a different tune

The cassette tape is rapidly becoming a “vintage” audio technology, but some of us who have a reasonable amount of material in this format. And part of my collection is a box of damaged and disembowelled cassettes waiting to be repaired. For at least a few of these patients, the wait is over.

Patient #1 : Simon and Garfunkel - Collected Works Vol 3

It looks like someone has left this tape on the dashboard and its melted. Its certainly not playable any more, but can we salvage it?

Inside, the tape is a thin plastic film with magnetic oxide coating. It seems to be intact, so it must have a higher “melting point” than the cassette cover. Heat can cause delamination, where the oxide coating flakes away from the backing. Heat can also demagnetise tapes.

Grab an unwanted tape, and remove the top. Remove the existing spools, noting the path of the tape through the cassette.

Now we transfer the spools from the damaged tape into the new case. Use a pencil to wind any loose tape onto the reel.

Thread the tape through the cassette, following the path of the original tape.

Screw the cassette back together. Don’t forget to label it!

Despite temperatures hot enough to melt the cassette, the recording seems to have survived fine.

Patient #2 : Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour

This cassette has probably been dropped. The corner of the cassette is cracked and the tape is spilling out. Repeat treatment #1.

Magical Mystery Tour is the soundtrack to a rather strange film in which the Beatles and their friends drive around the countryside in a bus. Two of the tracks (”Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields Forever”) were recorded as part of the Sgt. Peppers sessions but were left off that album, a decision that producer George Martin later regretted.

Patient #3 - The Dufay Collective

This tape has been chewed up in the player and the tape has broken.

We can’t use ordinary sticky tape to fix this because the adhesive is not stable. What we need is some splicing tape. This can be pretty hard to find - most of the audio shops no longer stock tape gear.

Now the tape is joined, we can wind it back into the cassette using a pencil to drive the spool.

I bought this recording after seeing The Dufay Collective at a concert in Perth. Its great to see that they are still going almost 20 years. Recordings like this can be hard to replace as groups tend to disband over time, and early work does not always make it to CD release. Of course, nowdays anyone can release their own CD so providing they are still in business its usually possible to replace a broken disc.