Working with Old Tapes

Al Kossow aek at bitsavers.org
Thu Oct 18 18:33:16 CDT 2018



On 10/17/18 11:42 PM, jim stephens via cctalk wrote:

> Also, I've got some friends following on an audio group who are attempting to restore and transcribe tapes, wondering if
> there might be anything you can recommend, given that media is thinner, and the data is analog, not digital in nature.

There are extensive discussions on the tapeheads list of the issues with recovering audio tape.

One thing to watch out for is keeping the temperature consistent and low enough to keep the reels from
warping.

Pictures of the tape baker I made about 10 years ago is at the bottom of the main http://bitsavers.org page

I hang the reels vertically and force a lot of air through them with a bank of 6 muffin fans just above the
heater on the bottom.

The end of the tape is scotch-taped to the surface of the reel to maintain some tension, and to keep the tape
from getting caught by the fans.




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