Check your machine!

A DAT that is suffering from SSS or other problems can (and will) clog 
the heads of your machine which will cause problems with other tapes 
that may be good. Unfortunately, there is no good way to tell in advance 
if cassette based media has problems. Fast-forwarding & Rewinding before 
playing will exercise the tape. Plus, with some listening practice, you 
can tell a good tape while Fast-forwarding & Rewinding. I have not had 
the success baking DAT tapes that Richard Hess has had. I've personally 
had less than a 50% success rate when baking DAT's. That said, I didn't 
bake them as long as Richard so, that may be the difference. Know that 
if you attempt to splice a DAT, you will mess with the control track so, 
the loss will be more than the amount you removed depending on how the 
error correction circuitry handles the loss.

CB

Corey Bailey Audio Engineering
www.baileyzone.net

On 10/30/2020 7:10 AM, Mint Records wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Came across an oddity this morning. I've been transferring some DAT Tapes
> when all o f a sudden one snapped. It's a brand i'd never come across
> before called "PYRAL". On taking aprt the shell it's clear that the tape is
> stuck together - The original break was a tear across rather than a snap
> and when i tried to loosen the tape on the reel, more started to tear.
>
> It has the appearance of sticky shed, but i've never come across this in a
> DAT before.
>
> Has anyone else come across this? Can the tape be baked? If so, for how
> long.
>
> If not sticky shed, any other ideas? There is no sign of anything being
> spilt on the tape. All the labels on it are clean and original.
>
> I would like to rescue what I can from it although I know a proportion will
> now be irretrievable.
>
> Thanks
>
> Richard