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Reel To Reel Tapes

sqdlvr

sqdlvr

Well-Known Member
Hello just wondering what is the best length for reel to reel tapes 1200 or 1400 for 7 1/2 ips? Is the 1200 30 minutes in length and the 1400 45 minutes? Also can you recommend where I can buy some good quality brand new tapes? I bought some new old stock tapes on Ebay and they aren't that great. I don't know much about reel tapes and am willing to learn. Thanks for all the help.
 
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sqdlvr said:
Hello just wondering what is the best length for reel to reel tapes 1200 or 1400 for 7 1/2 ips? Is the 1200 30 minutes in length and the 1400 45 minutes? Also can you recommend where I can buy some good quality brand new tapes? I bought some new old stock tapes on Ebay and they aren't that great. I don't know much about reel tapes and am willing to learn. Thanks for all the help.
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I've never heard of 1400 ft tapes, 1200 and 1800 are common though. It depends on the thickness of the tape how much they can pack on a reel. From my quick calculator work a 1200 ft tape would give you 32 minutes each direction @ 7.5 ips and an 1800 ft reel would give you 48 minutes.

As for ebay it depends on the tapes you bought. Many people have bought tapes from ebay with no problems. Like anything else, there's good stuff and junk to be found. Just earlier today I scored a new case of ten 5000ft pancakes (no reels) of Quantegy 632 for only $45. I just have to find some empty reels to wind it on and I'll be good to go.

For new tapes you can always buy from Total Media, US Recording Media, Splicit and others.
 
1400 foot long tape is only 37 minutes (1400 x 12 = 16,800 inches / 7.5 = 2,240 seconds / 60 = 37.33 minutes. At 1200 you get 32 minutes.

Here is one place to get new tape
 
The plusses to the 1.0 mill tape is that is runs for 50% longer than the 1.5 mill tape. The downside to the 1.0 mill tape is that print-through is more of an issue with the thinner tape. But if you record at slighlty lower levels, and/or use noise reduction, this is less of a problem though.
 
1 mil tape gives 1800' on a 7 1/2"reel.

I've never had bleed-through on a good brand of tape using 1 mil tape.
 
I'm no expert, but here is my opinion.

This is a very interesting topic.:scratch2: I believe that Scotch, Ampex, and Maxell made some of the best tapes that are still good for recording on after all these years. I've never been disappointed with these brands. I always thought that BASF was supposed to be one of the best, but I bought ten used(paid good money for them too) and none of them record well. Could be that I just got a bad lot.

I had also aquired many different brands of older tapes that I tested by connecting an audio generator to a deck and recording tones. Scotch seemed to have the most consistent and flat response at least up to 15Khz. Back in the olden days, they didn't seem to be concerned with higher frequencys, as in engineering documentation I found from Scotch, they didn't list specs for freqs above 15Khz. I was very dissappointed with many of the other off brand tapes that I tested, because the levels were very inconsistent. Needless to say many of those tapes made it to the landfill. I think that they were probably ok in their day, and if they still have recordings on them from years past, that they are ok for playback, but not for new recording.

Online, you can find old engineering documentation from Scotch that I found very interesting.:yes:
 
Thanks for all the info guys. My Dad used to buy Scotch Tapes and they seem to have held up after 30 years. I tried looking at that Pro-Tape website and can't figure out if that's the price (60 plus) for 1 tape or what? Anyway I'm not looking for "pro" tapes just something good to record on...like Scotch, Ampex etc....you know the standard 7 inch tape for a Teac 4010S. The brand I got from Ebay was Stanford...never heard of them but figured I'd take a chance because they were sealed. The sonics aren't that good and the sound kinda deteriorates or muffles but maybe it's cuz of the age of the tapes. I don't know and don't fault the seller either....
 
Sound like what I went through.

I bought several off brand tapes too, thinking I was going to record on them, and finding out that the quality was poor. I too am just a home listener and do not require the best pro tapes. I prefer the 1800' because they are longer. Generally the 1200' tapes are a thicker mil, which would probably be better for pro use.

I have several sealed Radio Shack Studio Grade tapes that I bought when they were clearing them out of the stores. I am hesitant to say it, as I don't consider Radio Shack to be the best at anything, but they have offered some good products over the years and these tapes seem to be ok. However, don't ever put a Radio Shack Concertape(budget grade) on your machine.:no: These were supposed to be some of the worst tapes ever. I received a few with a lot of tapes, and even though I knew they were budget tapes, still decided to run one on my machine. This tape had so much friction that it stuck on the guides on my machine and wrecked my pinch roller:tears:, as the capstan kept running and wore a groove in the roller. Luckily, the machine was a Teac and the roller was still available.:thmbsp:
 
Any suggestion for a good R2R tape online store in Europe? I tried to find links at RMGI website but to no avail.
 
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