Is half track stereo head mod possible for TEAC 3340S?

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Summing tracks might exaggerate azimuth fluctuations.

Listen to the left channel through tracks 1 and 2, separately, so see which
gives the most output and least noise. Ditto for the right channel through
tracks 3 and 4.

There's a guy who has the remaining stock of Nortronics heads and is slowly
selling them off, but I don't have the URL.

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William Sommerwerck <williams@nwlink.com> wrote:
>Summing tracks might exaggerate azimuth fluctuations.

Yes, but so will using a wider-track head.

>Listen to the left channel through tracks 1 and 2, separately, so see which
>gives the most output and least noise. Ditto for the right channel through
>tracks 3 and 4.

Note that the tonality will be different too, not just the S/N. This is
due to fringe effects since you are playing only a portion of the track.
--scott

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

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

In article <116rq63sodk56ce@corp.supernews.com> tman@ptialaska.net writes:

> I want to archive 1/4 inch half track stereo material
> recorded on a Studer A807. I have a TEAC 3340S. Will
> the TEAC 3340S play the 1/4 inch half track stereo tapes
> if I sum tracks 1 and 2, and sum tracks 3 and 4

I'd listen to it with the channels summed and with just a single
channel and see which sounds better. You'll get more signal if you sum
the two, of course, but you might also hear the effect of the tape
wandering around in the guides more with the sum of the two tracks.

Also, Studer had different heads for their 2-track machines.
Basically, the American head was a little narrower, and the European
head wider. Tracks recorded with the European head will completely
span a 1/4-track play head whereas tracks recorded on the American
head will appear to be a little narrow when matched to either of the
tracks of a pair.

But the real answer is that if the TEAC is all you got, clean it up
good, align the heads to the tapes you're playing, and go for it. If
you really value the recordings and plan to issue them for public
consumption, you'd best pay an archivist who has the proper equipment
to make the transfers for you.


--
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However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
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"Scott Dorsey" <kludge@panix.com> wrote in message
news4lbh5$68e$1@panix2.panix.com...

> Is there a 1/4 inch half track stereo head made that fits the TEAC 3340S?
>
> Probably. Joe Dundovic has all the old Nortronics tape head stock, but
> frankly it's not worth it. You'd spend less money just renting a machine
> designed for the job.

And you'll probably get better results; that TEAC's wow and flutter was
okay, but not up to a good Ampex or even a clean Revox.

Peace,
Paul

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Tim Sprout wrote:

> I want to archive 1/4 inch half track stereo material
> recorded on a Studer A807. I have a TEAC 3340S. Will
> the TEAC 3340S play the 1/4 inch half track stereo tapes
> if I sum tracks 1 and 2, and sum tracks 3 and 4, then out
> to stereo?

Yes, but I suspect that at least in theory there may be some slight
loss of dynamic range because a 4 track head does not put each pair of
heads squarely over the full width of each 1/2 track. There might also
be some slight loss of separation.

My recollection is that a 4-track 1/4" head put 4 data areas
separated by 3 guard bands across the tape, while a 2-track 1/4" head
put data in the space occupied by 2 of the guard bands, and had a
wider guard band running down the middle of the tape.

>Is there a 1/4 inch half track stereo head made that fits the TEAC
3340S?

No doubt something could be found. My recollection is that the 3340
transport mechanism was closely related to a the transports in several
other Teac products, some of which were just plain old 2-track tape
machines.

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Arny Krueger <arnyk@hotpop.com> wrote:
>Scott Dorsey wrote:
>> Paul Stamler <pstamlerhell@pobox.com> wrote:
>>> "Scott Dorsey" <kludge@panix.com> wrote in message
>>>
>>>> Is there a 1/4 inch half track stereo head made that fits the TEAC
>>>> 3340S?
>>>>
>>>> Probably. Joe Dundovic has all the old Nortronics tape head
>stock,
>>>> but frankly it's not worth it. You'd spend less money just
>renting
>>>> a machine designed for the job.
>>>
>>> And you'll probably get better results; that TEAC's wow and flutter
>>> was okay, but not up to a good Ampex or even a clean Revox.
>>
>> Maybe it was okay for harpsichord players, but it was sure not good
>> enough for pianists.
>
>Was there a prosumer 1/4" tape machine that was good enough for a
>pianist? ;-)

The A77 wasn't too bad, and the B77 was lower flutter than the A77. Some
of the Tandberg machines weren't too bad either. I think Uher even made
a consumer quarter-track deck with servo tension control.

The real problem was the push down to 3 3/4 ips, which just made flutter
unbearable even on a well-designed transport. Quarter track, while it was
an evil thing on the whole, did nothing to make flutter worse and at least
made azimuth error less audible.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

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

why not look on ebay for a teac 3300 half-track machine? there is a
3300sx on there right now for $9.99. i had a 3300 half-track back in
the 70s when i was apprenticing for deep south, so i could take masters
home and play them. nice little machine, though the SN ratio was only
like 68dB at 15ips.

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Tim Sprout <tman@ptialaska.net> wrote:
>I will use the Studer A807, still available at the public radio
>station where I recorded these performances 16 years ago.
>I looked the machine over last night. I don't think those heads
>have been cleaned in 16 years!

Be sure to align to the tape tones, but before you do that, do a full
alignment and make sure the machine is okay. If you can't get the low
end to pull in, or you can't get a nice diagonal line on the azimuth
setting, the machine may be suffering from lack of maintenance itself.

I am getting increasing paranoid about using analogue machines in
outside studios, because so few of them are getting proper PM these
days.
--scott


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

Hi Tim,
Yes, you can play the 1/2 track on that machine but not to perfection. Yes you could get a head to go on that unit and I have them here- plus you would be messing up a good 4T 4C machine. Better to just but a A3300SX 2T or ATR700 or any unit other than a 22-2. I would prefer to fix a 1/2 track E bay machine that was clean than to screw up a Quad deck.
Sam, past Teac Technician from Chicago