logging tape

S

SilentSound

New member
a company who is an "all sales final" kind of deal from whom i bought tape sent me not what they advertised..

i got quantegy 704 logging tape instead of quantegy 1" 45...tape.

can it be used to at least test out a 1" machine? i've been recording and studying for years but never once came across the term "logging tape"..
 
Was it eBay? If it is the rules stipulate that you must be sent what you bought. If they sent you something else you can send it back and demand your money back... eBay will side with you. The rules on this are very clear.

Otherwise a seller could list tape but send you a bloody chicken heart instead, which is what you might as well have if you want to do recording. I would send it back. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but 704 is no good for audio recording. It's a very thin tape -- thinner than 407 and is not optimized for hi-fi recording.
 
It was cheaptape.com in their quantegy section. there are only 3 choices for 1" quantegy tape, one being called "logging tape", the one being 705 series tape which is logging tape but it isn't mentioned, then this one:

Reel to Reel Audio Tapes/ Acc. QY-7045731C1 QUANTEGY 1 IN. X 3600 FT. REEL

Which seems to be a standard tape because no mention is made of what number or type it is. I figured it would be 456..

It's a sloppy site. It bugs me that anything else that is logging tape is labeled as such.
 
704 is technically audiotape, but for low speed voice-grade recording of things like police and EMS radio traffic. 704 is not even backcoated, so not good for what you need.

Maybe you can contact them and appeal to their better angels. But they will probably say they expect people to know what they're buying or ask questions before buying… etc.

I know 1" tape is expensive. EBay is probably the best source on the cheap.

Here is some nice BASF LM 526. It was originally made by AGFA for loop-bin mastering, but it is a great tape for multi-track or mastering. It is a very high tensile strength, high fidelity, backcoated 320 nW/m 1.5 mil tape, good for thousands of passes. I rarely see it sold with the metal reel, but it takes standard 3 or 6-screw reel flanges (ask which to be sure). This was expensive stuff back in the day.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7570523636

To be safe stick to these for 1.5 mil.

Ampex/Quantegy 456 & 406
AGFA or EMTEC/BASF 911, 468 & 526
3M/Scotch 226, 206, 808 & 986
Zonal 700
 
Thanks..

I plan on using 206 and 456 as they're bias compatible. I actually thought I was getting 456 and shouldn't have assumed that but it's really vague and somewhat forces you to deduce that it's quantegy tape for a multitrack.

The 456 and 206 I'm getting locally is for the same price I just spent on the logging tape so I'm in a better mood about it. The site will still get an email/call.

Do you know anything specific about 206's characteristics? I've read it breaks up quicker than 456.
 
Contacted the company

They said that they don't sell the Quantegy logging tape I received and that although they don't do returns(all sales final)I could ship it back and be credited the price I paid for tape. That's a little shifty if you ask me.
 
SilentSound said:
Do you know anything specific about 206's characteristics? I've read it breaks up quicker than 456.
Click to expand...

206 reaches saturation at lower levels than 456 or 3M 226 because it's a +3 tape, as opposed to +6. This is a good thing though and a lot of folks like 3M 206 and Quantegy 406 better for this reason.

You have to hit 456 a lot harder to get the celebrated tape compression effect, and this can be a problem if using noise reduction like dbx or Dolby. Since 206 and 406 will produce distortion closer to 0 VU @ 250 nW/m, you get this desirable tape effect while still keeping noise reduction circuitry happy by staying within prescribed levels.

Hey, watch out for sticky shed syndrome on older Ampex and 3M/scotch.
 
sticky

Could I prevent sticky shed by baking the tape?

Once I get a feel for the sound of both tapes, I'll use them on songs that I think their sound is appropriate for. Have you compared either back to back. I'm wondering if the distortion/compression characteristics differ sonically because of the point of saturation. A friend who sold me my atr-60 says he can hear a difference between tape in a cardboard box and tape in a plastic box so I don't discount anything.

Especially when you're an analog maniac... Thanks again for the info.

Matt
 
Yeah, they sound different when you shake the boxes... :D

You can reverse sticky shed by baking (if you have to), but buying blank or one-pass tape that probably already has sticky shed is asking for trouble.

You can spend a lot of money trying to save money... more than you would have spent buying new the frist time. ;)
 
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If this tape is sticky I'm not going to get it. I want to bias/calibrate the machine with the best tape I can. If it's in good shape after the person selling it tests it out I'll consider using it. It's hard because this all has to come together this week before I leave for the east coast. My situation is I'm in a band who records itself, builds its own studio, buys its own gear, books its own(goodness they're long)tours, and presses its own releases. The studio has to be ready to record in by 1/6/06 and I leave for the east coast 12/18/05.

This was a lot easier on the old R8...
 
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