Uher reel to reel question

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Reely, Jul 10, 2019.

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  1. Reely

    Reely Active Member Thread Starter

    Hello all, i'm new here and looking for some info. In 1971 I rented a Uher portable reel to reel recorder. I can't remember the model no., but am thinking it might have been a reporter or 4000. I recorded some local bands at oudoor concerts. I put the tapes away for awhile, then decided to put the music on to cassettes. I used a different R-to-R to play the music through my receiver and then onto a cassette recorder. The playback on these was all garbled unless you turned off one speaker--then it was listenable. I found out the tracks on the Uher were different to other makes? I think the Uher was as below:

    Track A ->
    Track B <-
    Track A ->
    Track B <-
    whereas other brands were:
    Track A ->
    Track A ->
    Track B <-
    Track B <-
    Does this make sense? Is this correct info?
    Anyway that old Uher was no longer for rent when I went back to the rental store. Fast forward to today and I'd like to clean up these tapes. I still have the orig. 1/4" tapes. I'd like to digitize the music, maybe by renting or borrowing one of the more common Teac or Sony machines
     
    Rick Bartlett likes this.
  2. GT40sc

    GT40sc Senior Member

    Location:
    Eugene, Oregon
    the format you want is called "quarter track."
    it was a common "consumer/home format" at the time...
     
    Rick Bartlett likes this.
  3. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    And the Uher portable was most likely A 4400 Report, which was the 1/4 track Stereo model. Saul Mineroff Electronics sells, services, and keeps Uher tape recorders alive at www.mineroff.com. I used the 4200 Report-S model for radio field work at one time.
     
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2019
  4. Rick Bartlett

    Rick Bartlett Forum Resident

    As long as you have a 4 track machine that will play 4 individual tracks, you should do OK.
    Might have to play around with the head adjustment for calibration to get the full fidelity.
    A great thing with digital software too, if you have tracks your copying in reverse, you can
    reverse them at the click of a button.
    That way you don't have to try and line them up and battle with phase problems.
     
    Chilli likes this.
  5. Reely

    Reely Active Member Thread Starter

    Thanks to you all for your help--much appreciated.
    Rick- do you have any recommendation for the digital software?
     
  6. Rick Bartlett

    Rick Bartlett Forum Resident

    I'm out of touch these days, I used programs that are now long gone.
    Cool Edit Pro and Adobe Audition.
    Someone here will be able to tell you cheap, or free software now available.
    I was advised that 'Reaper' is a good one, but I can't help or advise....
    Keep us informed on what you do eh?
     
  7. ajawamnet

    ajawamnet Forum Resident

    Location:
    manassas va 20109
    Reaper is really great - there's a screen shot on this thread of a remix I did:
    Led Zeppelin II - 1988 Technidisc CD with Different Mastering

    The entire download - including all the plugins - is about 11 MBytes.
    REAPER | Download

    Yea - Mega bytes. And yea - that's not some stem installer - that's the entire program, including tons of effects, full support for multichannel mixing and fully scriptable and customizable interface. Great support on the forums too...

    Not some bloatware crap so prevalent nowadays. The installer for Protools, the one most pro's use, is Gbytes in size , as is most other pro platforms like Nuendo , Cubase, the new Cakewalk thing, Studio One.

    Even the lower end stuff is usually hundreds of megabytes.

    Reaper is just amazing - at least to me. Written by Justin Frankel (the guy that made Winamp) he really knows how to do low level near realtime code fo x64 platforns -and both OSX and Winblow (which is what I use)

    Great interview here -

    Note his comment at 3:51 about his time at AOL (after they bought Winamp) and how he never wanted to ever have to justify making good software with business/ marketing BS...

    I've used it for years, I was a Cakewalk Sonar user for over a decade...Used Cuebase for film stuff, and have Presonus Studio One. I've done hundreds of sessions withReaper (some with up to silly amounts of tracks and effects) and with very little issues. Just a joy to work with once you get thru the learning curve.

    Just an amazing piece of software. and it works with using Audacity as a waveform editor - that's pretty cool.

    I did a lot of clean up of Sony Walkman tapes for a local college that had some famous 1970's lectures. Stuff was buried in noise, typical groan of the Sony transport.

    Cleaned up quite nice


    I mention Audacity - that's another great free DAW program. Not as intense as Reaper but quite usable.
     
    Last edited: Jul 12, 2019
  8. Reely

    Reely Active Member Thread Starter

    Ok, thx. I'm gonna check out your suggestions...
    My first search on free software came up with Tracktion T7 - anyone have experience with this one?
    A little disclosure here; one set of the tapes I have were from a Led Zeppelin concert in 1971 - I snuck the Uher into the concert by hiding it under my buckskin jacket - security wasn't as tight in '71. I was sitting midway back on the floor amidst the noise and mayhem. I probably should have had foam around the mic to filter out noises around me. After that concert I bought a Sony cassette recorder that had a split-head mic that supposedly stereo capable. That worked quite well at a Pink Floyd concert where they had speakers on 4 sides of the venue.
     
  9. ajawamnet

    ajawamnet Forum Resident

    Location:
    manassas va 20109
    I remember those Sony dual mic recording walkmans... fixed a lot of those when I was a tech. I recall one that had the postitionable mics...
     
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