Reel To Reel Question...

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DeeJayRig

DeeJayRig

New DJ
Dec 1, 2006
316
0
126
san francisco bay area, northern california
www.latinmusicdj.com
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HELLO FRIENDS

For the longest time, I've been looking for a Reel to Reel recorder, I've looked hi and low, and nobody wants to get rid of those ...

It may be half nostalgia and half my desire... but long story short, yesterday as I was driving home coming from the park with my BB, I saw a "moving sale", and something inside order me to "pull over", and sure enough there was this machine all neglected.

I asked the lady, and she said to me, "oh you mean that Karaoke machine?... ten bucks! Immediately grabbed it and drove away....

The tape that came with it seemed a bit abused, and sort of twisted, so I play with it for about a half an hour, not really knowing what to do with it, but careful enough not to make matters worse, I manage to untwist some areas of the tape and to keep it straight...

The reels move ok, but I didn't get any sound from it, My best conclusion was the tape was blank...

Any ideas? :sqembarrassed:

THE MACHINE IS A TEAC X-700R
 
Can you get me a pic of the actual machine? It's entirely possible that if you aren't hearing anything from the tape, that there is nothing on it. If the unit has internal speakers and an amp (like my AKAI unit does) you would most likely hear at least a little something, albeit muffled if there were anything on the tape.

Are you having to patch into an external source such as thru an amp in order to produce sound?

Again, a picture will help.
 
I have an old sony reel to reel. It's cool and has decent sound quality.

You may want to clean your play and record heads. Head cleaner works best I think it was ether so they might not sell it anymore. Alcohol will work. Use a q-Tip.

Are you loading the tape through the heads correctly. You might want to google your machine for the proper loading method.


Other than those 2 ideas.. That's about all I can think of for you.

I sold a big box of old reel to reel a few years ago. You may be able to find some, they are out there.
 
Maybe the tape is flipped and you're playing the wrong side.
 
Shiny side of the tape away from the heads unless the tape is dark charcoal color on one side and brown on the other, in that case the brown side faces the heads. Also when cleaning a tape deck NEVER use alcohol on the rubber rollers!!! it causes them to dry out and warp or crack causing the tape not to track correctly across the heads.
 
There are no internal speakers in this model so you need to patch it into your mixer.
If there is anything on the tape, the VU meters will twitch. If it was recorded correctly, it should run at 0 at average and possibly +3 or +6 above saturation. (overmodulation) but on tape, this wasn't as critical as it is in the digital recording world.
I still have a few analog tape machines in my studio. unfortunatly....no-one records to tape anymore. :(
 
Not, me...

But I took a partial tour of the house...talk about a "Pack-Rat's Paradise"...:sqeek::sqerr:

Makes me want to go clean the garage......maybe, later.:sqwink:
 
sparkieg said:
Can you get me a pic of the actual machine? It's entirely possible that if you aren't hearing anything from the tape, that there is nothing on it. If the unit has internal speakers and an amp (like my AKAI unit does) you would most likely hear at least a little something, albeit muffled if there were anything on the tape.

Are you having to patch into an external source such as thru an amp in order to produce sound?

Again, a picture will help.
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Thank you everyone!

I am using headphones still, and i dont see the meters budge....

For recording I use the computer, and I also have a 10 Ch. Zoom...

This is only for my own personal enjoyment and record my sessions without having to worry about running out of space.... If I remember correctly at the station I used to hang out when I was a kid they used to record up to nine hours,...
 
Showing my age here... Gosh, I remember when reel tapes were offered by the record clubs, lol.

When I was in the Navy, we had reel tape machines in the studio for ship's entertainment. If memory serves, there were two sizes of reels and two speeds. We only used the one size and slow speed ~ and a tape could play for several hours.

Ship's entertainment was 4 channels, mono so each of the 4 tracks contained separate programming. Run the reel for channel 1. Reverse the reel and play it again for channel 2. Then switch it to the 2nd deck and repeat for channels 3 and 4. We used 2 channels at the same time so we didn't have to reverse.

We got all the latest on reel from AFRTS... Charlie Tuna etc. When you're a thousand miles from nowhere in the Indian Ocean, the only radio was the BBC on short wave. And that reception was spotty at times. We didn't have all this satellite stuff back then. :D

But I digress. The folks are right. Try recording something on the tape and play it back. That'll tell you if it's working. Those Teac machines were the audiophyle's choice back in the day. :)

Just a thought... you may not be able to find reel tape available anymore. If not, I would suggest simply burning some 80-minute comp CDs and sticking 'em in a consumer CD jukebox for hours of playback.
 
Remember DCC (Digital Compact Cassette)?
There was a turkey if there ever was. :)

I still use MD in the feild and have a 501 in the studio to dump into my DAW.
And as far as Freds comment....Consumers decks had 3.5 inches and 7 inch per second speeds. On the pro decks we ran 15 IPS up to 16 tracks on a 2 inch tape.
 
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