REEL-TO-REEL MUSIC
Oh for the days and nights of open reel-to-reel recording and listening!
Forever used by recording studios as the first step in capturing our favorite
musicians music, and a mainstream of audiophiles - this format has been
replaced by the DAT tape system (at least by recording studios).
I still have my collection. What are you looking at above?
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TEAC A-5500 reel-to-reel (circa 1973): One of the first consumer
decks to have built in Dolby Digital recording capability and auto-reverse
play. It featured a direct drive capstan, servo controlled controls,
three motors (one for each reel hub and one for the capstan), four high
density ferrite heads (1 erase, 1 record and 2 play - one in each direction)
and both 7.5 and 3.75 IPS recording.
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TAPES: Usually on a 7 inch reel, one-quarter inch magnetic tape,
and defined by the length of the tape, the thickness of the tape, the base
material used for the tape and the type of magnetic coating applied to
the tape. Manufactured by companies such as: Ampex, Scotch,
3M, BASF, Memorex and Maxell.
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1800' on 7 inch reel gave 90 minutes of recording at 7.5 ips (inches
per second) - speed of the tape across the playback head. Also came
in 1200, 2400 and 3600' on a 7 inch reel.
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The other common recording speed was 3.75 inches per second which would
double the amount of recording time on a reel of tape, but sacrificed quality
of the sound.
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Other size reels of tape came in 5 and 3 inches as well as the professional
10 inch reels.
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The tape base material was usually polyester, mylar or acetate in 1mil
thicknesses, but other lengths required 1.5 or 0.5 mil to fit the length
on a given reel. The tape base material was also pre-stretched or
"tensilized" so that it would stand up to constant wear of playing and
rewinding.
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The base material was then coated with very fine layer of metal oxide
"dust" which would ultimately be re-arranged by the magnetic field produced
by the record head to capture the sound.
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RECORDING: Most reel-to-reels used a 4 track (stereo) recording
process introduced in 1960, but it was in 1950 that 2 track (mono) recorders
were common. A 4 track recording divides the 0.25 inch wide
tape into four separate tracks of recorded material (2 stereo tracks in
one direction and 2 stereo tracks in the reverse direction). The
use of magnetic tape is a very common method of storing information in
the video computer industries.
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Pre-recorded music in this format (for home use) could be purchased
as early as 1958 and I have many such tapes (a few shown on the right hand
side of the picture above). Music available in this format was not
widely accepted and is very rare.
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Blank tapes allowed me to record my own collections. Usually making
the "best of" or theme compliations from records, radio or from live microphones.
A few common blank tapes are shown on the left side of the picture above.
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An important part of the recording process was monitoring the signal
strength being applied to the tape. This was done by watching the
the two needles in the VU meters (one for left and one for right) found
on these machines. By independently adjusting the input level of
the signal with the knobs on the bottom left hand side so that the peak
position of the two needles was approximately at the 0db level a good recording
was made. With the needles spending too much time in the the red
(+) zone of the VU meter, the signal was too strong for the tape and resulted
in a distorted playback. On the other hand, if the needles spent
to much time in the (-) zone of the meter, the resulting playback sound
was to low, requiring you to turn up the amplifier to a point where the
background noise or hiss could be heard to a point of annoyance.
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A good history on recording can be found at: Audio
Recording History