Baking Tape and original master tapes and the truth?

assessor43

Well-Known Member
Nov 1, 2018
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I was recently in a conversation regarding the 45 RPM Doors reissues and the fact that the original master tapes were baked to try to extract more fidelity from them. Can they be used after they undergo this process? I thought no.

Also, people search for first press of albums and one of the reasons is that the original master tapes are fresh and sound will probably never beat the original as tapes degrade in time. I have noticed a decline in fidelity in represses of various recordings. Is that because secondary tapes were used instead of the masters? Is it because vinyl quality is not the same or a little of both?

Also, many of these reissues are "mastered" from the original master tapes or are they REMASTERED from the original master tapes?

I always wondered about the mastered vs remastered. for example the Music Matters reissues are remastered or are they mastered from the originals. the doors 45 RPM? Led Zeppelin on classic records, etc?

Friends of mine got into this discussion during our listening session and it got me wondering about the process.
 

Bruce B

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Apr 25, 2010
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You can use them after "baking". Usually it works for about 4-6 weeks and then you have to bake again.

Usually something has been "remastered" because of newer/better technology. If something was mastered back in the 80-90's, better gear and a different ear from the mastering engineer can give it an update.
 

dminches

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Oct 22, 2011
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I was recently in a conversation regarding the 45 RPM Doors reissues and the fact that the original master tapes were baked to try to extract more fidelity from them.

Did someone just suppose this was done or do they really know? I have not heard of people baking reel for reasons other than the fact that the binder was shedding. Some tapes cannot be baked since the process will hurt the tape.
 

assessor43

Well-Known Member
Nov 1, 2018
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They speak about it right on the Acoustic sounds website under listing for the records.
 

TrackingAngle

Industry Expert
Mar 4, 2014
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I was recently in a conversation regarding the 45 RPM Doors reissues and the fact that the original master tapes were baked to try to extract more fidelity from them. Can they be used after they undergo this process? I thought no.

Also, people search for first press of albums and one of the reasons is that the original master tapes are fresh and sound will probably never beat the original as tapes degrade in time. I have noticed a decline in fidelity in represses of various recordings. Is that because secondary tapes were used instead of the masters? Is it because vinyl quality is not the same or a little of both?

Also, many of these reissues are "mastered" from the original master tapes or are they REMASTERED from the original master tapes?

I always wondered about the mastered vs remastered. for example the Music Matters reissues are remastered or are they mastered from the originals. the doors 45 RPM? Led Zeppelin on classic records, etc?

Friends of mine got into this discussion during our listening session and it got me wondering about the process.
The reason for "baking" is not to "extract more fidelity" but rather to dry the binder (you could call it "glue") that holds the oxide to the backing. It gets "oozy" over time and can gum up the heads in short order. When I oversaw the mastering of TRON for Audio Fidelity I first had the tapes baked and then quickly had a 96/24 version produced so that when I went to Kevin Gray's if the tape didn't work we could cut (regrettably) from the files. But the tapes played perfectly and the record was cut from a copy of the master that I'd had since 1982 and kept under very good conditions. We had to cut it up and splice in the Journey songs a copy of which Wally Heider had given me back then. This is the best and actually only really useful version of the TRON music that was ever released. The Columbia original was 52 minutes on one LP and sounded meh. Wendy's various versions were not very good either because her master tape was not useable so she used a quad mix she'd made that was usable and bounced it down to 2 tracks at CD resolution onto U-matic tape (so old school). The Audio Fidelity LP set is "it".

As for your comment about "decline in fidelity", there's really no generalization that fits. Many reissues sound far better than originals. I put most Blue Notes in that category. Those Scotch 111 tapes have lost little if anything over the decades but Rudy Van Gelder's original cuts were purposely rolled off on bottom and bumped ar around 90Hz to give the illusion of "bass" and they were also dynamically compressed so they'd play on the less than adequate turntables used by Blue Note buyers back then. They were not produced that way for "artistic" reasons but for practical ones. The reissues now are far superior to the originals unless you prefer, rolled and bumped LFs and dynamic compression....If you compare the double 45rpm BNs Kevin Gray cut at Acoustech with the same titles cut at 33 1/3 at Cohearent it's obvious the new 33 1/3s kill the double 45s. Why? Kevin upgraded all of the electronics and cabling when he moved to the new location.
 
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Jake Purches

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Jun 17, 2015
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I have had to bake tapes to get them to play at all. I have a photo drying cupboard and I hand the tapes in there at around 50 degrees Celcius for a couple of hours. It did the trick, and the tapes played nice and smoothly without wowing.
 

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