Re: SZC: Baking Audio Tapes?

[CMS <greytowers@xxxxxxxxx>]

Yes.  The glue on some popular brands of old tape
absorbs moisture, becomes gummy and sheds it's oxide
(containing the music) all over the recorder's tape
heads and tape guides.  Baking removes the moisture
and reverses this... allowing playability once again.

The tape formulations on pre-seventies tapes archived
much better than tapes from the 70's which went bad
quickly.  Baking allows you to get at least one more
pass so you can transfer the content before the
becomes unusable.

> Is this plausible? What exactly is baking the tape
> going to do?
> I imagine that would just remove any remaining
> suppleness and make the tapes
> brittle.
> 
> Seems very odd.