Cheater? That is a RTR. We are taking about crappy cassettes here. Good machine though.. it looks old. It that a quarter inch, full track (mono) RTR? I had a Sony model from 1969. It was no Slayer of even my $175 Hitachi deck. It had two speeds: 1 7/8 and 3 3/4 ips. At 3.75 ips it could do 60 - 14 000 hz +-3db. It had one VU meter. You could switch from manual to auto recording level. All inputs and outputs were 1/8 inch. It even had a speaker that could reproduce upper bass. It could take up to a 7 inch reel. It used 10 C batteries. Made lots of recordings with it. Nice machine. Not really good. Great for the day. But remember any RTR before 1970 couldn't do more than 15 khz. Or is this a 1970's model? Where are the VU meters? Was it just for playing back tapes? You really got me wondering.
Hey, no argument there. Check out the new American band, YYNOT. People call them a Rush tribute band but that is bull. They have put out 3 albums of all original material. These guys sound like Rush. Check out the link. The singer is the lovely lady ROCKY.
It is most certainly a classic but it doesn't hold candle to the Nak Dragon (20 - 22 000 hz +-3db with ANY TAPE). The very best 3 head machines back then needed very good tape to pull of full range recording.
Yes its just a solid 1-head player in stereo. All the speed you mentioned are correct and I have to work on it a lot. I got it right on the money and I improved the output signal. No need for VU meter. Its just playback. You know me.., I gotta have atleast 1-workhorse player. This is the beginning.... By the way John a bit of good news. I sold my 6300 10 inch teac reel and got a good money out of it. Now I'm ready to buy an Otari MX-50.. How's it going my friend?
What year? Does it do at least 7.5 ips? Come on! Spill out the money and buy a Studer A80, quarter inch half track. I had a fellow member asked me where to get his Studer A80 half track fixed at a reasonable price. No such thing exists in our universe. It is like if you can afford a Jaguar then you can afford whatever "Take all my money" fee the service guy wants to charge. I had a fellow colleague who had purchased an old Stephens 811D (2 inch 40 track recorder). But, poor Gerald needed the machine serviced. The 811D needed serious work. Usually RTR technicians won't touch a Stephens tape machine. He found a Stephen Specialist. The guy charged $500 / hour plus tax. At 10 hours work it was $5 750. That was the families vacation fund.
Oh man... just got back from the roller rink.. I'm sore. I did a bunch of superman tonight. Anyways on the otari MX-50 I don't know but I do know it can run 15 ips, So that's great!
1973 and it does 7.5 ips. and stereo. Oh man that 24 track that your talking about. I wish. Even thou I still wont be able to afford running and maintaining it. Thats why I just stay with my grocery getter so I can afford the honey...
Rush was a big name band. Especially when they got the best drummer in the rock era. Ive seen so many concerts of them. As I remember when I saw them the last time, Geddy Lees amp was like a rotisserie chicken cooker. I don't really know what that means. That girl sound like him. But I'm really a big foreigner fan especially with the original singer Lou Gramm. First time I heard him sing, changed my preference on my favorite band choice. Nothing better or best but the lead singer has to have a nice voice and serious pipes.
That's the Otari MX 505o (which did have a 4 track/4 channel 1/4" variant). The only other such machine truly pro level in the format would be the Crown 800-4 Trac-Sync version.
A quarter inch 4 track "professional" RTR is an oxymoron. It would have to be a half inch 4 track to be considered a Pro machine. And it would be if it were 1966. Pro multitracks start at 1 inch 8 track and above. I am aware that quarter inch semi-pro 4 track RTR were used in radio stations as such. But to quote Loki from Vikings, "Wearing a dog tag doesn't make you a dog.. " But, I know what you mean.
1973. A good year. DSOTM, Quadrophenia, Starlost, Planet of The Apes TV show, Get Christy Love, On The Third Day album and the year I started school. Korg: 70 000 BC would start the following year. ** Pity it only went one season. TV Network scum. Who can figure - Gunsmoke went 22 seasons but Enterprice only 4! Actually the Studer A80 quarter inch, half track is a two channel recorder. But there is the A80 24 track. Nice model. See if you can find an old Studer A800, 1 inch 8 track. Best time to rob and sack a studio is between 4 - 7 am. Kidding! Check out reverb. Lots of old analog 1 inch 8 tracks. Even a nice 1 inch 16 track in very good condition at a reasonable price. I of course have my 24/48 PCM 24 track recorder and don't need to rely on the superior sound of analog. O.k. that last sentence came out all wrong. Well digital had better specs so there. (Tongue sticking out in defiance.) ** Korg: 70 000 B.C. is now on DVD. however, be warned. This is a STRAIGHT SPIRIT TRANSFER. No audio or video clean up what so-ever. My review of the double DVD on Amazon.ca said it all: "....Pretend you went to LA and asked to buy all of MGM's 35 mm prints of Korg. 2 hours and $3458.34 USD later you walked out with all 16 episodes. After the people at Canada Customs decided to duty-import-fee-rape you on your MGM items, you brought the 40 year old film prints home, set up you 100 inch white screen, threaded the film through your 35 mm projector (You hand made that machine by yourself from parts around the house), pulled down the shades, tuned off the lights, grabbed your bucket of stove popped popcorn with real butter, and turned the projector on and..... Jesus! What a crap picture.....No superior 1990 Laser Disk version. No! No! Forget that fantasy. Either the crappy burnt "on demand" MGM DVD of Korg or no Korg at all.... What is the quality of an unrestored 40 year old 35 mm print like? Hey, buy it and find out. Jesus Mother Mary wept! A Hanna-Barbera kids Saturday morning show that was so good it could have run prime time. Only 21 minutes per episode. ......"
1/2" 4 track is real professional. But the only 1/4" 4 channel machines built on professional class mechanisms are the Otari 5050 and the one Crown model, the best of their class by far. I prefer 1/2" 4 track myself.
Oh yes, no argument there but I though they stopped making half inch 4 tracks. 2 inch 32 track is professional too, but since it is a non standard format many consider it not to be. This is bizzare to me since to my knowledge: Stephens, Tascam and Otari manufactured 2 inch 32 track recorders. But then 1 inch 12 track was a recognized pro format between 1967 - 1970 and only Scully made them. Wierd eh? Only 60 Scully 284-12 sold and yet it was at one time a Pro format. I even knew a guy in the early 70's who's studio had 2 Scully 284-12 synchronized together for 22 tracks. Beat that! Jesus.....
This recommendation of yours is really good... I'm trying to get my hands on the clean ones with more chances are they been stored correctly. The playback sound is an sacred marriage to the nakamichi decks. I have Nak BX-150 close to new just sounds phenomenal with this tape. I haven't tried the later high output pink and yellow cloud like what you showed in the picture. But how do you compere the overall performance between the green and that later ones? Thanks,,,,
Actually I'm happy with all of them seem to work very well and I was surprised at the value they bring. M~
Okay in that case Ill grab the other one too. I recorded foreigner no end sight album. Wow.......! Did you grab any new decks lately?
Of course. Who is arguing otherwise? The width to tape track formula stands true and tall, but (grab a hold of your butt here Mclov') it assumes all tape machines are built the same way. And they were: Studer, MCI, Sony, Scully, Otari, Ampex, Sony, Tascam, 3M, etc all built their multitracks the same way. Although 3M did use a radically different transport system. So they sounded the same. Back in 1973 - 1980 most 2 inch 24 tracks were: All specs are Record/ Replay @ 15 ips..... 40 - 20 000 hz +1 / +-2db @ 30 ips..... 50 - 22 000 hz +1 / +-2db Signal to noise ratio 'A' weighted. @ 15 ips.... > 64 db @ 30 ips... > 66 db Even the famous Studer A800-24, Mark 1 crapped out at 30 ips. @ 15 ips..... 30 - 20 000 hz +1 / -2db @ 30 ips..... 50 - 23 000 hz +1 / -2db The ex-areospace designer, John Stephens, took apart the leading competition and studied closely to what made it tick. He didn't like what he observed. Over design! The transport in all these tape machine designs was actually causing quite a bit of noise. Even the accepted balanced studio Jacks, Stephens believed was affecting the sound quality. Too many amplification stages. Was all this really neccessary? He knew the less parts the better the sound. By 1973 John Stephens completley redesigned the analog multitrack. His new superior design would allow for a 2 inch 32 and 40 track tape recorders that would sound as good or better than the leading 24 track models of the day. The Stephens 811D (2 inch 40 track recorder) press spec: @ 30 ips..... 40 - 22 000 hz +-2db Actual real world specs. Guaranteed by John Stephens himself @ 30 ips.... 40 - 20 000 hz +1 / -2db. Signal to noise ratio 65 db 'A' weighted. And due to the construction of his multitracks things like adjusting "height azimuth" of the playback head were never neccesary. At this time no 24 track at 30 ips could pull off such a low frequency response. And yet John Stephens pulled it off at 40 tracks over 2 inches. Originally he wanted to build a 2 inch 48 track recorder, but the 48 track prototype didn't perform to his expectations. Which means there is old 2 inch 48 track sitting around somewhere. Mmmm....Probably next to Episodes 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 12 of The Daleks Master Plan. I will be honest with you. I wouldn't use a 1 inch 16 track if you paid me. And those Tascam 1 inch 24 track (Yep, those aren't fiction. They exist!) abominations are even worse. Sounded to me as if someone got real stoned one day and said, "Hey, I got an idea. 24 tracks running on 1 inch tape.." Stephens isn't the only exception to the rule. There are other examples. Look at the Scully 284-8 and 284-12. A 1 inch 8 and 12 track recorder and yet their spec are almost identical. 284-8 and 284-12. Record / Replay (via tape) @ 15 ips..... 35 - 15 000 hz +-2db @ 30 ips......50 - 18 000 hz +-2db The 12 track was only 1 db noiser.. Four tracks more on the same width of tape and yet they were able to pull this off. How?! And the Otari MX-80 (2 inch 32 track version) Achieved identical specs as the 24 track model version: Record / Reproduce (via tape) 24 / 32 track models. @ 30 ips..... 60 - 22 000 hz +-2db @ 15 ips..... 35 - 20 000 hz +-2db @ 7.5 ips.... 25 - 18 000 hz +-2db That 30 ips spec is horrible! This is really poor for a 1987 model. Most 2 inch 24 tracks by this period including the Studer 827 managed: Record / Reproduce (via tape) @ 15 ips...... 30 - 20 000 hz +-2db @ 30 ips...... 40 - 22 000 hz +-2db You are right of course. Narrow tape formats never sound good. But their are exceptions. Another example is the Ampex ATR124. It had a bottom end better than any 2 inch 16 track of it's time. (@ 15 ips.... 25 - 22 000 hz + 1 / -2db.) I can see a 1 inch 16 track. At one time they were heavily in use in the West Indies. Throw on some DBX Type-1 and you are good to go. I have transfered quite a few DBX Type-1 encoded (Jesus! Mother Mary) 1 inch 16 track tapes at 30 ips to Pro Tools. Not bad at all. Not great but compared to a 8 track cassette recorder a 1 inch 16 track Mclover, it is like Pro Tools.. It is when someone mentions a half inch 16 track that I pee in pants. Scary. That is the same track width as a quarter inch 8 track. Oouch!
The old Fuji's are good too. But some that are too old can be a hit and miss. I have some tapes that locks up mostly at the end. I have encountered these phenomena since when I was young in different cassette tapes. The only remedy I was able to do is change the cassette shell. So far I have 7 of those now and counting more in the future... So far I never encounter this on a TDK. But I did on a sony, Fuji, and a few more...
