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[cass anawaty]

Greetings,
I just finished a restoration project for a few album from the 50's, and the client's grandson told me they also have some 1/4" reels?  Hey--I'm no spring chicken but that's a new one on me.

I'd love a history lesson, and if anyone stateside does these I'd be happy to pass along your info.  I'm guessing these wouldn't run well in my Tascam Portastudio 464.  

[dcollins]

Cass Anawaty wrote on Tue, 21 July 2009 16:15

Greetings, I just finished a restoration project for a few album from the 50's, and the client's grandson told me they also have some 1/4" reels?  Hey--I'm no spring chicken but that's a new one on me.

All analog tape used to be 1/4".

Am I missing the question here?

What were you restoring?


DC

[hnewman]

If you mean 1/8" reels, I just ran into these for the first time recently.  Nagra makes decks that will play them.  They were popular as portable recorders in film.

[Thomas W. Bethel]

Cass Anawaty wrote on Tue, 21 July 2009 19:15

Greetings, I just finished a restoration project for a few album from the 50's, and the client's grandson told me they also have some 1/4" reels?  Hey--I'm no spring chicken but that's a new one on me. I'd love a history lesson, and if anyone stateside does these I'd be happy to pass along your info.  I'm guessing these wouldn't run well in my Tascam Portastudio 464.

Not sure what you mean. Most tape was 1/4" and was used for mono, two track and four track stereo and even quad.

We recently got in a bunch of 3.5" reels and they were a pain to work with but...

[Jerry Tubb]

We still get plenty of 1/4" tape to work with, both old and new.

Surely most of us do? ...or at least half of us?

Nick just did a huge remastering project, 1/4" from 1973, 3M 206, no baking needed... iirc the hardest part of it was working with the pancakes.

Best - JT

[cass anawaty]

Well, I might have it wrong.  I was actually restoring vinyl that was recorded in Portland from '50-52 or so, but was told they also had some 1/4" reels from the same era.  

I was doing other things with my life when I should have been working on tape, so I'm not sure they have the format right--it might be 1/8", and I just don't have that experience.  I just made the assumption (and we all know how that goes) that because of the age, it was probably something uncommon.  I haven't seen them myself.  

Would that have been a popular format 60 years ago, and would they be compatible with current machines?  Maybe I made this harder than it is.  

[bblackwood]

1/4" was quite popular then (is even now). And yah, assuming it's not some unusual proprietary format, modern  machines should play it back just fine.

[bblackwood]

1/4" was quite popular then (is even now). And yah, assuming it's not some unusual proprietary format, modern  machines should play it back just fine.

[Waltz Mastering]

hnewman wrote on Tue, 21 July 2009 23:10

If you mean 1/8" reels, I just ran into these for the first time recently.  Nagra makes decks that will play them.  They were popular as portable recorders in film.

I might be wrong, but I think all nagra's are/were 1/4".  I don't know if there ever was an open reel 1/8 inch format?

[hnewman]

That's what I thought too, until I was asked to restore a 1/8" tape a few months ago.  That's why I was guessing Cass might have just mixed up his numbers.  It seems like they are or were big in the film world, I found a bunch for rent.

http://www.nagraaudio.com/pro/pages/products_nagra_sn.php

[cass anawaty]

Got it--thanks everyone.

[Waltz Mastering]

Never knew that...for location sound w/ sync... manual rewind with a crank.  crazy.

[djwaudio]

We had a 1/8" quarter track Lyrec deck for a while. It was typically used to playback cassette tapes for QC; before the tape was loaded into the shell. It had amazing ppm meters on it.

[David Glasser]

Waltz Mastering wrote on Wed, 22 July 2009 14:26

Never knew that...for location sound w/ sync... manual rewind with a crank.  crazy.

More popular with spies than film sound recordists.

[cass anawaty]

djwaudio wrote on Wed, 22 July 2009 22:13

We had a 1/8" quarter track Lyrec deck for a while. It was typically used to playback cassette tapes for QC; before the tape was loaded into the shell. It had amazing ppm meters on it.

Hey Dana--you on this side of the country these days?