Hey gang
I know 15ips or higher is meant to be “pro”, but for the sake of stereo recording ambient/drone DAWless jam sessions and giving them some tape “flavor”, does a 7.5ips A77 machine do that? Looking at many models on ebay and whatnot, seems like mk3 is the move if possible, but all are decent buys.
Seen a lot of comments around the internets that say 7.5 is a consumer-level waste of time, others stand by the fact that so many glorious recordings have been made on the thing at 7.5. Soooo thought i’d just do my own asking.
I honestly don’t need super pro quality, though naturally one day I’ll probably upgrade if I dig the whole experience.
Thanks in advance
Smooches
A
Hey Alland, long time no see : )
I use a A77 mk3 from time to time, to saturate and color vocal and hardware single tracks, using old reels (I record over what was on the tape before). Or record purist analog jams.
It’s also an excellent sounding tape delay, you can manually slow down, wow and flutter by touching the spinning reels.
Of course, 15 and 30ips is even cleaner and for multitracking (16 or 24 channels) the standard is 30ips.
But as the a77 records 2 mono or 1 stereo channel, and I am actually looking for the character of tape, I‘m happy with 7.5ips. Lower setting of 3.75ips has even more character.
Just don’t spend more than 500 including repairs on it, I reckon.
7.5 IPS can sound excellent as long as recording technique is impeccable. 30 IPS sounds like a DAW already!
I think people tend to underestimate tape a lot. Many people see tape as a hissing lo-fi aesthetic inducer. That myth is wildly incorrect and is mostly caused by consumer spec tape decks and incorrect recording technique. Potential noise issues usually only resulted when tape was used also as an intermediary media besides being master recording only (overdubs etc). Properly recorded tape is very quiet wrt noise. Remember, all vinyl masters were once reel-to-reel tapes before being cut to vinyl. That should say something about tape’s sound quality 
I listen to reels ranging from 7.5 - 15 IPS every day at work. Some of these reels have a sound quality that is comparable to modern day standards, regardless of tape speed. When listening to 16-track 2" tapes, I admit I can’t usually hear the diff between 15 IPS and 30 IPS.
As for the revox… no experience with them. IIRC they are considered “consumer” brand of tapedeck? In any case, if the heads are clean and working OK, and calibration is somewhere around tolerable, you should be OK.
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Michal!!! Been a long time indeed, mate!!!
Yeah this is exactly what my use case is outside of recording my dawless jams. it’s the character and flaws i’m after. i feel like if i wanted it super clean and “pro” i could just do it in the DAW and use UAD tape plugs on top for a more subtle effect.
So this is great. Also @stutech thanks to you too! yeah this is all exactly the info i was hoping to get here on the forum. Thanks!!!
Gonna jump on an A77 mk3 for a holiday present to myself. 
@MichalHo if you find yourself in Berlin give me a shout!
If I understand correctly Revox is a consumer Studer sub-brand. I appreciate your thoughts re: the lofi, master stuff. you’re totally right! i’m honestly hoping the A77 will give me some flexibility to achieve both of these things… warpy warm character when i want, and a decent stereo recording. i’m sure it will jut take some playing around and learning the machine (assuming it’s in good enough shape to handle the latter). there’s a service spot specifically for these machines here in berlin, but google reviews seem to say they’re expensive and not nice haha. will have to check
thanks again! valuable feedback.
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Heh, my pleasure! I run at least six different Studer machines for a living (A807 mk II, A820 etc), I love talking about that stuff whenever I get the chance 
My fave tape brands are AGFA PEM 468 and BASF 911 
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“My fave tape brands are AGFA PEM 468 and BASF 911”
Good to know! That’s something I was gonna ask about in the future
I already have a small cache of 911 tape I am storing for future use. One day, I hope to have a Studer deck of my own for master recorder duties 