Reel tapes recommendations

storing 2 track tapes as tails out may have been important when they were new but not now. Tails out was to reduce print through, and Print though declines with time in a log scale. So most of these tapes are now over 50 yrs old. You would do more damage fast winding these tapes on a deck to reach the beginning that you would storing them heads out.

Mitch4t-actually, a 'work-around' is available, as outlined in a post above: store the tapes 'tails-out', and when you want to play the tape, fast rewind, play, and again, store tails-out. Yes, you *do* need to listen to the entire tape, but you don't need to wait for a normal-speed rewind. I use a consistent theme of different colored leader tape for tips and tails, so I know at a glance how the tape is being stored, whether it be 4 track or 2 track.

Congratulations on getting into the RTR sound with TTP and a Studer A810. Both are quality products and should more than rival the same music on vinyl. However, just as with vinyl, you need to take care of the media and the machine.

Most of the tape available on ebay was produced when 7 1/2 & 3 3/4 ips and four tracks on 1/4 inch were an accepted media. You might be lucky enough to find an exception but the quest might not be worth the trouble.
There are those out there who own master tapes, or more likely copies, that will sell a dub, but you buy them without hearing them and the cost is higher per reel, than TTP. In most cases the sound is still better than the vinyl recording but you take your chances.

Regarding the operating position of the A810. I own a pair of A810s and originally ran them on their back. They ran extremely hot. One got so hot that the pinch roller softened enough to stick to the tape as it passed the capstan. It doubled around the pinch roller and ate about 15 inches of my TTP issue 2 tape. Fortunately, it was at a spot where a loss of one second of music wasn't noticeable. At the time I was making a safety copy of that tape! As it turned out, both machines had the original pinch rollers. Studer outsourced some of the rollers and determined that the material their supplier used wasn't cured properly. I purchased new rollers for both machines to eliminate the problem from reoccurring. I also stopped running the machines in a horizontal position. Stand them up and they'll run cooler. You can also get better cooling by loosening the two screws at the bottom left and right corners of the pres. This will enable you to swing the bottom of the electronics out which makes it easier to operate and let a bit more air in at the bottom of the machine. This feature was designed into the machine to make it easier to operate in tight conditions.

You also need to demagnetize and clean the tape heads every 8 hours or so depending on the speed you run the machine. Not doing so will result in a loss of highs you may attribute to poor tape or machine performance.

You'll need to grow into the do's and don't of RTR machines and tape media just the same as you did while wringing every bit of sound out of your vinyl.



good luck, Ken

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I don't know which is better, but standing up looks cooler. You also may want to check the back of the unit. If it is vented for cooling through the back, it may be better to stand it up. Also, some units have feet on the back of the unit, if it has feet on the back, it means the unit can be played on its back without problems.
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Thanks guys. I just play the TP tapes thru so they can be stored. Good thing they run at 15ips. It sure is PITA but preserving those tapes are definitely worthwhile.

My serviced Studer A810 so far has not blown my vinyl rig away. The pitch stability, low noise and the front to back imaging are better than vinyl. However, it is not as transparent. I think the bottle neck may be the tape head or the old circuitry.

Is it better to stand the deck up or put it flat on a rack?

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Glai, there is no work-around. That's why all of my tapes were ruined. I had the big ten inch reels that took forever to play in either direction. So, I used the fast forward and the rewind, both of which were high speed. Does your rewind move at a slow speed? You could use rewind if your machine has a slow rewind. Slow winding is the only way to get the tapes to wind evenly. I didn't have the patience to wait three hours for a tape to wind slowly. Had I known that high speed winding was going to cause print through, I certainly would have been patient and wound them slowly.
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If you don't like the idea of playing your tapes all the way through, I suggest you record them that way you would not ruin your TP tapes.

The ideal storage method would be to keep the tapes "tails out" if they are unidirectional recordings such as 2 track stereo or 4 track quad (or multitrack masters for that matter). Play the tape onto a take up reel, and store the reel played. When you want to listen to the reel, you rewind it onto a supply reel and when done listening, you will have a evenly wound tape again on a take up reel. Then just store the reel as such.

Mitch,

That would mean I would have to play the tape to the end without using FF or RW. That seems somewhat painful. Any work around?

I have a Studer A810 which is suppose to have a good drive mechansim. I certainly don't wnat to damage the tape project tapes.

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You can prevent it by making sure your tapes are wound slowly, which makes them wind evenly. Using the fast forward and fast rewind causes the cape to wind unevenly. Once you have print-through, it cannot be corrected or removed....the tape is ruined.
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These r helpful tips. Anyway to remove or prevent print thru?

Glai,
Connect Track 1 and 3 outputs to your preamp if you are playing a two-track tape on four-track heads. Leave 2 and 4 open. If that doesn't work try using Track 2 and Track 4 outputs only. See if that remedies the problem. Often it is not "print-through" but simply the manner in which the tracks were recorded on the specific tape, or more accurately, the width of the track on the tape.

Two track tapes can be played on a 4 track machine but one of channels will be very weak. Best to use a two track machine to play two track tapes, like Tapeproject, Quinton and broadcast tapes. Machine's like the Technics 15xx have in addition to being two track machines, a 4 track switch. As with all aged tapes, best to clean heads very often.

I have quite s few r2r tapes obviusly never played. The ones I played are fine. Any suggestions as to care of the unplayed tapes. My guess is to leave them as found until
ready to play???

what Mitch4t said, I got a few of those that I had to throw out. Still mad about it because one was Jeff Beck live (with Rod the Mod singing Ain't superstitous!) and I know that's gone forever...

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No,.... what you have is a condition called print-through. Somewhere in the tapes lifespan the tape was stored unevenly wound, which causes the print-through sensation you are hearing. The tape you have is ruined.
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Thanks for the tip. I recently got some tapes from ebay and it sounded like two different music pieces are being played at the same time. Is it because I am using a 4 track tape head and recording is two track?

Take a look at Quinton Records http://www.quintonrecords.com

They are located in Austria, but are shipping some very HQ product to the US

Keep your eyes open for estate sales in your area. Lots of times, there are reel to reel machines and tapes. I recently "fell" into a number of Reiner/Chicago RCAs on 7 inch reels as well as a number of Mercury recordings by Dorati, Paray, Fennell, etc. For 40 - 50 year old tape, most of these are still in pretty good shape and sound remarkable.