Yo, does anyone know anything about reel to reels????

man ive had this old a$$ reel to reel recorder/player for a while. Im pretty sure its 1/4 inch tape. Well today i plugged it in for the first time and to my surprise it lit up and i switched to play and the reels was spinnin. Wow, I thought, this could add another dimension to my music. I was in my basement, had it plugged in right next to the fuse box, sitting on the dryer lol. So I ran upstairs to my lab and grabbed some headphones. I ran downstairs (almost fell down em) to go listen to all these old reels i have. I switch to play. what i heard was pretty ill. Shit sounded reversed and the speed kept fluctuating and sh*t. But damn it sounded so warm! Sh*t i could sample these reels anyway in the flowers up state the unit is in, but id love to get it workin properly. Maybe clean the heads? Its a three head unit made by magnavox. Sh*ts probably from the 50s. I dont wanna take up lab space with this thing unless its gonna become a part of my everday beatmaking process. Any Ideas?

Yeah D those reels make your trks sound warmer definately a
warmer feel but your tape is old thats why you may be getting the warped sound but take what you can salvage man.

get it calibrated, they are tough to work on.

definately worth the effort D. Even if it's only to sample from. I got a Fostex r8 lying around which needs some repair (rewind is f****d) and intend to do so soon...

Clean the heads with alcohol and a cotton bud.
Demagnetize heads.
Callibrate (This can be tricky!)

Is your tape a two track, or multi track?

Yo D,

You can do some ill FX with a reel to reel, Tape Delay, Flanging (that's where the name comes from because the Flanges are the plastic reels). and even old school Tape Loops.
It's worth keeping around, Most Def.

Pe@Ce

If your tapes are old you will have to bake them. Yes, bake them in the oven. Or else the oxide will start to come off of the tape. If you don't do this you will start to see a black build-up on the tape head. This is your music that can never be recovered. I guess the baking process helps to re-adhere the oxide to the tape. I don't know at what temp. or how long you should leave them in for. Do a search on the web. I'm sure you can find the details.

check da links
http://www.fieldengineer.homestead.com/

if yo uwanna bake you tapes, it's best you go to a pro - if your old stuff means that much then let someone who knows what they are doing put it in the oven.

I had two reel to reels. One was a 4 and the other was a two track. I loved them but they were so damn heavy to be lugging around. Eventually they both broke down on me.

clean it by a pro and use it to dump you tracks on then dump back to computer

BBTITS wrote:clean it by a pro and use it to dump you tracks on then dump back to computer

i dont use computers for music


good tips though guys keep em coming