how to properly set up a reel to reel tape?

[jpmorris]

well i sure learned a lot from you all thanks for that.
Ill go with the 246.

i went thru these old tape decks manuals ( http://www.vintageshifi.com/repertoire-pdf/pdf/telecharge.php?pdf=Akai-GX-260-D-Brochure.pdf ) and on the 3rd page they wrote somthin about "sound on sound recording" which sounded to me a bit like multi track.

Right, yes. Sound-on-sound is a sort of poor-man's multitrack. On a proper multitrack system, e.g. a Fostex R8, Tascam 38/TSR-8 all the way up to an Otari MTR90 or Studer A827, you have a head with 8, 16, 24 or maybe even 32 separate tracks. The portastudio usually has 4. On these systems you can record all 4 tracks at once (or however many it supports), or you can record one at a time and build up the song piece by piece.
You can also go back and rerecord one (or more) of the tracks afterwards, e.g. you fluffed a line. You can go back and fix that.

Before proper multitrack systems became affordable in the mid 1970s, home musicians could do simple multitracking with sound-on-sound. At its simplest, you record on one tape deck, and then copy that recording to another tape deck while playing the new part at the same time. This works, and has been used to great effectiveness by Les Paul, and some of Peter Howell's early material (Ithaca, Agincourt etc). Giles, Giles and Fripp also did this with their 'Brondesbury Tapes' demo album before splitting to form King Crimson.

Decks like the Akai machines come with a feature that allows you to do this kind of back-and-forth track bouncing on a single deck, often by copying from the left channel to the right channel and back again on each pass.
But sound-on-sound has certain limitations. For one, the quality deteriorates with each successive copy. Instruments get pushed further back - Peter Howell's later home recordings were better because he'd had enough practice to figure out which order to layer the instruments in. Also, the result is usuall mono unless you actually use multiple stereo decks like on 'Ithaca - A game for all who know'. Crucially, because everything is layered together, it's fixed. Once it's done, it's done - you can't go back and fix a fluff in the bass you've only just noticed.

The technique was popular in the 60s and early 70s because it was the only thing available at the time which cost less than a car (or house) - proper multitrack systems are better in every way.

Hope that helps!

 

[rob aylestone]

These types of machines usually had a mic input on an unbalanced ¼" jack AND a line input. When you did SOS recordings, you took the left channel's output, and then mixed it with the mic input on the right - so that one then had two tracks, then you did the same and bounced back the other way. Other tape decks didn't have this facility and you had to do the routing externally. There was a snag that with three head machines, the replay head was after the record head so the two tracks got shifted on the tape. Some people were able to use the record head to do the replay so it was in sync. Stereo machines of this era were nearly always dual mono - you selected left, right or both channels. You could also use the SOS facility to create copycat style echo - which I remember being rather neat. You changed the delay time by changing the recording speed! The Sony 377 mentioned was also available in a 4 channel version - and this model was pretty good for editing because you could remove the head cover and there were no pads to get in the way. Sonically, they were better than the cassettes of the day, but certainly not really brilliant by the standards of today.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

The Sony 377 mentioned was also available in a 4 channel version - and this model was pretty good for editing because you could remove the head cover and there were no pads to get in the way.

I've got this sitting next to me...