With hindsight: What are some of the best 1/4 inch 4 track machines of the past?

We are gearing up to process a large archive of 1/4 tape reels, mostly spoken word, some including well-know Beat-era poets. We have a Studer A807 for 2-track, but some (most) of the tapes have been recorded 4 track, with individual program material on each track. We have an old Teac A-3440 that seems solidly built and will be back in action once we replace the now gooey belt, but are thinking it would be good to buy a 2nd machine to speed up this process. Which ones have stood the test of time and are easy to maintain and get parts for? Anyone?

 

Crown was by far the best of that format, the CX 844 (not too many of those made). Expensive new, have held value great. The best 4 tracks were 1/2" tape based a la Ampex, Scully, MCI, 3M, etc.

 

Just get a clean Otari MX-5050 and you should be good to go. My deck has 1/4" 2-track and 1/4" 4-track heads on the same machine.

 

That is a great machine, and recommended. I don't know how our OP's tracks were arranged (2 directions or one direction). Since he mentioned the Teac 4 channel machine, that was why I recommended said Crown, the best 1/4" based 4 channel machine ever built. If two directions are used, the Otari would be just about impossible to beat for the money in nice order. I love my pair of Otari MX 5050 machines.

 

The tracks are all 1 direction. Good recommendations so far.

 

Ampex ATR-100 (actually a 4-track 104), provided the tape has no playback. There are custom versions of the ATR that are very, very expensive with hand-built electronics, super-high-end decks for mastering playback.

Under this, I'd go with a Studer A80. Great deck.

If you want a deal on a Sony APR-5003 (2-track 1/4" with center-channel timecode), PM me and I'll make you "such a deal." That was a fantastic deck for its time, well over $10,000 in the early 1990s.

 

He's looking for 1/4" 4-track though- which is not really a pro format. I don't think Studer ever made an A80 series (or other pro deck) with 1/4" 4-track heads - ditto Ampex.

 

Indeed, which leaves us with the Crown CX 844 as the best ever 1/4" 4-Track machine ever made. Fully broadcast grade in every way. The easiest to maintain, most reliable narrow gauge 4 track machine ever built. Exudes quality and durability all over.

 

If the tapes are spoken word, it is not necessary to have frequency response to the speed of light. A Tascam 3440 will certainly do the job, I use one myself. It's not hard or expensive to replace the belt. If possible, record all 4 tracks during playback and reverse 2 of them in software. That will save tons of time. Your biggest issue will be the physical condition of the tapes, i.e. splices, sticky shed, etc.

 

I really appreciate all of the feedback. We will, for now and as I know into the future, be working with 1/4 tape, so I see some options are out unfortunately.

Glad to hear this, and glad to hear that our idea about recording all tracks simultaneously might make a good option. At present we only have a 2 track Benchmark ADC, so that's something we are thinking about. Which high-end, mastering quality ADC's support 4 tracks in might be my next question.

 

Quarter inch four track heads ara available for any popular pro machine. Crowns and Otaris are probably the best semiprosumer choice.

The ATR-100 series should IMO be ignored by anyone without a full time tech staff including someone who is good with discrete digital electronics. While the specs on a well maintained one are very good a 350 or 440 transport will be far easier to maintain.

 

Indeed. And the Ampex ATR 100 line is a maintenance nightmare unless you know how to keep one of these quirky beasties alive. And have the test equipment and skill set needed to do so. Crowns and Otaris are not prosumer, they are professional equipment to some degree. They earned their stripes in some of the most demanding, failure is no option environments known to man. FM Automation and control room duty. Where they had to run with mainly no more than a head cleaning every shift until something had to be repaired. Something no Fostex and only the best Tascams could never do without constant repair and maintenance headaches. Ampex 440 machines are superb and easily maintainable.

 

Eh, there's an Ampex mailing list out there for people who want to maintain them, and I know of ATRs that have ran for years with very little maintenance. God help you when a board blows, but they are reliable machines. 440B's and 440C's are also very good, but the 350 is crappy. More info:

http://recordist.com/ampex/

4-track head stacks are still widely available out there, provided the machine has four preamps built in. 4-track Studer 1/2" decks existed, so it'd just be a question of dropping a 4-track 1/4" head stack and the guides into the transport. All this stuff can be done... it's just a question of how much the o.p. wants to spend. When the thread title is "what are some of the best 1/4" decks of the past," I take that literally, meaning "regardless of money." The heads alone will cost thousands.

If Nagra made a 4-track deck, I'd recommend that, but they tapped out at two. The Nagra T was a great deck, but not a great idea for quarter-track.

 

We are looking to drop something in the $1 to $2k range. I'd say that we are technically competent for basic repairs, but swapping out head and guides is probably further than we are going to go. When I said best, I MEANT it, but the number of off the shelf 1/4" 4 tracks available seem to be mostly for smaller studios rather than the higher end ones, so I was expecting to see an abundance of Fostex/Teac/Tascam model #'s if I'm honest, and perhaps a smattering of options I hadn't considered.

If we were going to be doing some recording, I would obviously go 1/2", but we are just playing back existing archive of 1/4" and digitizing it.

 

What speeds are you needing? Most commercial tapes are 33 3/4 or 7 1/2. Quality recordings more in the 15 and 30ips.

 

I think it's going to be mostly 3.75 or 7.5, but we haven't seen the entire collection yet. It will be primarily spoken word material, so I suspect that 3.75ips will have been judged to be adequate in most cases - which isn't to say that we shouldn't be prepared to gear up for something of higher quality.

 

If they are spoken-word tapes, 3.75 IPS is all the speed you will need. 7.5 IPS is borderline high fidelity, not needed for speech. Most amateur recordings are lucky to hit 8 kHz anyway. If they are anything like the projects I've done in the past, you'll spend a lot of time baking and splicing. Fast-wind the tapes before playback, and that will reveal any splices before you have to stop in mid-playback to fix them, plus give you a nice pack.

 

Alright, so we re-belted and lubed our Teac A-3440 and it's "low speed" and "high speed" settings are 7.5in. and 15in. respectively. Almost all of this material is 3.75in. Did ANYONE make a pro level 4 track that did 3.75in? Our other option is to digitally speed/pitch correct these, but based on my admittedly out of date experience with doing that process, the results were less than satisfactory...

 

Only Crown offered a high end 4 channel 1/4" machine which could be used at that speed. Teacs don't do it. Another reason why I recommended one. Most 4 channel recording was done at 15 IPS. The Crown was the only such machine capable of 3 speeds.

 

Actually, my memory is that the Sony 854-4 could do 3-3/4, 7-1/2, and 15":



There were also Otari 4-tracks where you could pull a jumper and force them to run at 3-3/4", but you'd have to have the right head stack (which did exist). Quite a few other servo machines were stuck at 2 speeds, but you could pick the two speeds -- like the Ampex ATR-100. I just ran my Sony APR-5004 at 3-3/4" simply because it has crystal-controlled variable-speed that could be dialed down to half of 7-1/2"... but that's only a 2-track deck. They did make a 4-track version, but again, finding a quarter-track head stack would be a challenge.

This will have an adverse effect on EQ, but it's possible to make it work. I'd worry more about head alignment and all that stuff. Do you have an alignment tape? Start with that and figure out how "off" the tapes you're trying to play back are.

 

That Sony is recommendable. As is the Otari with the correct headstack. I can recommend either machine safely in good order, I prefer the Otari as parts support and technical support easier had. And also own the Otari in two channel form and love my pair of MX 5050 machines.

 

The best thing you will want for this project is one of the tascam machines that were the successor to your 3440 - like the 34, 34b, 44, etc. because you'll be able to transfer all 4 channels at the same time, with a sizable library this really cuts down on a lot of the time spent by a serious amount. Aside from that kind of flexibility I still think these are the finest 1/4 track decks ever made anyhow.



The problem is that these don't drop down to 3 3/4 ips - they only do 7 1/2 and 15. So perhaps a somewhat less advanced 70's era quad deck will suit your needs too, since a lot of spoken word was often recorded at a slow speed. It's probably more than fine for spoken word anyhow.

 

Yes. The Teac A-2340S is the 7" version of the 3340S and also does 3.75ips/7.5ips. It isn't a "pro" deck, but it will play your 3.75ips reels nicely. If you don't need a quad deck, the Teac 2300SD is/was my go-to deck for 3.75ips transfers. Any of the '70s Teacs will need attention to the braking system and the pinch roller, fairly minor repairs/adjustments.

 

Get the Otari MX 5050 BII and you are all set, best bang for the buck out there in what you are looking for!!!

 

You'll find Teacs out there easily. Not as many Otaris. The Teac 2300S or SD (Dolby version) is often seen on that auction site.