Best tape for Studer B 67?

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"Gino Nave"
>I just picked up a Studer B67 1/4" 2-track on eBay. Can anyone
> recommend the best brand and type of tape to use with this deck? I'm
> new to analog recorders.
>


** How many brands of 1/4 inch tape have you found available ?

Besides Quantegy 456.




........... Phil

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Gino Nave <junkbank@comcast.net> wrote:
>I just picked up a Studer B67 1/4" 2-track on eBay. Can anyone
>recommend the best brand and type of tape to use with this deck? I'm
>new to analog recorders.

For brand, your choice is Quantegy or Quantegy. Nobody else out there
is making 1/4" tape (other than Hanny Magnetics in Korea which OEMS for
Radio Shack, and a company called JAI in India). BASF is gone, Zonal is
gone, 3M is gone. Maxell stopped six months back.

Try Quantegy 406 to begin with. I am pretty sure you can't bias 499 with
one of those machines and 456 is just going to give you extra headroom
that you won't be able to use. You should be able to bias 406 up.

Use the modern overbias method. The manual will tell you to peak for
tone at 1 KC, which is reasonable for red oxide tapes (and you can try
Quantegy 641 if you want to try an old-style red oxide tape), but not so
effective for a modern mastering tape.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

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Scott Dorsey wrote:
> Gino Nave <junkbank@comcast.net> wrote:
>
>>I just picked up a Studer B67 1/4" 2-track on eBay. Can anyone
>>recommend the best brand and type of tape to use with this deck? I'm
>>new to analog recorders.
>
>
> For brand, your choice is Quantegy or Quantegy. Nobody else out there
> is making 1/4" tape (other than Hanny Magnetics in Korea which OEMS for
> Radio Shack, and a company called JAI in India). BASF is gone, Zonal is
> gone, 3M is gone. Maxell stopped six months back.
>
> Try Quantegy 406 to begin with. I am pretty sure you can't bias 499 with
> one of those machines and 456 is just going to give you extra headroom
> that you won't be able to use. You should be able to bias 406 up.
>
> Use the modern overbias method. The manual will tell you to peak for
> tone at 1 KC, which is reasonable for red oxide tapes (and you can try
> Quantegy 641 if you want to try an old-style red oxide tape), but not so
> effective for a modern mastering tape.
> --scott

We use 456 and 499 on our B67 with great results. Most
often we run 499 @15ips +9 over 185. 456 @15ips can be
a bit noisy on quiet passages but isn't an issue @30ips.
Never experienced any headroom problems.

--
--
John Noll
Retromedia Sound Studios
Red Bank, NJ

jn145_deletethisfirst_@verizon.net

http://www.retromedia.net

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Scott Dorsey wrote:
> EricK <eric@Raw-Tracks.com> wrote:
>
>>Scott Dorsey wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Try Quantegy 406 to begin with. I am pretty sure you can't bias 499 with
>>>one of those machines and 456 is just going to give you extra headroom
>>>that you won't be able to use. You should be able to bias 406 up.
>>
>>All of the B67's I've used could bias 499 and GP9 just fine.
>
>
> Wow! That's impressive... even a 440 can't really handle GP9 properly.
> How does the B67 compare with the older A67 model?
> --scott
>

I don't know a thing about the A67's. Sorry.

--
Eric

Practice Your Mixing Skills
Multi-Track Masters on CD-ROM
www.Raw-Tracks.com

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Scott Dorsey wrote:

> EricK wrote:
> >Scott Dorsey wrote:

> >> Try Quantegy 406 to begin with. I am pretty sure you can't bias 499 with
> >> one of those machines and 456 is just going to give you extra headroom
> >> that you won't be able to use. You should be able to bias 406 up.

> >All of the B67's I've used could bias 499 and GP9 just fine.

> Wow! That's impressive... even a 440 can't really handle GP9 properly.
> How does the B67 compare with the older A67 model?

I don't know, but I do know that Agfa PEM 468 was my favorite for my
B67. We used Ampex 456 before we found the Agfa.

--
ha

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

hank alrich <walkinay@thegrid.net> wrote:
>Scott Dorsey wrote:
>> EricK wrote:
>> >Scott Dorsey wrote:
>
>> >> Try Quantegy 406 to begin with. I am pretty sure you can't bias 499 with
>> >> one of those machines and 456 is just going to give you extra headroom
>> >> that you won't be able to use. You should be able to bias 406 up.
>
>> >All of the B67's I've used could bias 499 and GP9 just fine.
>
>> Wow! That's impressive... even a 440 can't really handle GP9 properly.
>> How does the B67 compare with the older A67 model?
>
>I don't know, but I do know that Agfa PEM 468 was my favorite for my
>B67. We used Ampex 456 before we found the Agfa.

468 is one of my favorite tapes on anything, and it requires less bias
than 456 or 406 does, too. It'll even bias up on a Nagra III with a little
tweaking. And it's gone and not coming back.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) wrote in message news:<cjmmu9$psn$1@panix3.panix.com>...
> hank alrich <walkinay@thegrid.net> wrote:
> >Scott Dorsey wrote:
> >> EricK wrote:
> >> >Scott Dorsey wrote:
>
> >> >> Try Quantegy 406 to begin with. I am pretty sure you can't bias 499 with
> >> >> one of those machines and 456 is just going to give you extra headroom
> >> >> that you won't be able to use. You should be able to bias 406 up.
>
> >> >All of the B67's I've used could bias 499 and GP9 just fine.
>
> >> Wow! That's impressive... even a 440 can't really handle GP9 properly.
> >> How does the B67 compare with the older A67 model?
> >
> >I don't know, but I do know that Agfa PEM 468 was my favorite for my
> >B67. We used Ampex 456 before we found the Agfa.
>
> 468 is one of my favorite tapes on anything, and it requires less bias
> than 456 or 406 does, too. It'll even bias up on a Nagra III with a little
> tweaking. And it's gone and not coming back.
> --scott

Wow. My tascam 48 came with 2 brand new reels of 468 and a new reel of
469. I tried one of the 468's and it was kinda mushy, I didn't like
it, but then I did not rebias for it. I ended up giving the other 2
reels away, since 456 sounds great to my ears. I had no idea it was
highly regarded tape.

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Paul Stamler <pstamlerhell@pobox.com> wrote:
>
>Interesting. I did tests on several tapes one time, and found that 406 (and
>Scotch 206) had a "soft-clipping" characteristic while 456 and 250 had a
>"hard-clipping" characteristic as level increased. In other words, adjusting
>each so that +8 VU equalled 3% harmonic distortion, at 8 dB below that
>point, 406 would have more distortion than 456; it would increase slowly to
>the 3% point and beyond. 456 would stay quite low until just below the 3%
>point, then shoot up. Above the 3% point, 456 would have a good deal more
>distortion at any given level.

That makes perfect sense, and basically correlates well with what I heard.
Were you doing these at 1 KC? Something interesting about a lot of these
tapes is that the MOL at 1 KC is often very different than the MOL at 20 KC,
so it will saturate at some frequencies faster than others, resulting in a
change in frequency response at very high levels.

>The other thing I despised about 456 was the way the highs went soft and
>mushy after about a week. Agfa 468 would change very little.

406 seems to do that for me too. I tend to align the record high end EQ
up a little bit to compensate.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

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Scott Dorsey wrote:
>
> hank alrich <walkinay@thegrid.net> wrote:

> >I don't know, but I do know that Agfa PEM 468 was my favorite for my
> >B67. We used Ampex 456 before we found the Agfa.
>
> 468 is one of my favorite tapes on anything, and it requires less bias
> than 456 or 406 does, too. It'll even bias up on a Nagra III with a little
> tweaking. And it's gone and not coming back.

If you really want some 468 then I'm sure I saw one UK dealer
advertising some. Try www.svsmedia.com - although I've no idea how much
they actually have.

Cheers.

James.

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Paul Stamler <pstamlerhell@pobox.com> wrote:
>"Scott Dorsey" <kludge@panix.com> wrote in message
>
>Scott, we're disappointed. We were kinda hoping you'd buy the machinery and
>go into production.

I don't think Chakaal would let me.
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."