One for the gear lust fans......never seen one before!

Cool! I always wondered if they actually existed. I have a ATR-80-24 and the manuals cover the 32. The card cage in the 24 has slots for 32 audio cards.
 
Yeh, this one only has the 24 track heads, but has 32 cards. I wonder if Tascam ever produced a 32 track 2" head? I suppose the track width might be similar to my 1" MS-16 heads?

Al
 
Yeay very close in track width. There are part numbers in the manual for the 32 track heads, but who knows. Ive never even seen one of the 32 track machines before. That thing must have originally had the 32 tr heads, why else build it that way with the overhead meter bridge.
 
Calibration tapes have nothing to do with track count. MRLs are recorded as single track (full width) of what ever the tape stock is, in this case 2".
 
She really is a sweetie. So fun to work with. Quiet and the best transport Ive dealt with to date. But, it was brand new when I bought it in 2011.
 
I've seen eBay auctions for the 32 track heads NOS before. They were made and do exist.

And yes the ATR80 transport is fabulous to my understanding.
 
Nice! I've never seen a 32-track in person. Otari had a 32-track version of the MX-80 as well. I remember seeing it advertised in music mags back in the day, and I wondered to myself, who the heck would need 32 tracks?!? :) I know they were as rare as hen's teeth. It's not really much of a stretch track wise though because 16-track on 1-inch was easy enough, and even 16 on half-inch. As head design got better tracks could be moved closer with no worse crosstalk than older heads of greater track width. Tascam was a leader in head design to make that all possible.

otari32.JPG
Otari MX-80/32
 
There were actually quite a few 32-track designs, though I imagine most of them never made it out of prototype. Aside from Otari and the TASCAM (which I didn't know about), Telefunken made a 32-track version of the M15, and supposedly Studio Magnetics had one at least in the concept stage.
Then of course you've got Stephens and his 40-track machine...

Advert for the Omega:
Gallery :: Strange and Rare Tape Recorders :: SM_Omega

Photo of the Telefunken:
Gallery :: Strange and Rare Tape Recorders :: DSCN3839

...I would question the include of the MS16 as a 'strange and rare' machine, though :P
 
Wow!

That ATR80/32 is frickin sweet!
The price is actually quite reasonable. ($7500)
If I only had the bank behind me for that!
:spank::eek:;)
 

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Omg!

The story I heard was 3" tape was never practical to produce, and never caught on.

What a monster! Think of the sound that thing could deliver!

:spank::eek:;)
 
Right. There was another company that dabbled in 3" as well but their machine was much more mock-up than MCI's which was fully operational. If you read the info in the link it talks about problems with skewing using the 3" tape...not a problem with the tape or transport itself but a physical property of tape of that width. New ideas often bring new problems to conquer and with the advent (at the time) of the DASH machines the concept was scrapped.
 
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