Don’t let this happen to your tapes!

This is an extreme example of binder hydrolysis or sticky shed syndrome leading to delamination where the oxide is literally peeling away from the tape. Once this has happened there’s no going back. so much of the oxide had peeled away that the tape while finally playable had very obvious dropouts affected both channels.

Don’t worry, we won’t let this happen to your tapes!

Certain brands and batches of magnetic tape can and often do have similar problems but rarely as extreme. With experience we know what to look out for and have the right tools to treat such tapes correctly so they can be restored, replayed and transferred.

We have a Thermo Scientific Heraeus B20 laboratory incubator that can hold low temperatures very accurately over long periods while also having a safety upper temperature cutout to protect against over heating. Not something you want to do with magnetic tape! With tools such as this, our Studer A80′s, and our Sony APR 5003 tape machine we are able to gently handle and digitally migrate at high bitrates all track formats and speeds of quarter inch analogue audio tape.