do they still make reel to reel tape recorders

Reel to Reel recorders accept a long history having originally been invented in Federal republic of germany in the 1920's, the format used today is based on the format conceived by German companies Telefunken and BASF in 1934. Although near R2R recorders are counterpart in that location exist digital recorders equally well, electromechanically the just departure between the digital recorders and the counterpart ones can prevarication in the heads, ordinary tape heads are fine sandwiches of magnets only the heads on digital recorders are sometimes lithographed. The processing electronics are very dissimilar between those 2 types obviously.

All speed references are slowly beingness converted into the DIN standard, for reference for our American readers the equivalents are :
2,38cm = fifteen/16ips, 4,75cm = 1 seven/8ips, 9,5cm = iii 3/4ips, 19cm = seven i/2ips, 38cm = 15ips etc..

Recorders, Record Manufacturers, Recorder alignment (grey sidebar), Service centers (grey sidebar), Reel to Reel History.

Reel two Reel Manufacturers

Denon
Makes the circulate oriented DN-3602RG but simply appears to market it in Asia, more info here on the Japanese D&M pro site, this is the only currently manufactured recorder that comes with 76cm capability as standard rather than an option, it too supports 9.v - 19 and 38 cm speeds. I uses 6mm (i/4" tape).

J. P. Gurtner (Stellavox Counterpart)
This company sells (and obviously makes) the TD-9 modular analogue recorder and the SP-9 portable recorders. Both recorders feature replaceable headblocks giving you lot a choice of mono or stereo performance, in addition the TD-9 can employ a variety of tape widths and even tape onto the magnetic stripes of film, in add-on to a caput spinning variety of synchronisation options.

Lyrec
Makes the TR55-MM one/2" recorder in both ii and 4 track versions, the 4 tracks is available in both side past side and interlaced version (the side by side variant is useful for making duplication masters).

Nagra Audio
Nagra makes a 1/4" open reel true 24 bit 4 aqueduct recorder called the D-Ii, this model is much honey past location music recording specialists (as opposed to the film buffs that love the analogue ones) not only due to the stunning audio quality and reliability equally usual but too because of the error correction, diagnostic and reporting facilitates that make this machine unique. They manufacture three 1/4" analogue models. The mono Nagra E that is their "budget" model, the mono timecode IV-MK2 automobile and the Stereo Four-S. Nagra as well makes the famous SN 1/8" "spy recorders", these are miniature open reel recorders that you have seen in numerous activity films over the years. At that place are 3 1/viii" models available, the SNN is a full-rail recorder that has 3 3/four and 1 7/8 in./sec speeds. (9.5 and 4.75 cm/s), SNS one-half-track recorder that sports one 7/8 and 15/16 in./sec speeds (4.75 and 2.38 cm/southward), and finally the SNST-R version that is optimised for music recording (the other SN models are optimised for vocalism applications). Note that 1/eight" record is not as hard to find as many think, apart from Nagra Audio themselves, EMTEC Magnetics supplies tapes for those machines. Notation that all Nagra recorders are portable (well, transportable anyhow), and that the ane/4" models accept an option of a propriety equalisation on 15 ips that gives you a slightly better audio and much less dissonance than the standard NAB.

Otari
Otari makes the MTR-90III 24 aqueduct ii" recorder, the MTR-15 mastering recorder that tin be delivered in 1/four" or 1/2" versions, both DIN and NAB and in stereo, 2 track or 4 track versions. Information technology's a very versatile devise that comes with xxx, 15, 7.v and three.75 ips speeds as standard and is fully automatically aligned. The skillful old 5050 is yet available in version BIII, it'southward a ane/4" version so is the MX-55. Otari also manufactures a meridian of the line broadcast thirty ips 1/4" called the BTR-10J, it's a standalone recorder with modularised electronics that sports a host of unusual features such equally eq options for 4x speed, mono/stereo switching etc.. They too brand a specialised version of the MTR-15 for loftier speed reproduction called the MTR-15DAS 2/4, and info on that machine can be had on the DAS homepage .

Polyconcept Us
Makes the Reel Media Center, I am not entirely certain if this is Mod-tro or Nostaklígja but I am biased towards the latter. This is basically a music organisation styled as a hybrid between a 40's tabletop radio and an upright tape recorder, along with the usual CD/radio/built in speakers the unit has an open reel recorder based around Meaty Cassette technology, in other words a iv track 1/8" tape running at 4,75 cm. Apart from looks and the fact that it is considerably cheaper than a Nagra South the only advantage I tin see of this device is the fact that the reels contain 4 times as much tape equally a C90 cassette and thus tin record up to 6 hours on one tape.

Sony
Sony makes two DASH multitrack recorders, the 24 track PCM3324S and the 48 track PCM3348HR.

Studer
Manufactures the A807 counterpart i/four" 2 track, A827 analogue 2" 24 track recorder and the Nuance format D827 MKII MCH 24/48 track digital recorder.

Uher
As the German homepage for the visitor does not fifty-fifty mention those and has not done so since it was first put upwards, I was under the impression that the line of open up reel recorders had been discontinued years ago, just not only are they all the same making them they have recently added updated models! The 4000 line of recorders are relatively small (285mm ten 100mm ten 235mm), portable open reel recorders geared toward reporters and location sound recording and are available in 3 main versions, first is the 4000 Report Monitor a ii track mono recorder with a sync track (simply no sync electronics) and the 4200 and 4400 Study Monitor are stereo ii and four rail variants. The 6000 Universal is a mono 2 track with fourth dimension code capabilities (a poor human�s Nagra, and then to speak). All of the models are i/4", 4 speed (two,4cm, 4,75cm, 9,5cm and 19cm. the 4200 and 4400 may be ordered in a 38cm version, the 6000 series goes from four,75cm to 38cm), have a built in monitoring loudspeaker, characteristic iii heads, and can be powered from mains power, alkali metal batteries or rechargeables.

Open Reel Record Manufacturers

There has been some upheaval in the supply of magnetic tape in the last few years, the 2 master producers of such tapes in the form of EMTEC Magnetics (BASF and Agfa IP) and Quantegy (Ampex) went insolvent due do various reasons and for a few months the sole manufacturer of professional tape in the world was Sony and they simply supplied 1/2 and 1/4" tape. The just source of budget record had been English language manufacturer Zonal but their marketing was solely based on E-Bay so no-1 even knew that they existed and they eventually stopped making tapes likewise. But Dutch visitor RMGI bought the record manufacturing equipment, technology and trademarks from the receivers of EMTEC Magnetics and started making tapes in nigh sizes again in 2007.

You should be careful when choosing recording tape, machines may need to be aligned to a specific tape to get the most out of it. Most, if not all machines fabricated in the last 25 years are aligned with BASF formulations in mind that are now being manufactured by . Older machines will likewise need a bias and head voltage adjustments to work with modern tape, although most suppliers also sell the older variety (ask for non EE or normal tape) but unless you have a big collection of older tapes that you lot play regularly, I recommend changing the bias since the sound quality improves quite a fleck.

ATR Magnetics
Articles a type of record simply referred to equally the ATR Master Tape, vvailable in half inch, one inch and ii� widths, is Is designed to be fully compatiable with Ampex tapes.

Sony
Sony Media makes i/4" tapes in the form of D1/4 14xx and one/2" tapes in the form of D1/2xxxx series.

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