Ok, so long story short. No stranger to tape. I don't like those equipment in signature things or GAS tracking areas of these forums, but me = Tascam 388 (since 1998); Otari MX-5050 BQII 4 track; MSR-16S(yes, the SSssss) all in constant rotation and all professionally checked and calibrated.
Took a chance recently with an eBay auction for a Revox B77. It's a "low speed" model, so the price didn't go to high. I wasn't expecting the moon. I wanted mainly as a guitar delay.
The guy was obviously a tech. I don't think anything was recapped or replaced, but it arrived calibrated for 406 and tape handling/FFWD/RVRS all stellar.
I ran some mid 90s Albini recorded Mp3 into it first thing. 4 min song. Rewind, press play expecting the highs to come back totally different. NO. Highs are perfect. And the thing just made the track sound AMAZING.
So instead of relegating it to tape delay territory, I've spent the last week (quarantine style) running 8 tracks of drums recorded onto the 388 into this thing as a sort of mastering experiment. Sometimes straight in. Just the RCA to RCA. Sometimes I get fancy and go into my pair of modded tube Berlant pres I have racked, and then slam that into my Burl Bomber.
The reason I'm writing this (to try and cut to the chase) is to ask the more knowledgable people in this group what the hell is in this deck that makes it sound like magic???? This things SLAYS on drums at 3 3/4 (all freq of my cymbals are there) and if I take it down to the 1 1/8 it just FATTENS them in the bestest of westest way. I'm smitten. More like...in love physically with this machine.
It has a US Gov id tag on the back, and I've read a few places that the low speed models didn't get head wear as bad because (obvi) the low speed! Is it just a combo of German tape handling and me luckying out on a good set of heads? Was it an expert tech that knew exactly how to calibrate?? What the heck is in this thing that just sounds amazing?
I can't believe they sold an amplifier for it because the signal comes out so hot. What IS THIS THING??? I want more of them!
Took a chance recently with an eBay auction for a Revox B77. It's a "low speed" model, so the price didn't go to high. I wasn't expecting the moon. I wanted mainly as a guitar delay.
The guy was obviously a tech. I don't think anything was recapped or replaced, but it arrived calibrated for 406 and tape handling/FFWD/RVRS all stellar.
I ran some mid 90s Albini recorded Mp3 into it first thing. 4 min song. Rewind, press play expecting the highs to come back totally different. NO. Highs are perfect. And the thing just made the track sound AMAZING.
So instead of relegating it to tape delay territory, I've spent the last week (quarantine style) running 8 tracks of drums recorded onto the 388 into this thing as a sort of mastering experiment. Sometimes straight in. Just the RCA to RCA. Sometimes I get fancy and go into my pair of modded tube Berlant pres I have racked, and then slam that into my Burl Bomber.
The reason I'm writing this (to try and cut to the chase) is to ask the more knowledgable people in this group what the hell is in this deck that makes it sound like magic???? This things SLAYS on drums at 3 3/4 (all freq of my cymbals are there) and if I take it down to the 1 1/8 it just FATTENS them in the bestest of westest way. I'm smitten. More like...in love physically with this machine.
It has a US Gov id tag on the back, and I've read a few places that the low speed models didn't get head wear as bad because (obvi) the low speed! Is it just a combo of German tape handling and me luckying out on a good set of heads? Was it an expert tech that knew exactly how to calibrate?? What the heck is in this thing that just sounds amazing?
I can't believe they sold an amplifier for it because the signal comes out so hot. What IS THIS THING??? I want more of them!