Need a Reel to Reel 101 course

Somebody offered me a Fostex 8 tracks but I don't know if it worth it, I 'm not going to mix anything.

 

8-track is totally different. Not reel to reel.

 

It's the Fostex 80.

 

Ah, I'm sorry, I misunderstood, I thought you meant an 8-track cassette player.

No experience with the Fostex 80, but seems like it might be fun to play around with if it's a good price.

I'm not finding the best info online, but it looks like it either only does 7.5ips and 15ips, or only 15ips.

Depending on what your prerecorded tapes are, they may be at slower speeds, so you may not be able to play many of them. Most pre-recorded tapes I've run across are 3.75.

 

I've been lucky and most of the pre recorded tapes are 7.5 IPS seems the owner took good care of it. No funky smell or scratches.
3 or 4 tapes are 3.75.

 

I might be wrong about this, but playing 4-track tapes (which is what pre-recorded stereo tapes are) on an 8-track deck might be problematic - especially if you do not have an 8-channel mixer. Each of the four tracks will be passing over two of the deck's playback heads.

 

Ok, so I grab a Pioneer RT 909 for almost 500 $.
It worked when testing, fastforward, rewind, playback but when I came home doesn't play , the other functions does.
Maybe was the vibration during the roadtrip.
Now is in service let's wait at least a week.

 

Still trucking on with my Akai.......!!

Specifications:
Heads :
2x GX for play
2x GX for record
2x ferrite for erase
Motors :
1x FG DC-servo for capstan (DD)
2x DC for reel tables (belt)
Speeds :
19 cm/s (± 0,8%)
9,5 cm/s (± 1,0%)
Wow & flutter :
± 0,045% (19cm/s ; WRMS ; peak)
± 0,065% (9,5cm/s ; WRMS ; peak)
Frequency response :
25Hz...33Khz (± 3dB, 19cm/s, EE tape)
25Hz...25Khz (± 3dB, 9,5cm/s, EE tape)
THD : 0,5% (1Khz)
S/N ratio : 63dB (EIAJ)
Wind/rewind time : 80s (360m tape)
Reverse time : 0,4s.
Inputs : 70mV / ??kOhm
Outputs : 0,775V / ?? Ohm
Power Consumtion : 28W
Dimensions : 44 x 24,4 x 22,7cm
Weight : 17kg.
Optional : DC-77 dustcover (6500¥)
MP-515 15V adapter (2500¥)
RC-21 remote-control (6500¥)

 

The technician told me a good tip to see how are the pinch rollers, grab it hard and if its stiff or stained your hand those rollers are no good.
Maybe its too obvious to many but for this 101 course it helps.

 

Professional formats:

Full track mono on 1/4" wide tape
Half Track Stereo (2 channels, one direction) on 1/4" wide tape
Half Track Stereo (2 channels, one direction) on 1/2" wide tape
3 tracks on 1/2" wide tape
4 tracks on 1/2" wide tape
8 tracks on 1" wide tape
16 tracks on 2" wide tape
24 tracks on 2" wide tape

Professional tape noise reduction systems:

Dolby A
Dolby SR
DBX Type I

Tape speeds used in professional studio applications:

15 IPS is standard speed used in studio applications
30 IPS is also used in some studio applications for higher quality for non rock music applications

Tape speeds used in broadcasting and background music applications:

7 1/2 IPS is broadcast standard in full track mono and half track stereo
3 3/4 IPS is used for voice applications

Standard equalization curves for tape use:

NAB aka IEC II (USA standard, world standard on 1/4 track machines and slower speed use)
CCIR/DIN aka IEC I (European standard)

 

I had one of those at one time. Bought it in'74 from a friend who brought it back from Japan. I didn't buy prerecorded reels and back then I could buy Scotch brand blank 8 tracks which I used for the player in my car. A friend of mine passed away recently and I could have had his Akai 10.5 in h R2R but I simply don't have the room and outside of recording music I already own, I didn't see me doing much else and that wasn't as attractive as it once was. So I gave it to a friend who's a musician. He was thrilled. It came with 20 reels of Maxell UD gold tapes. Ca Ching!

 

I have a Technics 1500 machine. I pick up reels when I can find them at good prices, generally classical and jazz titles at 7.5 ips.

A couple of questions.

I have a few tapes on which the high frequencies fade in an out, particularly toward the open ends of the reels. Is this indicative of damage that occurred on a cheap machine?

On some classical titles, I sometimes hear very faint bleed-through from the other side, particular during quiet passages where the music on the other side is triple forte. Is this just a question of subtle variations of head alignments on different machines, or is it an issue with the manufacturing of the tape?

I guess no medium is perfect, and there will always be some drawbacks.

 

That's all the kinda stuff that's inherent to high speed dupes. Pre-recorded are not worth playing with in most cases, unless they're extremely cheap and it's worth a gamble. The ones I've heard that are great are a select few. The earlier 2 tracks which were duped in real time and often not generationally very far away from the original master sound great but they haven't manufactured those since the late 50's, so musical choices are limited.

 

Good to know, thank you!

I should add that I do have some pre-recorded reels that sound amazing, but I have found no formula for guessing in advance which labels or eras will sound better.

 

That's the thing - there's no way of knowing! It's not label to label, manufacturer to manufacturer. This is something that can vary from one tape to one on the production line right next to it, same exact title. As you've experienced, it can change within the same tape itself, so aligning your deck at the beginning could be an exercise in futility by the time you reach the end of the tape. Just the nature of the beast. After all the major duplicators tried to cut costs and went high speed in the 60's, all bets are off.

In a studio situation, variables are kept to a minimum, controls and procedures are kept in place. Tones at tails. Regular head cleanings and demags. Replacement when necessary Etc. precautions are generally taken to ensure that the master recording is optimal under all circumstances.

Tape is really the only example that comes to mind of a professional format that was shoehorned into a consumer market.

Luckily you have a 1500, which I'd classify as a prosumer machine, or perhaps a high end consumer machine. You're capable of playing back 2 track, even at 15ips. You have a lot of options available to you for good sounding tapes that will far surpass the 4 track stuff

 

That is good to know too! I picked this years ago for next to nothing. The thing weighs a ton, and I imagine that the seller was tired of lugging it back and forth from the flea market!

 

Unless you already have media you wish to play, or a boat load of money to burn, R2R doesn't seem to make sense these days. Even starting fresh with vinyl if you have no media makes little sense, but at least good used vinyl can be found rather easily.

 

Depends on where you live. I come across cheap reels all the time.

 

The Fostex 80 8 track is not recommended. Very prone to problems, no parts or service support. And not very good performance. If you want an 8 channel machine, get a 1/2" or better yet a 1" 8 track. I love Fostex speaker drivers and love their digital audio gear. But don't like Fostex analog tape machines. They were of dodgy reliability. Tascam built better machines in that line.

 

I second the motion. I have a Fostex 2-track, and after bypassing the crummy electronics it doesn't sound bad at all, but the overall build quality can be summed up in one word - "chintzy".

 

To the R2R experts, this is available locally. Opinions? Tascam MS-16 1 Analog Tape Recorder »

 

I bought a TEAC A3440 a number of years ago, had it brought to spec. For the amount of use it gets these days, I wouldn't put any more into it. It can sound great, and hey, it looks pretty sweet.

 

Best (overall) commercial dubbings: RCA 1956-1966, 1971-1974 (from '67-'70 they'd cost-cut and went 3 3/4...before they contracted out -mainly for quadraphonic releases- with a duplicator called MAGTEC and went back to 7 1/2).
Ampex "blue box" (and later black box) era: 1968-1973.
Columbia (NOT "COLUMBIA HOUSE") 1958-1968.
"Stereotape"/Bell&Howell (handled Reprise, Warner Bros, and Liberty...preceded the name change to "MAGTEC") 1960-onward.
BEL-CANTO 1957-1963.

Worst!:
GRT 1966-1975.
COLUMBIA HOUSE 1970-1984.
RCA YELLOW REELS 1967-1970.
AMPEX 3 3/4ips POPULAR 1966-1969.

Features of decks TO AVOID:
Combined-function play/record head (the magnetic pole gap is not narrow enough for the highest, optimum playback frequency response). In other words: a two-head deck (as opposed to three).
(IMO) Auto reverse. It was made only for *convenience*...so, therefore; aside from misalignment and more mechanical tension problems: most people didn't CLEAN THE HEADS as often and the tape just dragged back any shedding oxide in the opposite direction.
Idler-driven capstan: Nothing wrong with a one-motor BELT drive deck (Akai made the same, essentially "bullet-proof" transport in its 1700 and 4000 models for 25 years) --- BUT: the idler drive/one-motor Sonys and Panasonics, for example, out there have too many Rube Goldberg spring mechanisms in them required for the transport to smoothly operate and are not worth bothering with.

REEL TAPE, based on conditional circumstances a l o n e, was designed to be *inherently* SUPERIOR TO VINYL. It's the ONLY format descended from the studio(!) and...it was the first format sold in STEREO (1955). I mean, for one: a 50-pound tape deck IS NOT susceptible to EXTERNAL DISTORTION from its outside environment (like vibrations through a turntable would affect EVERYTHING about *it*). Also, quality control issues of bin duplicating aside: REEL TAPE is the only (analog) format with a soundstage of "discrete" channel separation --- no summing of bass frequencies under a certain level and no after-the-fact re-eq'd equalization compression to "squeeze" the music onto the media. The dynamic range and speed of a tape reel will be just the SAME with 50ft of it left as it was when the supply reel was full (NOT so with a record).

It amazes me how all the vinyl fetishists seem to be jaded toward reel to reel, because; either, in a round-a-bout way: they admit they don't know how to MAINTAIN one (which, if you think you're an "audiophile" and you're buying $1900 phono preamps...IS kind of *embarrassing* to suggest that you would not learn the "ins-and-outs" of a system heavily invested into) OR --- they'll spatter all these delusions about their "precious vinyl" (while buying MULTIPLE REMASTERS of something because, apparently?, it never SOUNDED RIGHT!) and, even, they'll wax poetic about 8-track cartridges from time to time!

I just think they're jealous, though, of something MORE EXOTIC (and with the unique reputation of having once been a "playboy component" with some monetary cache) than; the idea of "vinyl" s u p p o s i n g l y being a safety net of hipness for ageing stoners who don't want to fade away (yet, one gets the impression, they need a forum like this to be told how to turn the bloody thing ON).

 

All who are into audio recognize signs of the "sickness".

 

Warren Reel-to-Reel 101, Lesson 1":

The first step in choosing a tape deck model is to decide what you are going to do with it.

If you are starting with a maximum price of $500 and choosing based on how the deck looks, then we can assume your primary purpose is to look at it sitting on your shelf. So, in this case I would recommend Tandberg or Akai, because they usually look VERY nice, are often advertised as "MINT" or "EXCELLENT", but actually almost always have problems that need repair, needing parts that are difficult to find, if you ever wanted to actually play a tape on it. I suspect the best looking ones have ALWAYS had problems from just a few years after they were manufactured, so they have not been used much, thus preserving their appearance.

OK, I just wrote the above for fun, although it is a very good reason to own a RTR deck. My practical first lesson is that you should decide what tape sizes and speeds you would like to play and/or record. I happen to want to record and play only 10-1/2 inch, 15ips, 2 track tapes, and I want them to sound like the highest end source that they can possibly be. So I either want to play copies of original master tapes, like The Tape Project, or I want to record from other such tapes , that I can find friends to bring over (requiring 2 tape decks).

I started wanting to also play the commercial 7 inch, 7-1/2 ips, 4-track tapes, that are commonly available on Ebay. But the vast majority of these that I purchased sound (to me) not-as-good as CDs or records, in my home, so I have given up on buying them.

Then, of course, there are 7-inch (and smaller), 3-3/4 ips, 4-track tapes, that can be found very inexpensively on Ebay and the Goodwill. But, I have never even considered buying them, thinking that they cannot even sound as good as the 7-1/2 tapes, therefore not what I would be interested in hearing.

Again, you have to decide what tapes YOU want to play. Then choose a deck that takes the reel size you are going to collect, and the speeds that you are going to play.

As you can tell, after I bought my first tape deck, it snowballed into a very expensive hobby. Now I have bought more decks, payed to have each one mechanically restored to like-new sound and operation, purchased some Tape Project tapes, and collected many of the 10-1/2" metal-reeled tapes that sound wonderful, but were not-at-all cheap. So, in retrospect, I highly recommend my first paragraph's option: buy a beautiful tape deck that doesn't work, for a very cheap price, and display it above your CD player.