How to repair cassette

If you are of the generation that inevitably carried a cassette Walkman on your belt, you know that audio cassettes have been a popular medium for storing music for more than 30 years. They also had practical uses for many businesses and were also used as computer storage. They were small, inexpensive, and easy to use when it came to recording audio of any kind, from music to lectures and dictations to big news events.

The downside to cartridges is that they are fragile. Not only were the plastic boxes easily damaged by physical factors (drops, crush damage, cracks), but the plastic box and tape were also prone to environmental influences such as heat and humidity, causing serious damage and, they often make handling of plastic boxes impossible. headband. play.

As with many things, time is the arch enemy of magnetic tape. While an aged cabinet is a simple solution, an aged tape poses a significant problem when it comes to the audio stored in it. However, it is not necessary to dispose of all damaged cassette tapes. There are several types of damage that can be easily repaired by a professional service.

Broken Housings – Broken housings are a common damage problem with cartridges. In many cases, the tape appears to be completely destroyed, especially if the spool is broken and the tape is easy to unwind. Fortunately, a professional service can easily assemble the belt with your equipment. You can even transfer the audio to a new format to avoid future glitches if you want.

Tape Unwound – The nightmare of the day was that the tape drive was “eating” the tape. The tape would be pulled out of the cartridge and if you tried to remove the cartridge from the player you would inevitably run out of cartridge in a frenzied pile. Some of us have the patience to slowly try to unwind the tape.

Curly and tight band: How do you deal with the creased, curly, and creased accordion style? Even if the tape is wrinkled or torn, repair professionals can often fix these types of problems with the help of certain equipment and software. Of course, the software is only used after the audio has been converted to digital format. However, if nothing else can be done to repair the tape, audio recovery software can often provide you with an up-to-date digital file or CD of your recording.

Keep your tapes like new

There are a variety of repair services and methods available to restore old and damaged cartridges. Some are as simple as replacing damaged casings and reassembling the tape, while others require rewinding, replacing internal parts, and even chemicals or special procedures to clean the tape, or even baking in a special oven to temporarily treat the tape.

Whatever the problem, it is strongly recommended that you do not attempt to repair the cartridges yourself, especially if you have a critical recording. Have a professional repair the tape and convert the audio to digital format. This way you not only get your original recording (in most cases), but also a digital recording as a backup to make sure you don’t have to rely on the master copy for regular playback.