Looking for better tape machine for mixdown

You'll need to buy a used one, as new decks cannot be equipped with it anymore.

I think the more obvious point is that no one is making new open reel tape recorders anymore, AFIK. :)

AFA the Akai recorders...my first 4-track and 2-track decks were Akai.

The GX-630D-SS and the GX-625. They had the glass & crystal ferrite heads....super clean and quiet.
 
At least three new open reel recorders have been introduced in the last year. Very expensive ones...

Don't remember the brands. New brands too.
 
Metaxas and Sins:

Metaxas Audio Systems | Hi End Audio Equipment Manufacturer

United Audio:

United Home Audio - High End Audio, Washington DC , Virginia, Maryland

Famous Swiss company that wants to remain anonymous? Nagra, Stellavox?

Famous Swiss Tape Recorder Brand To Re-introduce Reel-to-Reel Analog Recorder! (NOT) | Analog Planet

BTW. All of these websites behave badly icw HR. Hard to copy URL's, not showing content...

A company in France is relaunching tape production. Fe now and Cr in a short while. FeCr maybe. Metal probably never as the know-how is already lost and the base material would be expensive and can only be bought in unreasonable quantity (for tape production). Besides, there's no company left that could build the necessary production machinery to make the emulsion.

The quality of the Fe tapes is better than anything we've seen in the past.

EDIT: according to some, the DN-3602RG from Denon is still being manufactured, but only available in Asian markets.
 
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At least three new open reel recorders have been introduced in the last year. Very expensive ones...

Don't remember the brands. New brands too.


:D
I wouldn't consider any of those three ^^^ as something 99.99% of the audio recording world would buy or use.
Those are for the "wooden knob" guys who just want to throw a lot of money at something no one else can have.
 
Of course, these are for the hifi crowd. But they are new tape machines. One of them is limited edition and it sold out already, despite being very expensive.

And Tascam just launched a semi-pro 500$ (SRP 999$) cassette recorder. Without Dolby...

I also know of a new cassette duplication service that uses a bunch of restored AKAI decks cause they want Dolby-B for some customers.

Tape isn't dead, it's Dolby doesn't want to know about it. If the patents expired, they've just opened up an opportunity.
 
Discussing esoteric, narrow-niche products when talking about what someone should or shouldn't get for a basic home rec tape setup...is kinda pointless.
Bottom line...if you wanna play around with tape recording in a typical studio situation (home or pro)...you're going to be looking at either used or used rebuilt/reconditioned on the pro side. There's some "newish" pro multitracks, but mostly built from used parts, etc.

I don't think any of the three new decks mentioned above will find their way into any typical studio setup.

AFA that TASCAM deck...it's primarily a dubbing machine (if your are referring to the 202 MKVII)...OK, you can use it for mixing down too, I guess, if it works for you for that...but you still need a multi-track deck for recording, so you're back to the used stuff.
I think that TASCAM is just looking to fill a niche market with that new cassette deck, because there's a lot of cassette tapes flying around, and people are trying to make copies, etc...but I don't see TASCAM going back to their heyday multitrack designs for the home rec crowd, and certainly nothing "pro" level.
 
I used a 15 IPS Revox for my first audiobook years ago. So much easier to mark and splice out uhs, breaths and retakes than 7.5.
 
I thought that Robbie the OP, had a 488mkii that he wanted to mix to a reel to reel and he was asking about an AKAI GX 230D, this would be fine for a home studio using a 488mkii but as usual the thread goes off track and a multitude of more expensive pro semi-pro options pour into the thread totally confusing the original post. I recorded on a 3340 and mixed to an Akai for years when I had my first studio and the results were very good, if someone wants to have a little fun with an old school analog studio without spending the earth lets no confuse the issue.

Alan.
 
I thought that Robbie the OP, had a 488mkii that he wanted to mix to a reel to reel and he was asking about an AKAI GX 230D, this would be fine for a home studio using a 488mkii but as usual the thread goes off track and a multitude of more expensive pro semi-pro options pour into the thread totally confusing the original post. I recorded on a 3340 and mixed to an Akai for years when I had my first studio and the results were very good, if someone wants to have a little fun with an old school analog studio without spending the earth lets no confuse the issue.

Alan.

Well, in our/my defence Alan the OP DID ask "better tape machine". Now I don't personally know the level of grot of the 488mkll but peeps were just giving options! Way it goes in forums.

Someone has already mentioned that the mechanics in the Akais could be getting a bit clunky?

Dave.
 
I had awesome luck when using a cassette 4 track by bouncing all my tracks to a HI FI VHS and sending that bounce back to two tracks. Usually the rhythm tracks then any instruments keys and guitars then vocals. I had my final mixes dropped back to the VHS. I had some saved that way for about thirty years. I took those and sent them to my PRO LOGIC X and you can hear those albums free on Spotify. Manchester Nights "Jessica" and Michael"
 
I also used a HIFI video recorder as a master recorder for quite a few years, the one I had JVC I think even had an LED VU on it so you could set the volume, these disappeared in the later machines. Trouble now is finding a machine to play back the old masters, but thats the same for every old master, Tape, DAT, and what about the old U-matic masters LOL.

Alan.
 
I had one of those too, in the 80's.

It's even harder than DAT or ADAT machines to find a replacement today, as the different brands aren't even compatible. But I've never been asked to transfer such a tape to digital.
 
I have one working, or it was last time I turned it on, VHS HIFI machine left, I have a project shortly to transfer a old master I recorded maybe 30 plus years ago onto digital files and master, I get this from time to time as some of the old bands are now putting this stuff up on websites to show the history of the band through early recordings and demos.

Someone told me recently that I should build an archive of all the bands and recording projects I have played on, told them I don't have enough years left to do it LOL.

Alan.
 
My son used a JVC HI-FI VCR for a time to mix down tracks from a Teac A3440. Nice machine, it had a very good mulri-LED level meter along the bottom RH edge and a switchable limiter. Later machines had AVC that could not be defeated.

However, once we got a 1/2 decent computer, a 2496 card and a Berry mixer things became a LOT simpler! Eventually he gave up tape altogether...Well! He STILL hankered but rarely bothered to "de-rig" and set it all up!

I still have a HI-FI VHS machine around. The DVD section is shot, must see if it still plays tapes. FYI I also have 2 Mdics recorders, two decent cassette machines, one a Sony Dolby S and a Philips digital cassette recorder.

Dave.
 
A Philips digital? Like in DCC?

One that also plays back ordinary cassettes? These are getting rare. Plenty of DAT's around, but DCC's not so many.
 
A Philips digital? Like in DCC?

One that also plays back ordinary cassettes? These are getting rare. Plenty of DAT's around, but DCC's not so many.

Yes, a DCC. Have not fired it up in years. Says "18 bit digital" which is 108dB DR, do for me! I don't know if it is linear coding? The Mini Disc isn't but they still sounded bloody good to me !

I also have a stack of cassettes, some still in "shrink". Will dig it out and try it in a day or so.

Dave.
 
I thought DCC used perceptual coding like minidisk, but I could be wrong.

EDIT: Yes it does
Digital Compact Cassette - Wikipedia

I am MUCH obliged! Never thought to look before and that is fascinating reading. My DCC is a Philips but Grundig made one? Odd that because I have a Grundig Mini Disc recorder!

I shall have get them both going and do some tests. I am wondering what I can record that will challenge the coding system? Mind you, that Wiki pieces shows that the basic bit rate of DCC was as good as the best MP3 and many Top Blokes here at HR say that is quite tolerable.

Dave.
 
Lots of Hifi VHS decks are going for next to nothing in the UK. Most of the newer recorders with NICAM audio recorded the NICAM to the hifi tracks. I used to use one to back up master tapes before better alternatives came along.
 
Not sure what your budget might be and definitely NOT analogue but a great machine is the Alesis Masterlink unit. You would have to buy it 2nd hand (eg Ebay or similar).

Not only does it record it can internally burn to either "Red Book" CD (the normal type of music CD) or 24bit data CD (often used for duplicating or importing audio into CAWs, etc) AND it is a piece of cake to run of duplicate copies all of which have no sound/quality reduction and if that is not enough, it has internal DSP capabilities, admittedly not as great/complex as some of the "final mix" type programmes, but still not too bad.

I have used two units in my studio ever since they were first released (guessing 10 - 12 years ago) for most of my stereo mixes, as well as using them to digitally re-master a number of older (1970's) stereo analogue tapes for commercial re-release.

A really great unit if you can find one --- BUT check that it is in full working order, with a money back guarantee just in case.

David
 
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