Where To Find Reel-to-Reel Recordings

[MylesBAstor]

Companies producing reel-to-reel tapes:

ABC Records (Jazz/Classical/Other) http://www.abcrecord.com

Acoustic Sounds: www.acousticsounds.com

Analog Mastering Services (Jazz/Rock/Classical) http://www.analogmaster.net

*Analogy Records (Jazz/Rock/Classical/Other) www.analogyrecords.org

Brilliance Music and Studios (in US, Contact Gary Koh at Genesis Advanced Technologies)

*Dangerous Analog (Jazz/Classical) www.dangerousanalog.com

Fone (Classical) see Elusive Disc

Groove Note (Jazz/Classical/Other) see Elusive Disc

Hemioliarecords.com http://www.hemioliarecords.com/index.php

Horch House (Jazz/Classical) http://www.analogarts.net

International Phonograph (Jazz) http://www.internationalphonographinc.com

Lutz Precision/MPS-Music (Jazz/Rock/Classical/Other) www.mps-music.com

MA Recordings ((in US, Contact Gary Koh at Genesis Advanced Technologies)

Master Tape Sound (Jazz/Rock/Classical/Other) http://mastertapesoundlab.com/Master...b/Welcome.html

Open Reel Records (Jazz/Rock/Classical/Other) www.openreelrecords.com

**Opus 3 (Jazz/Rock/Classical/Other) see Elusive Disc (http://www.opus3records.com)

Quinton Records (Jazz /Classical) http://www.quintonrecords.com

STS-digitalshop (Jazz/Classical/Rock) http://www.sts-digitalshop.nl/

The Tape Project (Jazz/Rock/Classical/Other) http://www.tapeproject.com

Tone-Pearl Records (Classical) http://www.tonepearls.com

Yarlung Records (Jazz /Classical/Other) www.yarlungrecords.com

Ultraanalogue Records (Classical) http://ultraanaloguerecordings.com

Lyn Stanley (special order) (Jazz)

Patricia Barber (special order) Jazz) http://www.premonitionrecords.com

New addition

[Ki Choi]

I didn't see Anne Bisson on the list.

[MylesBAstor]

I didn't see Anne Bisson on the list.

That would be under Brilliance Music unless it's miscategorized.

[Ki Choi]

That would be under Brilliance Music unless it's miscategorized.

Ok. Got it.

[Rhapsody]

Myles, can you get Holly Cole on tape?

[MylesBAstor]

Unfortunately no.

[allenh]

Make that 2! :-)

[audioguy1958]

I noticed that the link to ultra analogue recordings is incorrect, it should be:

http://ultraanaloguerecordings.com

Top quality classical recordings!

[MylesBAstor]

I noticed that the link to ultra analogue recordings is incorrect, it should be:

http://ultraanaloguerecordings.com

Top quality classical recordings!

Thanks for catching that! Will make the change.

And welcome to the board!

[Mockingbird]

Myles,

That's all "in print"? Holy crap, a guy could go broke on vinyl AND tape!

[MylesBAstor]

Myles,

That's all "in print"? Holy crap, a guy could go broke on vinyl AND tape!

That doesn't include Chad either who will be officially announcing his entry into the reel-to-reel market too at Axpona! And there's another person going to be reissuing some rock titles that I'm not at liberty to announce quite yet. So yes, quite a list. And yes, one is having to get a little more selective about which tapes they are buying as opposed to picking up anything they can. Quite a turn in events!

[Mockingbird]

The funny thing is, some of the tapes aren't that much better than well-mastered vinyl. But, some are soooooooo good, there's absolutely no way you can squeeze it onto vinyl. Albert Porter has been playing master tapes for a while, and I've heard some amazing ones, and some that were disappointing (only so far as they weren't worth the money, compared to a good vinyl pressing). I have quite a few of the old 2 track tapes (the RCA, Mercury, and lesser known). And, I have several two-track machines. I just can't justify the money for some of the titles on offer.

Related: I'm rebuilding a Technics for my patent attorney, and he opted for the JRF Magnetics heads ($650 each, if I recall correctly). When I'm finished, I'll see if Porter will let me haul it over to compare to his professional machine. You wouldn't believe all the shitty electrolytics in the signal path (30 year old shitty electrolytics). I'm wondering just how good these old Technics can be (just like an SP10).

[MylesBAstor]

I've done it with my Technics RS1500! King-Cello electronics (with Dueland caps), new Pro-Nortronics heads, newtop of the line furutech connectors, modded tape path, etc.. The deck sits on a Symposium Isis rack though Rob had piqued my interest in those Latvian roller carts. I still want to replace the rollers with the Athan pinch rollers and maybe the new J-corders guides eventually on my deck. Remember the Technics, etc. all have '70s solid-state electronics in them. You would be shocked to hear my deck! In fact, someone just heard my deck and ended up buying his own tape machine he was so impressed.

Vis a vis tape quality. Just like vinyl, you need to know the chain of custody. But honestly, I haven't run across the situation where the tape was worse than the vinyl yet. I am curious which titles you were referring to. Some tapes are so shockingly better, take for instance the Arnold Overtures tape (that I never liked new on LP or CD), that they make the other mediums sound awful, no make that dreadful. Even the Tape Projects Stage Fright shows how badly the original album was EQ'd. They almost don't sound like the same recording. Or as good as the Opus 3 records were, the tape are just in another league. In fact, the Opus 3 tapes are among the best sounding recordings around. After playing a bunch of tapes for visitors, almost every person comments that the Opus 3 sampler tapes were the best I played that day. The Yarlung tapes are also fabulous as is the Horch House Oscar Peterson and a couple of the Hemiolia.

[Mockingbird]

The tapes I refer to are of unknown origin, and for pop titles. They are probably 3rd generation. The mediocrity could be compression or EQ for the mastering house. I've found a few. A couple are spectacular. A couple sound remarkably similar to mint, clean original pressings. It's possible that a lot of the underground tapes are the EQ'd tapes sent out to mastering houses. IDK. It's like buying drugs on the street corner.

So, when you get a high quality mastering (something Chad would sell), and compare it to a 3rd generation copy, it started out as somewhat compressed, and mediocre to begin with (not Arnold Overtures), then you can be crestfallen to find out that the really superb pressing is honest, and the tapes weren't that great to begin with. I'm not talking about audiophile masterpieces. More like "Toys In The Attic".

Yes, there are 15ips tapes that cannot be transferred to vinyl. Even if the material is not very demanding, engineers feel compelled to limit, sum bass to mono, and so on. All that extra circuitry, and usually of dicey quality, only screws up the sound.

Nice to get feedback from you on the Technics project. I want to hear just want I can get from the stock electronics. Bipolars are great, but I'm confident I can get a lot better sound than stock, then go from there. My customer has the discretionary income. A friend across town has the bottlehead electronics, and they are too noisy, and the EQ isn't correct. It could be a problem with zenith/azimuth on the heads. IDK. Maybe his heads need to be lapped. IDK for real. I didn't take on yet another project with so many that are dragging out for months. I have guys that I just tell "I'll call you when I can take on another project". But, I will let you know how it comes out. I think that starting off with the JRF heads is a safe call. It's like choosing a Magnum Opus or Pericles or Des Knaben Wunderhorn cartridge (yes, I'm making up cartridge names tonight).

[MylesBAstor]

The tapes I refer to are of unknown origin, and for pop titles. They are probably 3rd generation. The mediocrity could be compression or EQ for the mastering house. I've found a few. A couple are spectacular. A couple sound remarkably similar to mint, clean original pressings. It's possible that a lot of the underground tapes are the EQ'd tapes sent out to mastering houses. IDK. It's like buying drugs on the street corner.

So, when you get a high quality mastering (something Chad would sell), and compare it to a 3rd generation copy, it started out as somewhat compressed, and mediocre to begin with (not Arnold Overtures), then you can be crestfallen to find out that the really superb pressing is honest, and the tapes weren't that great to begin with. I'm not talking about audiophile masterpieces. More like "Toys In The Attic".

Yes, there are 15ips tapes that cannot be transferred to vinyl. Even if the material is not very demanding, engineers feel compelled to limit, sum bass to mono, and so on. All that extra circuitry, and usually of dicey quality, only screws up the sound.

Nice to get feedback from you on the Technics project. I want to hear just want I can get from the stock electronics. Bipolars are great, but I'm confident I can get a lot better sound than stock, then go from there. My customer has the discretionary income. A friend across town has the bottlehead electronics, and they are too noisy, and the EQ isn't correct. It could be a problem with zenith/azimuth on the heads. IDK. Maybe his heads need to be lapped. IDK for real. I didn't take on yet another project with so many that are dragging out for months. I have guys that I just tell "I'll call you when I can take on another project". But, I will let you know how it comes out. I think that starting off with the JRF heads is a safe call. It's like choosing a Magnum Opus or Pericles or Des Knaben Wunderhorn cartridge (yes, I'm making up cartridge names tonight).

Yes, you hit on something--those tapes sent to mastering houses for LP production. I've not had good experiences with them. Many times, the record labels would send these tapes pre-EQ'd so the mastering engineer didn't have to do anything. These tapes often have little or no bass and are bright sounding. That's why I often stay away from those underground sellers whose source are these mastering house tapes. I even have a sampler tape from one of these underground individuals here and the sound is exactly as you described.

[Mockingbird]

With pop releases, a lot of limiting and compression were done before the tracks were recorded (along with EQ, panning, fading, etc.., send through dozens of pots/sliders/switches, op-amps, and cables made of pig iron). The master tapes are sometimes a disaster. That's more specifically what I meant. There are thousands of such recordings where the engineers destroyed the sound before it was recorded to tape. Very few of those were targeting audiophiles, but audiophiles will try to find a good sounding copy of a good performance, only to find that the engineering was bad.

And some tapes, like the Arnold Overtures, would have to be mixed down to cassette before it sounded anything remotely like the LP or CD.

[MylesBAstor]

A new tape source from Italy. Carefully check before ordering as some tapes are AAA and others are DAA, some are 15 ips, others are 71/2 ips.

http://www.simpatyrecords.com/cerca....h=tape&submit=

[MylesBAstor]

Here's another one but unfortunately all in Japanese.

http://www.kamekichirecord.com/cd/ca...Reel_Vol1.html

[MylesBAstor]

Another one from Taiwan but can't get an English translation. Say needs plug in.

http://www.bc-musicale.com/Zopenreel.html