Any of you guys have any experience with tracking to tape?

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nomadjames
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Any of you guys have any experience with tracking to tape?

Post by nomadjames »

I have an opportunity to pick up an Otari MX 5050mkIV-2 reel to reel tape recorder. I am wondering what you all would think about tracking to it? I have been searching the forums and I am getting the impression that it would be of limited usefulness since it's the 2 track model. I have no experience with reel to reel.
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Re: Any of you guys have any experience with tracking to tap

Post by CRDM »

No experience with reel to reel tape but it sounds like you've got to be very commited to using it as it seems like a high maintenance thing to own.

On the Otari note, the Hornet tape plugin which is very nice features an Otari inspired model; it's 8 euros on sale for the next week. Just as a suggestion if you want a more convenient route!

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Re: Any of you guys have any experience with tracking to tap

Post by Lost to the Void »

Lots of experience in both tracking and mastering to tape as well as renovating and maintaining machines.

The Otari 5050mk 4 was not a popular machine, not that many were made, so it makes sourcing parts pricey and difficult.
It is a good machine however.

A 2 track is not much good for tracking, but great if you want to just record parts down to tape and then resample, or record your stereo mixes down to tape for some nice colour and tape compression, and saturation.

They are a pain to maintain, you`ll need at the the very least, some good quality head and pinch roller cleaner (you can get tape cleaner that is also for pinch rollers, but don`t use stuff that is not dual role, or bye bye pinch roller). And a degausser to keep the machine from building magnetic charge.
Check the head gaps, once they get fucked enough the machine loses plenty of fidelity.
All sorts can go wrong so it is good to have a basic knowledge of electronics, and keep your moving parts lubricated.
Tape is a little tricky to source these days, and pricey.

I love tape machines, they are a lot of fun, big clunky mechanical things that genuinely feel alive more than any other bit of electronic gear. But they are heavy, take up a lot of room and require love and care. Tape was the last thing I clung on to as nothing really got close to the sound until the new generation of emulations came along.
There is still something about the liveliness that the really old (60`s and 70`s) machines add to a mix, that has yet to be captured outside of nebula.... But 90`s machines like this Otari don`t really have the same character.

If you think you will use it a lot, then do, otherwise you are sacrificing a lot of studio space for an unused lump.
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Re: Any of you guys have any experience with tracking to tap

Post by nomadjames »

Void:

How you are describing it is how I would use it. I have room for it at my permanent space and am not too concerned about learning something new. It's coming from a big commercial radio station, so I think it should be pretty well maintained. If the price doesn't get too fucked up I think I'll go for it.

Glad to hear from you here. I figured you had some knowledge of this product.

I do wish it was the 1/2 inch model, though.

If you were going to go with an 8 track Reel to Reel to track to, what would be some recommendations?
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Re: Any of you guys have any experience with tracking to tap

Post by Lost to the Void »

Fostex 8tracks were awesome, built like tanks, we used to use 2 in sync in the studio I used to work at.

Veeeeery expensive to run though, tape is expensive and tricky to source, maintenance is expensive (mainly due to postage costs). Much harder to maintain an 8 track machine.
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Re: Any of you guys have any experience with tracking to tap

Post by dubdub »

Speaking of tape, I just finished a track where I bounced the finish mix (with Satin) and ran it through Satin again. I like what it does to the bass but it feels very naughty, like you're not supposed to do that :) Is that something people did with real tape, running stuff through it multiple times?

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Re: Any of you guys have any experience with tracking to tap

Post by Lost to the Void »

Well, in a full analog studio stuff would be tracked to tape and then mix down to 2 track to go to the mastering engineer.

Rarely was a tape double passed at the stereo stage.
No reason why you couldn`t, though I would do it with different machines, or at least different settings, with satin, so that the tape bias and eq bump etc wasn`t getting multiplied.
I`d probably use different speeds too.
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