Tape Deck Orientation

[Zacharia Matilda]

I've been lurking on the forum for awhile and am a regular reader of Tape Op, and I have never heard this topic discussed before.

I track to a Tascam TSR 8. Those units have rubber feet on the "bottom" and on the "back" of them, so that it is possible to orient the tape deck either perpendicular or parallel to the floor. My unit is not rack-mounted.

My question may seem obvious, but how much better for the machine is it to have the deck (reels and hubs) parallel to the floor? Does it make a difference? It seems like it would better for the hubs to orient the machine this way. Or maybe 45 degrees???

[CurtZHP]

I'm not sure it matters. The most critical thing is the tape path and tension. As long as the tape is passing over the heads properly, I suppose you could stand it upside down if you wanted.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

Having the machine on it's back makes cleaning and editing easier (because you can see the heads). Otherwise the's no real difference.

[drumsound]

Having the machine on it's back makes cleaning and editing easier (because you can see the heads). Otherwise the's no real difference.

That's exactly what I thought too.

[fuzz]

I had a TSR-8 for several years. I don't believe it matters. For what its worth, I had the original box and the unit is shipped lying on its back (hubs up). Just a thought in case you ever transported it.

[kslight]

My MS 16 can go either way. Certainly parallel to the floor makes maintenance easier but it probably doesn't matter.

[djimbe]

I've run my 1/2" Scully 280-4 both in the original cart (hubs mostly parallel to the floor) and in my rack (hubs perpendicular to the floor). Makes no difference on that machine.

Yes to the other folks here, though. Maintenance, cleaning, and especially the simple act of threading the machine are way easier with the hubs parallel to the floor. Especially on a Scully, which can spill tape like a MoFo if you don't learn to shuttle the transport.

Once you get to something like a 2" machine, I gotta beleive you need the hubs parallel to the floor just for machine stability.