Otari MX 5050 B2HD Question?

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shurhit

New member
Just purchased a Otari MX 5050 B2HD, how can I tell if it is the 7 1/2 / 15 ips model versus the 3 1/2 / 7 1/2 ips model?
I saw another thread and someone mentioned the HD stand for high speed & direct drive motors... can anyone confirm this? Here is a video of my Otari in action...

http://webpages.charter.net/2baharper/2300/z.wmv

Judging by the speed it goes around while the song is playing I am guessing it is playing at 15 ips?

10.5in. diameter reel * 3.14 (pi) = 32.97 circumference, looks like it is going at about 1 second per circumference spin therefore 32.97 inches per second = 83.7438 centimeters per second, which is like 30 ips, WHOA what am i doing wrong!!! oh yea, everything....
 
There ought to be a hi-lo speed button somewhere on the front of the machine. If this machine is running at 30 ips at the high position, then 15 ips ought to be the speed of the low-position.

Also, check to see if there is a varispeed control knob anywhere, and make sure it is off, or deactivated, or whatever.

I know that every 2-track Otari like that has an internal switch that will switch from low-speed mode, to high-speed mode. Chances are, you've got a REALLY NICE Otari that's set to the high-speed mode internally, and is on the high-speed switch on the front, which equates to 30 ips.

30 ips will give you AWESOME results for mixing down. Because you have twice the tape area to lay down on, you can hit the levels WAY HARDER than you can with 15 ips. But then again, the cons are that it eats tape faster, and it wears out your heads and guides faster. But if you've got a budget to maintain this machine, and a budget for tape, go for it. 30 ips is as good as it gets.
 
shurhit said:
Just purchased a Otari MX 5050 B2HD, how can I tell if it is the 7 1/2 / 15 ips model versus the 3 1/2 / 7 1/2 ips model?
I saw another thread and someone mentioned the HD stand for high speed & direct drive motors... can anyone confirm this? Here is a video of my Otari in action...

http://webpages.charter.net/2baharper/2300/z.wmv

Judging by the speed it goes around while the song is playing I am guessing it is playing at 15 ips?

10.5in. diameter reel * 3.14 (pi) = 32.97 circumference, looks like it is going at about 1 second per circumference spin therefore 32.97 inches per second = 83.7438 centimeters per second, which is like 30 ips, WHOA what am i doing wrong!!! oh yea, everything....
Click to expand...

It's probably 15 ips high and 7.5 ips low.

The reel is 10.5” but a full tape pancake is about 9.75”. However, that’s not going to work to estimate tape speed. The reel spins faster or slower depending on how much tape is on it, so you’re not working with a constant.

As you can see the take-up reel is spinning faster when you have a full reel of tape on the supply side. At exactly half way through the tape the reels will be spinning at the same speed. Anyway, the math won’t work with a varying circumference.

The Official way to determine and set tape speed is with a standard calibration tape containing a 3kHz tone (3150 Hz to be exact). Most people don’t have one.

Another way is to use a white grease pencil used for editing and a stopwatch. Mark a vertical line on the backing of the tape. Measure 15 inches and make a second mark. Now rewind the tape a little and play it back. Start the stopwatch as the first mark reaches a reference, such as the repro head and stop the watch at the second mark. If you measure 2 seconds your tape is running @ 7.5 ips, or you are drunk and it’s running @ 15 ips, or you are really drunk and it’s running @ 30 ips. :D

This won’t work for fine-tuning because your reaction speed is in the mix but will give you a ballpark (make sure you perform this operation sober ;) ).
 
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on my otari, there is a single button that is used. Is this s 2 track recorder? If so, it most likely is 7.5 and 15 ips. Most likely depressing the button is 7.5 ips and 15 is when the button is not depressed. Think of it as when the button is "high" the speed is high, and when the button is "low" the speed is low.
 
Thank you!

Thank you so much for the info...
it is a 2 track otari with a hi and lo speed setting, hoping its high is 15 ips,
I'll be ordering a used DBX 150x as well, hope all sounds great! :rolleyes:
 
I know this is an old post but if anyone else needs to know the answer to this question - I just bought an Otari MX5050BII2 - very similar deck - I do not believe that Otari MX5050 series has a 30 IPS capability for these 1/4" tape machines. They are 2 speed switchable on front panel and 3 speed capable decks. There is a dip-switch inside the machine - need to take back cover and one of the side panels - think it's the right panel looking at unit from the front - to change whether the front panel speed button (2 position button - high or low speed) for either 3.75 & 7.5 IPS (low/High) or by changing inside dip-switch - 7.5 & 15 IPS (Low/High). That's how to get access to all 3 speeds from a 2 speed front panel button = don't know why they just didn't use a 3 position switch on front panel.. Also another rookie mistake that I made while testing machine with a 2 track 2 channel prerecorded tape at 15 IPS on a 15" reel then a 4 track 2 channel prerecorded tape at 7.5 IPS on a 7" reel was I changed the speed to low CHECK, then I changed reel size to small - CHECK - then loaded tape and hit play - first few minutes of first song sounded great then about 6 minutes in I started hearing 2 songs plating at the same time and one of the songs was playing backwards! I'm thinking was this beast damaged in shipping or was the tape I purchased off ebay bad - did iy need to be baked or were my heads out of alignment - full panic - my STRONG advice to newbies - like me the bigshot techie - DOWNLOAD & READ the USERS/OPERATING and at least first 75% of the service / maintenance MANUALS - they are FREE and offered from several Audio related websites - ANYWAY - all my problem was - I forgot to switch the 2 position slide switch under the head cover panel from 2 track play. I have a 2 track record/play with a 4 track play only head configuration deck. Otari makes several options in the MX5050 line for various head configurations and combos (Mono/Full track with 2 track, 2 track / 4 track or 4 track record/play with a 2 track play only, 8 track and also 4 track/ 4 channel (Quadraphonic combined with standard 4 track bi-directional). Channels are the number of simultaneous signals u can record or play at the same time with tape moving in one direction - each channel will have its own VU meter (easy way to tell how many channels the machine is. Tracks and channels are sometimes used interchangeably - but most 4 track machines are only 2 channel - tape is split into 4 parallel segments but only 2 segments or channels are used at any given moment - so for the segments 1 & 3 are the left and right channels with the tape on side A moving forward and to access the other 2 channels segments 2 & 4 you need to play or fast forward the side A to the end, swap the supply and take-up reels and flip the take-up reel which now becomes the supply to the left reel hub and play the tape backwards to access the other 2 tracks. There are 4 channel/ 4 track machines (Quadraphonic) with 4 VU meters one for each forward moving channel to play all 4 channels or tracks (or record 1, 2, 3 or all 4 tracks) simultaneously - to make maters more confusing many of these 4 channel machines can also play standard 2 channel/4 track tapes side A and B by flipping some switches - in this mode VU meter #1 and $3 will act as left and right channel in Side A direction and VU meters 2 & 4 will be left and right channels for side B. In 4 channel mode u can take each channel output (4) - plug each into a preamp/amp input channel (an old Quadraphonic amp/receiver or 2 stereo amps/receivers) and hook up 4 separate speakers in each corner of your listening room and hear a completely different signal (recording/instrument/voice) from each speaker with no Digital Processing trickery - STRAIGHT PURE ANALOG SOUND in Quadraphonic or 4 channel sound - there are even commercially made recordings for Quadraphonic systems professionally mixed down to 4 channels instead of 2 from Master tapes. But most owners of multi-channel tape decks use them to capture a bands performance separating bass, percussion, vocals and say guitar on each channel - each member of the band need not be there as one channel at a time can be recorded at different times - then this combined 4, 8, 16 channel analog recording is typically professionally mixed down to a 2 channel master tape using a proper mixing board and a trained engineer to get proper levels, add effects if needed or edit various parts of various channels/tracks maybe have the bass player or guitarist come in and re-record or overlay a second instrument in different sections of their recordings. Process is tedious and time consuming especially if you decide to stay 100% Analog - first thing is you'll need a 2nd tape deck that is 2 channel, 2 track for the best sound quality to record/create the final 2 channel completed master tape.
 
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