Reel to Reel decks

FWIW, you don't want to just 'change tape' for a different sound (unless maybe you are looking for an effect??). To get the best out of the machine, if you use a different formulation the machine should be calibrated properly to use that tape. Otherwise you will get frequency response and distortion colorations.

The best sounding source must be master tape, the best sounding recorded tape in market is the third copies from the master tape like Tape project's product and I don't know how many generations from the master were those before 1970's 4 track 7.5ips tapes but if you have a good machine they still sound better than vinyl but hard to keep in good condition, so if you looking the top sound quality in play back, then create your own master tape, buy a pro machine like Studer(price are really bargain today) and a pair pro Mic with tube pre amp record live music will have a perfect sound in play back

Tonykyma, I have to say I am moving in this direction. I have a nagra iv-l full track 1/4" and seeing that head coverage makes me realize the potential (not using yet, waiting for a pinch roller). I have some 14" 1/2 track masters and they are an eye opener in terms of what is possible the closer you get to the original tape (these are just people that recorded some music and not people that are known). But the results are obvious. I keep thinking, lets see, my sister can play a violin and does play in some groups, my dad knows some old country songs that I could record, why not just make some high quality recordings to listen to?

Hi Andy we are not pro just for fun still a lot to learn, We did used two systems in the same Mic and amp in the same time digital and analog in recording. result in best of cause is master tape but the CD recorded after from the master tape still better than the direct recorded in the same digital recorder (Tascam), maybe my play back system are good for analog more than digital (all tube amps in 4 ways horn system) tape recorder of cause the most important in recording but Mic and pre amp also change the level of quality even the Mic's cable too, really a lot of things for try and learn!

Hi Tonykyma, I also don't have a background in pro audio recording. In my post I mentioned 14" 1/2 track but meant 1/4" 1/2 track. With the nagra I like that it is portable and opens up more opportunity for recording (the iv-l can take two mics). I think making your own live recordings would be both very challenging and exciting, I am looking forward to learning.

Something that I have been wondering about that is not obvious to me but also addresses some of the discussion in this thread is about making dubs of say master tapes. It has been debated that a dub cannot be better than the original and I leave that for others to debate. My question is suppose I have a 1/4" 1/2 track master and I want to make a dub. Let's say the master is fragile and valuable (only want to play it once to make a dub for example). If I make a dub I would want to use that dub to make other play copies (so my dub would be my working master). My thought is that it would be better to make my master dub onto 1/2" 1/2 track rather than 1/4" 1/2 track. My thought is that subsequent dubs would be better from the 1/2" tape than a 1/4" tape with less chance of loss? It seems intuitively correct but I don't have any experience to verify that (I don't have 1/2" heads but they are available for my machines).