Here's a video of my TEAC A1200U playing some big band music on a prerecorded tape. Not my highest quality tape deck, but still pretty good! I recorded this directly from the tape deck into my audio interface (Focusrite Scarlett 2i2,) into Logic Pro X on my MacBook Pro. No effects were added later, you're hearing the raw tape source. The tape is running at 7 1/2 IPS.
I finally got round to listening to that tape on my big rig. The trouble with those old high speed copies is that they have significant tape hiss. Also, like that one they were made with a very hot top end. If you correct for the hot top end, it will also help the tape hiss issue.
The cartoon except is on the hollow side.
I have in my collection of pre recorded Dolby B tapes and some pre recorded DBX-2 encoded tapes, which are better. They can compete with LP, which were really much more satisfactory than pre recorded tapes.
I also have some of the pre recorded Everest tapes from the fifties. These were 7.5 ips 2 track stereo and the odd four track. They were duplicated real time, not high speed. They were made by a missile engineer Harry Belock, who made a lot of his own equipment and modified Ampex gear. The tapes are incredibly good and are interesting as they were issued prior to stereo LPs.
I also have one staggered head tape. This was a chaotic time before the development of the stacked head by RCA. So the right and left heads were spaced. The trouble was there was no spacing standard and every manufacturer had a different head spacing. Most of these machines were made by the Voice of Music company of Michigan.
Brenell briefly had a staggered head machine in the UK.
You can play a staggered head tape by making a Wav file on a DAW and time synchronizing the tracks.
