I am about to digitize a daily large batch of quarter-inch tapes, most of which I believe to be 3M 206. There were professionally recorded and have been stored in a variety of conditions since the mid-70s, but in a pretty stable environment for the last 20 years.

I'd like to solicit everyone's current experience and protocols when dealing with Scotch 206 - specifically, are you baking prior to spooling, or is 206 currently behaving well enough that a blanket baking policy is not required?

And if you are baking 206 at any point in the process, what baking times and temperatures are you all using for quarter-inch stock?

Many thanks,

Mark

Mark Hood
Associate Professor of Music
Department of Audio Engineering and Sound Production
IU Jacobs School of Music