[ChrisF]

there was a pretty good explaination in the smashing pumpkins archive newsletter a few months ago about the subject. and a tape they were talking about baking in the newsletter was hosted on thetradersden from a previous transfer from years ago

http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/...hlight=ignoffo

Originally Posted by sp archive newsletter -3/29/09

Hello again,

Welcome to the second Archive Newsletter. I am now entering the third week on the job, and I just want to say that I’m really excited about the project. I want to get into the more technical details about the archive. One of the biggest problems with storing media that is over 20 years old is tape deterioration. One example of this is the Ignoffo Demos. Mark Ignoffo was a studio engineer that worked with the band in 1988-89. The band would record demos at Reel Time Studios and then sell them at shows. The Moon Demo was a demo tape that was sold at shows in 1989 for $5. The songs from this period would include Stars Fall In, Daughter, and Bye June. These songs have been widely bootlegged out, but the quality has been questionable because many of these were sourced from old cassette tapes. The band has the original reels from those recording sessions in the archive. Throughout the years, these tapes have started to deteriorate and flake. Recently, the band has started to rescue these recordings. A technique to rescue tapes that are starting to flake is through baking. The tapes would be placed in an oven, and baked for a specific period of time. This restores the tape so that it can be transferred. In these cases, we often have one chance to transfer the tape before the tape is lost for good. The Ignoffo Demos were baked for 72 hours! Then they ran them through Pro Tools at 24-bit/96kHz, and the outcome was amazing. They sound so much better than the bootlegged versions that fans have. This would definitely be an upgrade if you already have these songs.

The next step is to rescue other tapes and reels that have started to deteriorate. All of the material in the archive is stored in a climate controlled environment in order to preserve them, and slow down the effects of time. Tapes and reels aren’t the only material that we have to carefully monitor. Paper is another concern for us. I’m currently going through and cataloging the band’s posters. I have found some early posters from the Gish era, and there are a few that have started to show their age. A way to combat this is to store them in acid-free polyester Mylar sleeves. The Library of Congress also uses the same types of sleeves for archival storage. I’m creating a system that will catalog and preserve all of the posters and artwork from the band. Eventually this system will include all of the promotional material that I’ve talked about in my recent blog post. I hope this sheds some light on what we’ve been doing. I’ll talk to you all next week!

Frank