Tape Storage Shelves or Cabinets

[Ron Resnick]

How do tape owners store their tapes in boxes? Do you use shelves, as with vinyl records?

Have you made custom cabinets of a particular inside height dimension to accommodate 30ips-size tape reels?

How do you store your tapes and various sizes of reels and boxes?

 

[astrotoy]

The reels that I store are 10.5 inch with boxes, both 1/4" and 1/2" tapes. They are stored vertically. Since I have a large number of them (approaching 1200 reels at last count), they take up a lot of space. However, since they are smaller than LP's, they can fit into bookcases, where LP's cannot fit (either in depth or height). I have been displacing books and records from various cases both in my music room and in adjacent rooms as my collection has grown. Most of the tapes are in a multipiece sectional bookcase which wraps around a corner - very nice looking rosewood veneer - which has glass doors, sort of like a cabinet. (I don't use my Rackit racks for the tapes - since those racks use two crosspieces to support the records and the tape boxes can slip between the two pieces of wood.)

I don't have any 30ips tapes, but the ones I have borrowed from a friend who was an Ampex engineer, are in the same size reels - mostly 1/2" tape, so they are the same size as my other 15ips 2 track tapes. They are usually several reels, since 30ips 2 track tapes typically last less than 16 minutes if they are on standard 1.5mil thick tape.

I do keep my small collection of 7.5ips 2 track tapes in a separate shelf of a bookcase. My 500 or so 7.5ips 4 track stereo tapes are in another room, crammed into bookcases, not well organized, except that the labels can be easily read. I don't play them much.

Larry

 

[Bodhi]

My Audio Dealer told me analogue tapes should be stored in a temparature and humidity-controlled room to avoid degradation. I know local tv studio's are racing to restore old reels stored from decades ago which could be lost without restoration. But that's really more the long game.

 

[Ron Resnick]

The reels that I store are 10.5 inch with boxes, both 1/4" and 1/2" tapes. They are stored vertically. Since I have a large number of them (approaching 1200 reels at last count), they take up a lot of space. However, since they are smaller than LP's, they can fit into bookcases, where LP's cannot fit (either in depth or height). I have been displacing books and records from various cases both in my music room and in adjacent rooms as my collection has grown. Most of the tapes are in a multipiece sectional bookcase which wraps around a corner - very nice looking rosewood veneer - which has glass doors, sort of like a cabinet. (I don't use my Rackit racks for the tapes - since those racks use two crosspieces to support the records and the tape boxes can slip between the two pieces of wood.)

I don't have any 30ips tapes, but the ones I have borrowed from a friend who was an Ampex engineer, are in the same size reels - mostly 1/2" tape, so they are the same size as my other 15ips 2 track tapes. They are usually several reels, since 30ips 2 track tapes typically last less than 16 minutes if they are on standard 1.5mil thick tape.

I do keep my small collection of 7.5ips 2 track tapes in a separate shelf of a bookcase. My 500 or so 7.5ips 4 track stereo tapes are in another room, crammed into bookcases, not well organized, except that the labels can be easily read. I don't play them much.

Larry

Thank you, Larry, for detailing your vinyl record and tape storage experience!

 

[astrotoy]

My Audio Dealer told me analogue tapes should be stored in a temparature and humidity-controlled room to avoid degradation. I know local tv studio's are racing to restore old reels stored from decades ago which could be lost without restoration. But that's really more the long game.

My first experience with someone storing tapes archivally was a visit and tour of Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, which had bought several smaller Jazz companies (Prestige, Riverside and some others) and stored the master tapes in a large temperature controlled room. We walked down the aisles and saw names like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Bill Evans, Dave Brubeck etc. as well as Fantasy's most famous rock artists Creedence Clearwater Revival handwritten on the spines of the boxes. This was almost twenty years ago. Since then the studios were sold to Concord Music Group and then in 2018 the studios were closed. Not sure where their invaluable collection of master tapes went. Some of their tapes were to a local recycling company which specializes in reselling reusable materials. They put them out for sale. Word spread quickly and I went over to see what they had - by that time nothing that I recognized. With a day, the word went out that the tapes had been sent for recycling by mistake and they were gone.

Since we are in a temperate climate in the SF Bay Area and have air conditioning, my tapes are kept reasonably. Maybe I should repurpose our wine cellar for holding tapes!

Larry

 

[astrotoy]

Here are some shots of my tape storage. Although tapes are just slightly smaller than LP's about 2 inches shorter and less deep than LP's they are 5 times wider, so take up 5 times the bookshelf space! So my 1200 tapes take as much space as 6000 records.

My Classical Tapes take up most of the space, with the Jazz taking up the right cabinet. I put DVD's and my 7.5ips 2 track tapes in the smaller shelves.

Rock and Pop tapes are behind one of Ampex ATR-102's. Bookcases by Ikea. Each are two shelves wide and 5 shelves high.

Commercial tapes from UltraTape (Chad Kassem), Tape Project and Yarlung (Bob Attiyeh). Note the first 20 reels of Tape Project include 16 reels of 1/2" tapes - which don't fit in the two reel boxes which TP normally are packaged.


UltraAnalogue (Ed Pong), Horch House (Lutz Precision), IPI (Jonathan Horwich) and some misc commercial tapes.
Many of my safety masters. I've made copies of these to play. These are in an Ikea bookcase. Straps are earthquake straps. My second Ampex ATR-102 is in front. Normally I have a 1/2" headblock on this one and a 1/4" headblock on the other machine. Both can bypass the Ampex electronics to play through my Doshi tape preamp. I change the wiring to do dubs.

All the bookcases are either built in or tied to the wall studs.

Larry

 

[microstrip]

The web page of the Library of the Congress has some indications on proper storage of tapes - see https://www.loc.gov/preservation/care/record.html

The key points seems to be:

For institutional collections with materials to be preserved for a minimum of 10 years (ANSI IT9.13, 1996): 65-70° F and 45-50% RH

For institutional collections with materials having permanent value: 46-50° F and 30-40% RH; do not store magnetic tape below 46° F

I have read somewhere that tapes should be re-winded periodically, but can't find the source any more.

 

[astrotoy]

The web page of the Library of the Congress has some indications on proper storage of tapes - see https://www.loc.gov/preservation/care/record.html

The key points seems to be:

For institutional collections with materials to be preserved for a minimum of 10 years (ANSI IT9.13, 1996): 65-70° F and 45-50% RH

For institutional collections with materials having permanent value: 46-50° F and 30-40% RH; do not store magnetic tape below 46° F

I have read somewhere that tapes should be re-winded periodically, but can't find the source any more.

The general rule is to rewind the tapes and play (or library wind if your machine has that capability) them ideally once a year or at least every few years. ALWAYS store them in the tails out position - that is, after playing, NOT rewound and ready to play.

Looks like a good location for tapes with long time or permanent value is in a wine cellar (temperature around 55F, moderate humidity.)

Larry

 

[microstrip]

The general rule is to rewind the tapes and play (or library wind if your machine has that capability) them ideally once a year or at least every few years. ALWAYS store them in the tails out position - that is, after playing, NOT rewound and ready to play.

Looks like a good location for tapes with long time or permanent value is in a wine cellar (temperature around 55F, moderate humidity.)

Larry

Thanks. What is "library wind" capability?

 

[dminches]

Thanks. What is "library wind" capability?

Library wind is at a much slower speed than normal FF or REW so the tape packs similarly to playing it. The advantage over playing it is on decks with library wind the tape does not come in contact with the head.

 

[Ron Resnick]

The web page of the Library of the Congress has some indications on proper storage of tapes - see https://www.loc.gov/preservation/care/record.html

The key points seems to be:

For institutional collections with materials to be preserved for a minimum of 10 years (ANSI IT9.13, 1996): 65-70° F and 45-50% RH

For institutional collections with materials having permanent value: 46-50° F and 30-40% RH; do not store magnetic tape below 46° F

I have read somewhere that tapes should be re-winded periodically, but can't find the source any more.

Thank you.

Fortunately this temperature and humidity requirement describes Southern California most of the year.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Thank you for posting all of those photos, Larry! It is great to see your amazing collection!

A shelf with an interior vertical (height) dimension of 16 inches will accommodate the largest standard boxes (30ips tapes), correct?

I have quite a few 30ips tapes, so those boxes are tall. I have some 1/2” 3-track tapes in even larger plastic boxes.

(The house is making enough progress for me to get a bit excited about thinking about these tape storage issues.)

 

[astrotoy]

Thank you for posting all of those photos, Larry! It is great to see your amazing collection!

A shelf with an interior vertical (height) dimension of 16 inches will accommodate the largest standard boxes (30ips tapes), correct?

I have quite a few 30ips tapes, so those boxes are tall. I have some 1/2” 3-track tapes in even larger plastic boxes.

(The house is making enough progress for me to get a bit excited about thinking about these tape storage issues.)

I think so. I have never seen a 30ips tape in a larger reel than 10.5. I do have some 12" reels and there are 14" reels, though I don't have any. As long as the tape box isn't overlarge for the reel, a 16" space should be fine.

Larry

 

[Ron Resnick]

Thank you, Larry. I have to measure those plastic tape cases. They are crazy big.

I think it makes sense to have open shelving built by the firm doing some of our closets.