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Hello Gang,

You'll have to forgive my continued greenhorn questions but we have acquired a number of reels of SM900 and one of 911 (and a Quantegy 499 reel, but I fear that's going to be a sticky mess). Anyway, I tried to use one of these rolls of tape a while back on a session running alongside PT. However there was a fair amount of backing coming off to make me abandon that idea.

This was on our 3M which treats the tape a little fiercer than the a820 that we are now using. I have decided to go through all the tapes to see what condition they are in, whether to dump the tape or salvage the reels - that kind of thing.

I ran through the previously troublesome rolls of 900 through the a820 a few times and despite a few bits of muck on the guides (on the first library wind) the tapes do not seems to be showing any other symptoms of sitcky shed. They pass through the tape path quite happily on winding so I am wondering if they can be recorded on to?

Now, if I was going to record my own stuff then I would use fresh reels of RTM or ATR but I also have bands who may be keen to record to tape but don't have the budget for tape. It would be shame for them to go to waste if they can be used.

Thoughts?

The last time I recorded multitrack to a reel of BASF SM900 was probably 8-9 years ago. It was the old grey box with the white and red letters. The band was trying to save money and found some new old stock tape somewhere. The Machine was a Stephens 811-C 1" 8 track, which is built on a late 60's 3M 23 transport. It ate the tape for breakfast. It was fine tracking basics but I noticed a bunch of shed when we were doing vocals and dumped the session into the computer. We tried to continue overdubs on the tape but it was not up to the job.

I had purchased a bunch of 1/4" BASF SM 900 maybe 20 years ago and used it to mix for a few years without issue. Maybe 6-7 years ago I found a reel in the studio and used it to mix a band on a budget to an ATR-102. It was completely fine and was fine when played back at mastering.

I personally wouldn't use it unless there was no other option but I don't really record bands anymore so what do I know.

Are you recording onto tape as the final recorded medium, or are you using tape as an intermediate step before going to a DAW?

= Justin