Newbie question about playback (Technics 1500 and Uher Universal)

[rbla]

I have a Technics RS-1500US that was given to me. It works almost 100% mechanically, but I'm having difficulty playing back some tapes I want to digitize. I have a number of 5" reels of interviews that I recorded in the late 1970s on good quality Scotch tape. I recorded them on a Uher 4000-L Reporter. Since I acquired the Technics I've tried to play them back on that deck. The sound plays back backwards for some reason --- audio sounds clear but everything is backwards (like a bad Beatles sound effect). I have another old Uher Universal deck on which the playback still works and the tapes play back perfectly on that Uher. The problem is that I don't have a cable to connect from the Uher to an RCA connection on my stereo-- if I did I could dub the tapes from the Uher Universal.  So, ideally I'd like to be able to play the interview tapes back on the Technics.

So, here are my questions:
1) When I play back most of my interview tapes on the Technics, there's only sound from right channel. Left channel seems to not work.. no meter movement or sound. Could this be why the tape play back backwards... because the actual track is on the left channel? If so, is this repairable? (For some reason just one of the tapes played back perfectly from the right channel!)
2) Regarding the Uher... assuming the radio/phono cable for that unit is a DIN cable, is there a standard DIN-to-RCA cable that would work or do I need a custom made cable? (The Uher Universal manual has a schematic for making such a cable.)

Thanks for any help you folks can provide!

Rick Burke

[ironbut]

Your Uher that you made the original recordings is a 2 track mono machine. That means that there are 2 tracks stacked on top of one another. These tracks are recorded in opposite directions. The two playback modes on the Technics is 1/2 track and 1/4 track stereo. With either one of these, you're getting one channel in the right direction and the other backwards no matter how you do it. If you want some visual examples of how the tracks are set up, check out the Beginners Guide which is in a sticky at the top of this forum.

[bobschneider]

www.markertek.com can sell you pretty much any cable you can imagine.  They ought to be able to set you up with a cable with RCAs on one end and the connector on your Uher on the other.

[steveidosound]

With your Technics 1500:
1. set it for small reels, 2 track playback, and the appropriate speed.
2. wind the "backwards playing" tape fully onto the take up reel.
3. swap reels and re-thread the tape.
4. the 2 track mono (1/2 track mono = same) tape should now play perfectly forward on the left channel.
5. if the tape was recorded on both sides in mono on your Uher, as others have stated, you would hear "side 1" forward on the left channel and "side 2" backward on the right.
6. IF the Uher was a stereo 1/4 track machine and  if you switched the Technics to the 1/4 track (4 track = same) playback head you would only get forward sound. It still might be only on one side of the tape or the other and only on one channel  or the other depending on which channel you plugged the mic into, if recorded in 4 track mono and not all tracks fully utilized, but not backward. I think this might be the case with your one tape that plays forward on the right channel.

The reason for this mess (as shown by the track and head configuration chart elswhere) is that 4 track stereo (or mono) tapes are interlaced, which means that the "top half" of the tape contains side one left channel and side two right channel, and the "bottom half" (until you turn it over) contains the right channel for side one and the left channel for side two.

One  more point (for R2R newbies) "turning the tape over" means flipping the reels and running the tape the opposite way (just as with a cassette). You NEVER turn the tape inside out so it comes off the wrong side of the reel and/or the other side of the tape (shiny on older  non-backcoated tapes) faces the heads!

For all here who may care to think it through:
On a 1/4" wide tape the only way to hear backwards sound is to play a 2 track mono tape recorded on both sides on either a 2 track or 4 track  stereo machine. The right channel will be backwards material from "side 2".
A 2 track stereo tape will be backwards if played from the wrong end on a 2 track or 4 track stereo machine.
A 2 track mono machine will give you left channel only of a 2 track stereo tape.
A 4 track tape if played on a 2 track mono machine will give left channel forward sound from side one combined with right channel backwards sound from side 2 of the tape. If it is a 2 track stereo machine it will do the above on left and then side 1 right channel forward combined with side 2 left channel backward on the right. If you turn the tape over it just reverses which combination is on which channel.
The only possible scenario for backwards sound on a 4 track tape on a 4 track machine is if you 1. play a 4 channel one direction tape like a quadraphonic tape or multi track tape from a project studio machine like a Teac 3340 from the wrong end in which case all 4 tracks would be backwards (Like a 2 track stereo tape on a 2 track stereo machine from the wrong end). or 2. if you play a double sided  1/4 track stereo tape on such a 4 channel machine, typically "rear" left and right will be the other side of the tape backwards.
OK, I guess there is one more case. Should you ever find a full track mono (whole tape width) tape and play it from the wrong end it would be backwards on anything!