NAB reel vs pancake, economics vs looks, work aesthetics 'n

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Mo-Tech
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NAB reel vs pancake, economics vs looks, work aesthetics 'n

Post by Mo-Tech » Thu Mar 19, 2015 1:17 pm

While I love those nice aluminium NAB reels I often think about them as overrated items and often don't understand why people get so high on them, many seem to buy tape machine just to look at them and get pervy putting them into the center of their focus. Yes, they serve a function on vertical decks, but for horizontal pro decks they seem to be more of a bling thing, not about the sound but for a visual stimulus, if not a distraction.

In recent times I've found certain nice aesthetic and a simplistic decency running pancakes on horizontal pro deck, it looks nearly if not equally good in many ways (i.e. those nice minimalistic alu Otari DIN/AEG adapters), runs visually elegantly smooth and doesn't take off your attention during studio creative time like those flashy rotating NAB reels with holes tend to do, especially at 30 IPS. Making me more focus on the sound.

Plus running pancackes saves huge loads'o buck with the exact same sonic results. Yet very few people seem to work with pancakes these days. Have you also wondered why?

As said, I also do love those moments when I load proper alu NAB wheels on the deck, but recently I've started to question this since I love the AEG pancakes as well, especially from work aesthetics point of view, as described above. Why people keep spending extra dosh just for that stereotypical "cool" looks of the alu NAB reels, is music not about music but more about bling these days?

Would love to hear your thoughts on this! :)

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Gregg Juke
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Post by Gregg Juke » Thu Mar 19, 2015 3:47 pm

It sounds like you might be trolling...

Are you trolling???....


OK, let's assume you're serious, because you might be. I'm going to ask a question, and I really don't know the answer, so someone else will have to answer it for me. Because both of my current r-2-r tape machines are smaller format, and don't use NAB 10-inch reels or pancakes, and it's been many, many years since I've used any tape pancakes (broadcasting gig in the 80's). So the question is this-- Have pancakes (the analog tape kind) changed dramatically in the last 30+ years?

If they have, disregard the next bit of anecdotal advice/response I give, because maybe todays amazing "no slip safety pancakes" are just incredible, and prevent any kind of problems from ever occurring. But if they haven't changed significantly, then I'd venture that the answer to your initial question is something like this:

You will not understand, until one of those stupid-&%$$ not-wound-tight-enough "pancakes" unravels and dumps thousands of feet of tape on the floor right in front of you in the control room. If it happens a number of times, several times after you've recorded something very important, and you do not have any kind of safety copy yet, then I guarantee you will never forget it, and you will also never ask that question again... You will be among those who Just Know.

GJ
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The Scum
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Post by The Scum » Thu Mar 19, 2015 5:27 pm

I was taught that pancakes were sold to people who have spare flanges hanging around...or bin-loop-duplicators.

Running without flanges sounds like flirting with disaster.
"What fer?"
"Cat fur, to make kitten britches."

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JGriffin
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Post by JGriffin » Thu Mar 19, 2015 7:32 pm

The studios I worked at that used tape always bought pancake reels ? 1/4" and 1/2". It was much cheaper. But whenever I loaded up a reel from a pancake I always put a reel flange on top. For the reason Gregg outlined, it only makes sense. You do NOT want to find yourself trying to spool back 2600 feet of tape.

Just playing back or (oh lord) rewinding/ffwd is risky enough. But heaven forbid you have to edit something...that only encourages the tape to go on safari.

If the flashy rotating reels are distracting, do what we did - put the tape machine behind you.
"Jeweller, you've failed. Jeweller."

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Mo-Tech
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Post by Mo-Tech » Fri Mar 20, 2015 12:07 am

LOL, definitely not serious, one ought to take this thread with a little bit grain of salt and humor afterall :)

Actually I'm jealous to those who have a luxury of a separate machine room to run their decks but indeed I found mine a bit distracting at times. And actually placing the machine behind sounds like a great idea.

Never had a problem running pancakes (on AEG kern) sitting on Otari DIN adapers, even on more extensive editing, plus my machine is a bit over spec as well - well over 300 IPS FF speeds, maybe the deck's mechanical design plays a part here as well since I can visually see how near-perfect consistency the pancake is made up on each side even when changing the speeds during play, cueing, FFing etc editing, thus I've become very confident in it. The tape is mostly RMG 900 and 911. But then again I'm noob compared to many long timers here. It looks to me the use of pancakes is more common practice in Europe than it is in the states (older AEG and Studer horizontal R2R machines probably mostly to blame)

Anyone has a very minimalistic looking reel flanges to recommend?

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Gregg Juke
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Post by Gregg Juke » Fri Mar 20, 2015 6:01 am

Keep running that FF and RWD. Soon, you will be among those who Just Know.

GJ
Gregg Juke
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