Handling your Master-

A master tape is results of months of hard work; many dollars spent, and represent an irreplaceable artistic expression that cannot be described in monetary terms. Certainly the care of these tapes deserves as much as consideration as was given to the creation of the entire project.

SAFETY COPY
It is absolutely critical that a safety copy should be made of your master before you ship or deliver to anywhere. Tapes can easily be damaged or lost during shipping and handling. A safety copy is a small price to pay to preserve your irreplaceable performances. If you are working on a DAW with Pro Tools or Logic, you may also protect your work by backing up your entire session for each song on a removable media such as DVD or a Jaz or MO cartridge.

Keep the safety in a sage place and send the master to be mastering. This may seem obvious, but often a producer will keep his master tape and send a copy or safety copy to be mastered. Unfortunately sometimes the second machine is out of alignment and the safety does not match the original exactly. After spending money and effort to create the best product you know how, why start the manufacturing process off at a disadvantage with a second generation tape?

WINDING TAPE
After use and before being placed in its box, every tape should be slow wound and left tails out. That is , it should played through from beginning to end at play or shuttle speed, not fast forward or rewind. (this is especially important for analog tapes.)

This ensures the tape is wound under constant and proper tension, allowing it to pack smoothly, which protects the tape edges and minimizes tape stretching. The tails-out position forces you to rewind the tape before playing, which reduces print-through. It also freeze up any mechanical problems such as sticky splices. Also, after the duplication facilities master department has processed your tape for cassette, CD. Or LP, it will already be in the slow wound, tails-out state, and ready to storage.


TRANSPORTING TAPE
Caring for masters during transportation is as important as you care for them in your tape library. There are many physical and environmental factors you should consider when shipping a master tape.

Keep tape away from magnetic fields, motors, magnets, cables carrying heavy current vacuum cleaners etc. If you are travelling by air plane, carry the tape with you. Don’t leave it in your luggage and let it run through the x-ray machine and don’t walk through the metal detector with it. Hand it to the security person for inspection. When shipping tapes through postal mail or air mail, clearly mark them with a message like “MAGNETIC MEDIA. PLEASE KEEP AWAY FROM ELECTROMEGNATIC FIELDS.”
When shipping your master via UPS, DHL, Federal Express or some other courier, double box the tape(s). Place the tape box inside another larger box with plenty of insulating or shock absorbing material between the two containers or box. If you cannot use two containers use the plastic library shipping case designed for the medium you are shipping. Use a reputable shipping company and insure for the reasonable replacement value of the recording it contains.

STRING TAPE
Analog or digital tapes should be marked clearly whenever they are not in or on a tape deck.

When storing tapes, the condition are simple to remember. If you are comfortable so tape: 65 to 75 degrees (Fahrenheit) 40 to 60% related humidity. ( Professional media storage facilities often use even lower temperature an humidity for long term storage)
Store tapes in a clean, dry environment with stable temperature and humidity in the ranges indicated above.
Store tapes in acid free cardboard or plastic library boxes. Tape boxes and tape should stand on end so that the wound tape is supported by the hub of the tape reel.
Keep master tapes away from smokes and dusts as much as humanly possible. Hair, dust and smoke particles are major contributors to dropouts in the digital world.
For storing CD-R’s are often marked on the packaging of blank CD-R media. CD-R should never be left in direct sunlight or for long period of time in hot humid locations.