* REEL * TO * REEL *

Can't remember what he said about buying the tape.

http://chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/msg/214576719.html

"The model A-6010 is a 4-track stereo, 3 motor deck, direct drive reel-tables and belt-driven capstan. Can take up to 7-inch reels. Automatic shut-off, tape tension switch for normal or thin tape (1 or 1,1/2 mil). Auto-reverse function, 4 heads, solenoid operated pushbuttons for the transport controls, Tape/Monitor switch. wood cabinet. Speed: 3-3/4 and 7-1/2."

So it sounds like it doesn't have the tape speed capabilities you mentioned.

old reel to reels for home stereo use are often labeled as 4-track recorders, these are NOT the same as multitrack/overdub capable 4 tracks and should be more or less ignored for recording purposes.

maintanence is definitely an issue. things can be repaired but you will definitely be sending things away for fixes- this is an advantage over 16/24 trk decks that must be field-serviced at very high prices. spare parts could potentially be a problem.

the otari mx5050 8 track is an extremely solid 1/2" deck that comes up for sale fairly often. but you should check out the tascam 388, it's like a giant portastudio with built in mixer feeding a 1/4" 8 track deck. conventional wisdom and john above both suggest that 1/4" is too narrow for 8 tracks but the 388 is a pretty rockin machine, they have a very loyal cult following (on the tape op board, nowadays, for the most part).

just be sure to avoid the fostex stuff, in general. the R-8 is passable, but the A stuff is total shit.

p.s. fong is thinking on similar terms i think.

I am back on this kick.

I wish I knew more about this stuff.

We're using two otari MX-5050's, a MCI JH-110, and Some Ampex A-77's and B-77's. I'm really impressed w/the 5050's for the price (JH-110's are even cooler but hyperexpensive.)

I will, however, reiterate that editing and track stacking is a bitch.

If you have any specific questions on machines, I'm glad to help to the extent of my ability.

Another thing to mention is that you want to make sure that the machine you buy will handle 10 inch reels if possible. Also, before you buy tape, make sure you understand the whole interaction between mils/length/sound quality. I'll post a link when I'm not at work doing about 5 things when I'm only smart enough for 3. Maybe one.

Thanks John. I need to talk to the band and figure out whether we are using band money for this or whether I am alone in my obsession and thus am spending my own money. Then do research based on that budget, I guess.

....i think benny is getting a portastudio, but it's just plain old tape, not reel to reel

on an impulse, i just bought a fostex a-4 four-track reel-to-reel for $30. don't know if it works, but it looks clean and powers up.

so where do i buy 1/4-inch tape? looks like this four-track only takes 7-inch reels.

Which Fostex model is it? All the ones I recall could take 10-inch reels, but you might need to track down some NAB adapters to do it.

oh wait duh you already said it was an A-4. Will do research, report back.

BTW, o_O to this http://www.quantegy.com/

you're right about the 7" only. BTW, before you go buy a photocopy of the manual from some scumbag on Ebay, here it is for free: http://www.fostexusa.com/support/pdf/fostex/a4/a4_owners_manual.pdf

dude ... thanks! i was just wondering how people get away with charging money for old manuals, seems like someone would just set up a free download site for these things like everything else on the internet

I still have a Fostex 8-track reel to reel (1/4" tape) that still works pretty well. Sound quality wasn't too bad. Kinda muffled sound and it's easy to forget that there's only like 16 minutes per reel.

BTW, o_O to this http://www.quantegy.com/

-- John Justen, Monday, 31 December 2007 23:12 (2 weeks ago) Link

I was panicking for a moment there too, but do you know these guys:

http://www.rmgi-usa.com/rmg_studio.html

Bought the Munich BASF / EMTEC plant and re-located it, along with three of the engineers. Meant to be v/ good quality.

i still don't know if mine works! i bought a couple of used reels on ebay then realized i didn't have a take reel so then i had to order that too. once it comes i'll finally be able to test it

finally got the take reel today and ... it doesn't work. if i hit play, nothing happens, but then if push up the one of the doohickeys to the right of the tape heads, the left reel starts turning, but the right reel doesn't turn, so the tape just kind of spews out. rewind doesn't work. so i guess some kind of mechanical issue regarding the right reel. going to find someone to take a look at it and see how much it would be to fix up.

http://www.dickdestiny.com/nomorepeas.jpg

Please Daddy, no more broken equipment that you put in my room!

n/a, are you sure that you are threading the tape path right? I think that the doohickey you're pushing on is actually one of the tape tensioning arms.

in fact, i am almost certain that that is the problem, so check the manual upthread for tape path diagrams. the thing you are describing is exactly what would happen if you were on the wrong side of the tensioning arm.

yeah i followed the tape path diagram in the instructions

huh.

so the tape is pressed against the thing you are pushing on to actuate the motor, but it isn't moving it to the extent that your finger does?

^^^ after all this b.s. i procrastinated for a while and then took the reel-to-reel to a place here in chicago to get it repaired. that took a while and a decent chunk of $$$ but it appears to be working now. something i hadn't thought about is that i don't own a mixer to interface with the reel-to-reel, but i've figured out a way to use my tascam 8-track as a mixer at least for now. i know this isn't ideal but i think we're going to do a test run and record some new songs on the reel-to-reel this weekend just for fun and see what happens

also the tape i bought used off craigslist is kind of shitty, unfortunately, but should work for our test at least

congratulations, congratulations!

ah fuck that joke doesnt work at all once typed. anyway, sweet, look forward to hearing about the results.

this didn't really work very well on first attempt. there were some technical issues unrelated to the reel-to-reel at first, which made me frustrated. then once everything was finally set up with the cassette 8-track used as a mixer for the reel-to-reel, we did some test recordings on the 8-track and the reel-to-reel at the same time. when we listened back, the stuff on the reel-to-reel sounded muddier and less crisp than the 8-track recording. this could be due to lots of things: the age of the tape i'm using in the reel-to-reel, the general fucked-upedness of our setup, the fact that i don't really know what i'm doing, and/or me being flustered and frustrated at me trying to make things work with my bandmates waiting around and being bored. think i need to a) get a real mixer and b) spend some more time experimenting at home before i try this again in a band scenario

i've been looking at mixers online but it seems like no one makes mixers with 4 RCA tape ins and 4 RCA tape outs anymore, just two of each. running the reel-to-reel into a mixer shouldn't be a problem because i can just run the outputs of the reel-to-reel into individual mixer tracks, but i don't understand how i could record on all 4 tracks of the reel to reel at the same time without having 4 RCA tape outs on the mixer. am i going to have to shop for a vintage mixer?

can't you just buy RCA>1/4" adaptors?

I have an 8-track reel to reel which uses cassette width tape and I found the same problem in regards to the sound being muddier etc.

that would work for the tape into the mixer, but i don't see how it could turn two tape outs into four inputs for the reel to reel?

i guess unless the outs were stereo, but i don't think a single rca jack can be stereo

I thik they can be stereo! otherwise headphone jacks would be mono

oh you meant the outs

headphone jacks are not rca

hey dude, what you might want to look for is either a mixer with 4 subs that are independently usable, or 4 aux sends (pre, not post).

on the muddiness side of things, a few questions - did you clean the tape heads before recording? also, if you were using used tape, did you erase it first or just record over whatever was on there?

actually there are kind of a billion questions here that could be part of this, but maybe start with those.

yeah i have no idea what i'm doing

the recorder was worked over pretty extensively by the dude who repaired it so i'm hoping (though not sure) he cleaned shit up too while he was in there

maybe call him up and ask if he checked the condition of the heads? i assume that he would have told you if he saw any problems or corrosion, but it never hurts to be sure about this stuff.

if he didnt clean the heads, there is a cheap and easy way to get the stuff to do it (and besides, head cleaning is one of those things that you really can't do too often, so you are going to need to have this stuff around anyway). go to (insert name of humungo pharmacy here, but the one i know for sure can get it is ugh walmart) and ask to get isopropyl alcohol, but be sure to let them know that you need the anhydrous kind (should be not less than 99% pure alcohol). you should be able to buy a lifetime supply (approx 16 fl oz) for not much. this is the same shit functionally as the megadollar tape cleaning kits that you see (note - only for use on the metal surfaces of the heads, don't go rubbing it on the rollers or anything). get a box of q-tips and go to town. just make sure that you give the surface time for full evaporation before you run tape on it (this should be close to instantaneous, but for cautions sake give it a minute).

finally figured out i could use my little yamaha USB mixer to run my nice mic into my reel-to-reel for home recording purposes. this is a little test, obviously a one-take performance, but i think it sounds pretty decent for mic direct into usb mixer out to reel to reel, then recorded back into garageband with no extra effects. i think i need to find better tape, you can hear the tape crap out for a couple of seconds in the middle of this test, and i could spend more time on mic placement and getting levels, but i think i could write some depressing folk songs and have fun with this thing.

http://scarequotes.net/reeltest.mp3

I always wanted to get a Reel to Reel but never got one. I did however go back to the future and picked up a Portastudio 488 a few weeks back. Always wanted one of those and found one pretty cheap. I did my first recordings on there and lined up the input and recorded and was surprised how low the recording level was on the tape. I forgot how hard you can really hit the tape with level. It's kind of nice to not having to really worry about clipping, unless you are getting totally insane on the input.

ha the 488 has been my primary recording tool for the past 8-9 years. mine is on its last legs unfortunately.

reel to reel appears to have crapped out in the middle of me using it. had it recording some stuff off the computer, walked away to talk to my wife, came back and it was stopped. now it won't record or play - the heads engage but the tape doesn't move - fast-forward and rewind still work. guessing maybe there's a separate motor for record and play and it died? have to decide if i'm going to pay $$$ to get it fixed again or transition to something else for analog recording, maybe just a basic cassette 4-track

Try moving the tension arm(s), sometimes those can get a little glitchy and will stop the play/record

what have you got n/a?

you know if you're just using a reel to reel for tape compression you can use it as a send effect (as long as you've got a spare stereo in/out on your DAW) that way there's no bouncing involved. that's a nice way of doing things.

anyone looking for a cheap r2r setup i highly recommend the tascam 388

we've got an otari mtr90 2" r2r just sitting here because the twats that took it out of some studio in portugal decided to cut straight through the giant cable that connects the machine to the remote control. so we're going to have to get a decent cable made up which is going to cost a grand or two :'(

http://www.killedby9vbatteries.com/style/Otari%20MTR90%20MKII%203.3.jpg

still the fostex a-4 i was talking about above. was never fully fixed, as one of the tracks doesn't work, so it's a 3-track instead of a 4-track

plugged this in the other day bc i was thinking about trying to sell it, and oddly, it was working fine. i started using it again and it worked for about 24 hours before suddenly exhibiting the same problems again. so i'm putting it up on craigslist. RIP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1tAYmMjLdY