So if I was fortunate enough to find one of these reel tapes, won't I have a hell of a time finding a two track machine to play 'em on? In other words, they aren't going to play correctly on a "modern" (1970s-'80s) reel to reel machine, right?
Great pics, Ken -- thanks! I see that the tray contains a sheet of thick cardboard behind the reel, as does my copy of ZD-10, making for a thicker box. I think they dropped that extra packaging layer (and bigger boxes) after the first round of releases. Matt
Actually, they will play just fine on more recent reel-to-reel decks. I played and transferred it using my Akai GX-265D. The program is only one side of the tape though. If you flip it over (or auto-reverse it) it will play backwards. The tapes are well made also. They are thick and I didn't notice any print-through between tracks during playback.
You will not have the proper balance playing on a quarter track machine, no. It will be totally left channel heavy. You'll have to increase the volume of the right channel a lot and the tape hiss will kill you. Get a machine that has a button that converts from 2 to 4, a Teac/Tascam, Technics or something. Don't buy a machine off of eBay without making sure of the head configuration.
There were "modern" reel machines with 2 track heads. These were mostly semi-pro and pro machines, e.g. Tascam, but also a few prosumer models. I'd recommend one of the early/mid '80s Technics 1500/1700 machines, which had a switch that had an interesting headblock and allowed you to switch between 2 and 4 track. These are beautiful decks. As Steve already noted, you don't want to play a 2 track tape on a standard 4 track machine. That isn't going to be pleasing at all.
Nat Cole, Les Baxter and Sinatra all sounds great, but don’t overlook the other “pop” tites in the “Z” series either. Fred Waring in HiFi, Jimmie Lunceford in HiFi (by Billy May), Kenton in HiFi, Ray Anthony’s Young Ideas, Les Brown’s Composer’s Holiday and Nelson Riddle’s Sea Of Dreams are fantastic as well---and can found on e-bay in the $10-$20 range. It’s a great place to start to get the taste of these mixes.
There were a number of companies that released two track tapes. Those by RCA, Columbia and Mercury are now legendary. I have a bunch of these, though sadly, I don't have any Capitols. Some of the more obscure titles from Atlantic, Omega (Imperial), Contemporary and Riverside are the most interesting to me. Some of these were licensed to Ampex. Two titles I would really like to see in an audiophile release are "The Art of Pepper," by Art Pepper on two Omega Tapes and "The Boss of the Blues Sings Kansas City Jazz," by Joe Turner. The sound of the tapes reveals the recordings to be true audiophile gems.
I bought a stack of these for $25 each about ten years ago. They are mostly classical titles from Everest, RCA and Mercury with a few Columbia's thrown in for good measure. The Everest's are by far the most stunning. There are simply no sonic deficiencies among them and the performances are stunning.
Thanks for all these images, Matt! I agree with this, but with a couple of caveats. When I first heard the tape (first via a transfer from Matt, then from another friend's copy), as great as it sounded, it also sounded a little off in two regards - the overall image placement seemed right heavy, and Frank seemed to wander. I chalked some of that up to tape damage, but while that might have been a factor, it's really due to two other things: 1. The tape needs to be played back with staggered heads to be heard correctly "live". My other friend with the tape discovered when working on an excellent digital transfer of it (without staggered heads) that he had to resync the channels with each other. Once that was done, a balanced image locks in. 2. After the above was done, it becomes more clear that Frank "wandering" is not due to damage/tape handling of playback of a particular reel, but some oscillating signal processing done to Frank's channel when the mix was made. It's an odd, unnecessary effect - not far removed from the "widening" many of us do not like that was done to most of the Sinatra/Capitol remasters both stereo and mono - and not subtle. A review published around the time the tape was available makes what seems to be a reference to it, but because the tape/mix otherwise sounds really nice (unlike those discs), I basically overlook it. Some songs off it particularly really seem to bring you to the Tower in 1957. The only other version of the album that I think - as a whole - competes with it sonically that I have heard is the D1 mono LP, but that is a different recording setup (as we know). It's a great tape, even though incomplete. I highly recommend getting to hear one of these, or a transfer of one, if you have any interest in Frank, the amazing vintage Capitol sound, etc.
"moving reality of stereo sound" Looks like they made reference to Frank "wandering" on the back of the tape box. Don't let that discourage you from hearing one of these...
The Otari MX5050 II (or the later III) is a real workhorse, and it shows up on eBay from time to time. Most of the Technics 1500-series decks have developed brake and belt problems over time, but a good service tech can get those working (with the right parts). Replacing the pinch roller is often necessary, because they tend to turn to goo after 25-30 years. As Steve said earlier, you'll need to get a half-track stereo head configuration for these older (pro) tapes, not the later quarter-track stereo heads used for consumer machines. Some consumer machines -- like the above Otari and Technics machines -- are switchable, at least in playback. Ideally, you also need to be able to adjust the azimuth of the heads to make sure they're optimized for the specific tape you're playing back.
Seconded, my machine is an Otari MX 5050 B II. And has been a reliable workhorse in it's second life of ease after it was retired from FM radio production room duty. It was very well maintained and had low hours. Mine has a switchable 1/4 track playback head as well.
For an inexpensive way to play these at home, look for a TEAC A-3340S. It can handle the 7 1/2 ips speed. And, though it is a 4-track deck, you can select any of the four channels for playback. So, for these tapes you can select the two outer channels on the playback head. Not ideal, but not bad either! It is better than trying to play on a standard 4-channel deck.
Odd that Keely Smith got a 2-track release but not Peggy Lee. One would think that JUMP FOR JOY would be issued since it was recorded to 3-track. Obviously THE MAN I LOVE would have been a more popular product on this medium, but it still appears to be unknown if the sessions for the Sinatra/Riddle/Lee collaboration album were caught in stereo. Matt, do you have the I WISH YOU LOVE tape? The stereo mix for the LP has Keely's vocals out of phase. It sounds terrible unless you switch the speaker leads on one side. But who's going to do that ritual just to play one LP? No thanks. I'll stick with the mono copy.
I remember you and I swapping e-mails about this quite some time ago, and it still seems a little nuts, but hey -- weird stuff turns out to be true, so I have little doubt that it's true, as you are not the type to have lunatic rants about things. I trust you and your ears! Yes, the center vocal track does certainly wander a bit, and I was concerned with something being not-quite-right from the first time I heard the tape, as you were. Here's a snippet from an old e-mail I sent to our forum pal ArneW back in February of 2010: The problem is especially pronounced on track one, but continues to a degree throughout the tape, as it does on the other soloist-in-the-center Capitol tapes I have. As far as the wandering goes, Chuck Grenata and I were having this discussion via e-mail in 2010, as well, and got a detailed reply from a forum-known Ampex-o-phile, whose name I'm not going to share only because this was a private e-mail from him to Chuck and myself. He was specifically addressing the problems with track one, but I think it applies to a degree to the entire tape and to the "wandering" in general. Again, although this is addressing the severe wavering on that first track, our discussion (verbally, not via e-mail) at the time centered around the cause of the wandering vocal throughout the tape. Sadly, more and more of the hows/whys of this stuff are getting lost to the ages on a daily basis.... Regardless, on the whole, it's a wonderful listening experience, even with the caveats for this particular Sinatra title. Nope, but I wish I did! Matt
Matt, wouldn't an azimuth problem have been caught by an engineer back then, especially on a premium product like this? Given that you note other titles in the series also had this issue, it seems less likely... Wouldn't an azimuth problem have phase issues/sound phasey? I don't remember this tape sounding that way to me, at least once my friend put the channels in sync. It sounds like an intentional effect to me, and that note on the "moving reality" quote on the tape box seems like a pretty odd coincidence otherwise.
I don't think it's a constant-state azimuth problem, but rather a case of the azimuth gradually shifting with each mechanical cycle, i.e., a rotation of the reel, a rotation of the pinch roller -- whatever element is causing minute shifts in tape alignment vis-a-vis the head, shifts that would likely not be audible in real-time playback on one machine, but that become audible on the duped tape when duped at high speed, one or (likely) both tapes exhibiting minor, repeating, cyclical problems in terms of alignment, both machines running at (in this case, likely) 30 ips instead of 7.5. Because the vocal is theoretically at an equal level in both channels, any little discrepancies become audible in that mono element more than in the vastly-different left- and right only sounds. Member tlmusic has pointed out that he has some mono "N" Capitol LP pressings (made from duped mono 15ips tapes) on which he hears "swishing" from azimuth inconsistencies in the tape duping process, and I've noticed those, too. These are slooooow swishies. Were it just a problem with alignment in the constant-state sense, i.e., the machine needed to be re-aligned for the tape, the problem would not be with swishies so much, but with fairly-consistently-diminished HF response. Because there are slow swishies in the dupe tape, that seems to indicate that the azimuth issue is not constant, but dependent on a physical inconsistency, i.e, pull from a flange, or a problem with a capstan. (The rate of the swishy makes me think it's reel-related, not capstan related.) At quadruple speed, problems like this, caused by going beyond precise mechanical tolerances, would be exacerbated. That's my read on things, and I'm not in any way trying to say that what you say is incorrect -- no way! This is way outside of my area of expertise; I'm just trying to piece together the elements of a confusing scenario. As far as phase concerns go, this stuff is absolutely affecting phase -- cyclically. Here's a brief clip from ZD-17, summed to mono. Remember: There are constant-state phase/comb-filtering issues in the orchestra due to the use of spaced microphones, but there are also coming-and-going, cyclical phase issues on the vocal track, caused by things altogether different. http://web.me.com/mlutthans/Site_103/Blank.html Regarding the quote about "moving reality," reprinted below, I interpret that in this sense: "The reality of the singer's performance over my loudspeakers was truly moving," i.e., *I* was emotionally "moved" by what I heard. Matt
No, the alignment is not optimum and the S/N ratio from a 4-track 1/4" design will lose about 3dB compared to a bona fide half-track deck. The track alignment is still not optimum -- but it's better than trying to use a stereo quarter-track deck. Half-track stereo decks are all over eBay, and they're cheap-cheap-cheap. Heck, I saw a mint condition Revox B77 go for like $200 a couple of weeks ago. I bet you could easily see this on a phase scope. There is such a thing as a phase-chasing plug-in -- Voxengo makes one, at this link -- and you could "theoretically" automate the phase change during playback in a digital audio workstation. But if it's recorded-in to the tape, there's only so much you can do. There are some really weird things in some 1958-1959 stereo tracks, just because of the experimental nature of the period. For example, in the 1959 Atco stereo mix of Bobby Darin's "Mack the Knife," I notice his vocal kind of wanders back and forth in placement, leading me to suspect they used an overhead stereo microphone and Darin physically was moving around. It's the only thing that makes any sense -- I can't believe somebody would deliberately move the vocal around like this. It definitely sounds goofy to me, but that was the '50s for you.
Great thread. But shipping ain't cheap. Those only familiar with home gear like later-day cassette decks should be warned the decks are hefty hardware. All are full of aging caps, etc. Servicing (likely involving another double-round of big shipping tabs) will cost loads even if repairs aren't needed. To most prospective users, buying and running one can get very expensive fast.
I use this one for my playback of most Ebay tapes, it is modded and takes the signal directly from the playback head to an external tape pre (tubed) bypassing all internal electronics.
Thanks Matt. That makes more sense to me now. Yes, the phasey sound is pretty bad when summed! I even tried putting one of the sync'd tracks through a M/S decoder and heard basically the same thing re this. I also have one of those "N" cuts - I think an N16 side one of "A Swingin' Affair!" (I'd have to check the # to be sure) - that has the same problem. Weird sound...
Sounds like a freak circumstance caused by a defective head whose gaps were not properly in line with each other and offset in time by several wavelengths. This is not the same as simple azimuth misalignment, as such a head, if the error is just so, could appear to have correct azimuth at a given frequency (maximum high frequency output verified from both tracks) from a test tape despite this offset. I encountered a similar situation one time, dealing with a cassette someone had given me to transfer. This was a home-made dupe that had been made on a very cheap BPC high speed dubbing dual-cassette stereo. When I summed the two channels to mono to set the playback head alignment, I found I either had bright sound with an unvarying phasiness (unintended) on centre-panned content or very dull sound without the phasiness with the head aligned to compensate for it. This was ultimately resolved by adjusting the head for maximum brightness on both channels and using a digital delay on one channel to reconcile it to the other for the transfer.
