yes. We almost always bake the tapes at least one hour. Sometimes we need to bake 5 hours or more. Even then, when I put the tape on, I'm standing by the machine watching, listening and smelling the tape. If things are rolling slow, I'll stop, reel back and bake more. There's no exact recipe for the amount of time. I've found that Ampex 456 from 1990-2000 or so has the best chance of sounding pretty good.
Curious... Did you bake the tape?
yes. We almost always bake the tapes at least one hour. Sometimes we need to bake 5 hours or more. Even then, when I put the tape on, I'm standing by the machine watching, listening and smelling the tape. If things are rolling slow, I'll stop, reel back and bake more. There's no exact recipe for the amount of time. I've found that Ampex 456 from 1990-2000 or so has the best chance of sounding pretty good.