The
Tape Project nears release of it's first four titles
March is a very busy month for The
Tape Project. The running masters for our first four
albums are being made, the world's finest realtime
duplicating setup is being assembled, and the custom reels
and packaging are in production. At the same time a program
of tape machine refurbishment and modification is being
developed at Bottlehead Corp. as it gets ready to offer
modification services and complete machines based on the
highly regarded Technics RS1500 series of tape recorders.
While we burn the midnight oil getting ready to serve up
some of the best sounding audio fare ever made, here's some
news to keep you sated-
Extended
Response Heads improve playback performance
 Greg
Orton of Flux Magnetics
has come up with a specially packaged version of his extended
response playback head that fits perfectly in place of the
stock two track playback head in your Technics RS1500. Upon
receipt of your head block Greg installs the extended response
head in the original shield can and wires it to the original
head selector switch, preserving your RS1500s selectable
quarter track/half track playback ability. For dedicated
playback only machines Greg will also install long wearing
ferrite "dummy" heads in place of the stock erase
and record heads. For more info contact
Flux Magnetics
RMGI
tape chosen for initial Tape Project offerings
 After
extensive testing and auditions we have chosen RMGI's SM
468 formulation as the tape for the first Tape Project
album releases. Grammy Award winning mastering engineer
and The Tape Project Managing Director Paul Stubblebine
has found RMGI SM 468 to be manufactured to a high level
of consistency, sounding as good or better than the
original, highly regarded AGFA PEM 468 formulation. It's a
most appropriate tape for the high level of quality we are
attempting to achieve with Tape Project master dubs. Click
this link
to download a specification file in PDF format from the
RMGI website
The
Tape Project swag - now available
We think our Tape Project logo is too cool, and Tape
Project Managing Director Michael Romanowski just couldn't
wait to get us swagged out. So here's a link
to cool shirts, mugs, bags, buttons plastered with the
Tape Project logo, available at CafePress.com. A hot
tip - the Tape Project messenger bag pictured would be
perfect for carrying two or three Tape Project albums to
your next audio soiree.
|
Why
IEC equalization?
Are
we nuts? Or is there a good reason?
I am asked this question almost daily. Typically the question
is accompanied by the comment that the consumer grade tape
machines out there are are almost all set up with NAB playback
EQ rather than IEC playback EQ. I'll attempt to give a not too
technical explanation of our choice to use IEC playback EQ on
the Tape Project tapes. My reference, and a brilliant resource
for those interested in more detailed discussion, is Jay
McKnight's collection of technical papers on his Magnetic
Reference Labs website, home of the high quality MRL
calibration tapes.
The NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) standard for
tape playback equalization was designed by Frank Lennert in
1948 for use with early Ampex tape machines and the then
industry standard 3M Scotch 111 formula tape. Scotch 111 is
well regarded for it's ability to hang onto a signal over many
years. But by modern standards it's a "high noise"
formula. And tape heads of the era were limited in high
frequency response. The NAB equalization curve was designed to
compensate for these factors by boosting the high frequencies
above 3150 Hz during playback. The 3150Hz transition frequency
creates a "boost" in the high frequencies that is
3dB greater than the inherent loss of high frequencies that
occur in the modern day recording process. Modern tape
formulations (and tape heads) have improved so much from the
early days in terms of frequency response and noise floor that
the high frequency flux now needs to be cut during recording
to get flat reponse during playback with NAB EQ. So a shelf
needed to be created in the recording EQ curve to compensate,
and this keeps the recording engineer from being able to take
full advantage of modern low noise tape formulations. From a
modern tape machine designer's perspective this is getting
messy! Now you're boosting the highs way more than you should
and noise goes up. So we need a new EQ curve that let's us
avoid cutting the highs during recording.
Yup, you guessed it, the 4500Hz transition frequency of the
IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) playback EQ
nicely matches the losses of modern tape formulations, and the
recording EQ doesn't need to make unecessary compensation for
overly boosted playback EQ. Ironically the IEC curve isn't
even a new EQ curve - it has been used in Europe for mastering
almost as long as the NAB standard has been used for
commercial playback. It's a simpler curve to implement and
gets the high frequency noise levels down to where noise
reduction methods like Dolby and DBX become unecessary.
Sonically it's a winner, and that's means it fits right into
the Tape Project's goal of delivering the best possible music
in the best possible format.
Studio machines from the likes of Studer and Ampex come with
selectable IEC EQ, and some "prosumer" tape machines
like the Otari MX-5050BII and the Technics RS 1520 do as well
(along with sporting the necessary half track playback head
and 15 ips capability for playing Tape Project Tapes). Some
other machines can be modified to IEC EQ by a competent
technician, and the ultimate is to have a machine modified to
connect the heads directly to custom playback electronics with
switchable EQ setting like those offered by ATR
Services, E.A.R., Manley
Labs, and soon by Bottlehead.
Bottlehead also offers DIYers a kit that can be adapted to
tape playback, the Seduction.
Dan
"Doc B." Schmalle, Managing Director, The Tape
Project and President for Life, Bottlehead Corp. |
