I truly love your love for this recorder ... I feel like you I have several machines and hundreds of tapes ... High maintenance ... I received a package from my uncle ... About 150 tapes of my father's band from late 50s early 60s ... My father played classical guitar and focused on romance love music ... He is 91 and is fighting cancer ... I sit in the hospital till 1.am ... Every night ... Love my dad and hope I can transfer his band and even him singing at the age of 19 years old ... Much love and respect ...
So, ur British. Far out! When u said motorbike...yup or Australian. Just got a Teac X-3 Great sound dynamics. Gotta get some leader tape for sure. Its,a whole new thing for me. I want to tape from record albums and CD. U R right, putting an album.on a Turntable hooked to a very good receiver sx950. Threading tape thru a humongous non enclosed reel2reel is spiffy. I have a lot to learn and I bloody well love it. Say HI to Rumpole of the Bailey for me?
Very relatable content. I was chuckling at your self deprication around the pie-in-the-sky romance of the whole thing. I also had a whale of a time when I borrowed the school four-track on weekends in the 90s and then going to a studio with my band to record on 16 track tape with our arrangement and track plan all worked out and rehearsed. The only thing we used a computer for was to run the master out into it to create digital masters to go on to CD. Then DAWs came along and they're absolutely incredible, but there really is something about the pure musicality of just playing something through and recording it to an analogue format. And you're right, you do then get stuff finished because you can't twiddle about with it. I drew the line at going back to tape because I've created too many vintage challenges for myself already, but I've found a great compromise. I have two vintage mixers with gorgeous EQs that drive and saturate in a beautiful way. I plug any FX I need into the auxiliaries and the stereo performance goes into my computer where it's captured. I can't edit or mix afterwards, that's it. Done. It's so liberating. I've done a whole album which I'll release when I'm less busy. Anyway, very enjoyable Robin. I was very much with you.
That is also my way - all tone EQ, volume EQ , settings and FX is done in my recordings on analog side and then complete recordiing is recorded else to tape or digitalized to store on HD and then on CD - eventual applicable corrections after are to balance of channels and general volume only . And my recordings equal to best done by recognized music producers When I experimented on digital side after digital was recorded it was by ear less surprising . . You may see and listen some my recordings done with average class 3Head R2R and many with PC on my chanell which are - unfortunetely those here are sounding quite simple. Now I use better R2Rs - Uher (1/4 band widith ) or Bang& Olufsen (1/2 band widith) . I came to conclusion that I do not need tape speed more than 9,5 cm/s - tape has so much potential that I made for fun one organ recording at 2,3cm/s, many at 4,5cm/s and I enjoy them too
I went through almost exactly the same thought process around two years ago, I ended up getting ... an AKAI 4000 DS ! and I love it. I deliberately bought one that didn't say it had been refurbed as I knew I wanted to do it myself anyhow, even though it was fully working. Good thing is parts are generally pretty easy to get for these. A strip down, new belts, lube, adjust spindle slip and yes clean & demagnetize heads! - not hard - just keep the thing away from tapes and motors! and away it went, just have to agree with everything you say about the process of operating it is just somehow so nice. Tapes are expensive Tapecity is about the only place to get new in the UK £28 ish for lpr35 48min each way at 7 1/2. BEWARE old tapes - Some may shed their coating, literally falling off in flakes - no major damage to the machine but heads need a real good clean after and tape is unplayable. Tape can stretch and expand or shrink with temperature (and humidity I think) maybe timing problem? also tape tension looks like yours could be a little tight with the swinging arm right up at the top. Power switch just determines if its always powered or swinging arm switches it on and off (auto stop when in rew or ff). Use the pause lever and start button when recording to avoid the playing when switching. Let me know if there's anything else you have trouble with I've all the service manuals and some stuff I created when tweaking mine. Thanks for all the Vids.
Tape issues happen mainly due to misadjutsments on mechanical side. Poeple do not put enough care for it. They worry nly when tape stops tbut even worse is when tape is pulled too strong. I have a bunch of old ampex , shamrok , Scotch which I had to refurbish due to sticky problem but later after some even 10 years are working with no issues. But I had even to improve original transport. Unfortunately many R2R producers made them to operate in vertical position but were not provided with enough good automatic pulling in transport because it is too requiring . In my opinion it is safer to have horizontal playing R2R beacuse it assures automatic pulling forces. Studio recorders were horizontal BTW this recorder has up to my memory FX glass heads and it is exceptionally important.
This REALLY struck several chords … I’m re-exploring analogue (film) photography, and the parallels with the various aspects of going back to analogue-sound are striking … in their breadth and depth. Far too many to list out here, but they relate to “the investment of labour and effort”, “the slower, more deliberate use of time”, and the “less clinical, more ‘organic’ quality of the output”. I’d add, that today we have the unique opportunity to combine analog and digital workflows and effects, thereby opening up further channels of creativity and enjoyment.
This was SUCH a fun one. What I love the most is just hearing your perspective. It’s silly how some people think everything has to be perfectly logical, as though any human being is or should be above feelings and passion and personal affection for things. Good for you embracing your humanity in defiance of the naysayers. Enjoy yourself! It’s fun watching someone who is enthusiastic about something like this.
I recently bought a standard cassette deck (compact cassette) to bounce tracks to/from for that analogue, potentially compressed sound - including the possibility to incorrectly adjust bias or worse (for example purposely destroying tapes) for that warbley, wow & flutter, dropout induced mayhem. Perfect for adding some retro effects to otherwise pristine modular synths. I think with a reel-to-reel recorder you have many more creative opportunities. Enjoy!
When I was a teenager in the 80s I bought a couple of HUGE (maybe 10kg each?) surplus reel-to-reel machines from what they used to call a "Language Lab" where kids would practice speaking and listening with headphones on. They were big, grey, steel boxes that you fixed into a large desk. I had the time of my life learning how to cut and splice 1/4" tape, making loops and so on. Very happy times indeed, and a lot of learning happened. 👍🏼
Awesome ! The bit in the vid where you are admiring the tape deck in awe when it's playing is just priceless. I suspect a lot of reel to reel lovers totally understand that satisfaction. I've certainly felt that way with the tape machines many, many times, and even after many years, they do not fail to please. They ARE beautiful. Congrats on jumping into the world of reels............ :)
I’ve been working with a producer making our new songs on analogue a and tape. The way round this syncing issue is to send the output signal back to the DAW and you’ll have a perfect digital copy of the analogue sound.
When I was a teenager in Australia for a while, I had a couple of different R2R recorders. Mono, with valves in, big, with levers you have to shift. In 1977 in Melbourne I could just wander around junk shops and see them for nearly nothing. Where it all went was a kind of Frippertronics arrangement (with appalling S/N ratio, they were old and crappy) and other than that, a considerable amount of tape splicing. I learned tape splicing and that was about the most fun I’ve ever had in music concrete and experimental music (ie, take a short bit of tape, cut it out, reverse it backwards, splice it back in). Lots of fun. As they were mono, the heads only had one track so you could flip the tape over to play it in reverse. In future years I lusted after a TEAC A3440 (friend of mine had one by then) but to be honest, they were expensive whereas mine were pocket-money junk, and also the A3440 needed a meter bridge, mixer, and a four-channel DBX processor to handle the tape noise. All those fancies were put on hold until the 90s when I bought a Tascam 424 (still have it in the attic). It sounded good, had built-in DBX, but I had to forego the physical access of the tape as it was inside a cassette, so no more splicing (as much) and no tape loops, delays, frippertronics and fun - just the boring process of tape recording and doing it properly or not at all. PS a friend of mine here in London has that Akai R2R you have. He also has a vast collection of 8-track tapes and 8-track decks (once you go to a deck, the quality is immense). He’s really into all the historical media stuff more than I am.
Tape sounds fantastic when the machine is in fully working order. The problem is, people are selling recorders with worn out heads, cracked up pinch rollers, bad drive belts, all trim pots out of alignment, bad capacitors, and other electronic or mechanical issues. Welcome to the vintage analog world. You better take some courses in repair / maintenance, just saying. I know, because I own several machines, from small 2-tracks to huge 24-tracks. By the way, your machine sounds healthy so far. Good luck!
Welcome to the world of r2r! There’s no going back. They sound so organic. And real. You just can’t get the warmth and quality that those machines give audio from digital audio. I thought vinyl sounded good, but the audio from r2r… just stunning! Great video.
You did fantastic getting hold of that machine. It will make you even happier to know that Pink Floyd mad a demo tape for a radio station using the akai 4000ds mk11. I owned one in the 70's and gave it incredible abuse! Trying to look after it of course, taking it to bits and oiling all the moving parts under the silky silver front panel. I took it all over the place to mates houses into my garden up a tree, yeh the akai mic that came with it had a short lead, so it also had a few knocks and bruises but didn't damage the machines quality at all. This brilliant machine is a wonderful editing tool in itself. If you put the deck into record mode on pause you can gently move the spools in the reverse direction which will erase, so if you want to cut something out just turn the spools while in tape mode and you will hear the stuff just before it gets erased. Handy when I used to record the top 40 on the radio, I would clip of the bit where the dj introduced the record and talked to within a nano second of the record beginning, to discourage people from recording from their radios I think? Maintenance on these reel to reel machines is basically exactly the same as a cassette deck but easier cus you have more access to the heads. Nothing needs adjusting once set up azimuth etc unless someone has been fiddling with the heads or a new type of tape is being used, then the bios should be adjusted if need be to suit the tape. I use to use the 3/3/4" setting for the tape sound for the same reason you said, nice and bright and crisp although you can adjust the pots inside the machine to sound more or less exactly as the source. the wide range switch never did anything for any tape I found? Anyway I am sure you will get a lot of enjoyment from this silky dream machine you have.
I got an Akai 4000DB brand new in the 70s, still got it. I was given an Akai 4000DS like yours in the 90s, which I passed on to one of my mate's 'musical' kids. Apart from all the 'Saturation' and 'Tape Delay' fun that you can have there is a unique sounding 'distortion' to be had by overdriving the pre-amps. You Have To be careful though. It is possible to blow the pre-amp chips; ask me how I know ... 🙄
Tape playback timing is always an issue. If you take a line from the tape that monitors the playback whilst recording to it there will be difference of the distance between the record & playback heads. From that you should be able to slide and be in synch which means you can blend the direct to computer recording with the direct from tape recording - using the tape machine as an effect. if you're not taking the signal from the playback head you won't get the tape noise, saturation (if you recording at high enough levels, at high enough speed) that the tape may offer. WIPING the tape before recording over it is a good move - you could degauss the tape or, easier, run the tape through on record with no input signal.
I have said it many times before, and if i live long enough,I'll say it many times more, problem with the world today is there is just not enough romance in it. Every bit of the romance we can re-introduce, we will be doing the world a favor for it. \,,/ Thank you! I just had bought a reel to reel yesterday, myself.. so let's do this..
That is a nice machine. One thing that is a little cumbersome with them, you have to clean the heads and if you're new to it, clean the heads, pinch rollers, and guides after each tape. If you need to know how to do it, use isopropyl alcohol, I believe 60/40 will be sufficient. Also you'll need a Q tip. Watch a tutorial beyond that point.
You can record in a daw through your tape deck while live performance. You will have it digitally real-time and if it crashes you will have a tape and can load it in again
I found this exact tape recorder model some 20-odd years ago - put out for trash! I took it home, thinking it might somehow be beyond repair, but all it needed was a cleaning of the heads and transport, then it worked perfectly! Later I bought a Nagra IS very cheaply at a Danish National Broadcast (DR) flea market sale. These things are sturdy... - Good luck with your machine!
At 54 years of age I still use the reel to reel format. I was introduced to RtoR as a toddler. My parents had a console stereo with a Sony tape deck. My ears were weened on analog tone. From then on I was hooked . I was given my first reel to reel for Christmas 1980. While my friends were using albums, 8-tracks and cassettes, I was transferring albums to RtoR which gave the music a boost of sonic power. I hope you enjoy your experience with RtoR as I have through so many years. Cheers!
congratulations! I really follow your initial reflections on how alienating computers, menus, etc. can be. There is somehow more equality in the meeting between and analog hardware and human. I love your drive to seek creative impulses!
@MoltenMusicTech I Don't know if anyone has said This yet, but here it goes: It would turn of if the lever before the takeup reel would be down. That turns the motor on or off as far as I can remember. Even if it is turned off. Funny to see somebody so happy with a reel to reel recorder. Don't get me wrong, I would be too! The one that I have doesn't work anymore...
The reason you probably have a problem with syncing the tape with everything else is the capstan flywheel is on a rim drive in these kind of machines, so speed isn't 100 percent perfect. A more professional deck would definitely fix that issue. It's impressive that it's that close from the beginning to the end. There's a tiny bit of WOW and flutter when it comes to tape. I'm not knocking it, it's just the nature of the machine. If it was digital tape, it would be right on because it's servo controlled.
I’ve been working with a producer and came up with the idea of outputting the tape signal live to the computer so you get the tape quality but no syncing issues.
Found a old Grundig Tape recorder cleaning out my dads loft that I use to record songs on as a kid. Weighed a bloody ton hope u don’t fall off your bike! Have fun.
I agree with you. I've always wanted a reel to reel. I particularly wanted a Grundig reel to reel. About nine years ago I purchased a Grundig TS 1000. I love the machine. When I was in my twenties, the cost was too prohibitive. There is something about the mystique of the reel to reel machine and its format. There is definitely a resurgence of the old formats. Such as vinyl, cassette decks and their tapes. Oh and I cannot forget the turntable. I still have my Sony CD player/recorder. I have an old Super VHS Toshiba VCR. The sound the VCR is outstanding. Back around 1982, I purchased a Sherwood Integrated amplifier. It finally gave up the ghost September of 2021. I would say I got my money worth. I wound up purchasing a tube integrated amplifier by Muzishare 7. I love it. So I just stepped in a new genre of the physical format. But I had to purchase a preamplifier to get everything under one umbrella so to speak.
Nice. I found my AKAI 4000DS MK-II in someones trash heap on the side of the road in the early 90s in full working condition. I used it for a number of years and recorded some great stuff on it before going digital. I just busted it out after 20 years and it still works! Be sure to play with the "sound-on-sound" function for some really cool delay effects.
I had an AKAI 4000ds in the mid 70's and I'm pretty certain that's what you've got there. The time discrepancy must mean the tape machine changed speed between the time the recording was made and the time it was played into the PC. Not surprising if the machine had stood unused for years and was slowly warming up and settling down. I recommend you let it run for a while and then make a new recording and try again.
Being an old git ... grew up with these ... 2 track, 4 track, 8 track 16 track... Stockhausen time coming. Try and get a splicing block and spicing tape... and your joy will be immense. Also, get your isopropanol and cotton buds as well as a demagnetizer so you can keep it optimal. Ideally you need the manual so you can do some azimuth and bias set up etc. But this will be fun - and along with all your other toys such as synths and sampler you will really have a great tool. Enjoy!
Feel the same about computer recording, it just doesn't feel alive! I also have an akai 400ds, plus a Revox A77 and a Tascam 38 8 track. Mostly use the akai for creating and playing tape loops. Endless fiddling is the hobby for life
would it be better for him to use a stereo recorder as oppose to mono with just a left and right input.. would it make a differnce recording and playing back ?
It's a tape machine and a time machine too (transports you back decades at the turn of a paddle). I inherited my ex-father-in-law's Akai GX-4000D and beautiful it looks too! Perhaps this is just the inspiration to spin those reels? Wonderful video Robin.
I’m a fan of the music now thanks, gonna have to get me some of that. I’d like to have a tape machine to mess around with too, I just can’t justify it. It is mesmerizing though, love old tech.
It was your willingness to try without fear of potential failure that gave me the courage to start into Eurorack! I say follow your passions! Good on ya Robin!
Loved the intro defending the continued use and exploration of tape machines... and I look forward to seeing your journey (although I think you are describing a user interface problem when it comes to your interactions with your computers that can be solved eventually as tech evolves and develops.....)
I have been searching for my parents’ old reel to reel because we used to jam out to it when I my sister and I were growing up! But my dad chucked it out😭 I hope you have fun with yours😎
Oddly enough my dad dig out my grandads tape machine from like the 1950s. It’s in a box in a corner where I put things that some day I might have the chance to fiddle with. But yes this Akai thing has been brilliant
I went through this …. And actually bought three tape machines including a Fostex X28 … which is the only one still working whose belt or transport hasn’t stopped working … and I multitrack record simultaneously to a DAW and record the tape out of the whole performance on one or two tracks …. Still on the journey
I have a number of mag tape machines, from clunky 8-track, to 4-channel cassette, to 1/4" tape and up to 1/2" tape (a Tascam 38). They don't all work well, but I grew up on little machines with 3" open reels of maybe 20 minutes a side. I learned how to play things backwards, and also the rudiments of tape maintenance. MY very first distortion unit was the mic preamp of an old tube-based Roberts tape machine. I'd plug my guitar into it, saturate the bejeezus out of it, and feed the line out to my guitar amp. Hey, if tape is good enough for Hainbach and Robert Fripp, it's good enough for me.
I keep reminding people that compression..."squishiness"... *IS* the sound of rock and contemporary pop music. Latecomers don't realize that limiting and compression were always a requisite for achieving optimal S/N ratios on mag tape without oversaturating the tape, a part of getting the most music on each side of a 33-1/3rpm vinyl album, and a necessary part of every AM and FM broadcast studio to achieve optimal sound within the limits of the transmission electronics. So the sound of saturation and "squishiness" is simply what we've grown up listening to, such that it becomes "the way things are supposed to sound", rather than being perceived as some sort of imposition on a pristine signal with maximal dynamics.
Good direction - Robin! Two R2R here - a 4 channel TEAC and a 2track Revox B77. They both need regular cosseting and cleaning - but wonderful combination of mechanical and audio expertise. . Keep the content coming - we should maybe have a R2R rally! Happy to help with any maintenance - I have the required kit such as demagnetiser etc etc.
Made it 10 minutes in before I had to subscribe. I was born in 96, and even though I always bought CDs when my favorite artists released an album, the vast majority of my engagement with music has been through an iPod, an iPhone, a TV, a laptop, etc. I played in bands early on, but why put up with other 14 year olds who don't take music as seriously when I can download FL Studio and have control over every aspect of the music? That decision sent me down a path of more than a decade of chasing my own tail with infinite plugins, infinite samples, infinite tracks available to use, the whole time becoming more and more disillusioned with creating music, until I gave up what had defined my entire life up to that point, and I didn't make a single track for almost 2 years. Things got dark during that period of time. But luckily I made my way back, thanks mostly to Koala Sampler, which re-introduced limitation and had me making tracks out of stuff recorded around the house. Organic. Spontaneous. Tangible. Now I'm close to daw-less, using gear that I bought for $75 or less apiece, and having more fun than I've had in years. If there's anyone out there considering leaving the digital world behind, I encourage you to do it. Not because analog has some "magic" to it that can't be recreated, but because music is a physical phenomenon. Life is imperfect, messy, and rarely what we envision it will be. Art should be too. I'll be picking up my first ever tape deck tomorrow, and I can't wait to start dubbing my own mixtapes. They're going to sound like shit, and I couldn't be more excited. I'm so grateful for this video, in which you articulated thoughts and feelings I didn't even know I had. It has helped me immensely on this cold December evening. Thank you.
I should also say just put a mix through Not Recording then record back it back to your daw and it gives the sound what I call a nice analog hug very cool
Dear Robin, this beauty has three heads. So, what another commenter already suggested: you can route back the machine to your pc while recording (you have to set the reel2reel to ‘tape’ instead of ‘source’ of course). Due to the distance between the record-head and the play-head AND speed there will be a delay, but you can shift that back. You realise that this machine has a detachable ‘capstan’ adapter? So you can make the capstan smaller or wider, thus switch between tape speeds? The lower, the more distortion (what you may want for the effect!) Also, experiment with ‘saturating the tape’ with high audiolevels! Good luck! PS: this ‘tape-drifting’ was challenged with LTC time-codes on studiomachines. I worked with a Tascam 16 track tapemachine with the LTC timecode on track 16 and synchronized it with video using a Zeta-3 synchronizer, wich constantly controlled the capstan-speed. Pretty neat tech in the ‘80’s/90’s!
Go for it! Tape does open up another world, which is noisier but simpler. I have a couple of Philips N4506’s with one set up as a tape delay. A MT4X does the multi tracking. I do find an old fashioned but new analog mixer makes life easy. Clean the heads, buy TDK or Maxell tape. Buying tapes secondhand often means you get some music already recorded on it, which you have never heard! Record as much as you can…☺️☺️ leave it on.
Congrats! It is a beautiful machine. You are likely already aware of this, but you’ve also just acquired an awesome tape delay effects unit. By far the most use I get out of my R2R machines, besides making 10.5” reel mixed tapes (impractical, expensive, but so cool feeling and amazingly good sounding) is for delays. You have a lovely three head machine with two low speeds that will give you fantastic results when you pump your modular rig through it for delay use. R2Rs are my favorite delays by far, for the sheer amount of experimentation they allow especially. Not to mention the great and gritty extra tape compression, etc, it imparts. Have fun!
Oops, I see know that you’ve already mentioned using it for a delay and looping. Thant will teach me to comment before watching the entire video :) Enjoy! (PS: in tape delay use, EQ is everything in terms of the kind and quality you get in Aux send feedback. Plus, you can use *both* your R and L channels as independent mono delays that can even feed into each other)
I started off recording with exactly the same deck! It took me some time to figure out how to use sound on sound. Later I bought myself a tube driven Watkins Copikat echo, which added a special flavour with wow an flutter, and a little bit of distortion. And the smell of warm tubes and tar of the transformer, ahhh! Enjoy your Akai 4000 and the clunkety clunk of the transport mechanism!
Have fun! My first "instrument" was a Tandberg TD-20 reel-to-reel. I recall it was something like $1000 in 1980! (That would be equal to around $1 million today.) There is nothing more awesome than the 10" reels running at 3.75 ips. I still have it and all of my tapes (including one 10" reel with the entire Hitchhiker's Guide), but it doesn't run any more. There's a set of schematics in the case! But I don't have the skills to fix it unless I just get lucky. And I really don't have the room for the machine in my little studio. I think you are worrying too much about the trouble of running and maintaining a reel-to-reel. It's pretty easy. Very tactile. And you are underestimating the quality of the recordings. Yes, the S/N is high, but it's just tape hiss which is just another analog sound. (We spend hundreds on modules that intentionally create hiss.) The recording quality is better than almost any cassette (about equal to an '80s 3-head Nakamichi). Can you still get good blank tapes? I'm using a 1010 Bluebox to record my jams. It's very good for what I'm doing.
I know exactly what you saying, great story and a walk through memory lane a bit for some of us :) I think there was something we wanted back then, we wanted the perfect sound, digital hi-re! Then later we realise that the more real and close the recordings are to the performance itself, the more initimate and special they are, good old tape days, funny if you think that before CDs (digital recordings) no one was complaining about sound quality. Great video, thanks. And yes sound much better on tape even here on RUclips, the tape recording was a little louder as well perhaps? Curious to hear ho they would sound at the exact same loudness level.
Hah funny you did this. I bought one a few weeks ago too :P In fact I have the stupid pinch roller on mine sitting in a shotglass full of alcohol so I can try to get the damn roller off to put a new one on....so welcome to the addiction, I guess? I have done recordings on mine, though it needs some tweaking, and it does what I had wanted it to. Gives me more of that juicy tape saturation but without quite as much "grit" of cassette (though I do like that sometimes). I found, hillariously, a damn reel to reel (an RT-707 in my case) cost LESS than a 3-head cassette deck and since I wanted to see about playing with tape delay as well, that was something I wanted to upgrade to. My current cassette deck is glorious but it's only a two head which makes doing tape bouncing a nightmare. But on the other hand...a reel to reel seems to be a nightmare in it of itself so I guess there's that! Has it been fun though? Abso-f'in-lutely!
Ah :) the first tape machine I ever owned, £52 when new. To answer your comments: The two positions of the mains switch--one works in conjunction with the take-up spool tension arm so that it will switch off when the tape runs out. It is not a good idea to leave it like that or you will get a dent in the capstan pinch roller rubber. The two positions of the EQ switch are for compensating the two speeds. These are set by the diameter of the capstan, if you unscrew the cap and take off the outer cylinder you will get 3.75ips. Don't lose it! The playback speed increase is probably related to this. Check that the capstan is clean metal and not brown, the latter means that your tape oxide is shedding and building up, changing the diameter. Get a bottle of isopropyl alcohol and some cotton wool buds and clean the entire tape path of any deposits, especially on the heads and capstan. Do not scrape the heads with anything hard. You will need a splicing block, single sided razor blades and splicing tape to make tape loops. Use pro SP (standard play) tape rather than domestic long, double or triple play which is thinner to get longer play times, but stretches and tangles more easily. Tape output level has improved since this machine was new so you can record hotter on new tape. Old tapes may be shedding or "sticky" which will gum up the tape path and is tedious to remove. You can record with echo. Go in the DIN connector and use the Mic level to record and then connect the phono outputs to the inputs and use the line level to set the repeats. Crossover left and right for ping-pong echo. If you intend to keep a recording Play it onto a spool tail out rather than use rewind or fast forward to get a neater winding.
A real beauty your vintage recorder! I have a Sharp with line outs and aux ins. A system with speakers built in . Last time it didn't work as it should be. I will look at it this weekend.
Equalisation is relevant to tape speed. Playing back on the wrong equalisation will give brighter sound. Don't understand the speed sync problem - it should play back at the speed it was recorded. There should not be a sync problem. The on off switch refers to whether the auto-stop facility on the right hand tension arm stops the tape when the arm falls. Low Noise and wide range refer to the type of tape requiring different bias - ferric vs high bias tape. Most tapes are the normal type. For long term recording and storage of tapes one wants two track full width running in one direction only, and storing "tail out".
@@MoltenMusicTech If you want a permanent archive of your work, digital files are at risk of disappearing on old equipment considered in the future as junk. But a tape will always be recognisable. If you record in one direction only and store tail end out, any "print through" from one layer to the next will cause an echo rather than a deja vu of what is to come. The echo is easily cut out or is masked by whatever's next. This is why it's good to put white, yellow or green at the start of a tape and a red leader tape at the end. If you record at 7 1/2 ips and use equalisation for that speed and then playback at the equalisation for 3 3/4 you'll get the bright treble boost. Playback at the correct equalisation should give you the same sound that you recorded without boost.
Great, great, great video , went through this myself but with an Akai tape deck, which I still use. It's all analog harmonics and saturation that you're hearing and it sounds great. When your deck gets tricky maybe opt for the electron analog heat to perform these duties. I found it added those things I was wanting to hear without the maintenance and with the modern tactile interface. thanks so much for creating this video and making the effort, Bravo to you old chap, will watch more, cheers, might even give the euro rack stuff a shot.
Way back in the distant mists of time when I was fiddling with this sort of kit, the guy that owned the reel-to-reel was convinced that you needed to run the tape completely onto the RH reel and then back again before starting to record. Perhaps he was out of his tree. Perhaps it was to try to prevent the tape slipping slightly --- which might explain why your playback was a couple of seconds quicker? It tensioned up a bit while recording?
Robin, an enjoyable video as usual. I've had a brief relationship with tape again after 30 years but maintenace and lining up is all too tedious. I've still got a Mackie 24 track HD system which negates all the tape issues but it's still a lengthy process. I totally agree speed and spontaneity are key factors for me now. I usually just record a stereo stem from the mixer and that's it. No multitrack, no editing, no endless pissing about. I rarely ever play it again anyway as I've always been a follower of something happening once in time and never again. Finally for me - the best thing about DAWless recording is you don't see any audio - ears only! BTW, can I say you look 10 years younger without the long beard. 😁
I wish you good times & good luck with your R2R. I've 2, a stereo 15ips B77 and a Sony TC630, and I sometime use them, mainly as effects (tape delay, compression, saturation, hi-frequencies taming, etc) on a bus with sends and returns to the DAW, I use my 3 heads cassette deck this way as well. And no, this not ridiculous. It's romantic, undoubtly but not ridiculous.
you should have recorded in realtime to the tape and onto the digital recorder at the same time .This is the only way to do it. You need a three head tape machine to do this!🤘
Isn't that what I did? This does have 3 heads? I recorded through the tape machine to the computer at the same time as recording to the tape? Not sure i get what you're saying, sorry.
Yes but when you do the switch between "direct source" and "from tape monitoring" you get the delay caused by the distance beween the recording head and the play head. But at least this little delay is constant, it's not a delay caused by the speed discrepancies in the tape deck, you just have to fix it once in the begining if you want to synchronize everything with images (images like like somebody playing an instrument)
Right, but i wasn't doing any switching. I was monitoring through the tape desk and recording to both the computer and the tape at the same time. I found that regardless where I lined it up on screen it was always out somewhere else. So a little bit of adjustment as I swap cameras will probably be enough to keep things together. It's the least of my worries though.
I normally record on the slower setting on my Revox reel to reel which imparts a bit more tape vibe onto the recording (if you get the option on your Akai) but tape is high quality compared to casette tape
Nice listen to hear you thoughts and goal in getting a reel 2 reel... I have one some years now and use it regularly (I found a guy nearby who is into maintenance these machines). Maybe it is an age thing to have this development of thoughts.... How I use is? Record my modular - play back on a slower speed an play over it - I just love it. Have some reel fun 🙂.
technology ,i have a reel deck from akai working at home since 1970 using only regular maintenace it didn´t worn out because i have more 7 reel decks in diferent rooms of my house most of my components are from the 70´s, the reel deck i refer to was the cheapest at the time the akai X-165D, only ferric tapes
That is interesting observation about speed of reproduction. Last time I watched the reproduction of vinyl LP in RUclips. The same which I often listen with my turntable at home. By ear I noteced in video presentation speedof audio was slightly slower. Checked by counting rev/min my turntable (Bang & Olufsen) and it was hard to tell because accuracy by eye is hard to recognize between +/- 0,25 rev. anyway as it looked near 34/min I corrected my turntable (which is very old) a bit. to equalize by ear to video. It came about 32,5 rev/min to be equal with video. Started to doubt and counted revolutions on video - it was 33,3/min took my stroboscope and checked my turntable with 50Hz - as expected too slow . Who knows? Maybe it is 51Hzin mains? Anyway I returned to up to make it again faster than video and counted again - looked by eye my own was 33,3/min checked with video -(still faster). - the same 33,3. My conclusion is that it is timing if video was non consistent with it's sound and who knows which one to blame .
I truly love your love for this recorder ... I feel like you I have several machines and hundreds of tapes ... High maintenance ... I received a package from my uncle ... About 150 tapes of my father's band from late 50s early 60s ... My father played classical guitar and focused on romance love music ... He is 91 and is fighting cancer ... I sit in the hospital till 1.am ... Every night ... Love my dad and hope I can transfer his band and even him singing at the age of 19 years old ... Much love and respect ...
So, ur British. Far out! When u said motorbike...yup or Australian. Just got a Teac X-3
Great sound dynamics. Gotta get some leader tape for sure.
Its,a whole new thing for me.
I want to tape from record albums and CD.
U R right, putting an album.on a Turntable hooked to a very good receiver sx950. Threading tape thru a humongous non enclosed reel2reel is spiffy.
I have a lot to learn and I bloody well love it.
Say HI to Rumpole of the Bailey for me?
Very relatable content. I was chuckling at your self deprication around the pie-in-the-sky romance of the whole thing.
I also had a whale of a time when I borrowed the school four-track on weekends in the 90s and then going to a studio with my band to record on 16 track tape with our arrangement and track plan all worked out and rehearsed. The only thing we used a computer for was to run the master out into it to create digital masters to go on to CD.
Then DAWs came along and they're absolutely incredible, but there really is something about the pure musicality of just playing something through and recording it to an analogue format. And you're right, you do then get stuff finished because you can't twiddle about with it.
I drew the line at going back to tape because I've created too many vintage challenges for myself already, but I've found a great compromise. I have two vintage mixers with gorgeous EQs that drive and saturate in a beautiful way. I plug any FX I need into the auxiliaries and the stereo performance goes into my computer where it's captured. I can't edit or mix afterwards, that's it. Done.
It's so liberating. I've done a whole album which I'll release when I'm less busy.
Anyway, very enjoyable Robin. I was very much with you.
Thanks fella, that’s good of you to say. It is a beautiful journey and hopefully one which will produce fruit 🍉
That is also my way - all tone EQ, volume EQ , settings and FX is done in my recordings on analog side and then complete recordiing is recorded else to tape or digitalized to store on HD and then on CD - eventual applicable corrections after are to balance of channels and general volume only . And my recordings equal to best done by recognized music producers When I experimented on digital side after digital was recorded it was by ear less surprising . .
You may see and listen some my recordings done with average class 3Head R2R and many with PC on my chanell which are - unfortunetely those here are sounding quite simple. Now I use better R2Rs - Uher (1/4 band widith ) or Bang& Olufsen (1/2 band widith) .
I came to conclusion that I do not need tape speed more than 9,5 cm/s - tape has so much potential that I made for fun one organ recording at 2,3cm/s, many at 4,5cm/s and I enjoy them too
Was it that time that you had a killer of a whale time , like Lolita, able to trash about and devour white sharks ...?
I went through almost exactly the same thought process around two years ago, I ended up getting ... an AKAI 4000 DS !
and I love it.
I deliberately bought one that didn't say it had been refurbed as I knew I wanted to do it myself anyhow, even though it was fully working.
Good thing is parts are generally pretty easy to get for these. A strip down, new belts, lube, adjust spindle slip and yes clean & demagnetize heads! - not hard - just keep the thing away from tapes and motors! and away it went, just have to agree with everything you say about the process of operating it is just somehow so nice.
Tapes are expensive Tapecity is about the only place to get new in the UK £28 ish for lpr35 48min each way at 7 1/2.
BEWARE old tapes - Some may shed their coating, literally falling off in flakes - no major damage to the machine but heads need a real good clean after and tape is unplayable.
Tape can stretch and expand or shrink with temperature (and humidity I think) maybe timing problem? also tape tension looks like yours could be a little tight with the swinging arm right up at the top.
Power switch just determines if its always powered or swinging arm switches it on and off (auto stop when in rew or ff).
Use the pause lever and start button when recording to avoid the playing when switching.
Let me know if there's anything else you have trouble with I've all the service manuals and some stuff I created when tweaking mine.
Thanks for all the Vids.
Ooo good tip on the pause button. And yes, thanks for the advice.
Tape issues happen mainly due to misadjutsments on mechanical side. Poeple do not put enough care for it. They worry nly when tape stops tbut even worse is when tape is pulled too strong. I have a bunch of old ampex , shamrok , Scotch which I had to refurbish due to sticky problem but later after some even 10 years are working with no issues. But I had even to improve original transport.
Unfortunately many R2R producers made them to operate in vertical position but were not provided with enough good automatic pulling in transport because it is too requiring . In my opinion it is safer to have horizontal playing R2R beacuse it assures automatic pulling forces. Studio recorders were horizontal
BTW this recorder has up to my memory FX glass heads and it is exceptionally important.
I bought one too and I love it
This REALLY struck several chords … I’m re-exploring analogue (film) photography, and the parallels with the various aspects of going back to analogue-sound are striking … in their breadth and depth. Far too many to list out here, but they relate to “the investment of labour and effort”, “the slower, more deliberate use of time”, and the “less clinical, more ‘organic’ quality of the output”. I’d add, that today we have the unique opportunity to combine analog and digital workflows and effects, thereby opening up further channels of creativity and enjoyment.
i would agree if i prefered not detectable 3 second extra in the whole track speed to digital bad sound output or noise if we go totally digital
This was SUCH a fun one. What I love the most is just hearing your perspective. It’s silly how some people think everything has to be perfectly logical, as though any human being is or should be above feelings and passion and personal affection for things. Good for you embracing your humanity in defiance of the naysayers. Enjoy yourself! It’s fun watching someone who is enthusiastic about something like this.
I recently bought a standard cassette deck (compact cassette) to bounce tracks to/from for that analogue, potentially compressed sound - including the possibility to incorrectly adjust bias or worse (for example purposely destroying tapes) for that warbley, wow & flutter, dropout induced mayhem. Perfect for adding some retro effects to otherwise pristine modular synths. I think with a reel-to-reel recorder you have many more creative opportunities. Enjoy!
correct
When I was a teenager in the 80s I bought a couple of HUGE (maybe 10kg each?) surplus reel-to-reel machines from what they used to call a "Language Lab" where kids would practice speaking and listening with headphones on. They were big, grey, steel boxes that you fixed into a large desk. I had the time of my life learning how to cut and splice 1/4" tape, making loops and so on. Very happy times indeed, and a lot of learning happened. 👍🏼
Wow! It is a beautiful thing and am sure it will give you hours and hours of joy. Love your fearless passion, truly inspiring.
Awesome ! The bit in the vid where you are admiring the tape deck in awe when it's playing is just priceless. I suspect a lot of reel to reel lovers totally understand that satisfaction. I've certainly felt that way with the tape machines many, many times, and even after many years, they do not fail to please. They ARE beautiful. Congrats on jumping into the world of reels............ :)
I grew up with these things in the 1970's-1980's. My next door neighbors had one and I loved it!!
I’ve been working with a producer making our new songs on analogue a and tape. The way round this syncing issue is to send the output signal back to the DAW and you’ll have a perfect digital copy of the analogue sound.
When I was a teenager in Australia for a while, I had a couple of different R2R recorders. Mono, with valves in, big, with levers you have to shift. In 1977 in Melbourne I could just wander around junk shops and see them for nearly nothing. Where it all went was a kind of Frippertronics arrangement (with appalling S/N ratio, they were old and crappy) and other than that, a considerable amount of tape splicing. I learned tape splicing and that was about the most fun I’ve ever had in music concrete and experimental music (ie, take a short bit of tape, cut it out, reverse it backwards, splice it back in). Lots of fun. As they were mono, the heads only had one track so you could flip the tape over to play it in reverse.
In future years I lusted after a TEAC A3440 (friend of mine had one by then) but to be honest, they were expensive whereas mine were pocket-money junk, and also the A3440 needed a meter bridge, mixer, and a four-channel DBX processor to handle the tape noise. All those fancies were put on hold until the 90s when I bought a Tascam 424 (still have it in the attic). It sounded good, had built-in DBX, but I had to forego the physical access of the tape as it was inside a cassette, so no more splicing (as much) and no tape loops, delays, frippertronics and fun - just the boring process of tape recording and doing it properly or not at all.
PS a friend of mine here in London has that Akai R2R you have. He also has a vast collection of 8-track tapes and 8-track decks (once you go to a deck, the quality is immense). He’s really into all the historical media stuff more than I am.
Hard to get these things in Australia now without paying massive amounts of money.
I have a very similar Akai 4000db and its just awesome. I love technology where you have to 'work' to get your reward.
Tape sounds fantastic when the machine is in fully working order. The problem is, people are selling recorders with worn out heads, cracked up pinch rollers, bad drive belts, all trim pots out of alignment, bad capacitors, and other electronic or mechanical issues. Welcome to the vintage analog world. You better take some courses in repair / maintenance, just saying. I know, because I own several machines, from small 2-tracks to huge 24-tracks. By the way, your machine sounds healthy so far. Good luck!
Welcome to the world of r2r! There’s no going back. They sound so organic. And real. You just can’t get the warmth and quality that those machines give audio from digital audio. I thought vinyl sounded good, but the audio from r2r… just stunning! Great video.
Thanks for the video Robin it was really awesome, hope you have lots of fun with your tape machine!
You did fantastic getting hold of that machine. It will make you even happier to know that Pink Floyd mad a demo tape for a radio station using the akai 4000ds mk11. I owned one in the 70's and gave it incredible abuse! Trying to look after it of course, taking it to bits and oiling all the moving parts under the silky silver front panel. I took it all over the place to mates houses into my garden up a tree, yeh the akai mic that came with it had a short lead, so it also had a few knocks and bruises but didn't damage the machines quality at all. This brilliant machine is a wonderful editing tool in itself. If you put the deck into record mode on pause you can gently move the spools in the reverse direction which will erase, so if you want to cut something out just turn the spools while in tape mode and you will hear the stuff just before it gets erased. Handy when I used to record the top 40 on the radio, I would clip of the bit where the dj introduced the record and talked to within a nano second of the record beginning, to discourage people from recording from their radios I think? Maintenance on these reel to reel machines is basically exactly the same as a cassette deck but easier cus you have more access to the heads. Nothing needs adjusting once set up azimuth etc unless someone has been fiddling with the heads or a new type of tape is being used, then the bios should be adjusted if need be to suit the tape. I use to use the 3/3/4" setting for the tape sound for the same reason you said, nice and bright and crisp although you can adjust the pots inside the machine to sound more or less exactly as the source. the wide range switch never did anything for any tape I found? Anyway I am sure you will get a lot of enjoyment from this silky dream machine you have.
Your GREATEST video of ALL TIME.!!
Sending you nowt but LOVE
Thank you
I got an Akai 4000DB brand new in the 70s, still got it.
I was given an Akai 4000DS like yours in the 90s, which I passed on to one of my mate's 'musical' kids.
Apart from all the 'Saturation' and 'Tape Delay' fun that you can have there is a unique sounding 'distortion' to be had by overdriving the pre-amps.
You Have To be careful though.
It is possible to blow the pre-amp chips; ask me how I know ... 🙄
Tape playback timing is always an issue. If you take a line from the tape that monitors the playback whilst recording to it there will be difference of the distance between the record & playback heads. From that you should be able to slide and be in synch which means you can blend the direct to computer recording with the direct from tape recording - using the tape machine as an effect. if you're not taking the signal from the playback head you won't get the tape noise, saturation (if you recording at high enough levels, at high enough speed) that the tape may offer. WIPING the tape before recording over it is a good move - you could degauss the tape or, easier, run the tape through on record with no input signal.
I have said it many times before, and if i live long enough,I'll say it many times more, problem with the world today is there is just not enough romance in it. Every bit of the romance we can re-introduce, we will be doing the world a favor for it. \,,/ Thank you! I just had bought a reel to reel yesterday, myself.. so let's do this..
41 min the song is insane, when the kick gets in. loving all the video.
That is a nice machine. One thing that is a little cumbersome with them, you have to clean the heads and if you're new to it, clean the heads, pinch rollers, and guides after each tape. If you need to know how to do it, use isopropyl alcohol, I believe 60/40 will be sufficient. Also you'll need a Q tip. Watch a tutorial beyond that point.
You can record in a daw through your tape deck while live performance. You will have it digitally real-time and if it crashes you will have a tape and can load it in again
why does that orange reel look so awesome
to the new person to the pro of euroracks lots of great info on this stream...thanks again molten
I found this exact tape recorder model some 20-odd years ago - put out for trash! I took it home, thinking it might somehow be beyond repair, but all it needed was a cleaning of the heads and transport, then it worked perfectly! Later I bought a Nagra IS very cheaply at a Danish National Broadcast (DR) flea market sale. These things are sturdy... - Good luck with your machine!
At 54 years of age I still use the reel to reel format. I was introduced to RtoR as a toddler. My parents had a console stereo with a Sony tape deck. My ears were weened on analog tone. From then on I was hooked . I was given my first reel to reel for Christmas 1980. While my friends were using albums, 8-tracks and cassettes, I was transferring albums to RtoR which gave the music a boost of sonic power. I hope you enjoy your experience with RtoR as I have through so many years. Cheers!
Thanks, yes I do plan to make some tapes of my favourite music at some point - it's a lovely idea.
congratulations! I really follow your initial reflections on how alienating computers, menus, etc. can be. There is somehow more equality in the meeting between and analog hardware and human. I love your drive to seek creative impulses!
It is freakin awesome. Out w puters in😊 w R2R.put an Eq between R2R and receiver or amp voilaa
A lot of this stuff has already survived half a century. We already know the digital stuff will never last that long.
@MoltenMusicTech I Don't know if anyone has said This yet, but here it goes: It would turn of if the lever before the takeup reel would be down. That turns the motor on or off as far as I can remember. Even if it is turned off. Funny to see somebody so happy with a reel to reel recorder. Don't get me wrong, I would be too! The one that I have doesn't work anymore...
The reason you probably have a problem with syncing the tape with everything else is the capstan flywheel is on a rim drive in these kind of machines, so speed isn't 100 percent perfect. A more professional deck would definitely fix that issue. It's impressive that it's that close from the beginning to the end. There's a tiny bit of WOW and flutter when it comes to tape. I'm not knocking it, it's just the nature of the machine. If it was digital tape, it would be right on because it's servo controlled.
I’ve been working with a producer and came up with the idea of outputting the tape signal live to the computer so you get the tape quality but no syncing issues.
Yes, I absolutely get the concept of "Hands on" giving "The Thrills" that mouse/screen interaction does not. Tactile Techno rules! 🤩🤖🤖
Found a old Grundig Tape recorder cleaning out my dads loft that I use to record songs on as a kid. Weighed a bloody ton hope u don’t fall off your bike! Have fun.
I agree with you. I've always wanted a reel to reel. I particularly wanted a Grundig reel to reel. About nine years ago I purchased a Grundig TS 1000. I love the machine. When I was in my twenties, the cost was too prohibitive. There is something about the mystique of the reel to reel machine and its format. There is definitely a resurgence of the old formats. Such as vinyl, cassette decks and their tapes. Oh and I cannot forget the turntable. I still have my Sony CD player/recorder. I have an old Super VHS Toshiba VCR. The sound the VCR is outstanding. Back around 1982, I purchased a Sherwood Integrated amplifier. It finally gave up the ghost September of 2021. I would say I got my money worth. I wound up purchasing a tube integrated amplifier by Muzishare 7. I love it. So I just stepped in a new genre of the physical format. But I had to purchase a preamplifier to get everything under one umbrella so to speak.
Nice, thanks for that.
100% agreed. That is exactly why I started eurorack.
Think about all the amazing albums that were created with this level of tech and nothing more. :)
What a ball I had listening to you!
Nice. I found my AKAI 4000DS MK-II in someones trash heap on the side of the road in the early 90s in full working condition. I used it for a number of years and recorded some great stuff on it before going digital. I just busted it out after 20 years and it still works! Be sure to play with the "sound-on-sound" function for some really cool delay effects.
Cool, I will
I had an AKAI 4000ds in the mid 70's and I'm pretty certain that's what you've got there. The time discrepancy must mean the tape machine changed speed between the time the recording was made and the time it was played into the PC. Not surprising if the machine had stood unused for years and was slowly warming up and settling down. I recommend you let it run for a while and then make a new recording and try again.
Honestly I’m not bothered 😁
Being an old git ... grew up with these ... 2 track, 4 track, 8 track 16 track... Stockhausen time coming. Try and get a splicing block and spicing tape... and your joy will be immense. Also, get your isopropanol and cotton buds as well as a demagnetizer so you can keep it optimal. Ideally you need the manual so you can do some azimuth and bias set up etc. But this will be fun - and along with all your other toys such as synths and sampler you will really have a great tool. Enjoy!
Nice I have the same machine good fun and that's what it's all about enjoy
I have three Revox A-77 and one 1979, like-new, Revox B-77. Beautiful machines.
Rob V!! YOU gave in!! Looking forward to hearing how you get on with it!! VG :-)
Feel the same about computer recording, it just doesn't feel alive! I also have an akai 400ds, plus a Revox A77 and a Tascam 38 8 track. Mostly use the akai for creating and playing tape loops. Endless fiddling is the hobby for life
would it be better for him to use a stereo recorder as oppose to mono with just a left and right input.. would it make a differnce recording and playing back ?
It's a tape machine and a time machine too (transports you back decades at the turn of a paddle). I inherited my ex-father-in-law's Akai GX-4000D and beautiful it looks too! Perhaps this is just the inspiration to spin those reels? Wonderful video Robin.
I’m a fan of the music now thanks, gonna have to get me some of that. I’d like to have a tape machine to mess around with too, I just can’t justify it. It is mesmerizing though, love old tech.
It was your willingness to try without fear of potential failure that gave me the courage to start into Eurorack! I say follow your passions! Good on ya Robin!
7:40 If you feel electricity while performing on your rack, contact an electrician :D
I know exactly what you mean! Love this way of working!
Loved the intro defending the continued use and exploration of tape machines... and I look forward to seeing your journey (although I think you are describing a user interface problem when it comes to your interactions with your computers that can be solved eventually as tech evolves and develops.....)
I have been searching for my parents’ old reel to reel because we used to jam out to it when I my sister and I were growing up! But my dad chucked it out😭 I hope you have fun with yours😎
Oddly enough my dad dig out my grandads tape machine from like the 1950s. It’s in a box in a corner where I put things that some day I might have the chance to fiddle with. But yes this Akai thing has been brilliant
I went through this …. And actually bought three tape machines including a Fostex X28 … which is the only one still working whose belt or transport hasn’t stopped working … and I multitrack record simultaneously to a DAW and record the tape out of the whole performance on one or two tracks …. Still on the journey
And one of the three is ‘the millennium falcon of tape machines’ the Tascam 688 … which I will repair but does have a fantastic mixer!
I have a number of mag tape machines, from clunky 8-track, to 4-channel cassette, to 1/4" tape and up to 1/2" tape (a Tascam 38). They don't all work well, but I grew up on little machines with 3" open reels of maybe 20 minutes a side. I learned how to play things backwards, and also the rudiments of tape maintenance. MY very first distortion unit was the mic preamp of an old tube-based Roberts tape machine. I'd plug my guitar into it, saturate the bejeezus out of it, and feed the line out to my guitar amp.
Hey, if tape is good enough for Hainbach and Robert Fripp, it's good enough for me.
I keep reminding people that compression..."squishiness"... *IS* the sound of rock and contemporary pop music. Latecomers don't realize that limiting and compression were always a requisite for achieving optimal S/N ratios on mag tape without oversaturating the tape, a part of getting the most music on each side of a 33-1/3rpm vinyl album, and a necessary part of every AM and FM broadcast studio to achieve optimal sound within the limits of the transmission electronics. So the sound of saturation and "squishiness" is simply what we've grown up listening to, such that it becomes "the way things are supposed to sound", rather than being perceived as some sort of imposition on a pristine signal with maximal dynamics.
Good direction - Robin!
Two R2R here - a 4 channel TEAC and a 2track Revox B77. They both need regular cosseting and cleaning - but wonderful combination of mechanical and audio expertise. . Keep the content coming - we should maybe have a R2R rally! Happy to help with any maintenance - I have the required kit such as demagnetiser etc etc.
I loved my M-Audio Delta 44. I still mis it. It was so easy to operate.
Tape recording is fun. You learn a lot of cool stuff too!
Made it 10 minutes in before I had to subscribe. I was born in 96, and even though I always bought CDs when my favorite artists released an album, the vast majority of my engagement with music has been through an iPod, an iPhone, a TV, a laptop, etc. I played in bands early on, but why put up with other 14 year olds who don't take music as seriously when I can download FL Studio and have control over every aspect of the music? That decision sent me down a path of more than a decade of chasing my own tail with infinite plugins, infinite samples, infinite tracks available to use, the whole time becoming more and more disillusioned with creating music, until I gave up what had defined my entire life up to that point, and I didn't make a single track for almost 2 years. Things got dark during that period of time.
But luckily I made my way back, thanks mostly to Koala Sampler, which re-introduced limitation and had me making tracks out of stuff recorded around the house.
Organic. Spontaneous. Tangible.
Now I'm close to daw-less, using gear that I bought for $75 or less apiece, and having more fun than I've had in years.
If there's anyone out there considering leaving the digital world behind, I encourage you to do it. Not because analog has some "magic" to it that can't be recreated, but because music is a physical phenomenon. Life is imperfect, messy, and rarely what we envision it will be. Art should be too.
I'll be picking up my first ever tape deck tomorrow, and I can't wait to start dubbing my own mixtapes. They're going to sound like shit, and I couldn't be more excited.
I'm so grateful for this video, in which you articulated thoughts and feelings I didn't even know I had. It has helped me immensely on this cold December evening. Thank you.
Great comment
Congrats! Coolness of turning it on is irreplaceable! Phunn! :)
I should also say just put a mix through Not Recording then record back it back to your daw and it gives the sound what I call a nice analog hug very cool
There's something to be said for a satisfying switch.
Thanks Robin, that was great
This video is Hainbach approved. Great stuff, wish you the best for those experiments!
Absolutely awesome. Keep posting about your tape thing, please.
Dear Robin, this beauty has three heads. So, what another commenter already suggested: you can route back the machine to your pc while recording (you have to set the reel2reel to ‘tape’ instead of ‘source’ of course). Due to the distance between the record-head and the play-head AND speed there will be a delay, but you can shift that back. You realise that this machine has a detachable ‘capstan’ adapter? So you can make the capstan smaller or wider, thus switch between tape speeds? The lower, the more distortion (what you may want for the effect!) Also, experiment with ‘saturating the tape’ with high audiolevels! Good luck! PS: this ‘tape-drifting’ was challenged with LTC time-codes on studiomachines. I worked with a Tascam 16 track tapemachine with the LTC timecode on track 16 and synchronized it with video using a Zeta-3 synchronizer, wich constantly controlled the capstan-speed. Pretty neat tech in the ‘80’s/90’s!
Ha, I was doing real-time sample rate modulation to sync a DAW to tape in the 1990s :D
Thanks for the suggestions.
Go for it! Tape does open up another world, which is noisier but simpler. I have a couple of Philips N4506’s with one set up as a tape delay. A MT4X does the multi tracking. I do find an old fashioned but new analog mixer makes life easy. Clean the heads, buy TDK or Maxell tape. Buying tapes secondhand often means you get some music already recorded on it, which you have never heard! Record as much as you can…☺️☺️ leave it on.
Congrats! It is a beautiful machine. You are likely already aware of this, but you’ve also just acquired an awesome tape delay effects unit. By far the most use I get out of my R2R machines, besides making 10.5” reel mixed tapes (impractical, expensive, but so cool feeling and amazingly good sounding) is for delays. You have a lovely three head machine with two low speeds that will give you fantastic results when you pump your modular rig through it for delay use. R2Rs are my favorite delays by far, for the sheer amount of experimentation they allow especially. Not to mention the great and gritty extra tape compression, etc, it imparts. Have fun!
Oops, I see know that you’ve already mentioned using it for a delay and looping. Thant will teach me to comment before watching the entire video :)
Enjoy!
(PS: in tape delay use, EQ is everything in terms of the kind and quality you get in Aux send feedback. Plus, you can use *both* your R and L channels as independent mono delays that can even feed into each other)
nice...I have the same deck. I use it for recording and also a tape delay....it's amazing how great it sounds!
I started off recording with exactly the same deck! It took me some time to figure out how to use sound on sound. Later I bought myself a tube driven Watkins Copikat echo, which added a special flavour with wow an flutter, and a little bit of distortion. And the smell of warm tubes and tar of the transformer, ahhh!
Enjoy your Akai 4000 and the clunkety clunk of the transport mechanism!
Greg Wilson the Brilliant DJ the early 80's always uses one even now.You should be familiar with him.
Mate. I have 4 R to R machines now. I get it. good on you. Cheers from Nevada USA
Nice 👍
You manifested it with the Galaxy tape...:)
Huge fan of the retrofuturist aesthetic, politically, philosophically, musically, etc and I had never heard of Galaxy Electric. Thanks for the tip!
Sounds great on tape 👍
You're a brave man going all the way to Peterborough on a motorbike. I think I'd have taken the car, personally.
Simply enjoy tape recording and sound of it
Have fun!
My first "instrument" was a Tandberg TD-20 reel-to-reel. I recall it was something like $1000 in 1980! (That would be equal to around $1 million today.) There is nothing more awesome than the 10" reels running at 3.75 ips. I still have it and all of my tapes (including one 10" reel with the entire Hitchhiker's Guide), but it doesn't run any more. There's a set of schematics in the case! But I don't have the skills to fix it unless I just get lucky. And I really don't have the room for the machine in my little studio.
I think you are worrying too much about the trouble of running and maintaining a reel-to-reel. It's pretty easy. Very tactile. And you are underestimating the quality of the recordings. Yes, the S/N is high, but it's just tape hiss which is just another analog sound. (We spend hundreds on modules that intentionally create hiss.) The recording quality is better than almost any cassette (about equal to an '80s 3-head Nakamichi).
Can you still get good blank tapes?
I'm using a 1010 Bluebox to record my jams. It's very good for what I'm doing.
Smart move. Tape is a world of it's own.Good luck!
I know exactly what you saying, great story and a walk through memory lane a bit for some of us :) I think there was something we wanted back then, we wanted the perfect sound, digital hi-re! Then later we realise that the more real and close the recordings are to the performance itself, the more initimate and special they are, good old tape days, funny if you think that before CDs (digital recordings) no one was complaining about sound quality. Great video, thanks. And yes sound much better on tape even here on RUclips, the tape recording was a little louder as well perhaps? Curious to hear ho they would sound at the exact same loudness level.
Hah funny you did this. I bought one a few weeks ago too :P In fact I have the stupid pinch roller on mine sitting in a shotglass full of alcohol so I can try to get the damn roller off to put a new one on....so welcome to the addiction, I guess?
I have done recordings on mine, though it needs some tweaking, and it does what I had wanted it to. Gives me more of that juicy tape saturation but without quite as much "grit" of cassette (though I do like that sometimes). I found, hillariously, a damn reel to reel (an RT-707 in my case) cost LESS than a 3-head cassette deck and since I wanted to see about playing with tape delay as well, that was something I wanted to upgrade to. My current cassette deck is glorious but it's only a two head which makes doing tape bouncing a nightmare.
But on the other hand...a reel to reel seems to be a nightmare in it of itself so I guess there's that!
Has it been fun though? Abso-f'in-lutely!
proud Studer B62-owner. :)
wow i literally have that exact model, i was looking to my right at it and like back at your video and like.... wow... Akai hahah
Ah :) the first tape machine I ever owned, £52 when new.
To answer your comments:
The two positions of the mains switch--one works in conjunction with the take-up spool tension arm so that it will switch off when the tape runs out. It is not a good idea to leave it like that or you will get a dent in the capstan pinch roller rubber.
The two positions of the EQ switch are for compensating the two speeds. These are set by the diameter of the capstan, if you unscrew the cap and take off the outer cylinder you will get 3.75ips. Don't lose it!
The playback speed increase is probably related to this. Check that the capstan is clean metal and not brown, the latter means that your tape oxide is shedding and building up, changing the diameter.
Get a bottle of isopropyl alcohol and some cotton wool buds and clean the entire tape path of any deposits, especially on the heads and capstan. Do not scrape the heads with anything hard.
You will need a splicing block, single sided razor blades and splicing tape to make tape loops. Use pro SP (standard play) tape rather than domestic long, double or triple play which is thinner to get longer play times, but stretches and tangles more easily.
Tape output level has improved since this machine was new so you can record hotter on new tape. Old tapes may be shedding or "sticky" which will gum up the tape path and is tedious to remove.
You can record with echo. Go in the DIN connector and use the Mic level to record and then connect the phono outputs to the inputs and use the line level to set the repeats. Crossover left and right for ping-pong echo.
If you intend to keep a recording Play it onto a spool tail out rather than use rewind or fast forward to get a neater winding.
Loved the video, and loved your enjoyment :D
A real beauty your vintage recorder! I have a Sharp with line outs and aux ins. A system with speakers built in . Last time it didn't work as it should be. I will look at it this weekend.
Equalisation is relevant to tape speed. Playing back on the wrong equalisation will give brighter sound. Don't understand the speed sync problem - it should play back at the speed it was recorded. There should not be a sync problem. The on off switch refers to whether the auto-stop facility on the right hand tension arm stops the tape when the arm falls. Low Noise and wide range refer to the type of tape requiring different bias - ferric vs high bias tape. Most tapes are the normal type. For long term recording and storage of tapes one wants two track full width running in one direction only, and storing "tail out".
thanks for the interesting comments
@@MoltenMusicTech If you want a permanent archive of your work, digital files are at risk of disappearing on old equipment considered in the future as junk. But a tape will always be recognisable. If you record in one direction only and store tail end out, any "print through" from one layer to the next will cause an echo rather than a deja vu of what is to come. The echo is easily cut out or is masked by whatever's next. This is why it's good to put white, yellow or green at the start of a tape and a red leader tape at the end. If you record at 7 1/2 ips and use equalisation for that speed and then playback at the equalisation for 3 3/4 you'll get the bright treble boost. Playback at the correct equalisation should give you the same sound that you recorded without boost.
Thinking of doing exactly the same :D
Good luck with the journey, mine sitting on Praga Museum MCI JC 110 with gold connectors, she done a lot of albums.
Great, great, great video , went through this myself but with an Akai tape deck, which I still use. It's all analog harmonics and saturation that you're hearing and it sounds great. When your deck gets tricky maybe opt for the electron analog heat to perform these duties. I found it added those things I was wanting to hear without the maintenance and with the modern tactile interface. thanks so much for creating this video and making the effort, Bravo to you old chap, will watch more, cheers, might even give the euro rack stuff a shot.
Way back in the distant mists of time when I was fiddling with this sort of kit, the guy that owned the reel-to-reel was convinced that you needed to run the tape completely onto the RH reel and then back again before starting to record. Perhaps he was out of his tree. Perhaps it was to try to prevent the tape slipping slightly --- which might explain why your playback was a couple of seconds quicker? It tensioned up a bit while recording?
this reel deck was in the same catalog as mine but i think it was available earlier
Robin, an enjoyable video as usual. I've had a brief relationship with tape again after 30 years but maintenace and lining up is all too tedious. I've still got a Mackie 24 track HD system which negates all the tape issues but it's still a lengthy process. I totally agree speed and spontaneity are key factors for me now. I usually just record a stereo stem from the mixer and that's it. No multitrack, no editing, no endless pissing about. I rarely ever play it again anyway as I've always been a follower of something happening once in time and never again. Finally for me - the best thing about DAWless recording is you don't see any audio - ears only! BTW, can I say you look 10 years younger without the long beard. 😁
I wish you good times & good luck with your R2R.
I've 2, a stereo 15ips B77 and a Sony TC630, and I sometime use them, mainly as effects (tape delay, compression, saturation, hi-frequencies taming, etc) on a bus with sends and returns to the DAW, I use my 3 heads cassette deck this way as well.
And no, this not ridiculous. It's romantic, undoubtly but not ridiculous.
you should have recorded in realtime to the tape and onto the digital recorder at the same time .This is the only way to do it. You need a three head tape machine to do this!🤘
Isn't that what I did? This does have 3 heads? I recorded through the tape machine to the computer at the same time as recording to the tape? Not sure i get what you're saying, sorry.
@@MoltenMusicTech A three head deck allows you to monitor the recording as it is being made,,record head,,playback head and erase head..
Yes but when you do the switch between "direct source" and "from tape monitoring" you get the delay caused by the distance beween the recording head and the play head.
But at least this little delay is constant, it's not a delay caused by the speed discrepancies in the tape deck, you just have to fix it once in the begining if you want to synchronize everything with images (images like like somebody playing an instrument)
Right, but i wasn't doing any switching. I was monitoring through the tape desk and recording to both the computer and the tape at the same time. I found that regardless where I lined it up on screen it was always out somewhere else. So a little bit of adjustment as I swap cameras will probably be enough to keep things together. It's the least of my worries though.
hey, an Interceptor, love it !
I'm thinking about a reel to reel for my studio too.
Me too! Don't over think it :D
@@MoltenMusicTech I've put a bid on the same model, in the meantime :-)
I've one of those, might need new belts...I should check.
Fripp-Eno and Morton Subotnick are my muses.
Cheers for "interesting weirdness".
I normally record on the slower setting on my Revox reel to reel which imparts a bit more tape vibe onto the recording (if you get the option on your Akai) but tape is high quality compared to casette tape
Yes! I do that to my Revox a77 in order to get a lo-fi sound. It's a nice trick.
Nice listen to hear you thoughts and goal in getting a reel 2 reel... I have one some years now and use it regularly (I found a guy nearby who is into maintenance these machines). Maybe it is an age thing to have this development of thoughts.... How I use is? Record my modular - play back on a slower speed an play over it - I just love it. Have some reel fun 🙂.
technology ,i have a reel deck from akai working at home since 1970 using only regular maintenace it didn´t worn out because i have more 7 reel decks in diferent rooms of my house most of my components are from the 70´s, the reel deck i refer to was the cheapest at the time the akai X-165D, only ferric tapes
That is interesting observation about speed of reproduction. Last time I watched the reproduction of vinyl LP in RUclips. The same which I often listen with my turntable at home. By ear I noteced in video presentation speedof audio was slightly slower.
Checked by counting rev/min my turntable (Bang & Olufsen) and it was hard to tell because accuracy by eye is hard to recognize between +/- 0,25 rev. anyway as it looked near 34/min I corrected my turntable (which is very old) a bit. to equalize by ear to video. It came about 32,5 rev/min to be equal with video.
Started to doubt and counted revolutions on video - it was 33,3/min took my stroboscope and checked my turntable with 50Hz - as expected too slow . Who knows? Maybe it is 51Hzin mains? Anyway I returned to up to make it again faster than video and counted again - looked by eye my own was 33,3/min checked with video -(still faster). - the same 33,3. My conclusion is that it is timing if video was non consistent with it's sound and who knows which one to blame .
I blame sun spots