on 3/26/04 4:44 PM US/Central, Richard L. Hess at arclists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> The track width is basically the same for two-track stereo and two-track mono. > Half-track mono is the same as two-track mono as far as I can tell. Both use > 0.082 inch track widths.
At the risk of over zealously picking nits here, there are at least three different standards for two track and/or half track widths.
In order of narrow to wide differences there are: 1) Ampex, 2) NAB and 3) Euro standard widths. If you use a narrower playback head than the recorded track width, you will experience the "fringing effect" which is a low frequency boost below 100Hz.
I hate on first broaching the subject to overload people with that item. Yes, there is a relatively big difference between US and European practice, but the three you list are 0.075, 0.082, and 0.100 inches wide.
Richard Hess' web site contains a wealth of information on this topic, and
there is some additional information at:
http://www.masterdigital.com/24bit/analogtape.html
I think your Web site mentions the "1/8" inch width, but that metric chart from Tascam on my site shows 3.81 mm as the tape width which works out to 0.150.
preparing and maintaining this information is difficult--please, anyone let me know of any errors in my site. I'm sure they're there <smile>.