Topic: 35+ year old cassette tape

[hecramsey]

SO I am digitizing cassettes and found one at my parent's house from 1973, me and my 10 year old friends messing around with a tape recorder.

I'm confident I can't just pop this in the deck, what if any prep would you guys advise before playing?

[Gutbucket]

Mix up some Tang, eat one of those peanut butter flavored astronaut energy sticks and play the Yes 'Close To The Edge' LP.  That should set the mood nicely.

You may also want to check a couple of relatively recent threads here on playing old tapes.  Search and you will probably find those threads.   There are archival tape experts that do this kind of thing for a living on this board.  Hopefully they'll chime in.  I'm certainly no expert, so take the following with a grain of salt (or a can of TAB).   It may be a good idea to take the spool out, inspect the reel for good wind and tape condition, and put the reels into a newer higher-quality shell that can unscrew and comes apart.  Your tape may be old enough to be acetate backed and not polyester. Acetate doesn't have the oxide shedding problem that some 70's and 80's polyester backed tapes have which might benefit from 'baking' at very low temperature to re-adhear the oxide if it has the flaking off and sticking to the playback head problem.

Enjoy those chipmunk voices and explosion noises from blowing in the microphone!

[edit- and welcome to Taperssection!]

[page]

paging Heath.

If anyone has any tips about this, it's him.

[stevetoney]

I have a cassette that I bought when Alice Cooper's Schools Out first came out (just checked...that would have been 1972) and I played it within the last year or two and it played flawlessly.  I didn't specifically do any scientific checking to verify if there was any flaking, but it sure looked like it did the day I bought it.  I have a ton of Maxell XLII's that are as good as the day I first recorded onto them.

I don't recommend this by any means because none of my cassettes are something I'd consider paying to have professionally reconstituted, but just saying that the better cassette tape brands made for an amazingly stable recording medium.

[Boedi-taper]

I've been uploading several shows to bt,dime,etc and many of those are shows that are on cassette that I've transferred over.This even before the days of Dat.Several of those tapes are going on 25 years and its remarkable that they've survived.

[heath]

I'd recommend packing the tape (ff and then rw) before any type of playback to "exercise" it since it's been sitting for so long.  This way you can get an idea if the tape is even going to pull without engaging the head or pinch roller and potential cause problems.  If you're hearing squeal, or the tape seems to resist pulling, I'd reshell it.  You can buy new shells (commonly called C0) online. 

Most cassettes play back just fine assuming your deck has a halfway decent cal on it.  If you run into problems, give me a shout.

[db]

recently played an old memorex of me and my sister calling each other names and singing; circa 1970. played without a problem. ff and rw is a good idea, and examine random parts for curling or stretches of the tape via turning with the eraser end of a pencil.  take a new tape and listen to what the machine sounds like playing that... any deviation may indicate a problem. odds are it'll play fine.

[jb63]

what db says is EXACTLY what you should do.

I could not have said it better myself.

35 years isn't really a problem for cassettes unless they suffered extreme heat or cold or dust.

Since it is voices instead of extremely dynamic music, you may not have much of a problem.
Either way, though, I recommend Gutbucket's plan with the Tang & the 'Close To The Edge' LP before you start....

[lastubbe]

I appreciate all the advise as well.

I have 4 cheap/fragile looking normal bias tapes from around 1984 - 1988, of my Grandfather (passed away in Sept 1991) playing his keyboards, and recording me, my sister and cousins singing, playing records and games. 

My plan is to use my DR-1 to transfer these but I'm pretty concerned as I don't want to risk ruining the tape.  Of course they're extremely valuable to the family, and I've waited till I felt comfortable enough with attempting to preserve this audio.

[heath]

I appreciate all the advise as well.

I have 4 cheap/fragile looking normal bias tapes from around 1984 - 1988, of my Grandfather (passed away in Sept 1991) playing his keyboards, and recording me, my sister and cousins singing, playing records and games. 

My plan is to use my DR-1 to transfer these but I'm pretty concerned as I don't want to risk ruining the tape.  Of course they're extremely valuable to the family, and I've waited till I felt comfortable enough with attempting to preserve this audio.

Feel free to get in touch if you're not comfortable handling these.

[lastubbe]

I appreciate all the advise as well.

I have 4 cheap/fragile looking normal bias tapes from around 1984 - 1988, of my Grandfather (passed away in Sept 1991) playing his keyboards, and recording me, my sister and cousins singing, playing records and games. 

My plan is to use my DR-1 to transfer these but I'm pretty concerned as I don't want to risk ruining the tape.  Of course they're extremely valuable to the family, and I've waited till I felt comfortable enough with attempting to preserve this audio.

Feel free to get in touch if you're not comfortable handling these.

Much appreciated, I definitely will.  I'll break them out soon, see what I'm up against, and drop you a line.  Thanks!