portable reel to reel??

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tristos
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Re: portable reel to reel??

Post by tristos »

hi yeah, clicked with that on bashmores no reel probably gave it away :oops:

been trawling ebay, quite alot about keen to grab one and have a play. May be me being a d ass, but is huckaby running his output through the tape in love time, seems pointless it being there otherwise?!?

any recommendations on units to look for on ebay
ethereal
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Re: portable reel to reel??

Post by ethereal »

Well i know the revox ones are popular but i think there are pro versions and home versions... akais are meant to be good too. I wouldnt bother too much about names... you just want to be treating it like an effect really... buying it for what it does to sound rather it being a better way to record or anything. I would honestly just suggest nabbing the cheapest one you can for now and experimenting. If you find yourself using it all the time, do a bit of research and buy a nicer one with speed controls etc.

I dunno where youre from but theres a few buy-it-nows on eBay uk in the £20-£30 range with about £10 postage, if you dont want to wait, or there are plenty with a starting price of 99p if you want to hold out for a bargain!
ethereal
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Re: portable reel to reel??

Post by ethereal »

Actually i should add one little important tip!

Some reel to reels are just players and have no recording function so make sure you buy one that can record!
Casanova808
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Re: portable reel to reel??

Post by Casanova808 »

If you are going to go R2R it is better to go with a more expensive professional deck with a legacy parts community surrounding it.

The consumer end of the market was phased out by cassette by the early 80's and a lot of the consumer decks are from the 60's-70's. This which means most of them are 40+ years old and likely have not been maintained in at least 20 years. They are complex electro-mechanical devices that needed a lot of TLC even when they were new.

Basically, what I am saying is that any consumer deck you come across is going to need to be calibrated and degaussed and you are going to have to hunt down unobtainable parts to get them ready for service. IOW if you want tape sound, you should get a nicer unit with following because ownership will be less of a nightmare.

If you just want to add a little scum to your recordings, go to your local charity shop and track down a used cassette deck. Wipe the heads with 95% isopropyl, get a $60 degaussing wand, and you are ready to go. Fly a few tracks in from your daw, and then send them right back into the box.
prussell
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Re: portable reel to reel??

Post by prussell »

IIRC Huckaby's reel-to-reel is indeed a Nagra.
Which model he has, I'm not sure, but I can ask him.

Carsten Nicolai (Alva Noto) has used a Nagra as well.

For many years, Nagra was the (pre-digital era) industry standard for field recordings, film sound effects and dialogue, and news interviews.
Aside from being very high-quality, the main draw was their portability.
tristos
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Re: portable reel to reel??

Post by tristos »

thanks for the advice so far people.

looked at those nagras, look very nice. seems strange he has that on the desk whilst he is doing that NI demo though, is he running every thing through it in realtime

i have found a place locally on ebay that sells many spares and services, hard to find somewhere close as live in the sticks

keep em coming!
kdgh
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Re: portable reel to reel??

Post by kdgh »

it might be a show element, but he can also recorded it and put it under the video later on. Tho the tape recorder has to be really tight if that's the case.

You can't instant playback a tape if i'm right. it's not like it can calculate what the sound would be when there's a signal going through instantly
Casanova808
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Re: portable reel to reel??

Post by Casanova808 »

You can put a playback head after a recording head, that is how a tape echo works.

As far as realtime playback goes, it is possible if the unit it set up that way, but I doubt the Nagra works like that. However, you can run audio through its circuits and use it as a sort of preamp.
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