Magnetic Damage Thru INTL Shipping

[mistamanne]

Might be the first person to bring this up ever, but being an engineer that deals mainly with reel-to-reel and magnetic media (cassette 4-track mastering, recording etc) I thought this may be interesting to tape collectors overseas or anyone who ships analog internationally. I was hooking back with an old mic-vet from way, way back that i bumped into working at the post office, i aint seen in years and we got to chalkin it out catchin up. Anyway we was gettin into all sorts of shit and i was actually there shipping out some cassettes overseas. But what he got to telling me was that these new machines that U.S. Customs and most all other major import/export bays around the globe use to scan & detect drugs, explosives, etc can actually really damage magnetic media nowadays. Not only that but most carriers now use the same types of machines in all their local sorting facilities to do the same thing. So basically he put it like this, every time you package reaches a major destination it goes thru another wave of potential magnetic damage. The more stops, the more potential damage. So if you sent out a cassette from the US that bounces around from spot to spot overseas and thru Customs, by the time it gets to the buyer it can lose as much as 50% of its data. So in other words sound quality can get scrapped from point A to B just because it's being magnetically interfered with every time it goes thru another internal scan. He was saying most carriers put some kind of disclaimer that states they are not liable to any type of data damage on magnetic material during post even if they are aware of it's cause. Mainly being because analog is pretty much dead, there's not going to be a real problem in today's world, and ofcourse nobody wants to open up a bomb.

But theres really aint no way getting around it, just something to be aware of especially for collectors who deal/trade/sell with valuable tapes. And same goes for buyers across the way who are concerned about quality just something to think about. So moral is archive your shit, cant stress that

 

[swheat]

interesting.. guess we finna have to smuggle them junts over.

 

[smith wesson]

I heard bout that problem pretty long ago.
Some ppl tells me that when i was dissatisfied with quality of sound from sealed tape
Talked that it might be from magnetic waves in the plane

 

[UndagroundSound]

Thanks for the info. damn that's messed up. So there's really no way for avoiding damage as much as possible ?

 

[mR.SiPpYGeTiPpY]

I guess the proximity and length of exposure would be factors?

I've not had a bunk tape yet. (you get the odd few, but likelihood of bad quality is cause it was done at home on 4 track!).

 

[mR.SiPpYGeTiPpY]

Just wanted to pull this up again as Mista Manne mentioned it in another thread.

I've found nowhere that mentions this online, but im probably puttin in the wrong criteria as it sounds legit. stuff about airport scanners mostly.

However, i've been thinkin about it, and most recordings ive done of tapes recently, haven't been as amazing as they used to. Circa 99 to '01 i used to get some real good recordings. Admittedly, my Ariston deck is getting older, and i used a different sound card. But it's clean and demagnitised and my sound card wouldn't have made too much difference.

Could we do a test, with some controls in place (i.e. don't be recording it off a 2 grand Nakamichi deck) and use your on board, generic soundcard.

id be up for that. Its difficult cause tape onlies just dont come from the US now. There's 2nd gen and 3rd gen sellers from UK, Japan, Australia, France, Austria Germany, Italy, Finland even Russia & Bulgaria.

I think if prominent tape sellers did a test, it might be worthwhile, instill a bit of confidence in this market. I know, most of us offer rips but hey this idea of mine is good.

Ive got a few tapes we can bounce about and record. 80's ones, 90's ones. No 00's ones though. Maybe someone can donate their JCOR copy of Anghellic! jokes.

 

[MURDERGHOST]

Interesting... thanks for the info.

 

[lounge]

I can't say I've noticed any problems with any tapes I've received, but I've not ordered any in a fair while.

I'm wondering if there could be a simple trick that could help, like wrapping the cassettes in foil or something to try and block the exposure... although with the technology they would be using by now, I wonder if it would work. At the least it would maybe cause the package to delay as they might have to open it thinking it is something suspicious. But an idea nonetheless.

 

[swheat]

Yeah I'd like a little more clarity coz ive been a bit wary of buying tapes since hearing this so a before and after test would be interesting.. Record a tape first then send it to a couple countries then when its back record it again and see if theres a difference..

 

[mistamanne]

Some more information you all may find important, the lower grade tapes (Type I, standard ferric, or speech grade) are much more prone to loss of data versus the high grades (Type II-IV, Cro2, Metal) The standard for professional manufacturers has always been Cr02 (Chrome) from most all releases which allows for very low noise and high freq output. Metal Type III & IV used primarily for master recordings. Standard released tapes should not have as much issue with data loss when compared to the low grades, but they all will be affected by any magnetic interference regardless, the extent of damage would be depending on the quality of the recording to begin with and how bad the interference is. Shipping all over the world, there's all sorts of different equipment, and there's no real 'constant' to make a proper test with. But to break it down, if you have an independent label released tape, it's going to be Type II Cr02 or Cobalt 9 times out of 10. If its a major label release its going to be Type II 10 times out of 10, that's the standard used. But for all the "good stuff" the small run underground pressings, which are the most valuable today among collectors (and should be), those unfortunately are the ones to be most affected. They would be ranging from speech grade or low music grade, Type I tapes which are already low quality to begin with, with high noise floors and much lower available freq output. These tapes are much more prone to diminishing over time and much more prone to loss of data due to magnetic interference or other means simply because there is less data to begin with on much lower quality storage, not to mention recorded with much lower quality equipment (usually an out of spec duplicator slaved to ten or more units all running at high speed) These tapes are the ones you want to be the most careful with. I've had a few tapes significantly messed up, one instance shipping to Canada and back, another shipping to UK and back.

 

[mistamanne]

I think the best way to test, and proabably the most interesting, would be to make a series of test tone tapes (maybe a varying tone) recorded on to a Type I and Type II tape. You could archive both tapes, then ship them both all over the place.. then send them back to the origin. Re-archive them and compare the original "cradle" wav files to the returned "grave" wave files. That would be interesting. You could look and see the differences plain as day & would be able to tell if there was any damage and at what frequencies.. plus whether or not either either tape type suffers more or even at all.

 

[Snakegang]

I've heard stories of this happening with shipments of pre recorded cassettes and VHS back in the 90's. Main story I remember was a crate of un shielded speakers basically erased a bunch of VHS that were shipped next to each other.

 

[lounge]

I think the best way to test, and proabably the most interesting, would be to make a series of test tone tapes (maybe a varying tone) recorded on to a Type I and Type II tape. You could archive both tapes, then ship them both all over the place.. then send them back to the origin. Re-archive them and compare the original "cradle" wav files to the returned "grave" wave files. That would be interesting. You could look and see the differences plain as day & would be able to tell if there was any damage and at what frequencies.. plus whether or not either either tape type suffers more or even at all.

It's a good idea Mayne... A bunch of us from around the world should get together and send across to each other then back to the source for testing and see what happens.

I also seriously think one should be sent wrapped in foil to see if my theory holds any weight !