mjzee Posted July 12, 2022 Report Share Posted July 12, 2022 Interesting interview with Kevin Gray in Stereophile: https://www.stereophile.com/content/kevin-gray-vinyl-mastering-master This stayed with me: Matson: Are most of the Blue Note tapes in pretty good shape? Gray: Yes. They have been so well archived and cared for. I can only think of one or two tapes that we've had to reject because there were problems. That's unlike a lot of other companies. The condition of tapes from the '50s and '60s is fine. The older tapes are in way better shape. Around 1974, you start getting problems with sludge. Ampex tape in particular—they changed the formulation. Ampex later figured out that you could bake the tapes to help. I have a convection oven, and all those kind of tapes from that era have to go in the oven. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HutchFan Posted July 12, 2022 Report Share Posted July 12, 2022 Interesting. Thanks for sharing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster_Ties Posted July 12, 2022 Report Share Posted July 12, 2022 I’m really wondering which “one or two”. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted July 12, 2022 Report Share Posted July 12, 2022 (edited) Needle drop Back in the late '70s my friend Mike Rasfeld at ACME Studios in Chicago contacted Ampex and eventually extracted the solution from them. Mike then wrote a piece for an audio journal to explain the process. We then proceeded to bake my Ampex tapes for cd production. Edited July 12, 2022 by Chuck Nessa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster_Ties Posted July 12, 2022 Report Share Posted July 12, 2022 2 minutes ago, Chuck Nessa said: Needle drop Yup, and isn’t one of the Duke Pearson leader-dates one too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidewinder Posted July 12, 2022 Report Share Posted July 12, 2022 2 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said: Yup, and isn’t one of the Duke Pearson leader-dates one too? ‘Sweet Honey Bee?’ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster_Ties Posted July 12, 2022 Report Share Posted July 12, 2022 19 minutes ago, sidewinder said: ‘Sweet Honey Bee?’ That rings a bell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel A Posted July 12, 2022 Report Share Posted July 12, 2022 The "problem" with the Sweet Honey Bee master tape is that it is lost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcam_44 Posted July 17, 2022 Report Share Posted July 17, 2022 I can’t remember where but I heard they used to leave tapes in the rear window of their car on a summer day to “bake” the tapes. I think it was for the Star Wars soundtrack but don’t really remember. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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