Reel to reel, DAT, Cassette and Cassettes - a bit of comparing going on.

[rob aylestone]

I've deliberately put this here because it's a sore topic, and even talking about digital within earshot of the analogue folk causes issues.

I was in trouble recently because my reel to reels didn't perform too well - so I had this idea.
Take some non-commercial music. All recorded by me in Cubase with just a few real instruments bolstering the ones created inside the computer. The 'best' quality I could start with. 48K, 24 bit. I merged 4 tracks each with content that can make digital sound a bit brash, and make analogue hiss in the quiet bits.
What I did was output the audio via line level to a cassette machione, a Tascam 112, a DAT - a Tascam DA-20 and then a Mini Disc machine - a portable HHB Portadisc, and then to the two reel to reels, the Revox and the Tascam 34B. This was clearly performing badly and after a demag, clean and tidy, nothing very much changed - and ch1 is working fine, 2 is less good and 3 and 4 poorer still - even more oddly, switching from source to tape, changes the output as you expect, but NOT the meters. Switch to tape and the meters are dead? I'm thinking that sending it for an overhaul and repair will be wasted money - so I think I might sell it, and get something back and let somebody else invest time and money on it. The Revox with the dodgy brake was fixed pretty esily and that's working fine now.

Listening carefully, the DAT and MD are too close for me to call, the cassette actually beat the Revox I think, and the Tascam R-R was the worst because it's faulty.

The video is long and boring and repetive with the audio clips. What I will do is put the clips on my server so the few that are really interested can download them as wav files, rather than trust Youtube's audio 'adjustments'.

 

[leddy]

Tape is a moving target. Calibration, head wear, etc. I was an analog holdout for a long time. My prize possession was a Nagra IV-S. I regret it sometimes but I did sell it. Don’t have the energy to fuss with tape anymore, and it’s not really worth it, IMO. Speaking of cassette though, I’ve had a few gems that gave the Nagra a run for its money. Had a Sony pro Walkman that sounded almost as good as reel to reel. I still keep a Denon 3-head deck if I need to make transfers that surprises me with its fidelity,

 

[rob aylestone]

Yep. I do understand the desirability of gear that spins and makes noises, but we never give any thought to recording direct to disk or using card storage. We pop one in and hit record. I don’t think anyone ever wonders if it really is recording. Red light = happiness. We now get cross because we get to the end and realise no red light = misery! Looking back at tape, and I just forgot all the checks and setting up we used to do. I’ve also noticed the track width discrepancies with the 4 track and the 2 track where the Revox cannot quite erase a tape made on the Tascam and vice versa. Looking at the specs, it means that while one machine can erase a path slightly wider than the following heads use, the 4 track machines of course have a gap revealing the old two track content. I’d totally forgotten about this, so it was a re-learn situation.

While I totally get the notion of using them to create subtle things like the tape saturation and bias curve changes to linearity the cleaning and tweaking spoils it. I suppose it’s the same as real pianos needing regular tuning, new tubes in old electronics etc but those other maintenance jobs are less regular. My friend has old, broadcast VTR machines and he talks of the same things. Constant cleaning and replacing consumable parts, now getting rare. Worse, no off tape monitoring so pressing play after a rewind is always fingers crossed and hope.

I love the fact that people hate the background in my videos. Nobody noticed the tooth I knocked out over Christmas and am waiting to get fixed!