JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. You must have JavaScript enabled in your browser to utilize the functionality of this website. In recent years, the two-inch multitrack tape machine has gone from studio staple to relic rarity. These days, owning an analog tape machine is somewhat akin to driving a classic car, with ongoing maintenance, scarcity of parts, and exotic fuel analog tape that's expensive and hard to find. Analog recording, of course, predates tape — with everything from wax cylinders to wire being used to capture a performance.

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Tape Machines
An audio tape recorder , tape deck , or tape machine is a sound recording and reproduction device that records and plays back sounds usually using magnetic tape for storage. In its present-day form, it records a fluctuating signal by moving the tape across a tape head that polarizes the magnetic domains in the tape in proportion to the audio signal. Tape-recording devices include the reel-to-reel tape deck and the cassette deck , which uses a cassette for storage. The use of magnetic tape for sound recording originated around in Germany as paper tape with oxide lacquered to it. Prior to the development of magnetic tape, magnetic wire recorders had successfully demonstrated the concept of magnetic recording , but they never offered audio quality comparable to the other recording and broadcast standards of the time. This German invention was the start of a long string of innovations that have led to present day magnetic tape recordings. Magnetic tape revolutionized both the radio broadcast and music recording industries. It gave artists and producers the power to record and re-record audio with minimal loss in quality as well as edit and rearrange recordings with ease. The alternative recording technologies of the era, transcription discs and wire recorders , could not provide anywhere near this level of quality and functionality. Since some early refinements improved the fidelity of the reproduced sound, magnetic tape has been the highest quality analog recording medium available.
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There seems to be a problem serving the request at this time. TEAC, Akai, Nagra, and many other companies build reel-to-reel tape recorders, and each product typically has a unique design. These units are durable because metal materials are used to construct the frame. The process of using a reel-to-reel tape product is easy because many practical accessories for different units are available. An Ampex tape for a reel-to-reel recorder is usually Ampex manufacturers typically package a standard tape in a convenient case. The Ampex remote has multiple buttons along the edge of the panel that manage traditional routines. This product has a solid, wooden frame and rugged bolts that hold the base in place. Vintage Ampex recorders are built with a wooden frame, and plastic and metal pieces are mounted on the main panel. This gadget has multiple knobs and two gauges that help users make strategic adjustments to impact sound frequencies.
They were adapted from the German Magnetofon that had been used by the German Navy to improve security of communications with their submarines. It could be claimed that the magnetic tape recorder was the device that really made the modern music recording industry possible. Before that time recordings were cut on lacquer or wax master disks. Because of the high impedances and the impossibility of controlling this dynamic process by, for example using negative feedback, the process was somewhat non-linear, exhibiting compression at high levels, noise at low levels and considerable 3rd. The frequency response depended on many factors such as the quality of tape, the head design and, not least, frequent expert maintenance required to optimize the performance on a daily basis. With these factors in mind, together with nostalgic memories of tape recordings over many years, we set about reproducing the classic sound of tape! Because of the non-linearity referred to, tape distortion varies with signal level. When the level is very high, the signal is compressed and if it is too high it will clip. In order to avoid the need for adjustment of both record and playback levels, these two controls have been ganged so that as the record level is increased, the replay level is decreased. The tape level meter provides a good reference that, with care, will indicate the approximate maximum record level of an actual recorder.