R2R capabilities
 

Ok, I've decided to resurrect my old reel to reel (Teac 1000R) and I have a dozen or so recorded tapes from back in the 80's. Looking forward to putting some current music on tape.

Here'e the question. And I apologize up front if this turns out to be a DUH question.

Current hi res audio at 24/192 is obviously better than CD quality. Can the tape take advantage of the higher res? If not, where's the sweet spot?

I have a Teac 1000R also, a very fine R2R. No high-res for these machines, however they are capable of some really good playback.

It's all relative to the mastering of the tape being played.

I worked as a professional recording engineer for 34 years. I used Studer reel to reel tape machines and spent hundreds if not thousands of hours calibrating and maintaining them.

S/N ratio of reel to reel is maybe 70dB at best without noise reduction (I used Dolby A and SR when it became available). Frequency response may go to 20kHz at 15 ips speed or above. Low frequency response is not flat due to head bumps.

If you don't have test equipment to calibrate your machine both mechanically and electronically, you won't get very good results. You need playback test tapes to calibrate playback electronics plus an oscillator and oscilloscope to align the heads and do record calibration for the type of tape you are recording on (if you can find reel to reel tape). You need to adjust record bias for lowest third harmonic distortion and then high frequency record EQ to get flat record response. You need to adjust tape tension (take up and hold back) and pinch roller pressure. Your rubber pinch roller is probably dried out and needs to be conditioned or replaced. Without all of these adjustments, your machine will not work well or sound very good. Wow and flutter is just one potential problem. If your heads are worn or not properly aligned, they affect many parameters of record and playback operations.

IMO, R-R is a dead format. Be happy technology has advanced well beyond the capabilities of the R-R.

Rex - In no way would I dispute your technical analysis and the knowledge you undoubtedly gained from your extensive professional experience, but I have to say that hearing some of the restored and rebuilt R2R decks playing newly released tapes at recent shows like AXPONA was an enlightening experience for me. I have never heard such natural sound from a playback system, with a density of tone and eerily realistic decay that I could only previously have dreamed about achieving. I am one who also appreciates analog LP playback but the R2R playback systems I heard were at an entirely different level of performance as far as realism is concerned. Granted that the tapes they're playing are around $500 or so and only have limited titles available, but I was completely mesmerized by the resulting sound quality. I still can't get over it! :scratch2:

I'm not saying it can't be a great listening experience or that it wasn't a great storage format for it's time. I enjoyed all of the work I did recording to tape and thought it was a great medium for many years.

I took a disk mastering class at the Institute of Audio Research in 1974 and learned how to cut master lacquer disks. After I learned all the limitations of vinyl and heard my master tapes turned into vinyl records, it was hard to listen to records vs master tapes.

My point was that unless you have a tape machine that is in good mechanical and electrical condition and well calibrated, the listening experience may not be as good as one had hoped. A great master tape played back on a machine in less than perfect condition may not sound very good. Proper alignment and calibration of the machine in use is crucial to the format.

I had no idea anyone was offering commercial material on R-R tape. It would be interesting to know the signal chain before the tapes were made available, i.e. was the recording done on a multitrack tape machine and mixed to R-R? Are the copies available to consumers made directly off the master? How many playback passes of the master are allowed before it is deemed the master tape has suffered high frequency loss? At some point, many engineers who recorded to tape because they liked the way it sounded (tape compression and saturation) started transferring to Pro Tools or some other DAW to avoid high frequency loss on the 24 track master tape due to playing it too many times.

I'll take a well recorded, mastered and manufactured CD played back via a good transport and D/A any day over all the distortions I know exist in the R-R format.

I declare myself a R2R lover, so Andrew, could you answer your question? In my experience to put my 45 rpm 12" records on tape was a great decision. It Kept the emotion of that sound that I love.
Is true what it is said about technical efforts that came with a R2R, but the experience worth it, even if you don't get the maximun performance.

Call me nuts, but I still record some of my better sounding vinyl LP's to tape on my Tascam BR-20. I think the results come out pretty darn good and I am very pleased with my efforts (generally speaking). The ATR Magnetics tape is very quiet and seems to be a bit better than the LPR35 (although that tape is very good as well).

Plus, those big reels spinning when the lights are low is just plain sexy! :banana:

Nothing wrong with a little bling in you audio room. :thumbsup:

I just bought a blank ATR tape and plan on trying to record a lP this weekend. Any tips for a rookie?

Thanks
R

The new formulation can absorb more signal than tape of yesteryear. i.e. Maxell, TDK, Ampex, etc. Just make sure you set your record levels so that you're getting good saturation. I'd say +3db is still very safe.

The thing is, your older deck is likely calibrated for older formulations, so using your VU meters becomes a bit of trial and error.

Do you have a good tape degausser?

Nope, which do you recommend?