Hi, Hugh,

There is some information available for this. As far as treating
obstinate tapes, I am trying to maintain an up-to-date resource on the
subject.

The best international standard so far that I've seen is IASA TC-04 and
it's available online.
IASA's TC04 on audio preservation is available online (and for a fee in
a print edition)
http://www.iasa-web.org/tc04/audio-preservation

I introduced th concept of cold playback (and hopefully explained it
well) as well as attempted to cover the then state of the art in tape
degradation in my paper on tape degradation that was originally
presented at the Audio Engineering Society's 121st convention in October
2006 in San Francisco was published in the ARSC Journal in the Fall of
2008. It is available here:
http://www.richardhess.com/tape/history/HESS_Tape_Degradation_ARSC_Journal_39-2.pdf

I attempt to keep a current (as we know it here on this and other lists)
log of what tapes degrade in what manner and how to recover them.
http://richardhess.com/notes/formats/magnetic-media/magnetic-tapes/analog-audio/degrading-tapes/

There may be specific applications to various scenarios, try the search
box. I think there are now over 100 pages there--both static and in the
blog.

For squealing Shamrock, I have a specific article on another method of
recovery:
http://richardhess.com/notes/2007/11/08/success-with-squealing-shamrock-031-tape/

Finally, there is a blog category tag that you might wish to browse. The
categories are listed below the static pages in the right sidebar.
http://richardhess.com/notes/category/archive-operations/tape-aging/

Also, to further Shai's comment, even people who would be competitors on
the same continent (and even the same time zone) while a business was on
a growth curve tend to band together to solve clients' problems. We all
know that there is more work out there to do than can be done by all of
us put together --- if it can be funded. While there is much overlap
among tape restoration folks, there is also a good deal of
specialization. One great example is that while Steve Puntolillo and I
are a day's drive apart and we overlap in many formats, we both are
really aiming in different directions and at different markets. He is
focused on doing multi-track masters. While I can do many (but not
2-inch), I focus on two-track mixed masters and I feel an important
calling to preserve oral history--especially that of vanishing cultures,
of which we have too many here in Canada.

Cheers,

Richard



On 2012-08-14 8:16 AM, Hugh Paterson III wrote:
> Shai,
> Is there a hand book for this kind of knowledge?
>
> - hugh
>
>

--
Richard L. Hess email: [log in to unmask]
Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX
http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.