Hello, Jay,

We have a sort-of resource for reel audio tapes from 3M and 
BASF/AGFA/IGF at the Audio Engineering Society Historical Committee website.

http://www.aes.org/aeshc/#AnalogTapes
On some browsers, you need to scroll up a bit to get to the top of the 
section as the top menu bar hides it.

While not a great help, it's useful information. I wish the Ampex one 
was nearly that complete.

Lou made the good point that for reels, boxes and tape match maybe half 
the time.

I agree that a similar resource is useful for cassettes.

Just for fun, you might enjoy seeing this, but it's not useful for 
dating--just a piece of history.
<https://richardhess.com/notes/2009/02/04/images-of-scotch-3m-tape-boxes-available/>

Cheers,

Richard

On 2020-12-14 12:09 p.m., Jay Bruder wrote:
> Kyle:
>      This past weekend I digitized a handful of cassettes and wondered if there was an easy way to establish a "not earlier than" date for a cassette/packaging by its physical appearance. It would be a pretty coarse measure since cassette types tended to stay on the market for a period of years and could be used or reused decades later but setting up a reference database still sounds like a useful exercise. But why limit it to just cassettes? There are thousands of variations of reel to reel tape floating around as well. Sounds like an ARSC project.
> r/s
> Jay Bruder
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Kyle Barnett
> Sent: Monday, December 14, 2020 11:18 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [ARSCLIST] Resources for dating audio cassettes
> 
> 
> Is there a trusted source for dating audio cassettes that is commonly used? I’m a novice going through my own collection of live and rehearsal tapes. I’d like to get a general sense of the age of the commercially available blank cassettes (most are Maxell and TDK tapes). Listening through the audio will likely help me pinpoint things further. Thanks for any advice in advance.
> 
> Best,
> Kyle Barnett
> 
> 
> Kyle S. Barnett, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor, Media Studies
> Graduate Programs Chair
> Department of Communication
> 
> BELLARMINE UNIVERSITY
> 2001 Newburg Road  |  Louisville, Ky 40205
> w: 502.272.7270  |  [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> kylesbarnett.com<http://kylesbarnett.com>
> 

-- 
Richard L. Hess                   email: [log in to unmask]
Aurora, Ontario, Canada                             647 479 2800
http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
Track Format - Speed - Equalization - Azimuth - Noise Reduction
Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.