Reel to Reel Advice

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Kopitebushie

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Hi,

I was wondering if anyone can give me some advice on reel to reel recording. What recorder to get (as a beginner), where I can get spare audio tapes (UK), and any information that will help me choose a piece of equipment.

I've been recording digitally for a couple years, so I like to think I am not a complete novice when it comes to recording, however any advice on recording analogy would be most appreciated.
 
What do you want to accomplish? We need an idea so we can offer suggestions. How many tracks do you think you want to be able to record? 2, 16, 24? Maybe a price range if you have that.
 
The first thing is to sort out how many tracks you want to record at once, then what kind of tape width per track you want.
Price range is up there too.
What sort of thing are you thinking about?
 
I'll probably only use 4 tracks as I'll only be using it for recording live. I am a massive fan of old 60's/70's band. I've been trying to recreate a garage sound - The Sonics, The Mummies, The Gories etc. So, loads of tracks won't be necessary.

As it'll be my first reel to reel and a lot of trail and error is bound to happy, I am going to try and get one below £200.
 
Tapes can be had a StudioSpares and a couple of other places, ProTape and Carousel Media, for example.

And yeah, that is a bit of a vague question. There are lots of different ways to approach recording analogue. I started out by getting a 2-track machine and recording mixes to that, and that is what some people like to do - track digitally and then mix to tape.

Other people like to track on tape and then mix it digitally. I prefer to do the whole thing on tape and just digitize the finished product for distribution.

You might want to have a quick look at this thread:
https://homerecording.com/bbs/general-discussions/analog-only/first-analog-recorder-349322/
 
Thanks for the suggestions of places I can get tape.

Sorry for being vague. I literally don't know anything about analogue recording. I will probably record to tape and then mix digitally at first, just because I know this way of mixing.
 
Check out offerings such as Tascam's 34 or the later 44. A full pro 4 track starting place might be the Otari MTR-10 with 4 channel electronics. I dont know about your side of the pond, but these can be found in your price range if you look long enough, the Otari being the tougher one to come up with in that price range.
 
mdainsd said:
Check out offerings such as Tascam's 34 or the later 44. A full pro 4 track starting place might be the Otari MTR-10 with 4 channel electronics. I dont know about your side of the pond, but these can be found in your price range if you look long enough, the Otari being the tougher one to come up with in that price range.
Click to expand...

Bear in mind that the MTR-10 is about the size of a dishwasher, the TASCAM machines are far more portable. I'd go for the TASCAM as a first machine and maybe look into something bigger later.

Don't forget that a 4-track machine is four MONO channels, if you need to record a stereo instrument it will take two tracks of your four.

If your song fits happily inside four tracks, that's fine. Otherwise you may have to resort to recording four tracks at a time (maybe three using track 1 as a guide), and dumping them into the DAW.
This is not really how the machines were intended to be used and there are a few snags, most commonly that the playback speed varies subtly and the groups of tracks will drift out of sync and need to be adjusted in the DAW to compensate.

I think a lot depends on whether you're doing this to try and experience how albums used to be made (or similar reasons, e.g. for fun), or whether you're doing this to try and get a change of sound. There's no right or wrong answer there, but it does help narrow things down.

If you're just trying to get the sound, there are shortcuts you can use like recording through the deck into the DAW, and a stereo deck would probably suffice for that. In that case you might consider bouncing the mix to a 2-track tape deck and back.

If you're in it for the fun/romantic/traditional aspect of it, you might be better off looking for a TASCAM 388 or an 8-track deck and a mixer. That would allow you to record the basic tracks of most songs onto tape and then you could import them into the DAW and mix them as usual. You would need an 8-input soundcard for that, of course.
 
Thanks for all the advice. A think a TASCAM is looking to be the answer due to their size, and I need something that's fairly portable.

I hadn't appreciated that they record on mono tacks so I may look into an 8 track. Having said that, I may just stick with a 4 track and upgrade to an 8 track if I enjoy recording in analogue.

I am doing it just for fun really. I love recording music and I love trying new methods and idea. If I am honest I've never been too fused with certain sounds or quality. I just get a kick out of the process of trying new things and experimenting with ideas. And recording in audio has always fascinated me after I watch a Pink Floyd documentary.

Just one more question. Can you use any mixer with a reel to reel? What connections do you use to connect the recorder to the mixer?
 
Just one more question. Can you use any mixer with a reel to reel? What connections do you use to connect the recorder to the mixer?

Haha. Well, yes and no. How is that for an answer? You need to concern yourself with what the SOL (Standard operating level) is for both your mixer and your tape machine. The other concern is whether the interconnections are done in a balanced or un-balanced configuration. The Tascams mentioned above use the lower SOL in an unbalanced format (The Otari I mentioned would use the higher operating level and the interconnections would be balanced). There are many affordable mixers that work in this setup. Depending on the mixer, you would run your mics into the mic inputs of the mixer, connect the tape outs to the inputs of your reel to reel and then connect the outputs of your reel to reel to the tape returns on the mixer. Thats a basic setup that gets you going.
 
Kopitebushie said:
I hadn't appreciated that they record on mono tacks so I may look into an 8 track. Having said that, I may just stick with a 4 track and upgrade to an 8 track if I enjoy recording in analogue.

I am doing it just for fun really. I love recording music and I love trying new methods and idea. If I am honest I've never been too fused with certain sounds or quality. I just get a kick out of the process of trying new things and experimenting with ideas. And recording in audio has always fascinated me after I watch a Pink Floyd documentary.
Click to expand...

Cool, that's pretty much what got me into it too.

Just one more question. Can you use any mixer with a reel to reel? What connections do you use to connect the recorder to the mixer?
Click to expand...

Pretty much. The crazy expensive ones might be XLR-only, but most of them - particularly the ones within affordable reach - will have a combination of XLR and 1/4" jack inputs.

The Tascam 388 I mentioned because it is a combination mixer/tape deck, but most other TASCAM or Fostex machines will have RCA/Phono connections on the back. If you're going to mix analogue-style, you would need an 8-way cable loom/snake with RCA plugs on one end and 1/4" jack on the other. This will allow you to plug the outputs of the tape deck into a mixer.

If your aim is to mix digitally, the mixer may be less important. Typically it's used to mix the outputs from the multitrack to stereo, which the computer would be doing instead. However, I've found it's handy to have a front-end mixer to connect the instruments to. If this mixer is connected to the inputs of the tape deck, you can use it to do some kind of channel routing instead of having to constantly plug in and unplug things from the back of the deck, which I believe is what mdainsd was saying.

Alternatively it might be a good idea to get a patchbay - that way you'll wear out the patchbay's connections instead of the ones on the machine itself.

8-track decks to look at (besides the 388) include:
1/4" 8-tracks:
Fostex M80 (older model)
Fostex R8 (1/4" 8-track)

1/2" 8-tracks:
TASCAM 80-8 (pretty old now)
TASCAM 38 (48 and 58 as well, but I believe they're XLR connections)
TASCAM TSR-8 (only has two heads, can't do the record-through trick)
Otari 5050-8 (XLR, may require pin-reversed cables)

...of these I've used the TSR-8 personally. It's a nice machine, though 1/2" tape is a little expensive.

http://dougtheeagle.com/lab/lab2004.jpg
This was my first setup, the left-hand mixer was for the instruments, the right-hand mixer was for mixing to tape.
The machine in the middle is the TSR-8 and on the far right, a TASCAM-32 which I was using as the master recorder.
 
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