Need a Reel to Reel 101 course

Just buy one........Chicks dig R2R.......You will get lucky

 

I wonder if any popular albums were recorded on a Stephens 32 or 40 track machine. Might make a modern remix an adventure.

 

^ Who cares......if she thought it was popular I would have been game too........

 

Maybe she likes remixes now.

 

Looks like she has been remixed a few times over and over and over again!

 

She still knows how to party and has a flatter stomach than I do. Good on her.

 

oooooh, I like the earlier model myself

 

I thought I would ask this question here since it is relevant to reel to reel maintenance. So, I found some old Charlie Pride reel tapes that were apparently recorded from vinyl. They seem to be numbered on the tape boxes with the plastic Dymo labels from the old pistol-grip labelmaker that was popular in the 1970s. They may have been from a public library or personal collection and evidence suggests they are around 40 years old +/-. When I play them on my Teac they sound alright but afterwards I noticed brown powder under the play head area, so they seem to be shedding a bit. Is there anything I can do to stop this? In case my equipment profile is not visible (I think it should be though) I'm using a Teac 1250 with auto-reverse; the tapes themselves are in vintage BASF boxes.

 

Tapes that shed brown oxide - Tapeheads Tape, Audio and Music Forums

 

Most home recorded reel to reel tapes are inferior quality anyway. This happens for one reason or another. I purchased quite a few lots of tape back in the 2000's just for fun of what I might find on them. The vast majority of these "mix" tapes are 3.75 ips to save tape, some not too bad, but yep, most are pretty bad. Even the tapes recorded at 7.5 ips are not good sounding either, over-recorded, under-recorded, drop outs, crinkled tape, stretched tape, dusty tape, worn tape, noisy sources, poor sources (K-Tel or Tele-House) tape mismatch to bias settings (muffled sound or thin, brittle sound) skewing (azimuth drift) cheap tape, recorded on dirty heads, magnetized heads, storage damage, on and on ...

My thought was some of them may be well preserved archives of fresh, unworn vinyl of the era. That was not to be. (maybe fresh vinyl but a bad transfer to tape)

Of all the stuff that can go wrong, it's always something, there's gotta be some rare gems out there. I was not so lucky.
(applies to home recorded tapes only .... do own factory pre-recorded 2 trk and 4 trk that sound wonderful)
My suggestion is to not play the BASF tapes, as some of them are a problem, What's on them isn't going to sound good anyway. Not saying the tapes can't be enjoyed at least if they play. If fidelity is what you're looking for, (admittedly as I was) the typical home recorded tape is not it. Save your poor heads the agony... toss the tapes!

 

can you record music on reel to reel or am I mistaken

 

I have a few BASF reels myself, and after about a minutes worth of play noticed the frequency drop quite
prominent, and all of that brownish/orange powder stuff all over the guides and heads.
One tape particularly was valuable to me, as it was a 4 track home recording of some muso friends that are no
longer around. I ended up making some sort of backup and stop and starting the tape and then editing into
a DAW, then splicing the sections together after every 30 seconds of play to get some kind of backup.
Anyway, with the tape basically rubbish, I experimented on it for some time, fast forwarding and rewinding using
isopropyl just to get as much of the brownish powder off as much as I could. Probably about 6 times backwards and forwards.
By then, it was only a minimal bit left, and I tried the Nufinish product as well, even thou there was no sticky shed syndrome as such.
I figured by this point, I would have taken a lot of the oxide off, and probably lost all of the high end frequencies.
I played it back, and it sounded fine!! I could play the tape most of the way through, maybe stopping half way to clean again,
but otherwise it was a huge improvement, thinking I was gonna lose it anyways.
It's true though, if your gonna be or stay in the reel to reel interest, to be sure, use new tape.
Occasionally you may score a good 'Scotch' or a 'Maxwell' 'Irish' or RCA if they have been used and stored correctly.
Just found some 10.5 'Irish' Tapes unused recently, which I havn't tried, I ran one reel through, and it's clean as a whistle!
I havn't tried recording yet......

 

Yes!
There are a few points to keep in mind. Used tape can be damaged. Sometimes a splice or damage can be seen in the tape pack, without actually playing it. When re-using tape, the best practices are: clean tape, a like new appearance, high quality tape, and that the tape is degaussed on a degausser. You may just simply re-record over recorded tape, however the erase head on the deck does not restore the original low noise floor of the tape. Only a degausser can do that. (bulk eraser)

Used tapes come in many brands and types. Each brand has its unique specs, bias and record eq requirements. Some brands compare very closely and can be interchanged without much change in their sound. The two main categories for tape are std bias and high bias. Most of the very old tapes such as Scotch 150 are std bias. You'll want to record with std bias setting on your deck. Virtually all std bias tape will have a dull side (oxide layer) and a shiny side. Standard Bias tape is non-linear in response, in other words, lower level signal enhances the treble slightly, higher level near the MOL (max output level) will roll off the highs. Most brands of standard bias tape have survived the test of time, most will play normally. Watch for brown shed, as some may have dried out and will shed oxide on the heads. A very small amount of shed is normal after extended playing time. High bias tapes are back coated for smoother transport. Use the high bias setting. High bias tape is more linear in response and has much lower noise and higher MOL (wider dynamic range) Watch for sticky-shed syndrome, as many, many high bias tapes have not survived well. If the tape emits a squealing noise during FF or REW, do not play it. The tape will make a mess out of the heads, and may self destruct. (chunks of oxide ripped off the substrate)

Store tapes in the coolest and driest location in your home, avoid the basement and the attic. Store away from magnetic fields, many sources in the home including phone chargers, any wall wart, vacuum cleaners, including on the opposite side of a closet wall... many other sources of electro-magnetic fields in the home. A reasonably safe distance from a strong field (vacuum cleaner motor) is about 1 meter, but further away is better.

 

TS: I looked at this as well, as I owned a Studer/ReVox PR99MK II back in the day, and there is nothing cooler than those big turning reels, it just sets the mood. So, here is my advice to you. Stop right now, don't put your toes in the reel to reel water at all, they will be burned off. At this point in time there is no getting toes wet with this format, tapes are unreasonably expensive, an ATR 2500 ft. blank reel is about $75.00, and the beautiful recorded tapes, which are so extremely limited are about $400.00 each. I recently purchased one of the Vanessa Fernandez discs in SACD ($29.00), and it's wonderful. That same disc on a reel costs $600.00. If you just half way jump back into this format, your reel to reel deck will probably not be up to par and able to maximize your playback experience when playing these extraordinary tapes. For me, anything less than a United Home Audio deck would be a total non starter. These new, highly modified decks are made to extract ever nuance out of these very expensive tapes, no hit or miss with these decks, and the last time I checked, they ran about $10,000 to $25,000. With all the above said, if I were a very wealthy man, I absolutely would have one of these decks and be buying these master tapes, without question, as they yield probably the best sound possible, there is really nothing better, as close as we can ever get to the original, so, that my friend is my take on getting back into the wonderful world of reel to reel tape decks. Lots of money to spend, don't wait one more day! If you have really any financial limits, it would be best to stay away from this very expensive move.

 

All that is very true, but one thing I may add.
I agree that if I had all the money in the world scenario....
You don't have to be an audiophile or have heaps of money to enjoy messing with reel to reel tape recorders.
But I still get a kick out of finding these little fellas, trying to get them to work and
enjoying the simplicity of them too.

 

Rick, I agree with you 100%, if he is just wanting to experiment with reel to reel, he should purchase his deck and start having fun, however, if he wants to reach that audiophile level or even close, it might be a format to stay away from. I got a chuckle out of your tape recorder, as it is much like my first tape recorder that Santa Clause brought me, and I was in recording heaven, and here it is, the famous Mayfair in it's really neat leather case, and nice speaker, hot!

 

Aww! cool little player there! great fun.
And Yes! if your going into this as an 'audiophile'...... Ruuuuuuuun Forrest!!!!!!

 

Thanks for the info. Have any big bands recorded on reel to reel. Is all music recorded reel to reel since it is tape. Obviously small indie bands or high school garage bands can afford to buy 24 track. Or am I thinking of a console

 

Reel to reel deck are fascinating in the sense that there is something to watch those reels go around and round. I have always had a soft spot in my heart for them. However, having said that, I would avoid them like the plague now for the fact that there are few if any companies still making blank tape. In addition, many of the machines floating around are over 35 years old (service would be expensive).

They are great as a conversation piece in your system, but not really a good alternative as an audio hobby. I would stick to either vinyl or cassettes if you really want the analog tape sound, but R2R really died a quick death once good cassette technology and digital sound came on board.

I put R2R in the same category as my RCA New Orthophonic record player. They are great relics.

 

I have a pair of decks and 50 or so tapes. Last night I dug out S&G's Bookends, which reminded me why I love the format, despite being a PITA.

 

Sax, you are expanding on what I said. To head back down the R2R road for "audiophile" purposes would be a very, very narrow path, as everything would lead to expensive purchases. There is only ONE company that I know of, that has tackled this in a BIG way, and that is United Home Audio, and what they are producing or modifying in the way of a tape deck is beyond anything I have seen, and if a person has lots of money and $20,000.00 or more would not be a strain, what well healed audiophile with plenty of cash would not want one of these magnificent machines!!!



If I person just wants to get back in the R2R game as a hobby, that is an entirely different story, as it would be a rewarding hobby to play around with. For me, it would be get in the game with a United Home Audio deck or stay home, and as of now, I'm absolutely staying home! I would say that every time I see one of these, it just gives me chills, I want one so bad! How nice would it be to pay $600.00 for a nice 10.5" open reel master tape of some great album I paid $6.00 for back in the day, and really hear what it is suppose to sound like! If this does not wet your wanter, I don't know what would! You know, come to think of it, you know who needs one of these, Steven Hoffman! Or better yet, Steve should give one away to three lucky members of the forum, can I get an Amen on that?

 

Did I understand correctly that the heads are fixed with shims and can't be adjusted? What about playing tapes that were recorded on other machines? You need to be able to adjust the heads to optimize performance. I've never seen a professional machine with non adjustable heads.

 

He did indeed say that. I'm sure you could order "anything" you wanted from these people, he could easily make his super, ultra modified heads adjustable I'm sure. His goal is probably not to play some old tape in a collection, but rather focus on everything new, but he could easily make the heads adjustable I'm sure, or possibly his heads just don't need to be adjusted??

 

All heads need to be adjustable if you plan on playing tapes made on other machines. There is no guarantee that all tapes were made on machines that had the same exact head alignment. No matter how good a machine is, this will be the case.

Even new tapes can be subject to this. Granted most consumers never align their heads and for the most part can usually get away with it, but if you want the ultimate performance it's something that should always be optimized. Micro adjustments can be significant if you're chasing the ultimate in performance and if you're spending big bucks for a tape deck I'd assume you are.

Then again, many consumers have no idea how to do this and can actually screw things up, especially if they try adjusting the wrong screw. Head setup is not just for azimuth but also for height and zenith. Generally only azimuth is adjusted on a regular basis and the other adjustments are usually for when you replace the heads.

 

So, it appears you need HAOTF, and I'm sure if you ask for it, for an extra $4,500.00 or so, it's a done deal, they will give you (Head Adjustment On The Fly). They will probably throw in a sensor that will determine the head is then perfectly aligned for the tape being used. I do not plan on getting involved in the new R2R craze, as to do it right, would cost far too much, but I would certainly love to own one, they are beautiful indeed. Yours would cost a bit more than mine, as you would require HAOTF on your deck. I would assume your head adjustment scenario would be a very common question that I'm sure they have thought about considering it's probably the most advanced tape deck in the world, completely and totally re-engineered.