Open Reel Anyone?

[mstcraig]

...For the Audiophile in you. Anyone obsessive about these or is it just me? I have 5(!) of them, and I still use my ReVox B-77II w/DBX to make live recordings-I'm soooo out of touch and could not be happier! I started out at age 6 with a BIG old Bell & Howell tube unit in suitcase with amp and speakers self-contained. For the record, in case of scorekeeping: 1)ReVox A-77 quarter track, 2) ReVox B-77 2 track, 3) Scully 280B 2 track with 2 extra preamp units in Russ Lang Console, 4) Wollensak Tube stereo "Portable", and 5) ChannelMaster 5" reel portable. Anxious to hear your stories-I can't be the only nut! Still collect the prerecordeds too like B-C, Concertapes, etc. I restore & archive old tapes too-wish I could do what Steve does for a living, I would be in this side of Heaven!

[JonUrban]

Reels are cool! - esp 4 Channel Reels!! :D

[txguitar]

I have a Teac-3340S-4 track .I use it for live recording.
I don't really use it for pre-recorded music ,I record my own
stuff(guitar/violin)and mix back and forth to a 4-track Tascam(cassette) .But I have to admit the open reel is a thing!When I first got it(years ago) I did a lot of dubbing off albums-what a sound(so I know what you mean).
It's hard to beat it- even in this digital age!
txguitar

[Bob Lovely]

Originally posted by mstcraig
...For the Audiophile in you. Anyone obsessive about these or is it just me? I have 5(!) of them, and I still use my ReVox B-77II w/DBX to make live recordings-I'm soooo out of touch and could not be happier! I started out at age 6 with a BIG old Bell & Howell tube unit in suitcase with amp and speakers self-contained. For the record, in case of scorekeeping: 1)ReVox A-77 quarter track, 2) ReVox B-77 2 track, 3) Scully 280B 2 track with 2 extra preamp units in Russ Lang Console, 4) Wollensak Tube stereo "Portable", and 5) ChannelMaster 5" reel portable. Anxious to hear your stories-I can't be the only nut! Still collect the prerecordeds too like B-C, Concertapes, etc. I restore & archive old tapes too-wish I could do what Steve does for a living, I would be in this side of Heaven!

Hi and welcome to the Forum!

As my avatar suggests I am a avid Open Reel hobbyist. I have a TEAC X-1000R (circa 1983) that I use for recording various comps for listening enjoyment from my CD collection. I also re-master music as I record the tracks onto Reel tape. There a few of us here and we enjoy talking about our love for Open Reel recording. You have some fun gear there.

Enjoy the Forum!

Bob:)

[Damián]

I have something of an Open Reel fetish .. I've always been fascinated by the things since I was a kid, even though no-one I knew had one -- I just love(d) all things mechanic and electronic.

Some years ago I looked thru the local classifieds just for fun and ended up picking up a Panasonic model 600 or 700 (it's stashed away now), it turned out to be entirely something else than what I'd expected -I thought it was a newer machine- but I brought it home anyway :sigh:

It's a bit of a museum piece, really .. I did get up a couple reels of used tape with it and made some recordings, also opened it up several times for cleaning / oiling.

Electronics are all tube except for the rectifier. It takes reels up to 7" and runs at 7 1/2 and 3 3/4 ips. Mono. Has one 'tone' knob (defeatable) which doubles as level control while recording -also has an 'auto' mode IIRC-. Jacks are mic, line in and out.

Classy '60s curvaceous white/beige styling, luggable (suitcase-like), but heavy .

Some time later a friend brought over a Grundig, TK 48 if memory serves, rather large and built like a Sherman tank. Same reel/speed configuration but this one's stereo, with some kind of sound-on-sound mode IIRC.

I've managed to make a couple recordings on it and it sounds quite nice at 7 1/2; too bad the jacks on it are DIN and I don't know how they're wired.

This one also got stashed away, mostly because I wasn't using it and it took quite a bit of space. I'd pull it out if I knew I had a use for it.

Cheers,

Damián

[sgraham]

I have to admit, I was practially drooling the first time I saw a nice 10-inch reel, all properly leadered and ready for cutting (it was not mine, but ah helped!)

Sadly, lots of my (non-pre-recorded) reel tapes suffer from sticky shed, to the point where I can hardly be bothered pulling one out to play for fear of it having gone gooey. I have a food dehydrator, for making dubs, but for normal listening, well who wants to wait for the tape to dry out?

(And I still need to find a decent deck that will play all of my tapes, 7.5/15/1.875 ips, two-track and 1/4-track, plus the odd four-track, but I'd settle for 7.5/15 two-track and quarter-track.)

[Clay]

I used to be into rtr in the 70's before cassette. I had a little 4" Ampex portable that got me started when I was in about 4th grade.

I have recently picked up a Tandberg 60 tube and a Sony 250 (like I had in the 70's) at garage sales.
Somewhere I have a few live concerts on 7" recorded off the radio in the 60's or 70's. I think they are Allman Brothers and Grateful Dead New Years shows. I was thinking of putting together a best songs tape and see how it sounds.

They do look cool and are analog :-)

[Steve Hoffman]

Hey Bob Lovely,

I have a little collection of little machines...Like this Juliette 450 3":

[Steve Hoffman]

And this AWIA 60 3". This tape will self-destruct in 10 seconds.

[Clay]

Thanks for the Pictures Steve. Brings back fond memories.

[Bob Lovely]

Steve,

Those are pretty cool!:cool:

Bob:)

[Bob Lovely]

Guys,

I found this picture of my Reel machine. At the time, this was TEAC's top-of-line. I would best describe it as a semi-Pro deck. It has DBX I NR that I never use. One of my favorite features is the real time counter.

[Shakey]

I presently do not have a reel to reel but I reelly like to get one some time soon. Back when I was young they were the defacto standard. My father owned one, a Knight and I had a little portable (long gone).
A friend of mine had a working wire recorder back in the 60's.
Cassettes came onto the scene and pretty much signalled the end of the consumer reel to reel.
Those little guys Steve posted look neat, I want them. That's all I need, another hobby venture.
Is there any place one should start looking for a good reasonably priced one and are there any I should focus on and/or avoid?

[mstcraig]

Thanks for the memories guys! Nice collection Steve. And, like Clay said, its all analog! I don't suppose anyone here knows who to contact to get my Scully restored or serviced? Ampex people are plentiful, Scully people are a bit harder to find. My Scully works but could use some replacement parts, and I could use a tutor to show me how to set it up electrically for Emtec 911. I have the service manual for it, just need someone to show me the ropes so I don't fry it. Advice? Thanks in advance.

[Steve Hoffman]

Originally posted by Shakey
I presently do not have a reel to reel but I reelly like to get one some time soon. Back when I was young they were the defacto standard. My father owned one, a Knight and I had a little portable (long gone).
A friend of mine had a working wire recorder back in the 60's.
Cassettes came onto the scene and pretty much signalled the end of the consumer reel to reel.
Those little guys Steve posted look neat, I want them. That's all I need, another hobby venture.
Is there any place one should start looking for a good reasonably priced one and are there any I should focus on and/or avoid?



eBay!

Look under

Reel to Reel
Open Reel
Tape machine
Tape Recorder


You get the idea. Some good bargains there, on the big machines and the dinky 3" ones.

[ratskrad]

This talk of reel to reel has brought up something I have been thinking of and that is putting my JVC 1400 4 track back into my system. As a side it is because of this site that I have put my tt back into rotation. I remember putting dead shows on to tape and sitting back and listening for a spell. The r2r always seemed to open up sound or at least to my ears it did. I need to find some more reels of tape though the place I used to purchase them at went out of business. I came across a bunch of reels that had music on them recently but was told they are not for sale and was I not bummed out.

I do have a reel to reel story though. A few years back a guy started working at the place I work. We started talking music and such and he told me he bought a reel to reel but couldn't figure it out and I offered to bring over some tape and give it a go. Tape was from 11-1-85 Richmond Virginia. I had not said a thing up to this point other then I was a fan of the dead and had a few shows. Well I got his deck figured out and running and we sat back and listened to some dead. After Comes A Time played and Lost Sailor started he kind of looked at me funny and asked if it was Drums/Space into Saint of Circumstance and my answer was yes. We were both there with the same circle of friends that he was moving into and I was moving out of. Turns out the show was taped by a mutual friend that we had. A couple of months later this group of friends got together for some of us for the first time in 14 years. You have to say that this is one small world when it gets down to it. How we ended up in Park City Utah working at the same time and space makes one wonder sometimes.

[mstcraig]

Wow-cool story Ratskrad! I guess sometimes to go forward in life requires going backward a bit. As far as where to get tape, I recommend TapeWorks Texas, and stick to Emtec(BASF) brand tape. Tell them I sent you! Who says old fashioned open reel can't bring the world together?!

[oxenholme]

When I got made redundant in '87 I used some of the money to buy a simul-synch Revox B77 2 track high speed deck. I use it mainly to record my own guitar playing - the first recording I made being within five minutes of getting it out of its packaging. I twin-tracked an instrumental using my left handed Gibson Les Paul De-Luxe through a Peavey amplifier (more to use its reverb than anything else. It still sounds superb.

Incidentally, I bought a Ferrograph 4 track deck for £5 from a car boot sale. It weighs a ton and works okay.

More recently I use a Mackie mixer plugged into my Philips stand alone CD recorder. It gives quite good results, but not as good as the B77.

[Bob Lovely]

Originally posted by mstcraig
Wow-cool story Ratskrad! I guess sometimes to go forward in life requires going backward a bit. As far as where to get tape, I recommend TapeWorks Texas, and stick to Emtec(BASF) brand tape. Tell them I sent you! Who says old fashioned open reel can't bring the world together?!

Yep, I like EMTEC the best! I do all of my recording and mastering on EMTEC 900 - had my machine biased for it...

Bob:)

[sgraham]

WHen I was a boy I would have killed for a tape recorder of almost any description. I finally got one for Christmas in 1967. It was one of the little GE 3.75" machines. This was better than my friends's decks because it had real capstan drive. Of course it was also incompatible because theirs were reel-driven, which meant the tape got faster and faster as the takeup reel filled up. The GE had a capstan sleeve which you put on to run it at 3.75 ips, and took off to run at 1 7/8 ips. (No change in EQ or bias!) Actually I think the bias oscillator stopped working after a while, as the tapes started to sound really distorted. But I remember taping the moon landing with it, using ultra thin tape running at the slow speed, with the microphone mounted on a Meccano (think Erector Set) "mike stand" right in front of the TV speaker (off to the side slightly to avoid buzz!) I don't know what happened to that tape, though, it's gone forever.

[Damián]

Originally posted by sgraham
I remember taping the moon landing with it, using ultra thin tape running at the slow speed, with the microphone mounted on a Meccano (think Erector Set) "mike stand" right in front of the TV speaker (off to the side slightly to avoid buzz!) I don't know what happened to that tape, though, it's gone forever.

Some anecdote! :)

Wanted to ask you guys a question: I've always been a bit confused by the 'n-tracks, m-channels' designation on R2R machines. I do understand what a track ('strip' on the tape) and a channel (L channel, or R channel, or what-have-you) are, but can't quite understand the the 'n-tracks, m-channels' stuff.

Anyone care to explain? Thanks in advance

Cheers,

Damián

[Bob Lovely]

Originally posted by Damián


Some anecdote! :)

Wanted to ask you guys a question: I've always been a bit confused by the 'n-tracks, m-channels' designation on R2R machines. I do understand what a track ('strip' on the tape) and a channel (L channel, or R channel, or what-have-you) are, but can't quite understand the the 'n-tracks, m-channels' stuff.

Anyone care to explain? Thanks in advance

Cheers,

Damián

Damian,

On 1/4 inch tape:

1/4 Track - records two tracks in each direction (most consumer Reel machines)

1/2 Track - records two tracks in one direction (a few consumer machines, Pro machines)

4 Track - records 4 channels in one direction

Then with 1/2 and one inch tape there are Pro machines that can have 8, 16, 24 tracks, etc. (big money)

Hope this helps...

Bob:)

[JonUrban]

Most consumer recorders record like this:

>>>>>Left channel side one>>>>>>>>
<<<< >>>>>Right Channel side one>>>>>>>
<<<<>>>>>>

This prevents the channels from bleeding into each other

A 4 channel reel plays only in one direction

>>>>>>>>Front Left>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Front Right>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Rear Left>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Rear Right>>>>>>>>>

I think that is close, someone else here can correct if I have the channels wrong, it's been a while! :D

[Damián]

Originally posted by oblio98
Most consumer recorders record like this:

(most useful diagram deleted)


Thanks a lot Bob and oblio98 ..

This last configuration you [oblio98] mention is the same that's pictured on the manual for my Fostex cassette four-track, FWIW.

Also now our posts in your 'Q about working with mono WAVs on PC' makes more sense, see? Look at your first diagram.

See how for one side you've got one track closer to the edge of the tapes (which almost invariably will be the portion that eventually develops the most crinkles, even if just from the back-and-forth travel across the tape path and to/from the reels)?

That's why it's highly probable that the track on the inside of the tape for a given side is in better condition, as far as I understand.

BTW, since I've mentioned cassette four-tracks .. how do those stack up to other audio gear, considering the speed is double that of standard cassettes, as well as the fact that the units are usually biased for High Bias tape?

[JonUrban]

That's the one I used, now I just have to burn it.

I think the reason folks do not like the cassette is that there is very little "tape" for the information to reside on. The tracks are very narrow.