yant wrote:
I wonder if anyone could help with these questions:
What equipment would be needed to transfer 16 tracks from 2"
multitrack to digital (apart from a reel-to-reel!)?

You need a multitrack machine and a digital machine and some cables.
You need to make sure the 2" machine has a head stack for 16-track
available. You need a scope so you can align the machine to the tones
on the tape.

If the tape is old
(15 years old) would it need to be baked, and if so for how long/how
much would this cost/where can it be done?

If it has sticky shed, it needs to be baked. If it does not have sticky
shed, it does not. It has nothing to do with how old the tape is, it has
to do with a particular manufacturing defect that a lot of manufacturers
shared. If it was Ampex 406, it probably will go sticky. If it was
Maxell, it definitely would not. If it was Agfa, it might, but the shedding
may be worse than the stickiness. You need to put it up on the machine and
try it.

If it's only one or two reels, Quantegy will do it for free, but you have
only a few days after it's been baked to play it before it goes sticky
again, so it's often better to do it in-house.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."