Why Weren't R2R's Ever Equipped With Absolute Pitch?

[Des-Lab]

Maybe one of you old timers can explain this to me.

Why were no reel to reel decks (that I know of) ever equipped with a strobe feature so as to enable the user to know and set *EXACT* speeds?

This is the same feature that nearly all turntables have: A series of tiles or small mirrors on the outer rim of the platter along with a strobe light that's timed to a certain speed: when the platter is rotating at the exact set desired speed, the tiles would, to the eye, appear to be "stationary" and not moving. Whoever thought THAT up was a pure, bona fide genius. And the technology has existed since at least the early 70's if not sooner.

So why couldn't something similar have been done with tape decks?

I know that it would be impossible to strobe the actual reels, given their constantly varying speed with respect to the shifting tape pack.

But why not something along the tape PATH-where the speed DOESN'T change?

Many decks had inertia rollers that drove the footage and/or time counters.

Why couldn't that roller have been equipped with a strobe and a peripheral attached mirror or tile disc that could be read (so as to not impede the tape path)?

Many decks came equipped with a pitch control and it then would've made setting correct speeds a lot easier. It couldn't have possibly been because the technology never existed. Was it a cost thing?

This isn't something I'm posting as a loaded question where I already think I know the answer (or why it couldn't have been done). This is a genuine curiosity on my part and I DON'T have any answers.

I'd love to see some feedback on the subject.

[niklasthedolphin]

My Lyrec Frida has fully adjustable pitch with completely stable running from zero to 50 ips with exact and trustful reading of speed in two point two digits.

It is designed as a cue-edit function and can run both forward and backwards.

Only in play mode though.
Can't record on pitched speeds.
Meaning: I can only record up to 15 ips but I can play those tapes recorded at 30 ips on other studio machines.

I can also choose to dump the tape in cue-edit mode.
Comes handy when you want to empty a reel at high speed.

"dolph"

[Scorpion8]

My only guess would be "complexity". You are correct about the fact that you couldn't do speed/pitch off the reel hubs, and the one other true constant is the capstan. But look on most decks behind the faceplate and there is little room to stuff more "stuff" in there. It gets pretty crowded. With a turntable it's actually usually on the outside of the platter off in some corner which is pretty large and far away from most of the gizmos underneath the plinth. And you're onlu speed-controlling a single motor.

So to do so off a roller assembly set off to the side somewhere would be do-able but you still have to get the pitch feedback transmitted (and closely calibrated) to 3 motors in many cases, the capstan and both reel hub motors in a DD system like Akai.

Truly, dunno. But that's my guess.

[ecir40]

I wonder if something like this could be implimented for R2R.
http://www.haglabs.com/ufo.html
It's a weight too so the deck would have to lay down to work.

[no1maestro]

I read your question and it started me thinking about the terminology as well as the question.

The term absolute pitch, also known as perfect pitch, is a matter of debate among musicians. I am one of those who was determined to have it at an early age. To define it as simply as I can, it is the ability to identify any pitch without reference to a known tone or to sing a pitch without the same reference. I was tested at a local conservatory by sitting across the room from the professor and asked to identify many notes played by him immediately. I was also asked to hum or sing an A flat or a G sharp without missing; I passed all tests.

Now to the question you asked. We must assume that you mean "correct" speed and pitch. Most of the good quality tape decks were close if not perfectly correct in regards to proper pitch. I have had several decks that had an adjustment but found that it was mostly correct in the mid or detented position.

In my experience, most of the pitch problems on tape decks were due to the stretching of the tape, itself, not the speed it was running. Most of the good decks had servo controlled motors and if they were kept in good mechanical condition and cleaned on a regular schedule, there were no major problems.

I always also assumed that it was much easier to devise an adjustment on a turntable which only uses one motor as opposed to a tape deck that uses up to three and that could be a real problem.

I look forward to other views on your great question!!

[Acoustic]

On my Teac 3440 there is a pitch adjustment that as the maestro said that taking tapes from other machines to that deck the center position is correct.

How about using a tone on a test tape (like with cassettes)? We used to do that with the portastudio's that ran at 3 3/8's ips and then turn the speed control up to the highest speed we could adjust that to (thinking we'd get better specs yet from the deck... never confirmed that though). What we did was record a C note from the piano at the beginning of the tape so we could adjust the speed on another machine or the same one later to get it to pitch.

[kevinkr]

The Otari MX-55-T-M and similar models have variable pitch control as well as fixed speed operation at the standard speeds. (Internal timebase and servo control.) This model is nearly 20yrs old now so I assume they probably had earlier models with the same capability. This deck also has limited pitch shifting for speeding up vocal presentations/seminars and the like without the chipmunk like effect. *reelspin*

[TheReeler]

Nagra did recorders with strobes built-in...

What about to build our own strobe with an adhesive to place on our decks in contact against the tape?