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Ultimate Analog Format; Audiophiliac

MakeMineVinyl

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As a analog tape guy for decades, this video provoked my gag reflex more than once. :oops:

 

ta240

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Won't even the best recordings suffer print through where the magnetics of the tape basically write a faint image of the music on the tape that is right next to it on the reel? I remember back in my cassette days when I'd have the volume way up thinking "that is weird, it is like I can hear the start of the song right before it starts"
 

peanuts

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"power conditioning is very important" shows Synergistic Research hydra, a component that cleans AC by filling carbon pipes with sand.
ROFL
shunyata_hydra_inside.jpg
 
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MakeMineVinyl

MakeMineVinyl

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Won't even the best recordings suffer print through where the magnetics of the tape basically write a faint image of the music on the tape that is right next to it on the reel? I remember back in my cassette days when I'd have the volume way up thinking "that is weird, it is like I can hear the start of the song right before it starts"
Print through is real, and is minimized by storing tapes tails out, which is why the tape in the video is rewound before it can be played. On master tapes from the studio, either paper (preferred) or plastic leader tape is spliced between selections, so that print through is avoided. In any event, print through is not a horribly big deal if tapes are stored tails out and not around sources of heat.

By the way, a similar effect can be heard on vinyl, where impressions from inner grooves can be heard before the start of modulation. Its not as prevalent as on tape however.
 
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MakeMineVinyl

MakeMineVinyl

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What I find amusing is that with each "generation" of persons dealing with an old technology like tape, the original tribal knowledge gets watered down generation to generation to the point where downright misinformation is accepted as gospel. The misunderstandings of Dolby A noise reduction is an example here, among many more. It makes me want to scream at the screen at times. :confused:
 

ta240

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I think Steve Guttenberg's Youtube traffic will do just fine without us promoting it further here.

Great point.

I'm sure when youtube sees his videos embedded here it moves them even higher in their ranking and the videos get suggested to even more people.

What I find amusing is that with each "generation" of persons dealing with an old technology like tape, the original tribal knowledge gets watered down generation to generation to the point where downright misinformation is accepted as gospel. The misunderstandings of Dolby A noise reduction is an example here, among many more. It makes me want to scream at the screen at times. :confused:

I think that is part of the fun for people that are into it; the "I know something you don't know" factor. It is up there with the "I hear something you don't hear"

Print through is real, and is minimized by storing tapes tails out...

I knew there was something I was forgetting from my radio production class from decades past.
 
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MakeMineVinyl

MakeMineVinyl

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I think Steve Guttenberg's Youtube traffic will do just fine without us promoting it further here.
This has nothing to do with his YouTube traffic or the tweaky high end stuff. Its the deterioration of knowledge about tape technology (or any old technology) which is the problem. The guy who designed that tape preamp for instance displays a huge lack of knowledge of the subject. The knowledge base about turntables and such is more solid than that of tape, because tape only recently became 'cool'. The wild disinformation which gets passed down as 'correct' is the problem.
 

mhardy6647

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"power conditioning is very important" shows Synergistic Research hydra, a component that cleans AC by filling carbon pipes with sand.
ROFL
shunyata_hydra_inside.jpg
Whoa... it works like a water purification plant ;)
 

SIY

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Print through is real, and is minimized by storing tapes tails out, which is why the tape in the video is rewound before it can be played. On master tapes from the studio, either paper (preferred) or plastic leader tape is spliced between selections, so that print through is avoided. In any event, print through is not a horribly big deal if tapes are stored tails out and not around sources of heat.

By the way, a similar effect can be heard on vinyl, where impressions from inner grooves can be heard before the start of modulation. Its not as prevalent as on tape however.
This was the second worst thing about Proprius records, the print through was incredibly obvious.
 
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MakeMineVinyl

MakeMineVinyl

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Was the print through from the tape of an artifact of 'groove echo' on the vinyl? I don't have any of their records.
 

LTig

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Print through is real, and is minimized by storing tapes tails out, which is why the tape in the video is rewound before it can be played. On master tapes from the studio, either paper (preferred) or plastic leader tape is spliced between selections, so that print through is avoided. In any event, print through is not a horribly big deal if tapes are stored tails out and not around sources of heat.

By the way, a similar effect can be heard on vinyl, where impressions from inner grooves can be heard before the start of modulation. Its not as prevalent as on tape however.
I've think chances are that if you here it on vinyl it stems from the tape used to cut the record.
 
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MakeMineVinyl

MakeMineVinyl

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I've think chances are that if you here it on vinyl it stems from the tape used to cut the record.
In the majority of instances, the master tape will have leader tape between tracks, so print through can't happen.
 

Pluto

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this video provoked my gag reflex
He comes over like a dick. You never ever put a baked tape into high speed rewind. In fact, you spool the things as slowly as you dare, let alone allow it to splatter clumps of oxide around. The usual presumption with a baked tape is that you will get just one playback pass and that's your lot. Anything more than that's a bonus.
 

StefaanE

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It also depends on the volume of the recording — I have a vinyl record where the upcoming fortissimo is clearly announced by a very obvious pre-echo. In the days that I was using a reel-to-reel deck, I’d get a pre-echo quite easily when using cheap, thin tape. Shamrock (which I bought because it was quite cheap and I was low on spondulix) suffered a lot from it.
 
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MakeMineVinyl

MakeMineVinyl

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He comes over like a dick. You never ever put a baked tape into high speed rewind. In fact, you spool the things as slowly as you dare, let alone allow it to splatter clumps of oxide around. The usual presumption with a baked tape is that you will get just one playback pass and that's your lot. Anything more than that's a bonus.
Yes, there was that glaring nonsense, among others. I hope he hasn't just slammed an old master with spliced leaders into rewind - that's an invitation to having the old splices come apart and spew irreplaceable tape in all directions.

Hopefully, some newbie to tape who encounters this video and assumes that all the information in it is 'true' will do some digging for correct information before proceeding. That's the problem with disinformation; it just gets repeated without scrutiny.
 
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MakeMineVinyl

MakeMineVinyl

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It also depends on the volume of the recording — I have a vinyl record where the upcoming fortissimo is clearly announced by a very obvious pre-echo. In the days that I was using a reel-to-reel deck, I’d get a pre-echo quite easily when using cheap, thin tape. Shamrock (which I bought because it was quite cheap and I was low on spondulix) suffered a lot from it.
The old Audiotape brand had a line of low print mastering tapes which were thicker to deal with the problem to some degree. 1 mil and especially 0.5 mil tapes are more prone to print through than standard 1.5 mil mastering tapes.
 

Kal Rubinson

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A deep dive into the shallow end of the pool. (Referring to the limited repertoire, of course. :eek:)
 

don'ttrustauthority

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Won't even the best recordings suffer print through where the magnetics of the tape basically write a faint image of the music on the tape that is right next to it on the reel? I remember back in my cassette days when I'd have the volume way up thinking "that is weird, it is like I can hear the start of the song right before it starts"
Usually you can hear the reverse tracks if the tape is being played on a deck that is out of spec, or was recorded that way. Analog's main problem is it's speed issues. The distortion is rarely audible.
 

don'ttrustauthority

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It also depends on the volume of the recording — I have a vinyl record where the upcoming fortissimo is clearly announced by a very obvious pre-echo. In the days that I was using a reel-to-reel deck, I’d get a pre-echo quite easily when using cheap, thin tape. Shamrock (which I bought because it was quite cheap and I was low on spondulix) suffered a lot from it.
Again, probably not pre-echo, but rather the sides of the grooves being too close to adjacent grooves. Are you suggesting that the signal bleeds out an inch (half second) past the heads?
 
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