The baking process mentioned several times above is strictly a specific remedy applied to a specific set of high quality studio mastering tapes. These were (originally) tapes developed by Ampex in the early days of large reel video recording. They developed a beaut new slippery substrate that worked beautifully for the high speed, helical-scanning, tape drives in those machines.

They then decidied this would be a great tape base for studio mastering audio tapes ... but did not test its long-term stability. It turned out to have a high level of hydrolisation - turning the slippery base into sticky goo ... maybe in many years - if kept in air-conditioned, humidity controlled premises ... or a matter of weeks if they were being used in reporting from a sticky, humid jungle!

I had to retrieve material from an 1985 recording session in Sydney (nearly a decade after they started to suspect a problem ... but didn't tell their customers! The tapes were baked by a specialist (Archival Revivals, in Sydney's Eastwood) who then transferred them to CD-R.

It's unlikely that the tapes would stand another treatment, without losing some oxide / signal (however they are stored in sealed containers, just in case)... but I have a run of 1000 CDs using the recordings (and a back-up to my hard drive ... and my back-up hard rive ... and my transportable hard drive ... and the National Library's terabyte storage system ...)

Regards,

Bob