I am looking for a 1" 8track machine (there hard to find locally) however there are much more 16 track 1" machines i understand the theory of the wider the track width the better sonically.........but...........if you record the bass(for instance) on 2 tracks of the 16 track recorder would it sound as great as 1 track on a 1" 8 track machine ?
Need opionons or even better expertise!
- Thread starter tsqair
- Start date
diggy_dude
Now 169% diggier!
You would need to replace the heads, which would probably then be incompatible with the original electronics.
jpmorris
Tape Wolf
The Otari MX70 and MX80 was available in both 16 and 8 channel versions, but finding a compatible headblock would be difficult and probably very expensive. And yes, the electronics would need to be recalibrated.
To the original poster: What machines are you looking at, anyway?
miroslav
Cosmic Cowboy
Man...I was *this close* to buying a 1" 8-track about two months ago...it was an Otari MX80, and it was originally a 16-track that the guy converted to 8-track. Brand new custom head-block, and the machine was totally brought up to snuff by JRF Magnetics. He sunk about $5k into it. Had the remotes, cabling and 16 channels of DBX.
Yes...I was ***THIS CLOSE*** ...and could have scored it for $1900, and it was not a far drive to pick it up...but I decided at the last minute not go for it since I was planning some high-end compressor purchase and other stuff, plus what I really wanted was a 1/2" 8-track, since I have plenty of 1/2" tape and it's easier/cheaper to find these days than 1" tape...and a 1/2" tape deck would be plenty nice for my needs...though I'm sure the 1" sounded great.
Oh well....
Yes...I was ***THIS CLOSE*** ...and could have scored it for $1900, and it was not a far drive to pick it up...but I decided at the last minute not go for it since I was planning some high-end compressor purchase and other stuff, plus what I really wanted was a 1/2" 8-track, since I have plenty of 1/2" tape and it's easier/cheaper to find these days than 1" tape...and a 1/2" tape deck would be plenty nice for my needs...though I'm sure the 1" sounded great.
Oh well....
briank
analog for the people!
I have definitely been having fun getting to know the 1" 8-track format. Ours is an MCI JH-110C, good sounding pro machines and you can occasionally score them for really great prices (I've even heard of the odd free one) with the caveat that they WILL need at least some general refurbishing. Doesn't have to be expensive to do, and although time consuming and a bit of a learning curve, in the end you can wind up with a really cool machine for pretty cheap. You can get professionally refurbished ones but they cost a mint.
jpmorris
Tape Wolf
Ah. There was never a compatible head for that. 1" 8-track is supposed to be a very nice format, but 16 tracks are definitely handy if you're planning to track the entire song in analogue.
FWIW the heads have the same track width as on a 2" a 24-track machine, though with narrower gaps between each track so it fits on 1" tape.
You'd probably want to run it with DBX, mind.
At the end of the day, what do you intend to do with the machine? If you want to track a complex song all-analogue, the MS16 is probably a better bet unless you can afford a 2" 16-track machine, or unless you will never need more than about 8 tracks (bouncing notwithstanding).
If you want to use it to fatten up digitally-recorded tracks or something, the 8-track machine would probably sound nicer, but if you're doing that you could probably get the same effect with a 2-track machine.
If you're trying to do a 1970 period thing complete with 1970 restrictions, then yeah, hold out for a 1" 8-track machine.