16 track , 1" Magnetic Recorder

[dakudiv]

Hi,
My name is Divyansh Gupta.I got your company reference from TapeHeads forum.

I have a 20 mm magnetic tape, with 16 track , which might have data or sound.
My purpose is to create a machine (or buy an existing one and modify it) and convert the data from the tape into digital format.

1)Alternative to E-bay Tape Head ?https://www.ebay.com/itm/284274887590?hash=item42301a8ba6:g:rwkAAOSws85giM4d Tascam ATR-6 Tape Head

For this can you provide any reference to the electronic circuit which will be used, after taking wires from pins provided on the magnetic tape head ?

Is there any new age electronic circuits (read made ), for eg. the circuit may be a 1X4 ch signal receiver , which can read the output from tape recorder and convert it, into digital format. Then I would require 4 such circuit, to make 4x4 channels.

2)Buying complete equipment like Tascam ATR-60

Are there any other equipment like Tascam ATR-60 which use 16 track (1") magnetic head ? Also , what could be the authentic store to buy such a machine. I am more interested in getting the complete mechanism i.e Magnetic Tape Head, with Tape Mechanism and circuits , so that , I can focus on converting the sound to digital format individually for each track.

Which formats are used to store the sounds on 16 tracks , is there any frames , subframes with time stamping or all channels contain sounds ?


Thanks and Regards,

 

[ecc83]

To buy a 16 track tape machine to play a tape which may or may not have useful data/sounds on it seems to me foolhardy in the extreme? Such a machine in top working order will cost you several thousand USD. Far better to send the tape to a copying house or indeed one of the guys here will surely be capable?

There is also the matter of the condition of the tape. If an old one it might well have degraded and need professionally 'baking'. Do NOT try to play it. Top men will surely be along soon with more learned information.

Dave.

 

[jamesperrett]

If this is an audio tape then most of the tracks will be purely analogue signals with maybe one of the edge tracks containing timecode (usually to the SMPTE standard). However, if it is a data tape it will probably contain FM signals which were used to allow logging of signals down to DC. A picture of the tape might help us identify it.

It would be much simpler and cheaper to send the tape to someone who can transfer it for you. While 1" tape machines are rarer than half inch or 2" machines there are people around who can handle it. In the USA I'd suggest Sonicraft (https://www.sonicraft.com/gear-and-tech/).

A working machine is likely to set you back $2000 or more. A non working machine will be cheaper but you'll probably end up spending a similar amount of money fixing it. You would then need the gear to digitise it which would be of the order of another $800-1000.

 

[ecc83]

Another thought is that the tracks might be Dolby A or DBX encoded? You don't want to buy 16 tracks worth of those!

Dave.

 

[jamesperrett]

Another thought is that the tracks might be Dolby A or DBX encoded? You don't want to buy 16 tracks worth of those!

Dave.

At least you can deal with those in software these days. I think Dolby S and SR are the only common noise reduction systems that don't yet have a software equivalent.

 

[ecc83]

At least you can deal with those in software these days. I think Dolby S and SR are the only common noise reduction systems that don't yet have a software equivalent.

Hi James, can I ask. Would it be ok to mix down 16 say, tracks in their coded state and then decode the resultant two tracks?
I suspect not because because a mix of 'coded' material decoded does not sound like a mix of decoded material?

Dave.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

Hi James, can I ask. Would it be ok to mix down 16 say, tracks in their coded state and then decode the resultant two tracks?
I suspect not because because a mix of 'coded' material decoded does not sound like a mix of decoded material?

Dave.

The proper way would be to decode before mixing. The encoding is level dependent, so the levels to the decoding process need to be calibrated.

 

[jamesperrett]

Hi James, can I ask. Would it be ok to mix down 16 say, tracks in their coded state and then decode the resultant two tracks?
I suspect not because because a mix of 'coded' material decoded does not sound like a mix of decoded material?

Dave.

Yes, as Boulder Sound Guy says, mixing things together before decoding is unlikely to work. If you have a loud high frequency sound occuring at the same time as a quieter high frequency sound, the loud one will determine how much processing is applied and so the quieter sound will be played at the wrong level.