Motor stress -Which tape type/length to use with Tascam 238?

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midgrowler
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Motor stress -Which tape type/length to use with Tascam 238?

Post by midgrowler » Wed Feb 22, 2012 8:38 am

So I've recently aquired a Tascam 238 in good condition and a Fostex 1840 mixer to track/mixdown with.

I've been used to using TDK SA tapes with my previous 424mkII, but don't wish to use them with the 238 as they are 90mins in length. I've read that longer cassettes stress motors too much - How much of an effect does a longer tape have on the motor & transport - especially an older early 90's 238 motor? The motor has been re-capped btw.

Also, the SA tape sounded great on 424 but I haven't seen any shorter than 60mins. Is 60mins still too long? The volume of the tape inside the shell looks the same as 90mins, I guess due to the thicker tape used in the 60mins - Does this cancel out any advantages of using 60's?

I've got some short (c20/c25) quality chrome tapes - they sound good, but different to SA - how do you rate chrome tapes compared to SA/good ferric on a 238? Would you prefer to hit a ferric tape hard (+8dB on a 238 I think) or keep between 0dB-+1dB on a chrome?

I realise answers are subjective to taste and experience - just wondered what other people's opinions are. I'd like to use this equipment well for long life.

Many thanks!

kayagum
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Post by kayagum » Wed Feb 22, 2012 8:43 am

When I had my 238s, I used Maxell XLII 60. Given the 3.75 ips speed, that got you 15 minutes of taping time. Worked and sounded great.

I'm not entirely sure or convinced the shorter tapes were better quality, and very difficult to find.

midgrowler
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Post by midgrowler » Wed Feb 22, 2012 10:06 am

I know cassettes 60mins and under use the thickest formulation of tape but I thought SA90's sounded great. I'm currently using c20's which give 5mins of recording time - enough for one song.

What I'm asking is - would using c20's in the long run make any difference to the longevity of an older motor as opposed to making it haul 90min cassettes?

I'm using a different cassette player to rewind the tapes so as to use the 238 motor as little as possible - sounds petty, but spares for this machine seem obsolete after trawling google! It seems very well-made though so I'm not expecting it to fail anytime soon.

What are people's experiences with using chrome tapes as opposed to ferric, keeping in mind emulating the flavour of 70's funk/fusion records? - chrome sounds super-clean to me, compared to type I ferric (FE90)!

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shedshrine
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Post by shedshrine » Wed Feb 29, 2012 7:15 pm

I made mix tapes on the 90 min tapes back in the 70's and 80's all the time because they were the longest dependable length and you got more tape for your money. But 60 min tapes were more dependable. Why was there even an issue with dependability? Back then, in my experience, the early car tape decks would get reeeally hot. The viewable tape at the bottom of the cassette would have a concave curl if kept in your car deck for any length of time, and the heating and cooling would result in stretched out poorly winding tapes that would eventually bind up especially if you were jumping back and forth to find the beginning of a song. But a brand new 90 used for multitrack recording and never subjected to extreme temps and rewound for a nice pack when finished would work fine even with lots of fast forward and rewind jumping around while punching and tracking. 60 min tapes really fly and surely give less resistance to the motors, but a quality 90 treated well has always worked fine in my experience and never seemed to unduly make the motors work noticeably harder. This is assuming use in a up to spec machine properly maintained of course.

That said, having used all my old stock I bought three cases of 60 min. tapes when it was time for more media. :D
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If you come across a great deal on new 90's I would grab them either way.

germaniac
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Post by germaniac » Thu Mar 01, 2012 12:33 pm

Just fired up my 238 again recently. About ten years ago I bought a stash of Quantegy C60s and had the machine specifically biased for them. I can't say whether the shorter tape is easier on the motor, but I'm pretty sure it records better, remains stable, with fewer drop-outs. . . .

Joe

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