Any Reel to Reel users out there?

I own two: I have an MCI 1" 8 track that is my go- to for tracking drums and bass. THICK. I have that parked at a studio with a Neve sidecar that my buddy owns. And yes, I have to pay my tech to get all 8 tracks working properly when I want to use it. It is very finicky.


I also have an Otari 1/2" 8 track at home that I use for guitars . Vari sped things, I have found a lot of uses for that and it never takes much convincing to work.

 

I used the 8 track version of the niose unit for my Tascam 80-8 ( tascams 8 track that was in fact an Ampeg it had a lot of dynamic headroom) especially with the DBX.

 

I did a bunch of work on the TEAC/Tascam 1/4 track units (4 track on 1/4 inch, 8 track on 1/2 inch, 16 track on 1 inch) in the 80s I have transferred all of that to DA-88 later on. The recording quality was not terrible but always compromised from what was available with a !/2 track based unit in good condition dbx or not.

 

Agreed , but the machines could be set up to give great head room for a small studio if biased properly and it sure beat fostex with 8 tracks on 1/4" tape ( i couldnt afford a 1 " 8 track.

 

Any of your guys ever record on 16 track 2" tape machine?

I heard that was the ultimate punch in tape recording.
More physical room on those heads.

Makes me wanna search for one. But the tape stock
might be pretty slim these days.

 

Yes, at Water Street Sound and at Ocean Sound in studio A they has 2 studer 24 track 2" tape machines the beauty was that you could pull the head block off and replace it with a 16 track 2" head block this was usefull when you had track pig clients, you know the guys who want to record Bunny Farts, becuase they ran out of Ideas and wanted to fill the gap with nothing.

I used to buy tape in bulk from a company called Imperial Magnetics and I could get Ampex 456 , they sold the pancakes and you just put the flanges on your self, for clientsI would get 1 pancake and split it in half 1/2 for recording , 1/2 for mastering , ( this was of course 1/2" for my 8 track Tascam 80-8 and 1/4" for the Teac 3440 and Revox B77 mastering deck)I dont know if they are around still I may look them up the next time Im in Vancouver, you coulds get every thing for tape machines from them , Like blank boxes , custom length Cassettes, blank DVD,CD's lables etc and it was at a great price.

 

Makes sense, since there is, as you say, more space with 16 tracks than with 24.

Mitch Easter still has the 3M M56 he recorded the Let's Active records on: http://fidelitorium.com/the-equipment

 

Let's Active? Let's hear it:

 

This is a great thread.

I only own 2 machines now: an old TEAC 2-track machine whose model number escapes me, and a 3440 4-track.

Did a lot of radio production and some music production many years ago on all sorts of TEAC/TASCAM machines - 2 track, 4 track, 8 track. Also such things as Scully 280s, Otari 5050s (being virtually given away these days...), Revoxes of all varieties, and the very famous Studer A80 24-track machine.

Not to mention my all-time favorite, the Nagra IV. Recorded/engineered a few classical shows for radio broadcast with a Nagra and two RE-20s (really) on a 6 foot tall mic stand with the mics in a stereo X-Y pattern. Ran the Nagra at 7.5 ips...sounded incredible.

Sigh.

 

Here's my old setup with a Teac 3340, and an old Roberts that was modified to read film sync signals, plus I had a couple of reel-to-reel 16mm magnetic film recorders.



I'll tell you what I do NOT miss about using tape: rewinding. Those long seconds between takes waiting for the rewind and re-cue tended to kill the creative flow. And, if you were doing it right, you stopped to clean the heads after each pass. Drag!

Everything in that room did what an ordinary laptop computer will pretty much do today — and no rewinding!

 

I grew up in that world!
Nice photo.

 

I did too it's like deja vu all over again!
except mine was a tascam 80-8 and a 3440 and revox B-77

 

Mornin' all....

Very cool pic of the old setup.....I also "grew up in that world".
That even looks like a Tascam mixer?....mine was the M208 at that time.

I can't figure how to post just this image (setup from 1987-2002) so here's the link to an image of my old setup.
http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=29106&d=1440526624

Got the Tascam 3440S in '78 and the Fostex Model 80 in '88 or so....both purchased new.
Yes...I lived on rice and lentils in those live band years to pay it all off.
In early 80's we used my buddy's Tascam 2340 in conjunction with my 3440S.
Mixing and mitigating generation loss was certainly a learning curve.

I got many years of recording out of both work horses but sold them both by 2002 after entering the digital world.
Although I do have some fondness of those analogue days I would never go back.
Just recalling the maintenance (which I did religiously) required on those machines makes me weary.

Many of the songs on my SC page were recorded on those decks and then transferred to digital domain and remixed.
If fact, in 2002 I had (24) R/R tapes that I had to transfer into the digital domain....took a month of Sundays to accomplish and bit of tequila to keep me going....whew.

A good weekend to all....carry on.

 

Here's your pic Chulavet:



Ah yes, I can smell that room!

 

Chuckle chuckle....

You have a good nose....I can recall it too.....ohhh....that incense.
Don't know how the Cuervo 1800 receptacle got left out of this pic.
Of all that equipment I still have the Randall Commander II.
AND.....I still have that state of the are Peterson Tuner from the late 70's hoping it will become antique. (which is in a storage box)
I had so much hardware, patch bays, spaghetti everywhere in the 70's and 80's I don't know I managed it all.
At least I learned early on to record at 15ips and not 7 1/2.
I sure burned through the Ampex 456 tapes.
This pic does not reflect my JBL4410's, Tascam S1010m's near fields and Shure Vocalmaster PA columns.....the good old days.

Thank you for the response and image post....you're a genius.
TBH...I'm apparently not cerebral enough to post an image...only some dammm URL!

Back to topic

 

If you want to PM me,
I can step you through the simple process
of posting pics on this forum. No worries mate!

With the new forum layout they made posting pics
a few clicks easier too!

 

Have a friend with a professional studio. He has a 4-channel tape recorder that he uses mainly when recording drums. He runs the tape recorder while recording, then takes a line out into his state of the art Logic Pro set-up. Something about more 'saturation' with tape.

 

Very kind of you to offer and I will PM you next time I want to post an image.
I'm not the most prolific poster but I'm here every day perusing the forums.

I love these pics of the old R/R's.....reminding me of the joy when opening a new reel of Ampex 456 for a new project.

Thank you....back to topic weed hoppers....

(EDIT: Huh...(3) west coasters in a row....'tis a pleasant day in California)

 

Yes it is, I'm heading out to do a gig in Ontario, CA.

Three bands and my front man singing debut!
Gonna nail it tonight!

 

Thanks! Those were the days huh? For all my gripes I did have a great time using that gear.

Thank you, nice setup of your own there! Yes, it was a Teac "Model 2" mixer that I used for 30 years in various capacities 'til it was falling apart so bad I gutted it, raided the jacks etc., still have parts of it here and there.