Re: [ARSCLIST] 1/4" tape player

[Scott Phillips <scottp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

..for home use a MX-5050 Otari would also be fine, I'd guess. Some of
them had both quarter and half track heads on them, with a switch on the
head stack to go between them. Spare parts are available. 

One (but hardly the only one) difference between the Technics, Revox,
and 5050 sort of machines and full tilt pro machines (Studers, high end
Otari, Sony APR / MCI, Ampex, etc.) is how gently they treat the tape.
If this (and ease of alignment, sturdy construction, sound quality,
etc.) is important to you, than bite the bullet and go for the used pro
machine. I suspect that most of your home recordings, by way of when
they were recorded, may be half track mono. If so, a pro machine with
half track stereo heads (this was by far the most common pro 1/4" head
configuration) will work perfectly for you. Quarter track stereo was
never a common configuration for pro machines except perhaps in radio
stations, so a pro machine with that configuration already mounted is
harder to find. It wasn't a problem to fit them to the pro machines, it
was / is easy, it just wasn't a commonly used pro configuration. Richard
Hess has more headstack configurations then you can shake a stick at for
his Sony APR machines... they just screw on to the machines, a brief
alignment procedure, and he is set to go.

As long as you are doing this for personal use only, you might not need
any of the used pro machines out there. They are available for very,
very reasonable prices, although they can be physically larger. From
what you've said, size does matter..!  All the pro machines will work at
any common AC line voltage, as will the majority of the higher end
consumer machines. 

..hope this helps..!

Scott

-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David Lennick
Sent: Friday, December 28, 2007 10:36 AM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] 1/4" tape player

Sounds as if a Technics 1500 would fit the bill. Half- and quarter-track
stereo and mono playback, 3 speeds (15/7.5/3.75). For slower speeds, a
garden variety consumer machine might be sufficient if merely
auditioning the tapes is the current plan.

dl

Scott Phillips wrote:
> That limits this some. So you turned the tape over to record the
second
> side, correct?
> 
> Were they momo or stereo? If they were mono, then it is likely you
need
> a machine with 1/4" 'half track' heads. If it was stereo, then it
would
> be 1/4" 'quarter track' heads....
> 
> Scott 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
> [mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of D P Ingram
> Sent: Friday, December 28, 2007 9:23 AM
> To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] 1/4" tape player
> 
> On 24 dec 2007, at 22.09, Cary Ginell wrote:
> 
> Thanks all for the various replies that came over the holidays. I had
> not thought to post a lot of information since it was probably
> tangential to the list :)
> 
> The primary aim is to go through several hundred old tape reels
> (including, I guess, many "home audio" recordings to save any
> interesting fragments for the future. So the odd (what's the
> translation) multi track format where you could double up the tape to
> save tape (I remember doing that in the 70s anyway with the family set
> we had at home whilst recording pop music).  Good output and
> reliability. The reason for the trolley is that the studio is quite
full
> already and not a lot of space for a large bookshelf unit and the
> trolley would be good to move out as required into store rather than
me
> doing even more back injuries and problems than before :)
> 
> Plus, since I am in Europe, I didn't feel it helpful asking for so
> detailed information in case models were US only (110v) or people
would
> go to trouble of saying "try XYZ in Washington, DC" and the like as I
am
> sure the freight would be expensive !
> 
> But thanks for the good tips so far :) Cheers, Darren
> 
>