Logging tape?

mastercontrolme

mastercontrolme

New member
I recently got a good deal on some new logging tape. I was planning on ditching the tape and keep the reels, but gave the tape a try anyway. It sounds a lot better than I thought it would. In fact other than lower output and having a .5mil thickness, it sounds very good. Now my question is, would this tape type, which is designed for low speed applications, cause any harm to my deck playing at high speed? Is it any more abrasive than say 1mil or 1.5 mil audio tape?
 
mastercontrolme said:
I recently got a good deal on some new logging tape. I was planning on ditching the tape and keep the reels, but gave the tape a try anyway. It sounds a lot better than I thought it would. In fact other than lower output and having a .5mil thickness, it sounds very good. Now my question is, would this tape type, which is designed for low speed applications, cause any harm to my deck playing at high speed? Is it any more abrasive than say 1mil or 1.5 mil audio tape?
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No it isn't.
 
It's not going to hurt your machine, but I wouldn't record anything important on it. It will stretch and likely break on a high speed multitrack or half-track transport. The print-through will be pretty bad and logging tape just isn't formulated for music recording. No harm in experimenting... just don't depend on it.

Personally I would toss it and keep the reels, but I'm picky. ;)
 
Thanks for the replies. Yeah the tape will be mainly for playing around with and maybe testing, ect, nothing serious. I can see the possibility of the tape stretching as it's very thin, but I consider the tape basically free as all I really want are the reels and plastic storage case. :)
 
mastercontrolme said:
Thanks for the replies. Yeah the tape will be mainly for playing around with and maybe testing, ect, nothing serious. I can see the possibility of the tape stretching as it's very thin, but I consider the tape basically free as all I really want are the reels and plastic storage case. :)
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Might be useful for doing some tape echo experimentation.:D
 
Apparently the quad version of Tubular Bells was mixed on instrumentation tape. It was intended to be just a demo, but Mike Oldfield okayed it for release and it became the master tape. Supposedly it fared the passage of time a lot better than the official 2-track master.
 
jpmorris said:
Apparently the quad version of Tubular Bells was mixed on instrumentation tape. It was intended to be just a demo, but Mike Oldfield okayed it for release and it became the master tape. Supposedly it fared the passage of time a lot better than the official 2-track master.
Click to expand...

Interesting! I would imagine logging tape would need to have a long shelf life if it's needed for critical applications, however, it may not be as durable for repeated FF/REW/REC cycles I would assume.
 
mastercontrolme said:
Interesting! I would imagine logging tape would need to have a long shelf life if it's needed for critical applications, however, it may not be as durable for repeated FF/REW/REC cycles I would assume.
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I think it has alot to do with the deck as well. I've had some (forgive me for my ignorance in my youth) Realistic 3600 Supertape (.5 mil) that I recorded a bit of music on. They have held up pretty well considering my Akai deck isn't very gentle with tapes in the first place. The winding wasn't very smooth so the edges are a little wavy. The Akai deck has snapped 2 of the tapes over a period of 20 years. Now if I had my Pioneer deck for as long as my Akai, it wouldn't even be an issue since it is very gentle on tapes has a near perfect winding/packing upon recording/playback.

I'm not sure how the Tascam machines fare in terms of delicate tape handling. I can't say I would use .5 mil tape for critical applications, but for general use it should be okay. Just my opinion on that though.;)
 
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