Reel to Reel Tape: Where to buy, how long does blank tape keep, & other questions...?

What does NOS mean?

 

new old stock

 

Ahhhh thanks. So about how old can one safely go, as long as the blank tape has been stored properly?

 

That I don't know, and I would hate to be the one to find out. I trust new Quantegy more than I would any NOS from ebay.

But I'm looking forward to trying the new ATR tape which is suppose to be available at the AES convention in NY Oct 7th.
http://www.atrmagnetics.com/

 

From the archives, Steve had posted this about tape shelf life:

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=144828&postcount=3

 

Depends on the stock formulation, IMO. There are some stocks that are fine, others are a gooey, flaky mess.

About a year ago I have opened a sealed box of NOS 70's Scotch 207, fast-wound it both directions thru the transport (you can never be too careful if there *was* a problem with sticking- it was sticky-shed free, BTW), and recorded on it. It was PERFECT.

As always, YMMV.

 

Can someone tell me what type of Scotch I'm thinking of? I found a box of tapes on the side of the road one day that were bwing tossed out, and I hit pay dirt.....alligator-clipped home TV recordings of Ed Sullivan Stuff and various radio stuff from NYC circa 1967 or so. The Scotch boxes were of the typical 60's design, but instead of the top portion being black, as I had always seen it, it was a dark turquoise/blue color. The tapes sound great. I also know that the tape is a shade of red which I haven't seen often, but it's not brittle by any stretch. The stuff is quite strong. I have the stuff packed away, so I can't reference the box right now.

Also, a friend of mine swears by the Maxell 35-XXX formula of tape. He gave me a NOS Reel of 35-180 for a demo session I was recording, and I have to say that the sound was perfect. I haven't seen many Maxell mentions....any comments?

(Side note on the Sullivan stuff mentioned above......One of the tunes is the honest-to-goodness infamous "Let's Spend SOME TIME Together" by Mick & the boys. To hear it in full fidelity is pretty interesting, and it shows you how far TV Sound has come. The backing track kicks in, and it sounds like garbage....muddy muddy muddy. And then Mick starts to sing, and his voice is 100% full fidelity. Has this performance ever showed up legally anywhere, like the old Sullivan reruns they showed back in the 90's?)

 

That sounds like the UK Scotch boxes. Looked very similar to the late 60's/early 70's US Scotch design, but the top part was usually blue or green colored rather than black:




It also could be Scotch 140/141/142. The 'Tartan Series' (IIRC initially PVC base, then later polyester) had a blue-top box (Early 60's version shown here next to the standard late 60's/early 70's US Scotch 111 box):



Later 140/141/142 came in a blue-top late 60's/early 70's style box:

The higher-end Maxell and TDK tapes are quite good. They also aren't prone to the sticky-shed problem. It is likely that they weren't used much for commercial recording work was because 3M and Ampex were less expensive stocks that gave equal or better performance. Used and NOS Maxell and TDK are very good tapes.

-Aaron

 

Thats the one......the 141 stock. Decent stuff, or at least it seems to be. What were it's advantages/disadvantages?

 

The couple reels of early-60's 141 and 142 (they were old tapes my father recorded) that I have are not bad sounding, and appear to be holding up chemically (as almost all early name brand polyester base tapes have). Never recorded on the stuff to be honest, so I cannot vouch for that part.

I have never seen 'pro-pack' (10.5" NAB reels or pancakes) versions of 140/141/142, so it may have been a strictly consumer grade stock (although I have seen 'pro-pack' versions of 111 and other acetate stocks even after the advent of polyester base materials).

-Aaron