Making a recording on reel-to-reel!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2024
- That's how I make a recording on reel-to-reel tape. Since I have no money for getting brand new tapes, I have to use 60s and 70s tapes that usually need some extra preparation...
- วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
dude you sound like the easyest man to be friends with
I love seeing youngsters who are into my long time addiction as a 61 year old. Enjoy the Music my friend!
hippydippy - I'm in the same interested he is and I'm 13, I love old music and tapes and don't plan to stop :-)
Love it!! I have been making fantastic music on my reel to reel. I discovered by using my DAC and believe it or not iTunes! I set it up to fit music as close to the end of the tape as I can, also adjusting the music to mix in the songs. The DAC makes all the difference as for the quality of the sound. My tapes really have great sound not to mention how cool it is!!! One bit of advise to you is isolate your turntable as I have experienced being able to hear rumble just by using a switch on the reel to reel. Also if you use a sub, turn it off while recording. Thanks for the video! I would like to see people rekindle reel to reels again. I am thinking on doing a video on what to look for when buying old tapes. Many warning signs with used tapes.
I love reel to reel and tapes! I just went to wal mart and they are so modern they don't even carry blank tapes or microcassette recorders anymore. wal mart sucks!
What is that record!? I had it back in the seventies. Argent? Almost sure it's Argent.
Going to fix up my Akai 4000DS so i'm checking a lot of R2R tips right now. Nice vid.
Okay, that makes sense. How much does the fidelity and frequency response decrease when recording at 3 and 3/4 rather than at 7 and 1/2 inches per second?
You don't have to clean the heads every time. The reason you're having to do that so much is due to oxide shed from using a tape from the 1960s. If you use brand new tape (yes it can be bought) you would be surprised how great that deck will sound. That is if the deck is running properly and is aligned. You shouldn't let the tape run over a cloth like that, that destroys the tape. It's shedding so much because the tape is old. Get some new tape, problem solved.
im getting ready to buy my first reel to reel.... any suggestions or recommendations.. brand? Model? Thanks
How do you set up? I mean what are the connections you make? Turntable to reel to reel?
The record player must be connected to a phono preamplifier. In this case, it was the built-in phono preamplifier of my Onkyo receiver. The line out (or record out) connection of the receiver / amplifier is then connected to the line input of the reel to reel.
DrCassette thanx! I just suscribe!!
This works for recorded tapes, too.
I like how you wipe the tape, i do that too.. a lot..
Naja, ich habe eigentlich immer nur auf BASF aufgenommen, da waren die neueren Bänder (aus den 80ern) die besten. Ein AGFA habe ich auch aufgenommen, mit guten Ergebnissen. Also so einen wirklich guten Überblick habe ich da nicht...
Your video is very informative! You should be a professor!!
I purchased a AKAI GX 4000D. It was not recording when I got it...I repaired that. However I can't get the tape to play back live sound. It shows when I speak into the mic the meters are working but what I need is for this thing to be able to play back live sound. I have two speakers connected in the back...one on input the other on output, yet there is no sound. Can you show a step by step as to how you would set up to use a mic and where to put your lines in the back.....thank you.
You can not connect speakers directly to the machine. You need an amplifier.
Is the technics a direct drive
Better not.
How about uploading some audio related videos yourself before critisizing other people's work?
This video is a piece of YT-history.
It is an old video, which somehow has started to gather a lot of views in more recent years :)
10 years ago
Wish you would have shown how much dirt was on the towel.
The camcorder most likely would not have captured that very well...
When tapes get old enought, especially poor quality ones, they start to loose their magnetic layer, i understand u can clean them with your method but that is în vane, they Will never be the same as they were, because u just cannot replace that layer...... It is nonsense to lose Time and record a tape, and then u find out sound is weak or no treble.... Belive me i done that stupidity
To do this to shedding tapes are useless but all tapes, especially open reels, get dusty. All is not oxide. Tapes can also get dusty and get deposits on them just from being used. The shown method prevents dropouts due to dirt and dust when using quality tape.
No. As far as I know, the BASF never used acetate to make their tapes.
I knew somebody that did that with a cloth. The only thing was, he thought he was wiping off the old music to erase the tape.
you need a magnet for that.
Like your video
Can you make a video on the actual connecting of the reel to reel to the receiver?..thanks
I guess your cleaning method is brand specific. If you had a Teac, Tascam, or some other brands which have a right hand tension arm you'd have to block the arm up before the transport assemble would Forward or Reverse. Without the arm in the engaged position the transport system will not function, on other brands that is. It didn't look like yours has a tension arm.
Correct.
Very informative. Thank you. You are too cute.
Ahhh, a gem from TH-cam’s golden years
TH-cam was such a different place back then...
Nice deck, i got a Phillips 4407, and i have a modern atlp60xbt, both units have integrated amp, so i guess i only need rca to din plugs then
Theoretically yes. However, DIN inputs are often too sensitive for RCA audio levels, you may end up with distortion...
I spent many years at Radio Netherlands and Deutsche Welle and never heard of having to clean a tape before recording on it. .
Because you had the luxury of brand new studio quality tape - keep in mind I was using some 40 years old consumer grade BASF tape. These types of tape deposit a lot of oxide, so you can only record on the tape after cleaning it - otherwisely you will have a head clog a few minutes into the recording!
New studio tape? The only time programs would get new studio tape is if the program was going to be archived or if it was a concert being recorded for the transcription service. Most of the BASF DP26 and AGFA PE31, PER525 tapes which were to record the live transmissions and then played back by master control for the different regions. Were so old the labels put on the boxes in many cases were even thicker than the boxes they were kept in. Both at DW and the Wereldomroep would for the most part only use the consumer grade BASF and AGFA tape for daily use. Sometimes we would also get in stock of ORWO tape, because of cost.
Interesting story, but the tapes would have still been almost new or a few years old, rather than being decades old. Try recording on a 1970s BASF DP26 today - it won't be fun ;)
They were not almost new. At he time I was at DW and RNW in the 90s. We still had tape from the 60s that was being used. The only time the engineers would clean any tape is if it was pulled from the archive, which had been poorly designed and mold became a problem. And they only did this when DW moved from Koln to Bonn. Deutschlandfunk, which was in the next building had an even worse problem. They just dumped the tapes. But if you clean it the way you did. Your not just removing dust, but also magnetic particles. Which will also change the BIAS of the tape and the recording will be awful.
Glad I found this channel! Fantastic Bach of analog equipment you have there! Sweet! Definitely a new subscriber here!
Many thanks for your really helpful and informative video!
You are welcome :)
You should put the like button back on this old post because I'm sure it will be up there! Cheers!
@Lachlant1984
The cloth was very dirty on the first turn, it got better at the secornd turn.
I don't clean compact cassette tapes. If the tape is dirty, I throw out the cassette, because they are still available new. So why should I mess around with bad old ones :D
BASF cassettes are a complicated story... if you have used a japanese made cassette deck with BASF chrome cassettes it wouldn't surprise me at all that you liked TDK better.
@djFadeOut122
Your video inspired me to make this video :D
I do the cleaning only before I record on them. During playback, I have to clean the heads from time to time. A bit annoying, but that's the way it is with these old tapes :)
Tapes by Maxell, Scotch and Sony sure are very good, but very expensive. I have one Philips tape, I like the plastic case of those reels, you can have an index just like with a cassette.
@margaretsville
Yes, first video since I returned :D
It's always different with tapes, maybe your tapes will be working fine, maybe they too need cleaning because of oxide that came off the tape. It's also possible that the air that's sealed in the plastic has turned bad and ruined the tape. Also that has happened before.
The recording time depends on the reel size, the tape length, the tape thickness (longplay, doubleplay, tripleplay) and the tape speed. I never care for what my recording time is, I just record until the tape ends.
That also depends on the machine you are using. To record with auto reverse, the machine needs to have 6 heads. The 4 head machines are only for auto reverse in playback mode.
Very nice demonstration and tutorial one,too. I think you would be a good teacher in your future life. Congratulations for the video.
@hifijohn
Wrong. There are two head reel to reels as well as single head reel to reels.
And if you set the levels while recording the recordings won't come out good.
@Interests2009
I had to spray contact spray into the speed selector and into both speed regulators. When I got this record player the speed on it was messed up too.
@Jallge
I forgot to show that in the video... the first time it was absolutely dirty and brown. So cleaning the tape was definitely a good idea.
@melitosse
I'm sure you can do that with a good reel-to-reel, but with this poor quality Philips machine, you better stay right around 0 dB.
@GanEdenAustralia
DAT recorders are interesting, and very high quality! But as I read in many many places they do break real easily.
@TheNewFormula
Usually there's just some dust in there. A paint brush and the vacuum cleaner are enough to clean that out :)
Wrong. Demagnetizing the had all the time is unnecessary. I only clean tapes like this when I haven't used them before.
@djFadeOut122
That's right, the brakes are no good at all. Like all the rest of the machine those were made of plastic!
I do the same thing. I have also come across squeaky tape and re lubricated the tape with silicone on a soft cloth and no more squeak
Squeaky tapes most often suffer from Sticky shed syndrome. Silicone might solve this temporaly but tapes suffering from sss better be baked and the content, if worth saving, transfered to other media / another tape.
Ampex, Scotch from the mid 70’s, Sony SLH/ULH, Shamrock etc often suffer from SSS
BASF, Maxell, TDK (all eras) and 60’s tapes of all brands are most often free from SSS
Teac, Akai, Revox... there are many good ones. Better don't go with Sony r2rs, those seem to have lots of problems.
@DeJayPlp
Hook the reel-to-reel up to your computer's sound input and record the audio. Then it can go on to a CD.
I have a AKAI 4-track reel to reel deck that's about 35 years old. Still works great. I record and play back tapes on it quite often.
@Interests2009
Yes, we do get WD40 here in Germany. But prefer using "Tuner600" by the Kontaktchemie company.
@giammyzanna
The lowest price I think is 16€. Those old tapes I usually get for only around 2€!
I've found one yesterday at the garbage. I'm going to safe it's life! It looks like the on/off switch is broken because that doesn't feel good, so for now it's not doing anything. Let's hope that's all the problems. You motivated me to repair it. You've shown it's worth it. Thanks!
Works like a dream, cleaned up a heap of my old tapes as they were leaving a lot of oxide behind. Thank you for the information.
Wow a face to that fine voice you have...I did not match you with what I thought you would look like. Just being kind to ya...thanks for all the great videos.....
What about 3% hydrogen peroxide on a cloth and clean the tapes with that. I read that TAPEHEADS says that is the only liquid cleaner they approve of? I believe they were referring to moldy tapes but wouldn't this be good for general purpose cleaning?
Good stuff, man.. I definitely plan to try this soon! I have all the equipment and then some now.. I just need to get some more tape. 😎
Make sure you get some good tape - then you won't need to clean it like I had to in this video...
@manyvideoinerests
I have used reel-to-reel for one or two years.
@DrCassette thank you!
around here, people usually sell their tape recorder, because they used years ago, and then put it up on the attic. when they were cleaning the place up, they found it again and put it on ebay. usually, when you buy those type of machines, you get a pile of tapes with it, because those were the tapes those people used when they used the machine.
those machines usually have some problems like grease gone hard, but that is easy to fix with WD40.
strange way of making a recording...funny enough i uploaded a video about making a recording too!
i hate tapes that pass off a lot of dirt of dust...i know what you mean, old basf tapes usually give powder that gunks up the heads (nasty brown junk). cleaning it the way you did gets the dust of for a bit, but it will soon come back...
i use second hand tapes by maxell, scotch, philips or sony. if they are not sticky or having tons of drop-outs those are very fine to work with.
@DrCassette it's a bit weird that those plastic philips reel-to-reels seem to have no good reel brakes. the reel just keeps spinning when you press stop, and lets the tape fly around, so you had to stop it by hand.
on all machines i've got (even ones that wind a lot faster that that philips) the reels stop immediately if you press stop...
Nice Video. But answer a question of mine. Is this tape made of acetate?. I´ve noticed in the end of the cleaning it have the mix of brown/orange colour. If so, why it did not suffered from vynegar syndrome? The tape breaks or worn very badly, and the smell of vynegar (hence the name). Thankx
awesome! I don't think many people would think of cleaning the tape itself like that.
I want a R2R, but the machines and tape seem to be very hard to find around here.
And I like that feature where you can check the levels of what's just been recorded. Every tape deck should have that!
Jonas
What a good Idea for cleaning the tapes it never crossed my mind to clean the tape always clean the heads and tape track.
I have a lot of BASF tapes as I bought them new in the 70s in Germany. To me they are the very best quality.
Warmest regards
Richard
Great video
Thanks Mr. Cassette I wanna make my own album, recording with a reel to reel tape machine.
I was thinking that the cleaning cloth should be very very soft for fear of abrasion on the tape. I think I may try this using my wife's cotton make up pads as they are extremely soft and will not give back lint. Great video!
Really enjoyed this video as some great tips in it. I have two reel to reel tape recorders and love recording 1960s music on them.
Nice machine. Maybe I'll clean my old tapes since now that there old. Never had that idea. All I did was just clean my heads & demagnetize them.
Its cool tips taped are expensive but i got brand new one still wrapped in plastic way better
And if you also scroll the tape twice for recording without a signal, then you will get more than 6 dB drop in the tape noise level.))
@FeCr3
Ja, die alten LGS und die späteren DP Bänder sind wirklich sehr zuverlässig. Laufen nach Reinigung perfekt! Nur scheinen sie nicht für hohe Geschwindigkeiten gemacht worden zu sein. Die meisten werden bei 19cm/s sehr unordentlich aufgewickelt, zumindest auf meinen Maschinen.
since its a 3 head deck (as all r to r decks are) why put it in rec/pause just monitor the input to set the levels.
You made it very unclear to the average viewer about how often to clean the tape, and you didn't even mention head demagnetizing. So, when your average TH-cam user, who just happened to buy a reel to reel, sees your instructional video... they'll end up scrubbing most of the surface of the tape off by over-cleaning, or erasing it because they basically have magnets for playback heads.
See what I'm saying? If your video is aimed at the novice, then you need to cover these things, "Dr."
I like the Pioneer RT-707 model. It actually has 4 heads, and I found a lot of specifications about it. The frequency response at 7-1/2 is supposedly 28,000 Hz and even at 3-1/2 it is still an impressive 20,000 Hz. It didn't say the frequency response at 1-7/8, but I would think 3-3/4 is a good enough speed that should give you long durations of recording time. Also, how do you record on both sides? Do you use the auto reverse feature, or do you flip the reels to the other side?
This is certainly very instructive and interesting. How diety was the cloth when you finished cleaning the tape? Do you have a procedure for cleaning regular compact cassette tape? I've used VASF cassettes in the 90's, I personally didn't like them all that much, I always thought TDK tapes were better, but that's my opinion. Your videos are always vey instructive and inspiring at the same time.
Nice video, but you forgot head demagnetizing. Also, the way you're cleaning the tape will actually remove the iron oxide on the tape surface. Make sure not to do that very often.
One more thing: It's a good idea to fast forward the tape through side one, then let it play through side two at normal speed to reset the tape in the spool so it is 100% even all the way through.
@DrCassette I'm guessing the tapes I used were standard normal position tapes, I don't believe I have any Chrome tapes, and most of the tape decks I used back when i used tapes on a daily basis were usually made in China or Taiwan or Malaysia. Welcome back by the way, did you enjoy your time away?
There are ways to calculate the time, though.
@coolbluelights You should check out the dollar store. The one i went to had them for $1.00 each!
Nice information. I actually have some old but still sealed unused BASF reel tape. Do you think it will have the same problem as your old tapes? Is this your first video since you came back from travel? Welcome Back !
That number is the tape length in inches.
How do you tell how long a blank reel to reel tape is? A lot of the boxes on blank reel to reel tapes say 1800 or 1200. How do you know how long you can record for, and at what speeds?
I use to set the levels higher, At the loudest points the needle hits big red but I don't get any saturation, the dynamic is better and there's less noise from the the tape itself.
Nice demonstration video. I was just using my teac A-3300 deck and decided to look it up, which lead me to your video. Cheers!
What is the general rule of thumb for doing that? I always see numbers in the thousands on blank reel to reel tapes. What does that high number represent?
Hello, And thankyou for the information, on cleaning reel to reel tapes. I was wondering if the same principle would appy, to cleaning a tape that has already been recorded, with music selections, that you like. Or if cleaning a tape in this manner, that has already been recorded, would reduce the sound quality of the tape? thankyou
I bought some really old tapes and thought, "Why would I need to clean the tapes?" So, after playing a tape I looked at my pinch roller and capstan and was in shock to see the amount crap that accumulated on them. So, if the rollers were dirty you could imagine how the heads looked!!
I'm glad young people are discovering this fine technology, they just have a lot to learn about it and its proper use.
Back from France? How much is a brand new tape for the reel to reel?
@Lachlant1984
Yes, I did.
Any soft piece of cloth will work.
@DrCassette Oh,dann haste aber gute DP Bänder erwischt! Die DP's die ich besitze(ende 70er anfang 80er jahre) schmieren wie Sau.Und auch wenn ich die durch Tücher spulen lasse wird es nicht besser.Die Tonköpfe sind in nullkommanix zugeschmiert. :-((
Bei meiner UHER aus einem Video von mir laufen meine alten LGS35 auf 19cm super,und wickeln auch recht ordentlich auf.Natürlich nur wenn ich das Band vom Anfang bis Ende in Ruhe durchlaufen lasse bei Wiedergabe oder Aufnahme.
Genau so reinige ich meine Bänder auch! Das geht aber leider nur mit Bändern die nicht schmieren.Bei Bändern die Schmieren kann man reinigen bis nur noch die Trägerfolie da ist :-(((. Aber diese ganz alten BASF( meist LGS ) lassen sich ganz gut reinigen und klingen auf 19cm/s und ner ordentlichen Maschine wirklich nicht übel!
I don't know, sorry.
Welcome back! I never thought of cleaning the tape as well, but it makes perfect sense. I discoverd that lcd screen cleaner seems to work really well as a head cleaner, seems to work well on vinyl records too, i tried it on a record I didnt mind if it got messed up and afterwards, it ended up looking and sounding like new!
Would using a static-free or reducing electrical cloth reduce the static generation? I'm looking into analog recording and unfortunately I'm stuck with old tape.
Make a test run with one of your old tapes. If they are not BASF tapes, there is a chance you can use them without cleaning them first.
A lot of people could learn from these basics. Thanks for making the video.
Another deck with misadjusted reel tables…. You can hear the rhythmic squeaking in pulses.
Nothing wrong with the reel tables. He is using plastic and metal reel combined. Improper tension. He should have used a plastic take up reel or respooled the supply reel onto a metal reel.
Thank you Dr cassette for all the helpful information contained in this video
Just watched the video right now. Genius!
Shame you didn't have it hooked up to your amp to listen to pre sound recording quality. Nice video btw ;)
The receiver has only one tape monitor loop and that had the cassette deck connected to it at the time.
Ok cool. Just received my Akai GX210D from the USA today for $90.00 US ;) Mint condition & also ordered some old BASF Tapes from Germany ;) Can't wait! Only just came across your handy little video! ;)
I hope you didn't take this video as a recommendation of BASF tapes. It's really a game of hit and miss with old BASF tape. Some are absolutely excellent, but a lot of them will shed lots of oxide dust and quickly clog the heads. The cleaning procedure shown in this video was my way to fix the problem, but unfortunately it doesn't last for long.
No, not at all. I had already ordered before your video popped up so will do the same with mine.
@@DrCassette Another way to fix the sticky shed syndrome is to "bake" the tape in a food dehydrator for a few hours. That will dry out the glue holding the oxide to the tape and stop it from shedding.