Hello Rich,
Acetate .. brown oxide tapes tend to curl inward with ageing ..
this tends to cause severe flutter / fade effects due to loss of contact
with the playback head. A solution is to bring the tapes into a warm
room, and spool them slowly backward and forward a number of times. Turn
tape over and play reverse side. Only do this if the coating is not rubbing off. I have used this technique on some of my own old (1969-74) studio recordings.
Luckily my tapes were recorded full width (i.e. half track stereo
at 15 i.p.s. speed). My guess is that your tapes may well be 7.5
i.p.s.or 3.75 i.p.s., and may be quarter track domestic recordings. Do
not dispair .. clean tjhe tape heads thoroughly with suitable head
cleaner .. allow to dry thoroughly .. fluff up a cotton bud, hold
it at one end and press very gently against the head as the tape
plays .. play one track at a time .. record each
onto a computer as a .wav (pcm) file (if one is
available). The data may then be cleaned electronically.
If you don`t have the kit to do this, but have a recorder capable
of playing the tapes then contact me, I will give you my address and
phone number .. we can then arrange for you to make the short
journey to my workroom where the kit is available to "re-record ,
not fade away" to CD format. It`l be interesting to both listen to the
music and have a chat.
Available