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Back in the day, I was a real fan of Maxell tapes. All my masters at St. Thomas were done on it except the last one where I couldn't get the tape in Canada and I didn't want to buy it in the states as I needed it in Canada to calibrate the machines before the trip down. I used 407, I think, but it might have been 456 or 457. I think I bought two boxes of 10 bulk-packed pancakes. I recalibrated the machines. Cheers, Richard On 12/17/2015 7:04 AM, Tom Fine wrote: > The Maxell reel also completely surrounds the tape, except for a small > slit from the reel center insert point to the outside. Perhaps that, the > bag and the cardboard box with a laminated outer coating all combined as > a moisture barrier? > > Anyway, interesting. The other interesting thing was, I know it's > totally un-Kosher to splice together 1-mil and 1.5 mil tapes, but there > was no damage or level drop at the splice-point, and, given that I'm > sure I didn't go in and re-calibrate anything when I grabbed that > remnant of 456 to fill out the reel, it's interesting that the Maxell > tape operated close enough to the 456 parameters to not sound different > at all, to my ears. Keep in mind that this tape is a dub, so it's not an > un-colored clone of a pristine source. I was also impressed that Maxell > came up with a back-coat formula that is first of all stable but also > resulted in very low print-through despite 30+ years of tight-wound > storage. > > -- Tom Fine > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard L. Hess" > <[log in to unmask]> > To: <[log in to unmask]> > Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2015 10:09 PM > Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Interesting sticky-shed data point > > >> Hi, Tom, >> >> The sticky shed faeries were with you? Like one tape that exploded on >> me but only the guitar intro was lost...the deceased singer's vocal >> was intact. >> >> Anyway...seriously, perhaps being under high-pressure at the hub >> helped, but I generally find that the most vulnerable section. >> >> As you know, plastic bags (I think generally polyethylene) are not >> excellent vapor barriers, so your guess is as good as mine. >> >> Very interesting. >> >> Thanks for sharing. >> >> Cheers, >> >> Richard >> >> >> On 12/16/2015 7:47 PM, Tom Fine wrote: >>> I just transferred a reel of tape I made back in 1982 at a major NYC >>> recording studio. It was a dub of something. I thought the reel was all >>> Maxell UDXL 35-90, 1-mil back-coated and I've heard few if any reports >>> of it going sticky. The tape played just fine, absolutely no residue >>> from rewinding or playback (it's a 2-track 7.5IPS tape, transfer was >>> done on a Technics 1520). Now here's where it gets interesting. I didn't >>> remember this, but the end of the reel was spliced-in Ampex 456, and it >>> wasn't sticky. I didn't know this before rewinding because I had kept >>> the Maxell end of reel leader tape and just spliced in the Ampex tape >>> because I needed 5 minutes more time at the end of the reel. The reason >>> I noticed this was I was monitoring the end of the tape, heard a splice >>> go through the transport and noticed that the tape oxide color was >>> suddenly brown instead of gray-black like Maxell UDXL. When the tape >>> finished, I wound out the leader tape and examined the end of the >>> spliced-on section. It was definitely 1.5-mil Ampex 456 (that was the >>> only tape available at the studio to splice into my Maxell reel, they >>> were an all-Ampex shop). I felt the tape front and back with my fingers, >>> and didn't feel the tell-tale gummy-sticky-greasy texture of >>> sticky-shed. And, there was no evidence of any layers sticking together. >>> Plus, as I said, no residue on any moving or fixed guides or the tape >>> heads. >>> >>> I have no idea why this piece of tape didn't go sticky. I'm wondering if >>> the non-sticky Maxell tape, making up most of the reel, can somehow >>> absorb or mitigate whatever causes the sticky-shed? It's also worth >>> noting that this tape has always been stored in the plastic bag within >>> the cardboard box. >>> >>> If I had known the section of Ampex 456 was spliced in to the reel, I >>> would have baked the whole thing before playing it. I'm glad it turned >>> out I didn't need to. >>> >>> I'm interested in any theories as to why that piece of 456 wasn't >>> sticky. Other reels of 456 that I recorded at that studio at that time >>> have all been sticky and required baking. >>> >>> -- Tom Fine >> -- >> 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. >> >> > -- 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.