Recording The Masters: RTM SM900 Analog Tape

The name of this magazine is Tape Op, and we know that lots of people still love working on analog tape machines. We also know that there are a lot of people who have never worked with tape machines yet love the idea of working with tape. However, I want to talk about the elephant in the room; the tape itself. When I first started working in studios in the early 1980s, there were not a lot of options for tape, and we usually used the Scotch 206 or Ampex 406 and 456 formulations. Ampex 456 was considered the “pro” tape at the time; it could handle a +3 dB hotter signal before saturation, and the signal-to-noise ratio was improved over the older 406. Over the next two decades, more tape formulations came to market with increasingly higher output levels. Scotch 250 and 996 (+6 and +9), Ampex/Quantegy 499 and GP9 (+9), and the AGFA/BASF/EMTEC 900 series (+9). In some ways, this was the golden era of tape, even as it was simultaneously being replaced by the emerging Digidesign Pro Tools systems. The one thing I remember the most about those years, however, is that all of the tape brands and formulations were generally quite good and very reliable. I found that certain tapes worked better on my machines than other tapes. For instance, my 2-inch, 16-track MCI deck seemed to sound best with EMTEC 900, but my Studer 1/4-inch machine liked Ampex 499 better. Then, in 2005, Quantegy closed its USA factory and stopped manufacturing analog recording tape. Scotch had already stopped making tape, and EMTEC soon followed. The next decade is what I call the "dark age of tape," although companies such as ATR Magnetics eventually began manufacturing new tape formulations. Tape became difficult to find, and I had several experiences using tapes of inconsistent quality. These reels could be hard to calibrate to, sometimes had drop outs (where signal simply doesn't get recorded), and, to be fair, some were earlier formulations of RTM tape. A few years ago, I had some RTM reels at my studio, and though it seemed a bit thin it held calibration well when I lined up our Studer A812 for a mix client. The RTM tapes come from the original AGFA/BASF/EMTEC formulas using the original EMTEC coating and slitting equipment, which RTM now owns, in their factory in France.

I recently had a mix project with artist Claire George, and we decided to mix to tape on our 1/4-inch Otari MX5050 (the Studer is sadly in the shop for an extended repair). I thought it would be a good time to try the latest RTM SM900 formulation. RTM provided us with two reels of the SM900, and when it arrived I dug into calibrating the machine's bias and levels. I was favorably impressed by both the packaging of the tape and the sturdy metal reels that held it. The tape itself felt solid, not thin or flimsy. Some of the new tapes in the 2010s (including early versions of RTM) did not seem as robust in comparison. Analog tape is not cheap, and when working with it a sturdy take-up/storage reel and durable packaging are expected. An advantage of tape is that, if properly stored, it is a smart archiving medium, and the packaging should reflect this use – the new RTM does an excellent job of it. I was running my MX5050 at 15 IPS (inches per second) with the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) calibration curve and applied a +3 dB overbias as recommended for my machine on the RTM website. On that note, this site is a surprising resource, providing not only calibration info but a section with links on buying and maintaining tape machines. If you’re curious about getting into recording on tape, this is a good place to start. The rest of the calibration went smoothly, and 10 kHz came back very stable on the high end calibration. Over two days of mixing and monitoring off the playback head, and then transferring to hi-res digital, I was impressed with the sound of the SM900. It does everything I want tape to do by imparting a bit of subtle compression, packaging the bottom end nicely, and adding some light coloration and glue to the mix. Moreover, it didn’t have any technical issues. In some loud passages with a lot of bottom end, the tape took the signal well with no bottoming-out overloads or audible distortion. The seven song EP we were working on also had some quiet sections, but at no point was tape hiss or noise an issue. Looking for reliable analog recording tape in a solid professional package? I definitely recommend the RTM SM900, and I'll be using more of it in the future.