YES! I forgot to mention Ampex Grandmaster cassettes circa late 1970s. I had some in my collection 
and they ended up being the first cassettes I baked, because they squeeled and ground to a halt, 
having gummed up the static parts of the tape path.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard L. Hess" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2016 3:44 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Cassttes - Re: [ARSCLIST] One more sticky-shed data point - Richardson 
treated tape


> Yes and the Zoom recorders -- even the H1 -- are very usable.
>
> As to your other question, I think some Ampex cassettes come to mind for baking. Why am I not 
> surprised.
>
> I suspect that the relative lack of process control has as much to do with binder breakdown 
> susceptibility as basic formulation.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Richard
>
>
>
> On 1/21/2016 2:41 PM, Lou Judson wrote:
>> Indeed it would! I was once hired to record oral histories of SF Port people before they passed 
>> on. We had four couples around a table in the Ferry Building, responding to questions and 
>> conversing. Each had a lavalier mic and we used a Dugan System auto mixer into Pro Tools. Two 
>> sessions like that before they ran out of funding. ’Twas fun while it lasted and sounded darn 
>> good!
>>
>> I had a few dozen cassettes of a famus psychologist to transfer from classes at a college back 
>> East. I noticed that the last few words were repeated on the other side, and sure enough later on 
>> they got the original reels, and I got to do it all again but better. Been there, done that! :-)
>>
>> Good move to make them more affordable - ethics trump (Ooo, hard to use that word any more!) 
>> profits.
>>
>> It has amazed me how good a recording can be made with an iPhone laying on a table - they are so 
>> thin, it is like a PZM, and can be enhanced for pretty good clarity!
>>
>> (I recommend Retro Recorder for this - been using it for meeting records and darn good for that!)
>> <http://mcdsp.com/2013/08/06/retro-recorder/> and they got the visual design just right:
>> <http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/review/retro_recorder_1.1.1> More than a toy!)
>> <L>
>> Lou Judson
>> Intuitive Audio
>> 415-883-2689
>>
>> On Jan 21, 2016, at 11:14 AM, Richard L. Hess <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>>> On 1/20/2016 8:49 PM, Lou Judson wrote:
>>>> I wish people would hire engineers to record oral histories!
>>>
>>> Wouldn't that be Nirvana?
>>>
>>> I recall that there was one client who had a mix of reels and cassettes of oral histories. They 
>>> started out with reels. Someone made cassette copies of the reels so the client wanted me to 
>>> digitize the cassette copies, but she didn't want to pay the extra cost of digitizing from the 
>>> reels (the reels needed baking). I dropped my price on the reels as I refused to do it from the 
>>> cassettes when the reels were still transferrable.
>>>
>>> The reels were good--even the 1.88 in/s ones, though the odd 7.5 in/s one was spectacular. 
>>> Anyway, I convinced myself that the reels were recorded by someone who knew what they were doing 
>>> with a good external mic (like usually came with a Uher).
>>>
>>> So then they got to the cassettes...yup, $29.95 drugstore cassette recorders with built-in mics 
>>> sitting just far enough off tables...
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> Richard
>>
> -- 
> Richard L. Hess                   email: [log in to unmask]
> Aurora, Ontario, Canada                             647 479 2800
> http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
> Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.
>
>