28 Jan
2023
28 Jan
'23
10:12 a.m.
i worked for some years on video and film archive restoration.
baking old, badly stored magnetic tapes prior to reading them is a common practice.
my favourite was a story of a rock band (i think the stones) who wanted to play an old 24
track master tape but discovered it seemed to be stuck together.
there is a nasty affliction of mag tapes called sticky vinegar syndrome, so they did the
right thing and sent a section of tape for analysis.
the results came back: the tape had suffered impregnation with “vodka and coke”.
some things never change.
-Steve