Inescapable backwards playing on Reel to Reel playback!

[paintedtape]

Howdy, i am currently conducting a digitization project of reels and cassettes from the 70s.

everything has been going swimmingly thus far, but today i started on the reels and have encountered a horrible problem: the b-sides of the reels are playing backwards over the a-sides. By that I mean when I hit play at the start of the reel, everything sounds fine and in stereo... until a little while into the reel, then what has been recorded on the opposite side starts playing as well over top of the forward playing a-side.

that makes sense, doesn't it?

Anyways, I have a handful of theories as to why this is happening. The most immediate one is that there is some setting on the machine (studer a807) that I am not aware of, some button I have to press to make it playback reels that have been recorded on both sides. I have checked the manual thoroughly for this sort of thing and have found nothing. OR the recording on the b-side has printed through to the other side. I would accept this hypothesis if it weren't for the sheer clarity of the backwards sounds (and when I put it on reverse playback it sounds normal). My third hypothesis has something to do with azimuth misalignment, of which I know very little about...

Please let me know what you guys think of this. I'd even go so far as to call it an EMERGENCY!

Thanks.

 

[RRuskin]

Howdy, i am currently conducting a digitization project of reels and cassettes from the 70s.

everything has been going swimmingly thus far, but today i started on the reels and have encountered a horrible problem: the b-sides of the reels are playing backwards over the a-sides. By that I mean when I hit play at the start of the reel, everything sounds fine and in stereo... until a little while into the reel, then what has been recorded on the opposite side starts playing as well over top of the forward playing a-side.

that makes sense, doesn't it?

Anyways, I have a handful of theories as to why this is happening. The most immediate one is that there is some setting on the machine (studer a807) that I am not aware of, some button I have to press to make it playback reels that have been recorded on both sides. I have checked the manual thoroughly for this sort of thing and have found nothing. OR the recording on the b-side has printed through to the other side. I would accept this hypothesis if it weren't for the sheer clarity of the backwards sounds (and when I put it on reverse playback it sounds normal). My third hypothesis has something to do with azimuth misalignment, of which I know very little about...

Please let me know what you guys think of this. I'd even go so far as to call it an EMERGENCY!

Thanks.

Your Studer is 1/2 track stereo. The tapes in question are either 1/4 track stereo (2 stereo sides) or 1/2 track mono (2 mono sides). Try any tape exhibiting this problem on a 1/4 track machine.

 

[paintedtape]

this makes perfect sense. Is there any way of solving the problem without getting a new machine? I only have access to one really, and it was tough enough getting that!

I'll also stay in denial and accept other suggestions as to how to solve the problem. Perhaps just a secret button on the back of the studer I can push? wishful thinking...

 

[jpmorris]

this makes perfect sense. Is there any way of solving the problem without getting a new machine? I only have access to one really, and it was tough enough getting that!

I'll also stay in denial and accept other suggestions as to how to solve the problem. Perhaps just a secret button on the back of the studer I can push? wishful thinking...

You'd need to replace the playback head with a compatible one, probably also recalibrate the machine to match since the thinner head elements will presumably give a weaker signal. JRF Magnetics should be able to provide a compatible head for you, but it is liable to be pretty expensive.
Getting a nice 1/4-track machine would probably be much cheaper.

 

[RRuskin]

this makes perfect sense. Is there any way of solving the problem without getting a new machine? I only have access to one really, and it was tough enough getting that!

I'll also stay in denial and accept other suggestions as to how to solve the problem. Perhaps just a secret button on the back of the studer I can push? wishful thinking...

Some machines have switchable playback heads. My Tascam 25-2 does but my Ampex ATR 102 doesn't. How many heads does your Studer have? If the count is 4, it has a 1/4 track head already. If not, you need to find another machine for the tapes in question. I would not suggest modifying your Studer for the sake of one project.

 

[jpmorris]

Some machines have switchable playback heads. My Tascam 25-2 does but my Ampex ATR 102 doesn't. How many heads does your Studer have? If the count is 4, it has a 1/4 track head already. If not, you need to find another machine for the tapes in question.

There were some playback-only machines converted to have the sync head as 1/4-track, but to the best of my knowledge there were never 4-head versions of this machine, and there's no space to add an extra head if you wanted to. And even the converted machines are going to be very rare.

I would not suggest modifying your Studer for the sake of one project.

Frankly, I agree. It's possible, but it's really not something I'd recommend unless truly desperate.

 

[Lt. Bob]

this makes perfect sense. Is there any way of solving the problem without getting a new machine? I only have access to one really, and it was tough enough getting that!

I'll also stay in denial and accept other suggestions as to how to solve the problem. Perhaps just a secret button on the back of the studer I can push? wishful thinking...

the basic answer is no. There are ways to do it but they are imnpractical and expensive.

 

[paintedtape]

thanks for all the info.

ya, the studer has been modded by the guy we borrowed it off of. it's playback only now, but I am pretty sure there are not four tape heads. it's not a complete loss as the collection i am archiving has some 1/2 track stereo tapes that i guess i'd need this machine to digitize them anyway. i think i might make this my excuse to buy a reel to reel player. i have seen them for very cheap in the past...

i'll check into the possibility of four playback heads, and i'll contact the dude who owns it. he's a technological mastermind.

 

[jpmorris]

i'll check into the possibility of four playback heads, and i'll contact the dude who owns it. he's a technological mastermind.

Yes, do that. Ask him if it has a quarter-track stereo head. And if it does, ask him how to activate it because I doubt anyone here has ever seen one of the 2-head playback versions.

Either way, the Studer will be good for half-track stereo and double-sided mono recordings if you have any of those.

 

[sjjohnston]

The OP has already received very expert answers, but I just want to chip in a few elementary notes, which are perhaps so elementary they don't bear mention, though it does seem there is the possibility of confusion regarding them:

Tapes with "two sides" don't actually record on both sides of the tape. Assuming they're stereo machines, they record 4 tracks on one side, aligned kind of like this:
-------------------
Left, "Side" 1-->
<--2 "ediS" ,thgiR
Right, "Side" 1-->
<--2 "ediS" ,tfeL
------------------

(the above would be more accurate if you turned the letters in the backwards writing upside down, but I can't do that).

When you "turn over" a tape and play the other "side," wha you're really doing is playing the same side of the tape, but flipping it upside down and running it past the tape heads in the opposite direction.

The correct head for playing back a quarter-track stereo tape is set up kind of like this:
-----------------------------------------
Gap that reads the left channel recording
[space]
Gap that reads the right channel recording
[space]
-----------------------------------------

Quarter-track tape decks are much, much more plentiful than half-track ones, as consumer models were almost all quarter-track. It should be fairly easy to find a good quarter-track deck, particularly if you don't even care how well it records.