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reel to reel question

J

jgb751

New Member
I don't really know anything about reel to reels and am having a little trouble figuring this out. I am looking at a reel to reel player that I am told is a two track. Does this mean it would not be able to play tape that is 4 track? Are most tapes recorded in one format (in terms of number of tracks) more than another? Would it be worth it to get a rtr that is two track versus one with more?

Also is there a resource around that explains all the basics of reel to reel players?

Thanks for the help.
 
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Try this for starters.

No, a 2 track machine will not be able to play 4 track tapes. Commercially available reel tapes are 4 track stereo, 2 tracks per direction.

2 track (aka half track) is better for performance and worse for the wallet.
 
2-track is more in the pro direction whereas consumer level are almost all 4-track. I'd say about 99% of all tapes I've come across are recorded 4-track, the ones that were recorded in 2-track were recordings from our national broadcaster (BRT), be it concerts, radio listening plays or raw on-location recorded audio for a TV-programme.
 
I have a bunch of tapes that were recorded on an old Alled Knight portable that were recorded in 1/2 track mono. I've been transcribing them onto CD, but you have to use a splitter because you can only get the left channel when playing them on a 4-track machine.
 
Thanks for the link SaSi. I have been looking around and have found very little on the specifications of the model I am looking at which is a teac 1250s. I found once that it was labled as a four track but others that said it was a two track. Can anyone clarify how many tracks this model actually is? Thanks for the help.
 
I am not familiar with the deck but doing a google search I've come across some pictures that clearly identify the Teac A-1250S as an auto reverse 7" reel deck. Auto reverse by definition means 4 track stereo with auto reverse functionality, therefore this is not a 2 track machine. Therefore it can play the majority of the reels.

Perhaps the person who described this as 2 track did so in contrast to, say, 4 track R2R deck that can record and playback 4 tracks simultaneously.
 

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jgb751:

The TEAC 1250s was/is a consumer grade reel-2-reel, auto-reverse, which means that it is a stereo deck that lays down 4 tracks on a quarter inch tape (quarter track). So if you had a tape that would run for an hour in one direction, you would simply reverse it and have another hour.

A 2 track, or half track deck, lays down 2 tracks on a quarter inch wide tape and if you reverse it, your hearing whatever has been recorded in reverse. THis type of machine was typically used in professional environments however TEAC did make a 3300-2T that was a half track version of their 3300 series of quarter track machines.

Kevin
 
The reason this seems so confusing is because there are many names for the exact same thing. Lay a piece of 1/4" tape flat on the table and imagine it cut into 4 equal sections numbered 1-4. For a home stereo recorder/player (like the A-1250S) section #1 is the left channel of side 1. Section #3 is the right channel of side 1. Now lets flip the tape over...section #2 becomes the left channel of side 2 of the tape, and section #4 is now the right channel of side 2. This is called 1/4 track stereo (because the tape is cut into quarters). It is sometimes refered to as 4 track stereo, but IMHO 1/4 track stereo is a more accurate description. For studio mixdown use, a two track system is used whereby the left channel is recored on tracks 1 and 2, and the right side is recorded on tracks 3 and 4. These machines usually say "2 track" on the front to idicate the 2 track head block option. Then we have the 4 track single direction models that will record all 4 sections of our tape that is cut up on the table in front of us (remember the tape?) in the same direction at once. These machines have 4 vu meters and 4 controls for record and playback (like TEAC 2340 for example). There are macines that will record 8 channels in one direction on one side of the 1/4" tape like the Fostex R-8, but that's another story. Older mono machines (and the portables popular in the late sixties) typically use half track mono, where the entire upper half is side one and the entire lower half is side two. When these are played on a 1/4 track stereo machine, the right channel will play side two backwards because the half track machine has recorded the entire half of the tape in one direction...ditto for side two of the tape. Some machines (such as some Nagra and Uher field recorders used in research) use full track mono, meaning that you can only record in mono on one side of the tape only. Flipping the tape over will erase it and record the full width of the tape on side two. These recorders were available with all types of headblock options for all types of configurations including 1/4 track stereo, 2 track stereo, 1/2 track mono and full track mono.
So...we have 1/4 track stereo(probably the most common), 2 track stereo (typically for professional use), 4 track one direction (typically for home studio use and quad setups) 1/2 track mono (older mono machines and portables) and full track mono (feild research applications). There are lots of different names for these configurations, but that's how they're laid out. Confusing?:scratch2:
 
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