| naughtynige wrote on Wed, 11 January 2006 07:18 |
Just been looking for some new tape for my recently acquired Fostex E16 (it came with 6 boxed "new" - well, about 12-15 year old new reels of Ampex 456 which have deteriorated and are unuseable). I am based in London, UK and have found a supplier that has Agfa 468 (which appears to be new stock) and it's at a reasonable price. Any reason why I shouldn't buy it/use it? Any comments appreciated.
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468 requres an entirely different bias than 456 and the bias curve for optimum distortion is quite critical on 468, so it pays to use a distortion analyser to find the sweet spot first. The distortion and noise floor actually have a distinct curve where they get worse if you continue to overbias past the sweet spot.
468 may have a little less headroom than 456 but I can't remember exactly without going through all my old paperwork. But 468 is definitely a "different-sounding" tape; many people think it is a "grainy" tape and not really great at 15 but very good at 30. I certainly prefer the sound of Agfa 469 to 468.
I think that 469 Agfa became 911 BASF if I am correct. 469 is like Ampex 456. 468 is inits own world. It's a low print tape and that makes a big difference, but even 469 has lower print than 456 and much better slitting. 469 was made in response to Ampex so it would be bias compatible.
In short, you may have very good success with your 468 stock if you bias it correctly but buy only a couple of reels and do some good recordings on it to make sure you like the sound at 15 IPS.
BK
