ron@brl-tgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) (09/17/84)
You omit the Technics RS1520 tape deck. We used this in broadcast operations at WJHU. It has all the features you asked for and more, with the exception of one. It is an isolated loop deck. This means that the tape passes through two capstains. Actually, on this deck it is just one capstain and two pinch rollers. The tape forms a U over the 4T playback head, the erase head, around a big idler roller, then back up the other side past the 2T record and 2T playback heads. While this doesn't seem to be as nice for editing (as lets say a SCULLY with it's wide open heads), I edited tons of stuff on this deck and it isn't that bad. It's just that the record level know is very badly placed it's easy to snag the tape on the knob when taking up the slack after editing. The other problem with this deck is that the reel locks are integral to the hubs. Sufficient man handling will wear or break the nibs off these making them useless, and you have to send back the entire motor to be fixed. However, if you are you don't insist on smashing the reels in place even though the nibs aren't lined up, this should not be a problem. Otherwise the deck is very sturdy. It withstood continuous studio use at a college radio station, while another (not even in a road case) was dragged all over the place to record remote events. With regard to cart decks, the slickest thing I saw was the recent (1980) introduction from International Tapetronics (I think). It was a record deck with the infamous ELSA button. ELSA=Erase, Locate Splice, and Align heads option. You pushed this before recording the cart and it really did a great job. There were also lots of little options and diagnostic modes that you could get by punching itsy-bitsy buttons behind the secret door. -Ron
ron@brl-tgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) (09/19/84)
We had a lot of difficulty with the Otari deck. It had to be shipped back to the factory and redone. It also turned out that are unit was shipped with the motor speeds set up for 3-3/4 and 7-1/2 ips but the EQ set for 7-1/2 and 15. How convenient. We reset the motors to match the EQ settings. I think it had a little switch on the head block to switch between two and four track playback. -Ron Recorded at a reference fluxivity of 250 nanowebers per meter...