Kerble away if necessary.

I have recently become enamored with the reel to reel recording process and was wondering if anyone could recommend a good entry level reel to reel machine.

Preferably a four track or better and more importantly something that is under 500 bucks. (probably asking wayyy too much there)

Are there any two tracks that are worth my time?

Any help would be appreciated.

maybe a tascam 388?

the biggest problem with what you're asking is the budget.

you can probably find a decent machine for $500, but that's just the purchase price.

tape is preposterously expensive, and you will likely need to have the machine serviced a bit. not to mention calibration and biasing.

if you're interested in becoming a tape machine tech, then it's not a bad idea. if you have (paying) clients that consistently want to work with tape, then it's not a bad idea. if you can afford the upkeep on it, it's not a bad idea.

just don't think your purchase price will be the only thing you spend on a tape machine in the first year.

maybe an otari mx5050?

I've been looking for the same thing. Tascam 388s are a good all in one machine. I've also been looking into Otaris as well.

Teac 4 tracks are nice too. Look around on ebay or craigslist and you should be able to find a 4 track for 500 or less pretty easy.

edit- http://cgi.ebay.com/TASCAM-38-reel-to-r ... dZViewItem

One of the tracks isn't working unfortunately or I wouldn't have told you about it and bought it myself.

Here's an otari.

http://cgi.ebay.com/OTARI-MX-5050-BQ-II ... dZViewItem

Good luck.

I am all too aware of the expenses of reel to reel stuff.

Thats why I wanted the low purchase price.

That being said, thanks for the reccomends so far.

I've kinda fantasized about buying 3 Otari 5050s and making one bad-ass machine out of all of the parts. I've worked on Ampex ATR-102s and Otari MTR-100s, and those are both kinda fun.

however, since the 5050 is more consumer grade, I don't know how hard it would be to work on. Anyone here have much first hand experience.

Ben Adrian

I've always wanted a reel to reel. I found two at a second hand store the other day. One is a 60's? hybrid tube/transistor Sony tapecorder. The other is an Akai X-150-D. They both work and record. I dont have alot of tape so I bought some old 8-track tapes. I havent tried the tapes out yet, I hope it works, I am sick of my digital recorder.

o_d_m wrote:I am all too aware of the expenses of reel to reel stuff.

Thats why I wanted the low purchase price.

That being said, thanks for the reccomends so far.

cool, i just brought it up cause it was something i didn't realize when i first started looking at tape machines. as soon as i did, i was glad i didn't spend the money getting one.


we do have an otari mtr-10 at my school that's setup as a 2-track 1/4".

it can handle 4 track 1/2" as well, but the professor doesn't want to take the time to calibrate it for that, especially because 1/2" tape is twice as expensive as 1/4" tape

I have a TEAC 3340 that I've used a bunch and it sounds great. Got mine in a bundle with a nice mixer for $250. Very worth it.

benadrian wrote:however, since the 5050 is more consumer grade, I don't know how hard it would be to work on. Anyone here have much first hand experience.

I have a 5050 III-8 and it's not a big deal to work on it. All the pots for calibration are available through the back of the machine so aside from a certain amount of reaching or bending over to adjust the meters that's not difficult. It has a removable panel on the bottom so most of the guts are accessible from in there and the electronics for each channel are on seperate plug in cards in the back of the machine so you can pull them individually for servicing. Adjusting table height is marginally fiddly, involving removing the sides of the machine. Basically there's nothing that much different than a larger Otari when it comes to servicing. So long as you get a decent specimen and have a manual for it I don't see why you'd need to buy three of them to make one good one. They're workhorse machines and nothing like as hit and miss as equivalent Teac/Tascam/Fostex units.

All of these machines sound like what I'm looking for.

But after looking at ebay, I think the Teac 3340 is gonna win out primarily because it fits my extremely meager budget.

If anybody has any extreme reservations about this machine let me know.
Anything is probably a step up from the fostex x-12 cassette machine that I currently use.

One final question, a number of the Teac machines I saw on ebay were called A-3340s. Is this the same thing? Heres a link so you can see the machines. ( And bid if your interested, I've got to save for a little while to purchase one of these believe it or not.)
http://cgi.ebay.com/TEAC-A-3340-4-TRACK ... dZViewItem