lrb@rrivax.rri.uwo.ca (Lance R. Bailey) (09/04/90)
After much saving and waiting, I finally got my Tape recorder of
my dreams.
The B77, as reVox puts it, is THE tape recorder, and this is certainly
justifiable now having had one for about one month.
I lived with cassette as my medium while a poor student, using it to mainly
capture the disks I already owned to avoid that DREADED surface wear. (This
was back in the days of 0.1 tracking to avoid friction :-).
I've known a number of open reels over the past few years, sony, teac, tascam
akai. All 15 ips, all 10 inch reels. i've had 4-track/4-channel,
4-track/2-channel, 4-track(play)/2-track(rec)/2-channel, 2-track/2-channel.
needless to say, i am a fanatic about the beasts.
My main purpose for the deck is to capture albums which i can no longer
aquire, and CDs that i borrow. although i was a musician, the only live
recording i will do is of friends on acoustical instruments. No choirs
or orchestras.
As for Noise Reduction, I use dbx type-I pro. I have an RX-9 (teac) for the
record machine (now the reVox) which is 4 distinct encode/decode units.
Downstairs I use an old dbx 150X to play back (2 simultaneous encode/decode).
I try to avoid the dbx as much as possible, prefering to leave signals
unprocessed, but enable it whenever I have wide dynamics or a high noise floor
on the original pressing.
'nuff said, on to the review.
When you order the B77, there is a two week lead time because you have to
specify the tracks, speed, casing etc. The 15 ips is not marketable as
a 4 track (it can be configured later, but not sold like that) because
reVox does not think that 4 tracks at 15 ips will track correctly. I got
2 track, 15 ips and had them toss in a pair of sexy millied aluminium hubs
for the NAB reels.
The first thing that impressed me was the manuals. in total you get about 1.25
inches of documentation, most of which is a tech guide. Full schematics for
ALL B77 (I and II) are included in the operations guide. The next thing was the
handle that they put on the top of the unit. A 50 pound open reel is NO
joy to lift usually, and even though the B77 is lighter than most, the handle
makes the B77 very easy to get it out of the box and onto the audio rack.
The controls are all very sturdy and the buttons for tape action are very nice,
a good solid click to let you know you have pressed it.
The input and outputs are very flexible, the front panel brags TWO phone
jacks (one for engineer and one for artist i suppose) and two mic inputs.
the back panel has rca in/out and DIN. the rca output is trim pot adjustable.
Each input channel has a seperate input select knob consisting of MIC-LO,
MIC-HI, RADIO and AUX. in addition, the left has a R->L and the right
has a L->R selection.
The output select is left on both, right on both, both on both, stereo reverse,
or stereo normal.
The meters are albiet a little small (1" X 1.5") but i tend to set the
levels to have tape out match tape in. While this does tend to have my meters
a little less hot than some people, i never run out of headroom. each meter
also has an overload led. the meters are NOT tied to the volume knob. At least
AKAI has a mark on the volume knob to show where 0VU should be, but otherwise
your metering is dependant on the output level on the play head, a basically
stupid, but common flaw on reel decks.
The tape path is a little different than most decks i have seen, but much
simpler. there are tape guides built right into the heads. Only one
idler arm exists (on the supply side) and it seems to be damped not by
spring but rather by a fluid. a portion of the front panel swings down to
allow for easy threading. like most decks, the b77 uses tension on the
idler arm(s) to determine tape presence, but like tandbergs, it uses an
infra-red light to determine tape presence versus leader precence.
The transport is very nice, except that when the takeup is over 50% full,
any starts tend to 'bounce' the tape between the capstan and takeup reel.
i think this is because the takeup reel is not pull,pull,pulling on the
tape and so at start, the capstan pushes the tape a little faster than
the takeup can handle.
One good way of telling whethor or not the transport is smooth is to fastwind
a complete reel and watch 1) how much shake the entire machine has 2) how much
the takeup and supply reels move w.r.t. each other. The B77 has very little
shake and the gap between the reels NEVER changes. part of this is due
to the revox hubs. instead of just clamping onto the reel, they have an
expanding center that centers the reel on the hub before clamping.
The construction of the b77 is rugged. only the case in plastic, the knobs
are all cast metal. The swing door for easy threading has a spring _aid_
swinging it back up. not that it needs a helper, but it does let it snap up
nicely. the builtin splicing block however, seems a little cheap.
the revox can record many effects. essentialy you have a two track
studio that can produce multi-track MONO recordings. a second deck
and/or board is needed to produce stereo masters. (of course, simple two
track, stereo input can be recorded as simple two track stereo output.)
the following effects are possible:
duo play (two signals, not simutaneous, eg: language lessons)
simultaneous 2-channel recording
multi-play recording (sound mixed with previous recording, overdubbing)
echo effects
Revox supplies a cleaning kit complete with a dental mirror to help you.
Because the revox heads have a tape guide built in, special cleaning brushes
are needed and supplied. Revox make no mention of demagnetizing.
in summary, a fine toy, and essentially the best two track open reel available
at the consumer and pro level.
as to recording skill, the b77 output matches the b77 input. and that is
exactly what a deck should do. the s/n is good enough that i tend to ignore
dbx for most recording.
_________________________________
Lance R. Bailey, Systems Manager | Robarts Research Institute
email: lrb@rri.uwo.ca | Clinical Trials Resources Group
vox: 519-663-3787 ext. 4108 | P.O. Box 5015, 100 Perth Dr.
fax: 519-663-3789 | London, Canada N6A 5K8