User:Fenmoh/Tape recorder

Uses
Within a few years of the introduction of the first commercial tape recorder, the Ampex 200 model, launched in 1948, the invention of the first multitrack tape recorder, brought about another technical revolution in the recording industry. Tape made possible the first sound recordings totally created by electronic means, opening the way for the bold sonic experiments of the Musique Concrète school and avant-garde composers like Karlheinz Stockhausen, which in turn led to the innovative pop music studio-as-an-instrument recordings of artists such as Frank Zappa, The Beatles and The Beach Boys. Phillips advertised their reel-to-reel recorders as an audial family album then pushed families to purchase them to capture memories for a lifetime. But the use of recording music became the prominent use for the tape recorder.

Limitations
Professional decks will use higher tape speeds, with 15 and 30 inches per second being most common, while lower tape speeds are usually used for smaller recorders and cassette players, in order to save space where fidelity is not as critical as in professional recorders. Tape speeds such as 7 inches per second are used for everyday or regular recordings as it allows the music to still be heard with good quality. Shorter speeds, such as less than 7 inches, are used for the advantage of being compact but with this advantage run the risk of reproducing low quality sound and music, so it is not used in creating higher quality and professional recordings. By providing a range of tape speeds, users can trade-off recording time against recording quality with higher tape speeds providing greater frequency response.

There are many tape speeds in use in all sorts of tape recorders. Speed may be expressed in centimeters per second (cm/s) or in inches per second (in/s).