Otari or Technics Reel-to-Reel ?


Hi.
I am thinking about getting one of those in the future. I am sure I would want Studer but they are too expensive for me. I want the deck to be able to record on 7.5 and 15 and to play on 3.75, 7.5 and 15, both half-track and quater-track tapes.
I would be recording from vinyl making compilations and listening to studio recordings whenever I could get them.
I would be prepared to pay to have it properly cleaned aligned and calibrated.
I actually never delt with RTR, but in my heart I am a tape man not vinyl man.
What would your recommendations and advice be? I would appreciate any input based on knowledge and experience.
inna

Showing 4 responses by atmasphere

You can find a lot of blank tape on ebay. Seems to me ATR is very much in production- a lot of studios are still using analog tape, enough to keep tape manufacturers alive.
Its a matter of changing out the heads a tape guides, then recalibrating the electronics to the heads.

Sony made a pro audio machine (APR 5003) that sounds quite good that had interchangeable head nests complete with guides. It takes only about 5 minutes to change from one to the other. Usually though we are swapping between 1/4" and 1/2" two-channel tape. If you think 1/4" half track is nice...
Lowrider57, the record plants take whatever media the master is on- 1/4" or 1/2" master tape or digital file, whatever. I say this as a mastering engineer; we have to be able to handle the master in whatever form it takes.
We avoid doing anything to the sound of the source (no 'sweetening'); in theory some projects might need processing if there is bass that is out of phase or the like but so far we've not had to do anything like that- with a little care you can avoid a lot of processing that is generally used just to speed things up.

The sequence is already predetermined on any project by the artist.

We play back in whatever form the source arrives; we can handle 1/4" and 1/2" 2-channel tape and just about any digital sound file.