Opitimum Record Level for Reel Tape?

I wouldn't feel too badly about that. There were a lot of machines sold with meters labeled "VU" that were anything but. There's an ANSI standard for the ballistics a real VU meter has to adhere to. Real ones are expensive, and almost never found on home or even semi-pro equipment. From the looks of it I'd guess that yours are closer to the real thing than most.

 

Thanks Steve!

Bob

 

Besides, as I said before, real VU meters are not the best thing to have for indicating recording levels.

VU meters, which have calibrations ranging from -20 to +3, were developed by the telephone co. for matching the perceived volume between sources on different lines. They were purposely made to ignore brief volume peaks. The only reason they are useful in a professional studio is that they are a known quantity, and were all pervasive (in the U.S.) during the analog era.

By the way, a word about record level calibrations:

Originally tape machine VU meters were aligned to 0VU when playing a test tape recorded with a known signal strength of 185 nanoWebers per meter. (Nowadays that's sometimes conveniently rounded up to 200, not a big difference.) When studios say they record at +6 what they mean is that their decks were calibrated to 0VU when playing a test tape that is 6dB louder than the original 185 nW/M tape, or else (which amounts to the same thing) they play the original tape and calibrate the VU meters to read -6. Then when the recording side of the machine is aligned, when it reads 0VU it will be recording a signal 6dB louder than with the old standard. (If I recall correctly, +6 corresponds to 320 nW/M. I'm getting rusty. Someone will surely correct me if I'm wrong.)

Studio line levels were set to +4 (most common currently) or +8 (common in broadcast studios until more recently). This meant that if you applied a signal 4dB (or 8dB) above 1 millivolt in a 600 ohm circuit you'd get zero on the VU meter. But I'd better stop now before we drift completely off the original subject into a sea of studio standards esoterica...

 

On the Nagras they refer to the meters as modulometers

All the best - Andrew

 

In this country they use a variation of that!

 

Grant,

Always the jokester!

Bob

 

Steve,

The long and short of all this sounds like something SH told me - "Trust Your Ears"

Thanks for the info...

Bob

 

I don't do reel-to-reel, or any pro tape gear, but I found that in the cassette world, the better tape was always less forgiving, soundwise. I could push some lesser tape and although I couldn't push it very far, it saturated gracefully. The better tape took the signal, but I could hear the effects better.

As I still make occasional tape recordings, I found this thread interesting.

 

I have found from talking to many other users of digital audio software, many people get too wrapped up in the numbers. I think there are a LOT of people out there who don't know how to use their ears.

 

Yeah, but are you a pin 2 hot or pin 3 hot guy?

 

Ahh...reel to reel recording.....a dying breed!!

You know, here in NYC, 90% of the mid level studios record ONLY to Hard Drive. if you want to go 24 track multi, you have to pay a premium now to do that!!

Too bad too, I love the sight of spinning reels in a studio.

 

Isn't that funny... Less than 10 years ago it was the other way around. Analog was cheap and digital was expensive. I think ADATs changed all that.

 

Yup, Alesis set the world on its ear with their ADAT machine. At one time almost every studio had them. And were only talking about 10 years ago.

 

Pin 3 of course! I mean if pin 1 is ground, what can be lower than that? So pin 2 must be low, right... Oh, you mean you didn't *actually* mean to discuss this....

(Lessee now, which of our Studers have pin 2, and which have pin 3? Doesn't matter - we never use 'em anymore anyway.)

 

Interesting you should say so: I have always found the highest output tapes to sound a little "hard". Oddly enough, I preferred Ampex 499 running at 15 ips to the sound of the same tape at 30 ips on an ATR-100 (properly set up, of course).

 

I would think the increased resolution allowed one to hear the effects of being driven.

 

Original Source/Recorded Tape Listening Test!

Guys,

At Steve's urging, I conducted an A/B listening session last evening with the original tracks I recorded on Reel tape for my earlier test with the very highest peaks recorded at +3, +6 and +10. After this listening test, I have concluded that on my machine I get the best results recording on EMTEC 900 tape with the very highest peaks at +6. The sound best matches the original CD source. At +3 the recording was more tepid than the original CD source and at +10 there was additional "color" being added by the tape. The color did not sound bad mind you but the recording was less flat and true to the sonics of each track on CD.

Steve has suggested that my machine was calibrated to playback Hot. This theory is beginning to make more sense when I consider that was deck was originally designed for making recordings with "EE" tape formula and my machine does have an in-board DBX I NR unit (which I never use).

My direction is now clear. From this point forward, my peak limit on this machine is +6.

Bob

 

Bob, this suggests that your bias is too high for your tape formulation. At +6 you are getting the high frequencies and the high bias to self erase a bit of the high end thus attenuating the higher frequencies. The result of this self erasure is a seemingly "flatter" response. At +10 you were getting far more self erasure and likely clipping and limiting as the tape heads "saturated".

Matching the bias and tape is critical if you want flat response AND full, flat frequency response. This is the major issue that made Dolby Noise Reduction an issue. People fail to use the recommended tape formulation or to check on bias and level settings to insure proper playback calibration. In cassette decks Dolby HX is often utilized to turn down the bias when high level high frequencies are present to retain flat frequency response.

Richard.

 

Bob, in other words, pick one quality tape, and have a qualified individual calibrate it for bias and level accuracy, as well as check head alignment and clean the heads. As a high school kid working part time at the Black Rock in NYC that was my job, under close supervision.

 

Hi Richard,

I have had the bias matched on my machine to 'EMTEC 900' by a technician. In listening tests, there is a just a bit less high frequency information on tape recorded tracks versus the original source. I never use the in-board DBX I NR unit when I make recordings.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Bob

 

Richard,

I keep my heads and rubber impeccably clean. In fact, I clean them after making each program, typically 2500 feet of tape.

Bob

 

I've just bought a quantity of Quantegy GM platinum +9 - is the +9 in the name just a marketing term that should be ignored ?

All the best - Andrew

 

Hi Andrew,

I am very curious about that tape. Please report the results of your recordings using it when you can.

Thanks,

Bob