2 track played back on 4 track

[martin 204]

Apologies if this is a dumb newbie question, but is it possible to play back a recording done on a 2 track RtoR studio mastering machine on a 4 track domestic RtoR machine? Are the 1-3-2-4 head positions close enought to read the 1-2 tracks?

thanks,

martin

 

[evm1024]

Shory answer is yes

Apologies if this is a dumb newbie question, but is it possible to play back a recording done on a 2 track RtoR studio mastering machine on a 4 track domestic RtoR machine? Are the 1-3-2-4 head positions close enought to read the 1-2 tracks?

thanks,

martin

(just walking up...)

The short answer is yes. The long answer is that 4 track sterio is recorded in pairs 1-3 and 2-4 (1-2-3-4 from top of tape if I remember correctly).

So if this is a sterio machine that you want to use for playback then track 3 will only half cover track 2 of your 2t tape. If your playback deck is something like a 3340,3440,34 (teac/tascam) then you could select tracks 1 and 4 and have equal playback on both channels.

I presume that you just want to listen to what is on the tape and that you know that you will need a 2 track machine if you want to get the full potential of the recording.

Regards!

 

[arjoll]

Apologies if this is a dumb newbie question, but is it possible to play back a recording done on a 2 track RtoR studio mastering machine on a 4 track domestic RtoR machine? Are the 1-3-2-4 head positions close enought to read the 1-2 tracks?

They are close enough to get a reasonable result, but the level will be down on the right channel because the tracking isn't quite perfect. You're best to get a true 2 track, but a 4 track 2 channel machine will do at a push.