Magic and mystery of master tape

Thats the problem, magnetic tape and other media degrade.
That's why archivists welcomed digital. But many masters had
to be restored before transfer to digital, and some were
beyond repair so they were transferred with the flaws.
I worked at the Library of Congress to setup the transfer of
different formats of analogue to digital tape (music, video,
film). Now they are using digital files for archive.

Even if you had a studio master tape you would likely be unable to play it unless of course you had a 24 track tape machine at your disposal. No one gets a studio master, are you kidding? This is the tape that Roger Waters, Nick Mason, David Gilmour and Rick Wright sat in the studio and listened to as they discussed the mix.

The master tape usually refers to the 2 channel tape of the final mix, not the 24 track (or greater) tracking recordings.

regarding life span of tape, and of time-span of optimal tape playback; not all tape is created equal. I'm an amateur with only anecdotal experience but I have about 150 master dubs all done with modern tape formulations. quite a few of them are now going on 7 years old, and some have been played many dozens of times with zero apparent degradation.

possibly part of the issue is that I play my tapes exclusively on a pair of Studer A820's which do have remarkably gentle, smooth tape handling. my tapes are stored in a climate controlled (cool, dry) environment. I keep my tape path clean.

I'd say that my tapes are sounding better than ever today and I'm now going thru my collection to re-calibrate their relative sound quality in my mind as I've not played tapes much since I made changes in my system a few years ago. they all sound new to me now and I'm really enjoying the journey.

spend time with some high quality tape dubs and they will really pull you in.

there is really nothing like a great tape.

Sunday night I played a very fine 15ips 1/4" master dub of the RCA LSC-2603 Heifetz, Bruch 'Scottish Fantasy' which literally blew me away. I've had this tape about 6 years and had only played it once previously and it had not stood out nearly as dramatically at that time. I don't know it's provenance. but it surpasses the Classic 4-disc 45rpm version quite nicely (and in some places shames it) which I've always liked. it was as enjoyable a listening session as I can remember and I was just so full of joy afterwards.

tape will do that to you.

I only have 150 of these tapes, and i'll likely never have more than 200 of them. vinyl still dominates my listening time. but like a great expensive single malt once in a while it's great to sit back and 'go there'.

added note; most of my master dubs have 2 reels for one album; some titles have 4 reels. so my 150 'titles' likely equal 250+ reels.

when buying tapes you are going to pay 'per reel'.

tapes are not cheap. however; if you compare the entry fee to tapes with the very top level vinyl the vinyl hardware will cost you much, much, more to really play at the top level and approach the performance level of tapes.

it depends on how many tapes one might plan to own how that would work out.