Global Shortage of Magnetic Tape Leaves Cassette Fans Reeling

WSJ ^ | November 4, 2017 | fidelis

[fidelis]

SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— Steve Stepp and his team of septuagenarian engineers are using a bag of rust, a kitchen mixer larger than a man and a 62-foot-long contraption that used to make magnetic strips for credit cards to avert a disaster that no one saw coming in the digital-music era.

The world is running out of cassette tape.

National Audio Co., where Mr. Stepp is president and co-owner, has been hoarding a stockpile of music-quality, ⅛-inch-wide magnetic tape from suppliers that shut down in the past 15 years after music lovers ditched cassettes. National Audio held on. Now, many musicians are clamoring for cassettes as a way to physically distribute their music...

[dirtboy]

I look at it this way. I would pay 15 dollars a pop for a new CD. Now with Spotify, I have all kinds of music for less than the price of adding a new CD to my collection a month. And they spool off all kinds of cool suggested listening lists from my listening habits. A vast improvement from the vapid radio on the airwaves nowadays.

[bigbob]

Me too. But I still remember how to wind the tape back in with a fingertip after the cassette machine eats it!

[Sam_Damon]

Here’s one of the biggest problems with tape (besides everything else): it deteriorates over time.

Over time, magnetic tape’s base loses the plasticizers that hold the oxide combination to the tape. When you run that old tape past the heads, some of the oxide comes off. Worse, because the plasticizers go, the tape itself becomes more brittle, and tends to break much much easier. At some point, it becomes extremely difficult to pull the recorded material from the tape, whether it goes through your speakers, or onto a computer to digitize it.

So here’s free advise. Store tapes “tails out.” By that, I mean you store them so have to rewind them before you play them. (With cassettes, fast forward & immediately rewind before you play them.) It’s the exact opposite of the philosophy of the video store, “Be kind, please rewind.”

The idea behind this addresses two different issues. First, by rewinding the tape before playing it, any oxide that’s going to come loose will come loose before you try to play the recording. Second, rewinding the tape tensions the tape itself to the individual tape machine’s mechanism, minimizing the chance the tape will break as you play it.

One last thing. Never ever “scroll” an old tape. Use only the “Fast Forward” or “Rewind” on the machine. “Scrolling” runs the tape in continuous contact with the heads, greatly increasing the wear on the tape, and greatly raising the possibility of the tape breaking in the machine.

It’s my understanding video archivists want to use Blu-Ray for long-term physical copies, as hard drives end up with unavailable interfaces and bearings that seize.

[cpdiii]

I remember when I replaced my 8-track player with a cassette deck keeping a pencil or two in the car, in case a cassette would get carsick and unravel. Pencils were perfect for rewinding the tape. Fixing a cassette cartridge was a PITA sometimes, but they were an improvement over the 8-tracks..

You must be like me, "older than dirt."

The big trick was to get the cassette out of the tape deck where it was hung up wthout damaging the tape. If you did this successfully then the lead pencil trick was easy to just wind it back up and you were good to go.

[Big Red Badger]

How about DVD movies?
They should work Many years forward.

[Charles Martel]

Here's a bit of classic 1970s advertising:

It was used for years in magazine ads, printed in poster size formats and people displayed it like art. It was an iconic image back then - and still is.

I'll admit - I'm a bit pleased that vinyl has made a comeback and I think that cassettes still have a place in the equipment rack. As for the forces driving the lingering interest, I think certain facets of pop culture keep it alive. Movie franchises such as the Guardians of the Galaxy films are offering up soundtracks that are like '70s music primers for Millennials.

[cableguymn]

again? I never removed mine.

[Charles Martel]

A vast improvement from the vapid radio on the airwaves nowadays.

I do like the way Spotify offers playlist suggestions. As for current terrestrial radio, "vapid" is a kind assessment. Remember when some of the stations would broadcast "album hour" uninterrupted (except for when the DJ had to flip the LP over to side 2)? They'd even tell you when you hit the "Record" button on the cassette deck.

[Mogger]

I've got a pile of 78s, many single sided and a hand crank Victrola.

"Sustainable", no electricity, survives EMP.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Old CD’s and DVD’s make for great target practice.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Remember the old 8-Track trick when the tape was hanging down? Tug on it just right and the loose stuff would go back in line inside the cartridge.

[Sam_Damon]

As with so much other stuff in video & audio tech, I have to say: it depends.

AFAIK, commercial DVDs will hold up for about the same time as tape does, say 20 or so years. I’ve seen some reports DVD-Rs will go sooner, and the DVD+Rs will go sooner yet.

The big problem with DVDs is the amount of data they hold. Digital video munches data like you wouldn’t believe. DVD works well enough for SD video, but anything HD or 4K needs Blu-Ray. Even at 50 GB per disc, you run out of storage quickly. It’s a real problem for video archivists.

Keep in mind DVDs and Blu-Ray discs depend on a laser reading changes in color. When the dyes go, that’s it for the data. The “archival” Blu-Rays are supposed to have dyes and plasticizers stable enough to hold up for 100 years, last time I checked.

[Sam_Damon]

One other thing I forgot to mention.

All that hoarded tape from 15 years ago? It deteriorates also. It really won’t hold up that well today. You also gotta wonder about the machines, and where to find heads for them when they wear out. And I haven’t even started on replacement parts for things like capstans and rollers.

Once upon a time I could tell who made tape by the smell of the plasticizers in it. Cheaper Korean brands usually had an odor that came pretty close to cat urine scent.

[LegendHasIt]

I have noticed a similar shortage of buggy whips .

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

I have boxes of old cassette tapes from the 70’s and 80’s that still play just fine (at least the ones I recorded myself on high quality tapes do. The factory recorded tapes are mostly squeal machines now). So they do last a long time. I have converted them to digital files now. Biggest problem is the glue on the leaders has dried out and the leader separates from the tape when you hit the end. I had to buy splicing tape on the internet to fix them. Also the glue on the little sponges is dried out and I had to reglue a bunch of them.

[dirtboy]

Hey, I remember album rock from the seventies. That was a vast improvement from corporate radio where they say it is Fred or Brad or Dipshit putting out the songs they want to play, and it is the same warmed-over lame stuff they played yesterday and the day before and so forth ad infinutum.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

I have a huge collection of piano boogie woogie and Hawaiian 78s. Must convert to digital.
Also, clean your tape heads often.

[Seruzawa]

Whoa there! Even antifa isn’t dumb enough to go back to 8tracks.

[Fightin Whitey]

clean your tape heads often

[ADemocratNoMore]

I have managed to accumulate hundreds of real to real and cassette tapes over the decades in every flavor from 2400’ Olson $1.00 el cheapo reels to Maxell UD-XL mastering tape on 10” reels. Most are somewhere around 35 years old, some are older. I’ve had little to no problem playing them back, although the last time I did so was a few years ago.

There is a BIG problem with the old hardware, however, and its not the heads. Three of my reel to real decks have become unusable due to the lubricants turning into glue over the course of decades. Short of a complete teardown and rebuild the only solution is, if you have a deck that is working mechanically, let it run for a few minutes every week, it might prolong its usable life.

The second worst failure issue is rubber literately rotting over time and either disintegrating or turning into goo. Foam rot is also a common problem with old speakers but at least with those the fix is relatively easy.

One last thought about old tape. Our classical music station WCLV, the home of the Cleveland Orchestra has been replaying tapes from George Szell’s private archive, some of which date to the late 1940’s. With the exception of somewhat limited dynamics they sound like they could have been recorded last week. Not bad at all for nearly 70 year old tape !