(OT) Digitizing old reel to reels

Sorry, I don't have an answer but I have a similar issue here, with old stuff on Fostex R8 tapes.  I did some searching but didn't find anyone offering a service like this.

I almost resorted to buying an old R8 off eBay, but that would have been ridiculous.  In the end, *my* old stuff isn't probably worth it.  :-/

But I'll keep my eyes open.  There HAS to be someone out there holding on to their working R8 that also has a DAW, right??  

Hi twadddle,
 
I did this a few years ago with some old 8 channels that I did back last century. It goes pretty fast if you have the setup and doing it one channel at a time will be slow. One other item you may have to worry about (I had it on mine) is that you may have to bake the tapes (yes, I said bake) because on older backcoated tapes (yes, Ampex 456) the backcoating starts to separate from the binding and you get all sorts of gook on the tape heads. This is more of a time consuming thing that an actual problem with the tape in most cases since you need to do the baking before you play the tapes.
 
I have an ½ inch 8 channel (Tascam 80-8) if that is the format (sorry, nothing larger) and could offer the service if you are interested. My A/D is Presonus FP10, so the quality would be good. Once everything is set up, I dump all tracks thru the Presonus simultaneously. I did have problems even after baking the tapes that caused the tape heads to get covered with the back coating material, so I had to stop and clean them often. Basically, the transfer is the easiest part, all the baking and cleaning is more of a hassle and takes the time. By the way, when I did my transfers, I used an older Gadget Labs 8 channel A/D and the quality was pretty good.

Would it be worth a trip to Crewe to see if this works?  

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fostex-R8-8-Track-reel-reel-MTC-1-No-reserve-/330556586351?pt=UK_Recorders_Rewriters&hash=item4cf6b5396f#ht_1062wt_932

Yes the R8 was a 1/4 inch tape as Chris says.
I've never heard of this baking thing, sounds very risky to me.
How exactly is this done? Do you literally put them in an over gas mark 5
and bake for 30 minutes or what?

Glenbo found these guys for me who I'll call on Tuesday
it seems like they could be a very good and affordable option.

http://www.audiorestored...The-Process/reeltoreel/
I'll ask them about baking too and see what their take on it is.
These tapes are 15 years old so I imagine there would be some
degradation but hopefully that can be got round.

Steve

Bake those tapes first, I have done it many times all the back to 1985 2" 24 chan reels. About 6-8 hours at 125F then a long cool down. Use a food dehydrator. And then a moving blanket for cooldown. Do a search on the process, Eddie Cilleti is one source of info for this. BTW you can bake them again later if they have been sitting around 4-5 years after an initial bake. I have had zero problems with this, so far.
 
The biggest problems I have had are some horrible and assorted record levels from tapes made at many different studios.
 
Barry

Barry is absolutely right on about this. Also, Eddie Ciletti IS the man about much of everything old-school tech. Don't be afraid to bake. Just be sure to do it BEFORE you run the reels overs the heads and guides. I burned up a beautiful MS-16 with sticky tape... FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS< AND DON"T USE AN OVEN- use a convection/dehydrator type of device!  

And there was a R-8 on the KCMO Craig's List about a week ago.

Hi twaddle,
 
Yes, Eddie Cilleti  is a good source to do the baking. I used my wife’s food dehydrator – it can be set at about 110 degrees and the shelves work great for ½ inch reels. I was able to put in about 8 reels and it worked great. By the way, I do have a TEAC 3340 for ¼ inch tapes.
 
One other tip if you bake the tapes yourself - if you have a vacuum packer (food storage thingy) you might want to vacuum seal the tapes after (if you put the tapes in a box and seal the entire box, you will not squash the reels). The baking process dries the binding material (removes the moisture) and if they are sealed afterwards, they will be usable again for a longer period. You can rebake them, but it’s the same process 110-120 degrees for about 8 hours.
 
After I copied my old 8 tracks and 4 tracks, I have not touched them again, but it is nice to know that can be played again if needed.
 
Good luck and let me know if you need any help. I am thinking of setting up a sideline business doing this on this side of the pond.
 
Take care,
 
g

Yes,  I'm just +1 ing the "bake the Tape" posts.  I can't imagine a 15 year old audio tape playing without major sticking.  Clean the reel to reel machine as much as you can before you play the baked tapes also.  You might not get many chances with tape that old.

Also be aware you will experience "print-thru"... nothing you can do about it.  It is a ghosting of the audio due to the magnetizing.  You will hear the "ghost" of the music before it starts if the tape was stored heads-out.  If it was stored tails-out the music will have the ghosting afterwards.  After 15 years the print-thru should be pretty pronounced.

Good Luck. 

Baking in a conventional oven won't work all that well because you want all the moisture trapped between layers to evaporate. That's why a food dehydrator works so well. It is also incapable of getting hot enough to warp the tape.

I've only done this with metal reels, never with plastic, but I'd be very cautious about overheating them if your reels are plastic. They won't melt at 125-135 degrees, but they might warp.

Also make sure the tapes have cooled completely, preferably overnight.

After baking, clean the deck, mount the tapes and let them run forward through the entire tape at the slowest speed the deck supports. But don't hit rewind. Instead, swap the reels and run them forward again to rewind. Finally, clean the guides and capstan once more to remove the oxide that likely came off during the run-through.

(In a previous life I worked on - and was formally trained on - old-style Pertec and Kennedy computer tape drives, which are even more dangerous for old tapes because of the high speeds. Those transports were behind glass for a reason!)

Even if the old tape doesn't snap, you still run the risk of stretching it. That's why you want to "play" it all the way through to make sure all the moisture has a chance to evaporate and the layers have un-stuck from one another.

Of course, if you send your tapes out to a restoration service, they'll do all this for you.