How to properly rewind a reel???

MartyMcFly

New member
I have a question. Probably easily answered by someone with experience. I have my Tascam 32. Lets say I have a tape reel with it spun in the proper direction to put on the left side(the feeding side) and play. But it was rewound very fast and the tape is not all lined up nice and neat the way it should be. How can I rewind it at a slow speed with the Tascam 32 and still have it oriented the same way? Is there a way to flip them around (with a takeup reel) and play it so it winds at play speed? Do you know what I mean?
 
I hope I understand what you're asking but the only way, on the 32, that you can get the tape packed nice and evenly, is to play it from left to right. There is no "spooling" mode on the 30 series of recorders and ff or rew yields less than ideal tape packing, as you've noticed.
 
So then it would technically be at the end of the tape when Im done with it. And if I wanted to listen to it again Id have to put it on the right reel and rewind it then hit play to play it? ARRRRGGGG! I was hoping that there was some type of way to run it thru the tape alingment knobs in some funky way so that i could hit play and let it play the entire thing and when I was done it would be nicely packed and ready to be put on the right (correct) side to begin playing again the next time... Is there a way to do that? NO?
 
Can't you just get the tape to a takeup reel, move the takeup reel to the left side and use the original reel as a takeup on the right side, and then play it through? A time-consuming process, but that should work, wouldn't it?

G.
 
The best way is to store tape "Tails-out." Put the full (new) reel of tape on the right side and the empty reel on the left. Now rewind, but stop before it spools off. After you record continue to wind it off onto the right reel at play speed. :)

This is how we used to do it, but not many home recordists do it this way. The way people define the take-up reel as being on the right side is really backwards as far as best practices. It’s best to unwind a new tape before using it, and it’s best to store tapes tails out, so this kills two birds with one stone (not that I have anything against birds unless they poop on my car).

If you have a 6-screw balanced precision reel for the empty reel on the left side your tape will be more smoothly packed even at fast speed. This way of doing things, whether multi-tracking or mixdown will improve tape handling considerably.

So to sum up... put the new reel on the right side and rewind to an empty reel on the left side before use.
 
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