Looking to add a reel to reel, no idea where to start.

[Angstrom]

Hey I'm a newbie with no experience yet!! I've got a teac a-3440 (borrowed) reel to reel and I'm trying to put my late fathers tapes onto laptop so I can burn cds for his memorial service in 2 weeks! Problem is they were recorded 40 years ago on a different speed so how do I slow them down? The pitch knob on the teac doesn't do it, he sounds like alvin and the chipmunks.

If you have Live just adjust the speed of the recording in the clip.

If the tape is playing back at double the recorded speed the tape head response is very different. That high speed music signal acutally is not being accurately replayed and if that were captured and halved in speed it would reveal that most of the top end has been filtered off and the audio will sound weird. The tape mechanics and electronics are not linear systems.

Even if the twpe was somehow playing it back accurately at super speed - he'd need a sound device which can record well at 88.2khz or 96khz so as to avoid simply producing a (half speeded) 22khz sample which would top out at 11khz freq range.

But even if he had a good card, he's capturing a tapehead transducer running back beyond its freq range. And with the biasing all askew.

So no, not really.

[TomKern]

Hey I'm a newbie with no experience yet!! I've got a teac a-3440 (borrowed) reel to reel and I'm trying to put my late fathers tapes onto laptop so I can burn cds for his memorial service in 2 weeks! Problem is they were recorded 40 years ago on a different speed so how do I slow them down? The pitch knob on the teac doesn't do it, he sounds like alvin and the chipmunks.

If you have Live just adjust the speed of the recording in the clip.

If the tape is playing back at double the recorded speed the tape head response is very different. That high speed music signal acutally is not being accurately replayed and if that were captured and halved in speed it would reveal that most of the top end has been filtered off and the audio will sound weird. The tape mechanics and electronics are not linear systems.

Even if the twpe was somehow playing it back accurately at super speed - he'd need a sound device which can record well at 88.2khz or 96khz so as to avoid simply producing a (half speeded) 22khz sample which would top out at 11khz freq range.

But even if he had a good card, he's capturing a tapehead transducer running back beyond its freq range. And with the biasing all askew.

So no, not really.

Have you read what he plans to use it for?
This is not about the re-release of long thought lost masterpieces of Pink Floyd for an audiophile audience.

It's some recordings of his dad to be played back at a funeral service. Him not sounding like the chipmunks will suffice I'd think

[michaelep]

appreciate the input fellas, wish me luck!! I'll let you what worked if it did that is.

[Mister Natural]

want this one (just b/c it looks so bad-ass)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SONY-TC-766-2-C ... SwcUBYSChm

but I do know better - I had a TC650 in the 70s that required regular alignment . . .

peace

[stringtapper]

I'd rather be beaten to death with an MX-5050 than ever use tape willfully.

[Angstrom]

well, it's got its uses at least. That tape saturation sound is nice. It's actually worth putting something through analogue tape for some nonlinearities.

Compare: I'm sat here nursing an ancient DAT machine and the sound of that thing at its error tolerance is much less sexy. An azimuth adjustment won't fix these rotten bits.
So, there's that.

[stringtapper]

Oh I love the sound too… as long as I'm the one being recorded and someone else is the engineer.

[doghouse]

I actually own a reel to reel and wouldn't bother using it as a processing effect.

Consumer grade machines are not the same as studio grade machines, especially when it comes to wow and flutter (which causes wobbly pitch). You have to figure in the currently high cost of tape, reuse the same reel long enough and you start getting dropouts and reduced fidelity. You lose a lot of dynamic range to hiss...a typical reel to reel will have a signal to noise ratio of about 50 dB while digital gives you over 100dB. That's why Dolby and dbx noise reduction were invented to give you another 10-20 dB...but at high enough volumes you still can hear hiss.

[Machinesworking]

I actually own a reel to reel and wouldn't bother using it as a processing effect.

Consumer grade machines are not the same as studio grade machines, especially when it comes to wow and flutter (which causes wobbly pitch). You have to figure in the currently high cost of tape, reuse the same reel long enough and you start getting dropouts and reduced fidelity. You lose a lot of dynamic range to hiss...a typical reel to reel will have a signal to noise ratio of about 50 dB while digital gives you over 100dB. That's why Dolby and dbx noise reduction were invented to give you another 10-20 dB...but at high enough volumes you still can hear hiss.

^^ Exactly, the trade off is worth what?
Tape is adding distortion and bandwidth limiting the sound, you don't need tape to do that. Tape emulators and a saturator plug in will let you dial in your amount of slop, degradation etc. without the physical hassle.

I think the action of recording to tape etc. is more of a studio effect than the actual sound in the end. Basically we as humans are fooled by the alchemy of the physicality of the process of it more than we are actually adding in some magic fairy dust that colors the sound just right. Alchemically if it makes you feel like your writing the great 70's jam then I suppose it's worth it, just realize most of that is a placebo effect.

[Angstrom]

thought of this thread when this excellent looking tape surfaced recently from deep in my archive.
Pure analog sound from 1991-ish


I have no idea what's on there, based on the era my guess is Carl Jung, Gurdjieff, and people like that,
I bet it sounds pretty muffled by now.

[Liam]

Hey I'm a newbie with no experience yet!! I've got a teac a-3440 (borrowed) reel to reel and I'm trying to put my late fathers tapes onto laptop so I can burn cds for his memorial service in 2 weeks! Problem is they were recorded 40 years ago on a different speed so how do I slow them down? The pitch knob on the teac doesn't do it, he sounds like alvin and the chipmunks.

And you've pressed the tape speed button? The pitch dial is a fine adjustment, the tapespeed button when pressed in will halve the speed / pitch

The tapes may be totally useless as they deteriorate even if kept in pristine conditions. The 3340 has two speeds. Not sure about the 3440.