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sowa616
New member
hi i have a fostex r8 i was wondering is it possible to reduce the players speed from 15IPS to a slower speed of say 1 7/8 IPS without using the pitch adjust allready on the player? all the best mike 
jpmorris
Tape Wolf
hi i have a fostex r8 i was wondering is it possible to reduce the players speed from 15IPS to a slower speed of say 1 7/8 IPS without using the pitch adjust allready on the player? all the best mike
That's one hell of a jump downwards. I'm sure you could do it if you designed your own capstan controller, but the channel cards will not be designed tor record and reproduce at that speed. You'd probably have to redesign them too.
What are you actually trying to achieve?
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sowa616
New member
ok well i was wondering if it possible to reduce my tape player runing at 15ips as i dont get much time per reels currently using 900ft 7inch of ampex i get about 24mins recording/playback time. i fort try it as a temporary solution to see if it would work.
i only stated 1 7/8 IPS because i know its the slowest domestic speed you can get on 7inch reels with players that can support that slow speed obv mine cant
but any speed lower than 15ips would be great as i cant work with the player going that fast. i just dont get anoth recording time .
miroslav
Cosmic Cowboy
Well...you could play faster...that will give you more songs per reel of tape.
I don't think you would want to even run that deck at half or quater speed...it will probably sound lousy.
I use 10.5" reels on my deck, and at 15ips, I only get 30 minutes...it's the nature of the beast.
Just think, the big decks running at 30ips get half that!!!!
And cost a fortune per reel!!!!
I don't think you would want to even run that deck at half or quater speed...it will probably sound lousy.
I use 10.5" reels on my deck, and at 15ips, I only get 30 minutes...it's the nature of the beast.
Just think, the big decks running at 30ips get half that!!!!
And cost a fortune per reel!!!!
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sowa616
New member
Well...you could play faster...that will give you more songs per reel of tape.
I don't think you would want to even run that deck at half or quater speed...it will probably sound lousy.
I use 10.5" reels on my deck, and at 15ips, I only get 30 minutes...it's the nature of the beast.
Just think, the big decks running at 30ips get half that!!!!
And cost a fortune per reel!!!!
yes maybe so but i was hoping for a temporary or permanent solution! if i can reduce the speed to maybe 10ips or somthink. noise would not be a prob i just want to see if its possible? i am aware of the noise to signal ratio
jpmorris
Tape Wolf
Well, the 388 does run at 7.5ips, so it's not far-fetched. But I'm not aware of a way to run the fostex slow without using the varispeed control.
Can't you just get an 1800' spool or something? That should give you up to 24 minutes which should only be a problem if you're trying to record an absolutely epic track.
Can't you just get an 1800' spool or something? That should give you up to 24 minutes which should only be a problem if you're trying to record an absolutely epic track.
sweetbeats
Reel deep thoughts...
Its not just the noise...there are very significant changes that occur to the deck's frequency response when you adjust the transport speed, most notable a drop in high frequency reponse when reducing speed and this is more pronounced when running a deck at a slower speed that was designed for a single speed such as the R8...the head profile is designed for a best response at 15ips. If I were you and more concerned about economizing tape rather than record quality I'd just use the pitch control and turn it fully counterclockwise. the capstan stability won't be as good as when not using the pitch control, but it might be a nice compromise for you...no other mods, 30 percent increase in record time and still decent record quality. remember to label your tapes recorded using the pitch control for later reproduction on your deck or another 1/4 inch 8 track.
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sowa616
New member
i understand what you guys/girls are saying i just wondered that if the r8 has a pitch controller on it surely if i could replace it with a lower resistance potentiometer or maybe introduce a voltage regulator circuit into the motors and capstan motor controlled variable with a potentiometer there two to adjust the speeds? or is it not worth getting into im just thinking that's all.
LDS
New member
There were some decks back in ancient times that changed speeds by slipping an insert over the capstan, Sonys IIRC. The problem with them was that they could only be optimized for recording at one speed or another. When the speed changes, especially radical changes like a 50% reduction the record bias has to change quite a bit. If you were to just slow it down by half, you'd pretty much lose your bass response and the midrange would be extremely low also. Come to think of it, the highs would also be way out of whack also, but less than the lower range because highs are somewhat self-biasing. But then again, the slower the tape speed the lower the high frequency response is anyway.
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sowa616
New member
so all in all theres no way of reducing the tape players speed without losing high and low response as well as damaging the players internal components?.
M1Fanatic
Digital whaaa?
I'm not sure about any damage it could cause, but it would really sound like crap, not to mention a high noise level.
LDS
New member
That is correct. It may be Akais I'm thinking of. I remember they were Viet Nam war era machines with those wonderful rubber idlers that needed replacing every couple of years.
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Beck
Guest
The speed could be cut in half to 7.5 ips with some internal hacking, but I wouldn’t mess with the speed on the R8 myself. The super low reel-to-reel speeds like 1-7/8 are for logging applications and are not suitable for music by any stretch.
The capstan motor drops to half speed in standby mode… it only runs at full speed when you press play or record. The key to it all is pin 16 on the main CMOS processor (U17). If you break the trace leading to that pin and tie the other side of the trace to “Low” the capstan motor will continue spinning at about half normal play speed. You would also have to fine tune play speed with variable resistors R200 and R51.
If none of what I just said makes any sense then don’t mess with your R8.
The R8 sounds pretty good, but the tolerances of these narrow track machines are very tight. It was designed for 15 ips and everything would have to be recalibrated to run at a different speed. And you would defeat the purpose of recording to tape with the sonic hit you would take.
22+ minutes of run time is a lot. I think you mean 1800 ft of tape. Quantegy 457 is the factory recommended tape for the R8, but you can experiment with other 1-mil tapes.
Best Answer: Buy More Tape!
The capstan motor drops to half speed in standby mode… it only runs at full speed when you press play or record. The key to it all is pin 16 on the main CMOS processor (U17). If you break the trace leading to that pin and tie the other side of the trace to “Low” the capstan motor will continue spinning at about half normal play speed. You would also have to fine tune play speed with variable resistors R200 and R51.
If none of what I just said makes any sense then don’t mess with your R8.
The R8 sounds pretty good, but the tolerances of these narrow track machines are very tight. It was designed for 15 ips and everything would have to be recalibrated to run at a different speed. And you would defeat the purpose of recording to tape with the sonic hit you would take.
22+ minutes of run time is a lot. I think you mean 1800 ft of tape. Quantegy 457 is the factory recommended tape for the R8, but you can experiment with other 1-mil tapes.
Best Answer: Buy More Tape!
Blue Jinn
Rider of the ARPocalypse
I understand what Beck said and still wouldn't do it, not the least of the reasons I don't own the test gear to do any of hte recalibration that would require. Why isn't 24 minutes long enough? what are you recording that you need more time?