Just curious. I'm considering getting one to record radio shows for later listening.

What should I look for if I were to buy one?

They make special cassette recorders for that. They used to be advertised on AM shows back when I listened to Rush Limbaugh.

Are the radio shows broadcast / simulcast online? If so, capture it on your computer.

In all seriousness, why are you considering a reel to reel? Any special reason? Maintainence and cost of tape makes the format somewhat inconvenient nowadays for most.

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JoeM

As much as I grew up around them and will always like them, is there no digital method that might be more convenient/less expensive?

I don't want to talk you out of it; my sympathies, for lack of a better word, are with you here. Two issues come to mind: tape availability and cost, and some place to take or send a machine for service.

Radio is one or two channel, so a standard 4-track stereo machine ... but what would you be recording?

I have the Teac reel to reel that I purchased when I was sent to Vietnam in 1969 with quit a few tapes I made and purchased. The rubber wheel that controls the tape feed across the heads has gotten too hard to work consistently so it languishes on a shelf, much to my wife's consternation.

I made tapes at the copy center at Tan Son Nhut Air Base and then several radio shows when I got back. It was my first "my music when I want it" device because when the radio was not interesting, I could put on my tapes. One of the tapes I copied at the tape copying center was a Spike Jones Halloween recording that I like to play with the speakers next to the door for trick or treat. Lots of spooky sounds!

Once the tapes stopped playing cleanly, I put it up and have not fired it up in years, now.

So sad!

We do have a repair shop in town that I think could service it, but for reasons noted above, I cannot justify the expense.

Don... you can try this weird old trick (Sorry.. can't resist that line)

Clean the pinch roller with 90% rubbing alcohol
Then put a little bit of Armorall on the roller with a Q-Tip.
Then rub it off with a soft lintfree cloth.

The silicones soak into the rubber top and improve the 'stickiness'. I've use it with a few old VCR's in the past. Might help.

FYI- There is the risk that the silicone will contaminate your sacred tapes, so YMMV.

Im sitting next to a 1978 Ampex 440c 2 track 1/4 "

Got it in decent condition, worked on the mechanicals, had some recapping done a few other issues taken care of and it's running above original specs and just completely freaks me out when I record to it...it sounds so good.

I use it as a mixdown deck and I record certain instruments to it and transfer the tracks.

DO NOT PUT ARMOR ALL ON YOUR ROLLER...

CBelt, you're a naughty boy.

it will trash your tapes and then trash the rubber


There is a guy who will re-tread your rubber roller, it's not all that expensive to do.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/19/2012 11:23PM by Kraniac.

A hifi VCR would work, just use the sound inputs.

I have an Akai 365D sitting just a few feet away from me.

Sitting idle for many, many years, I don't know if it would even start up at this point.

---

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

-An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

There is no safety for honest men
except by believing all possible evil
of evil men.

Pixels were born to be punished. -Frederick Van Johnson

Mister, that's a ten-gallon hat on a twenty-gallon head.

I *love* Sigs. It's Glocks I hate.

I was watching a docco the other night on Africa and they went into this recording studio and they were recording onto a Studer A800.

I haven't seen one of them in a loooong time.
I kind of forgot they existed.
Cool things.

I still remember the first time I recorded on one.
The producer said "These machines are worth more than people."

---

...one of these:

---

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

-An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

There is no safety for honest men
except by believing all possible evil
of evil men.

Pixels were born to be punished. -Frederick Van Johnson

Mister, that's a ten-gallon hat on a twenty-gallon head.

I *love* Sigs. It's Glocks I hate.

I used to record this show and this show with my HiFi VCR. Program the time, the channel to 00 would get the "AUX IN" Set the timer to show on the video recording (blue screen with numbers). All I had to do was make sure the Recivers was on and set to the correct station.

---

San Antonio, TX (in the old city)

"All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing."
-- Edmund Burke
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." Theodore Roosevelt (1918)

Quote
RAMd®d
...one of these:

Me too. Very nice machine.

I loved them A800s and the A80s before them.
Whenever there was maintenance to be done on them ............ Oh wait .......... There never was.
Built like tanks. Now worth about $5000 I'd guess.

But the Ampex 1200s, an MDA rebuild a month for our 6 machines.
Fortunately, they were easy to work on, even in the remote truck.

All 3 were good sounding machines. We preferred the Ampex, has a little bump in the bottom as I remember. The A800 was scary flat. I think the Swiss partied with some ETs along the way.

Now I put 48 tracks on a 2.5" USB drive. Infsckingsane!

---

!#$@@$#!

"Do not fear mistakes. There are none."

Miles Davis

I have a Sony TC-366 . . . not currently in use, but it works. I have no room to set it up. Bummer . . .

---

Bill
Flagler Beach, FL 32136

Carpe Vino!

Fermentation may have been a greater discovery than fire.
— David Rains Wallace

Quote
Mike V
I was watching a docco the other night on Africa and they went into this recording studio and they were recording onto a Studer A800.

I haven't seen one of them in a loooong time.
I kind of forgot they existed.
Cool things.

I still remember the first time I recorded on one.
The producer said "These machines are worth more than people."

I spent many years working with A800s, A80s, MM1200s, MCI JH24s and MCI JH 110s as a musician and engineer back in the 70's and 80's. I loved aligning them and taking care of them but it was a lot of time and work. I recently sold my Tascam MS 16 with 30ips motor for $250. I still have a Teac 3340s (my first tape machine from '76), a Tascam DA-30 DAT and a Tascam cassette recorder but they are rarely even turned on at this point.

While many will agree that nothing sounds quite like tape, I'm pretty happy now with my UAD A800 and Lexicon 244 plugins and Pro Tools:





If I close my eyes while listening to them, I can almost taste 1978 again and feel a lot of hair on my head. And the cost, hassle and space requirements are minimal vs the musical washer machines.

However, I still carry a Dolby tweaker around in my bag

---

JoeM

When the Pioneer RT-909 came out I wanted one so bad but never managed to get one, that's about he time I discovered girls and there went all my extra money.

---

Grateful11

I worked on revox 77s and Otari decks and would love to have a used one



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/2012 08:49AM by mrbigstuff.

The suggestion to use a Hi-Fi VCR is a good one, but wouldn't I get much better sound out of the reel to reel on long recordings?

It's amazing how much people are asking for reel to reel tape decks.

I've got a Sony TC 640 and about 50 tapes I'd love to sell.

If anyone's interested, they can PM me.

Quote
freeradical
The suggestion to use a Hi-Fi VCR is a good one, but wouldn't I get much better sound out of the reel to reel on long recordings?

It's amazing how much people are asking for reel to reel tape decks.

I don't think so. I used HI-Fi VCRs for audio recording and the quality of sound was very good, better by far than the Sony reel to reel it replaced. An advantage was the long recording capability of 6 hours.

A Hifi VCR would be a good choice. Also a DVD recorder, portable digital recorder or recording through an audio interface to disk would be good as well. A lot depends on your budget and what type of radio broadcasts you want to record.

---

JoeM

As far as recording radio shows, my suggestion would actually be a VCR. Chances are you've got one in a closet or can find one at Goodwill for $10. It has a timer built in, you can get really lengthy tapes, and it's just a lot less fuss than a reel-to-reel. Just find an old one that has RCA audio in jacks. I used one for years to record Prairie Home Companion on Saturday evenings.

Edit: Somehow I missed seeing the two posts above mine.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/2012 02:31PM by Mr Downtown.

Some HiFi VCRs, like my sister's old and narrow chassis Panasonic, has generally poor fidelity. Others (including other Pannys) are quite good. I made quite a few compilation tapes back in the day. The system is limited by design in overall fidelity to something similar to a Laserdisc's FM recording tech, not by tape speed. Editing isn't easy. Most used automatic gain instead of manual input level control, and so only make dynamically compressed recordings. But this is for what, FM radio? So it won't matter.

Have you looked into getting VHS tapes? It's not very easy these days. There's got to be a decent way of doing this digitally and saving as a loss-less format to preserve audio quality (I'm thinking that a decent digital format is more than adequate for recording a radio show).

Quote
Surfrider
I've got a Sony TC 640 and about 50 tapes I'd love to sell.

If anyone's interested, they can PM me.

Sorta on the lookout for one like that for a small project---I want to transfer a few tapes made on a 4-track stereo machine. I was given a nice 4-track 4 channel Otari which I can't use. Don't think I want to spend the money to convert it. I'm in metro ATL.

Quote
JoeM
A Hifi VCR would be a good choice. Also a DVD recorder, portable digital recorder or recording through an audio interface to disk would be good as well. A lot depends on your budget and what type of radio broadcasts you want to record.

I agree with JoeM 100%. If you have a nice Hifi VCR and access to VHS tapes, that would work well. Beyond that, I would look for a digital recorder of some sort. Super easy to manipulate the resulting recordings and no hassle dealing with an obsolete piece of equipment (not mention significant space savings!). But what do I know, I'm just a young whippersnapper.

Quote
freeradical
The suggestion to use a Hi-Fi VCR is a good one, but wouldn't I get much better sound out of the reel to reel on long recordings?

It's amazing how much people are asking for reel to reel tape decks.

Read my link on HiFi VCRs. Dynamic range is 90db vs a CD 100 db and cassette's 60-70 db.

---

San Antonio, TX (in the old city)

"All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing."
-- Edmund Burke
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." Theodore Roosevelt (1918)