I'm sure Richard Hess will weigh in on this, but my understanding of the mechanism of tape-baking is
that you need a minimum temperature for there to be any useful effect. 118 degrees for that time
period is probably in the useful range. Does the DASH standard have a fairly robust error-correction
scheme? I would think if it does, minimal physical changes brought about by tape baking once won't
effect playback.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "Corey Bailey" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, February 03, 2012 2:27 AM
Subject: [ARSCLIST] Baking Digital Audio tapes
> Hi All,
>
> I thought the members of this list might find this interesting:
>
> Recently, some 1/2-inch Sony DASH (3324) format tapes were shipped from
> the UK to the Warner Bros. Sound Transfer Dept in Burbank, CA. The tapes
> would not play and exhibited Sticky-Shed Syndrome.
> I was asked if I thought it would be safe to bake the tapes. My response
> was that it could be risky and if we were to attempt it, the tapes should
> be baked at a much lower temperature for 24 hours or so. It was decided to
> try my suggestion since there was nothing to loose at this point.
>
> The details:
>
> 3 reels of Quantegy 1/2-inch 467 Digital audio tape, originally recorded
> in August of 1999.
>
> 2 reels of Quantegy 1/2-inch 467 Digital audio tape, originally recorded
> in May of 2004.
>
> The tapes were baked for 16 hours at 118 degrees F. and then left in the
> oven for 6 additional hours as the oven cooled. The decision was made to
> end the baking at 16 hours because the Transfer Dept. Supervisor wanted to
> test the results to see if there was any improvement that might warrant
> further baking. The first tape tested played just fine so each tape was
> tried in succession with the same positive results.
>
> Cheers!
>
> Corey
> Corey Bailey Audio Engineering
>
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