bit of help required Akai 1720L

[Brian H]

hi there ,first post and a total idiot when it comes to reel to reel,i have inherited a Akai 1720L ,at first it wasn't working but I've stripped it down given it a clean etc and now all seems fine ,however the bulk of the tapes are on 10.5" spools so i am not 100% sure they belong to this machine and i have one smaller reel that plays slowly on either speed,the rest of the tapes play fine once i get them going in the right direction

so my question is can 10.5 inch reels be played on a machine that takes up to 7" reels,someone mentioned that you can buy (and forgive me here) an extension arm or adapter to allow the use of 10.5 or are the two types of tape incompatible? ,as i say i am a total beginner so any advice would be much appreciated

[ironbut]

Hey bribones (btw we use our real names on this forum, please read the "Forum Rules"),

Welcome to the forum.
It would appear that the 1720L is a 4 track, 2 head machine.

Getting an adapter for playing 10.5" reels is highly unlikely and even if they ever made any, they'd be way more expensive than the machine warrants.The larger reels must be from a different machine.

The tapes are an entirely different question. There are many formats that they may have been recorded in and need to be played back with the correct playback head configuration. The only practical way to do that is by trial and error (or is they were labeled).

If you have one tape that plays back slowly and/or erratically, it probably has sticky shed and either needs to be baked or discarded. Every time you play a sticky tape, it leaves residue on the entire tape path and it's tough to clean off (the residue will make all the other tapes move erratically).

If you're interested, there's a good bit of info in the "Beginners Guide" sticky which is located above the General Forum.

[Brian H]

hi so your real name is ironbut ? lol i have edited to include in signature ,ok after a bit of investigating it seems some of the tapes on the 10.5 spools have been spliced , i split one onto a smaller spool and it plays fine,im not sure if this is the case for all the spools but i will not know till i go through them

so onto the next problem ,i hooked it up to the pc using an RCA cable to line in but the record level is really poor using audacity  ,would a preamp cure this ,and lastly what machine would you recommend for 10.5 ,i am in the UK and most sellers seem to be USA based

[ironbut]

Hey Brian,

That seems a little strange that the levels would be seriously down on the tapes you have but they may have been recorded at too low a level. When it comes to home recorded tapes, you never know.
If they're commercially produced tapes, there's something wrong.
You might check to be sure the output levels on the Akai are set correctly (sometimes there's a switch in the rear of the machine to select hi/lo output levels). Another possible problem is that the tape got flipped over by mistake. If the tape is brown on one side and black on the other, the brown side should be making contact with the head. If it's brown on both sides, the dull side should be contacting the heads.

Another possible problem is that the tape has been had a bulk eraser run over it. Tapes that come from radio stations can be like that. They used to use tape over and over and in between uses, someone would be given the job of erasing the old program material with a bulk eraser to minimize issues with the old recording "bleeding" through. The faint sounds left after bulk erasing would usually be taken care of by the erase head on the recorder when the new recording was made (at least that was the theory).

I haven't used Audacity in ages but if you can't get enough gain in the fader on record and playback, you can always insert a gain plug-in. I use a free VST/AU/RTAS from Sonalksis called FreeG. You can download a free version http://www.sonalksis.com/freeg.htm.
You should however have enough gain without having to add a gain plug. The problem with adding tons of gain in your DAW is you're bringing up the tape hiss and any other noise too.
Sometimes these old tapes of unknown origin are simply more trouble than they're worth. Of course, some tapes are important enough that there is no amount of work that is overkill. Just depends.

Regarding a machine for 10.5" reels, here in the states, Otari 5050 series machines are incredible values on the used market. Very solidly built and plentiful enough that it's not unusual to see them selling for under $300 US.