Quarter inch audiotapes may require advanced mechanical preparation: rewinding onto another reel, splicing, repairing adhesive joins, and dry cleaning – all essential operations to ensure smooth playback and optimal audio content retrieval. Some tapes present a particularly challenging defect: the chemical compound binding the magnetic particles to the tape tends to deteriorate in the presence of humidity, rendering the tape “sticky” during playback. In such cases, the recommended procedure involves heating the tapes at a controlled temperature to dehumidify them. Additionally, it is crucial to perform basic adjustments on the playback tape recorder: optimizing the azimuth and output levels. These adjustments are key to achieving the most faithful reproduction of the original recording.
Tapes recorded at low or extremely low speed (e.g. 1,2 cm/sec or 2,4 cm/sec.) will demonstrate considerable amount of noise, that can be removed during a post processing “digital enhancement” process.
