2 Track Tape Machines

[Futureman]

I was toying with the idea of having a small 2 track to throw stuff at, and grab it straight off the repro head...

Space is a issue, so are there any small 2 track tape machines that sound good / ok / better than most that would be suitable for this or come recommended?

To be honest, I was even thinking about one of those Ta@#$% rackmounted cassette players that have variable pitch control and repro head monitoring.
I'm not recording Jazz or Classical, just chunky electro, so it's more of an effect I'm after.

Cheers
Mike

[Alastair Reynolds]

Mike, I think I've got some spare Ta@#$% 122 Cassette decks in my equipment dungeon if you want one to play with (freeby of course).Let me know and I'll dig one out. If you had enough room I'd say a A77 or B77 revox with a varispeed controller, great for echo.
I've got an old B67 full track mono deck I got from an ABC auction for $10, 3 speed with varispeed and you can run it very hot with GP9 and get a good s/n.
Makes a great tape echo or old style ADT.only disadvantage is it's big and heavy.

[Futureman]

Dude, I'd love to get my hands on a Ta@#$% 122.

PM'd.

[jon.l.hunter]

Nagra and stellavox

[Futureman]

I never knew you could monitor off the repro on a Nagra.. hmmm, thats something I've always wanted..

Cheers for the pointer.

Regards
Mike

[Alastair Reynolds]

Lovely machines the Nagra or the Stellavox.Not sure how easy they are to varispeed. At least not the 4.2 Nagras I've got. . Haven't seen a stellavox for nearly 20 years

[jon.l.hunter]

true the nagra 4.2 I have has a variety of speeds although no onboard varispeed.
from memory there is an add on device that could control tape speed to give you 'varispeed' although i think its purpose was for something else

[Alastair Reynolds]

I think the varispeed was tied to the pilot tone for Film syncronisation. An old TV/ Film sound guy could shed more light on this. I've never used them for this purpose, only basic location recording.

[jon.l.hunter]

Yeah that what I am talking about... Can anyone shed light on this ?
cause I have a beautiful 4.2 that doesn't get much use, perhaps I could turn it into a
delay...

I will also add that the preamps on the nagra 4.2 are well worth trying. you can take a line out via the banana connectors

[reddirt]

You are right about the Nagra pres being really good. They have a sound but it's the sound of quality - a bit like a Merc or similar in the car world. I was very impressed with the sensation of "being there" when I teamed them with some Schoepes mics at AFTRS many moons ago.
Cheers, Ross

Ross Muir
Reddirt Recordings
Alice Springs

[rick]

the nagra pilot tone was an external sync tone and box that the cameras could lock to so you could "mime " to video clips and the like before smpte code turned up as standard
not to different from FSK code that synths and drum machines used before midi showed up
it was created and read from an external nagra box or on the big rollaround nagra machine .

i use to have to make a nagra dub with pilot tone for every single we did that had a video made

... err that was a lot of nagra dubs !

[musikwerks]

Without knowing anything at all about Nagra's, I would guess that the varispeed was to maybe match various frame rates employed in film and telvision? 24fps for film, 25 for PAL tv and 30 for NTSC tv.... might be way off though.

[blackfoot]

Nagra 50hz Pilottone is used to insure that the tape record & playback speed are exactly the same. The tone is derived from a crystal reference on the record machine. Often different machines are used in location recording & for playback transfer to magnetic sprocketed film. The playback transfer machine is equiped with a resolver that will varispeed the Nagra to compensate for any fluctuations in location record speed. The final format i.e. 24fps, 25fps etc. is determined during the transfer to magnetic film. The 4.2 is a mono full track machine. Pre amps are pretty sterile with a switchable " sit down & shut up" limiter. 7" reels max.