Barclay-Crocker

Barclay-Crocker was an 'audiophille' tape duplication company that produced tapes that were vastly superior to any others being produced for the consumer market in those days. B-C carefully selected high-quality recordings from (almost always) classical labels and then made a 1/2" running master from the original master at 15ips. The running master was then used to produce the released tapes at 4-to-1 speed, with no more than five tapes being produced at any one time (and sometimes just one). Typical mass-produced tapes were duplicated in much greater numbers and at 8- or even 32-to-1 speeds, which limited frequency response and could more easily produce speed variations. B-C also used exceptionally high-quality tape for their releases. Barclay-Crocker reels have a Quality Control label on the reverse side of the reel. Earlier labels are blue and white with Barclay-Crocker graphic. Later labels have no graphic, are bigger and all white. The code format is S Y MM DD II: S = Number of slave recorder copies (1 digit [a maximum of five copies were duped at any one time]) Y = Year (1 digit [7 and 8 stand for 1977 and 1978 respectively, 0-6 stand for 1980-86]) MM = Month (2 digits) DD = Day (2 digits) II = Operator initials; RF = Rich Fill, WC = William Cunningham, WC = Wayne Chin, EH = Erich Hissel, EM = unknown (so far) HB = Henry Barclay Reels produced in 1977/78 may suffer from lubricant loss and the well known sticky shed syndrome. Labels known to suffer from these problems are Musical Heritage Society, Vanguard, and Unicorn. Note that the crucial factor is when the tape was duplicated, not when it was released. Problematic tapes will have the second digit of their Quality Control code equal to 7 or 8.