Reviving the Past: The Restoration Journey

The Cameron Studios Archive safeguards a treasure trove of Reynolds family music on fragile analog tapes. From The Blue Trolley Band’s rock originals to The 7th Sound’s barbershop harmonies, these recordings capture decades of creativity and collaboration. Restoring them demands precision and passion, using techniques like tape-baking to reverse decay and AI cleanup to revive problematic tracks. At The Stude, the Reynolds family breathes new life into these artifacts, ensuring voices like Wilbur Reynolds Sr.’s and the Reynolds Brothers resonate for future generations. This page unveils the delicate art of preservation, blending technical expertise with the heart of Coin Records’ mission to share a timeless musical heritage.

Baking the Tapes: A Recipe for Revival—

Coin Records’ restoration journey, spanning the 1970s to today, begins with tape-baking to rescue analog reels from decay. At The Stude, the Reynolds family heats tapes, like those preserving The 7th Sound’s barbershop harmonies, to reverse sticky shed syndrome, ensuring Wilbur Reynolds Sr.’s voice endures (Q&A, Unreleased Music). Over 150 cassette tapes, transferred via the Yamaha MT-120, digitize Cameron Studios’ vibrant performances.

Early 2000s multitracks, stored on hard drives in extinct formats like Power Tracks Pro and Cool Edit 2000, require nostalgic ingenuity. Jim Jr. revives old computers and software, relishing 20-year-old GUIs to export sessions into .wav files. Live-recorded with bleed, these tracks—like The Blue Trolley Band’s—are remixed using AI stem separation for clarity. This blend of technical artistry and heartfelt preservation keeps Coin Records’ legacy alive.

Preserving the Archive—
Vacuum-sealed tapes with silica gel packets, as shown, follow Eddie Ciletti’s 1998 advice to prevent moisture damage. Stored in a moisture-proof bin, these restored reels and other media from the 1970s onward safeguard Coin Records’ legacy for future generations.

The Snackmaster in Action—
The Snackmaster Pro FD-50—modified with dual thermometers—carefully bakes a ¼-inch tape from the early 1980s, as shown in the picture. This process reactivates the binder, making the tape playable for digitization.

How It Works: The Science of Tape-Baking

Analog tapes from the 1980s, like those in the Cameron Studios Archive, often suffer from ‘binder breakdown’ (a.k.a. sticky-shed syndrome)—a process where the glue binding the oxide to the tape absorbs moisture and degrades over time. Playing these tapes without treatment risks shedding oxide, losing precious recordings forever. Inspired by Eddie Ciletti’s 1998 article ‘If I Knew You Were Coming I’d Have Baked A Tape!’, we turned to tape baking to revive the archive.
Using the Snackmaster Pro FD-50 dehydrator recommended by Ciletti, we baked the tapes at 130°F to 140°F to reactivate the binder, making them playable again. To ensure precision, we modified the dehydrator by adding two manual meat thermometers—one at the top and one at the bottom—to monitor the temperature closely. Each tape was baked for 1 to 5 hours, flipped every 30 minutes, following Ciletti’s guidelines.
The process was a success: nearly the entire archive was transferred, with only one or two tapes too deteriorated to save. As they’re cleaned and mixed at The Stude, Coin Records prepares these restored treasures for release, reintroducing the Reynolds legacy to a new era.

What’s Next: Re-Mixing, Remastering, and AI Innovation

Coming soon: Discover how we’re re-mixing and remastering the Cameron Studios archive, using cutting-edge AI to separate stems and create remixes that were unimaginable just a few years ago. Stay tuned for videos, photos, and a more detailed look into our process!

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