Hi Red,
Cold playing is exactly what it sounds like. You refrigerate the tapes overnight and play it on a machine that's well below normal room temp..
Sometimes (depending on how badly the binder is hydrolyzed), just cooling the tape will do.
Leaving the machine in a room that's exposed to the outside air during the winter (or even left outside) is how most folks do cold playing.
Cold playing is pretty accepted as a solution for "soft binder syndrome" but it is much more temporary than baking (usually just a single pass).
Actually, I think that many times when folks refer to a tape as having SSS it's actually soft binder syndrome. The difference being that there is no residue left by the tape and no sticking between the layers of tape on the reel. It's usually just squeaky.
In fact, I doubt if many folks have experienced tape with severe SSS.
A while back I bought a bunch of 1/2" 456 for super cheap. All I wanted were the flanges. I took them apart and thought that I might as well keep the 1/2" hubs so I started to remove the tape.
The SSS was so bad that not only was I unable to unravel the layers of tape, but I was having a heck of a time cutting through the layers with a razor knife. On the really bad ones, I resorted to using an electric jigsaw till it was almost to the hub, then I'd use the razor knife for the last 1/2" or so. When it was cut all the way through and I could pry it off of the hub, I was able to whack the whole stuck together mass against the wall and it still wouldn't budge. It was tough to even bend it off of the hub.
Now I seriously doubt that it could be any worse (unless it was 1 or 2 inch tape!) and eventually I gave up on saving all the 1/2" hubs.
I still can't believe I didn't cut myself once during the removal of all that @#*$ tape (over 50 reels!).
