Research on the mechanism of mildew contamination affecting the sound quality of analog tape archives

Article Open access

Published: 09 May 2026

Zhihui Jia1, Yanan Wang1, Shujiao Yu1, Quanfeng Cai1, Bodian Liu1, Huiping Xing1, Yuhu Li1, Long Chen2 & …Yanhong Zhao3

npj Heritage Science

(2026) Cite this article We are providing an unedited version of this manuscript to give early access to its findings. Before final publication, the manuscript will undergo further editing. Please note there may be errors present which affect the content, and all legal disclaimers apply.

AbstractSince 1947, analog tape recording has become the dominant method of sound recording and has been widely used in music, cultural outreach, scientific research, and news gathering, producing a large number of important audio archives. However, due to the presence of adhesives, mildew often develops on the tape magnetic layer and edges, posing a serious threat to long-term preservation and sound quality. ATR-FTIR and SEM were used to characterize the chemical and physical properties of magnetic tape. Penicillium and Aspergillus were used to prepare samples with different coverage degrees of mildew, and the corresponding audio samples were analyzed using Praat. The relationships between spectral characteristics, acoustic parameters, and mildew coverage were analyzed. Additionally, surface morphology and roughness were observed using laser microscopy. The research reveal the mechanisms by which mildew affects sound quality and provide a basis for improved preservation strategies. Similar content being viewed by others AcknowledgementsThe authors acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22572112), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22002080), Science and Technology Project of the National Archives Administration

(2022-B-005), the Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi Province (2021GY-172), and the Key Scientific Research Project at the Museum Level of Hubei Provincial Museum (25A05).Author informationAuthors and AffiliationsEngineering Research Center of Historical Cultural Heritage Conservation, Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, ChinaZhihui Jia, Yanan Wang, Shujiao Yu, Quanfeng Cai, Bodian Liu, Huiping Xing & Yuhu LiState Key Laboratory of Loess Science, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an, ChinaLong ChenHubei Provincial Museum, Wuhan, ChinaYanhong ZhaoAuthorsZhihui JiaYanan WangShujiao YuQuanfeng CaiBodian LiuHuiping XingYuhu LiLong ChenYanhong ZhaoCorresponding authorsCorrespondence to Zhihui Jia or Long Chen.Ethics declarationsCompeting interestsThe authors declare no competing interests.Additional informationPublisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.Rights and permissionsOpen Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.Reprints and permissionsAbout this articleCite this articleJia, Z., Wang, Y., Yu, S. et al.

Research on the mechanism of mildew contamination affecting the sound quality of analog tape archives. npj Herit. Sci. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s40494-026-02592-7Download citationReceived: 14 January 2026Accepted: 20 April 2026Published: 09 May 2026DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s40494-026-02592-7