[GRC]

Originally Posted by showtaper

Your problem is more likely a bad pressure pad. These do not age well. Instead
of doing their job (helping to maintain tape to head contact) they can actually
cause the tape to skew making the sound you describe. A good double capstan
deck does the same job, making the pressure pad redundant.

I would suggest you try both of these techniques:

1) Remove the pressure pad and play the tape in a good double capstan deck.

2) Buy a new cassette tape (one held together with screws) and put the tape
you want to play in the new shell (thus having a new pressure pad).

This has worked many times for me.......

+1.

Your problem isn't likely to be sticky tape syndrome, but more likely the tape 'wandering' over the heads due to pressure pad failure or some other distortion of the cassette shell or the hubs; it's the change in alignment, the movement over the playback head, that's causing the whooshing phasing sound.

The tapes affected by the problem that requires baking are typically Ampex tapes - what brand do you have here?

If you ARE considering baking the tape, I'd recommend removing it from the case first!