On Jul 16, 2013, at 12:14 PM, Ralf Mardorf wrote: > The bigger issue would be to have good backup tapes, but a broken drive and > not to get a new drive anymore ;).
Very correct. I've spent some 50 years dealing with analog audio tape, and a few with digital tape. And like the earlier poster said, tape's functionality and reliability has a lot to do with manufacture. I have what is allegedly an alignment tape (from the really old days when stereo was available only on 2 track, 7.5 IPS, 1/4" tape) that says something is a 15,000 Hz tone, and there's something there. And I spent the summer of ~1975 with a group of Classics professors and grad students recording Homer's Iliad and Odyssey -- those ~40 10" reels of tape are completely unplayable now because, after a few years in storage, the oxide and the backing fell off because of the big 'glue' fail of Ampex and Scotch mastering tape in the 1970s. These tapes in the DLT cartridges I use for backup are amazingly high quality. So should the audio mastering tape of the '70s have been. I can't imagine how many studios and artists have lost their masters... -- Glenn English Disclaimer: Any disclaimer attached to this message may be ignored.
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