Corey Bailey

Audio Engineering

USEFUL INFORMATION TIME CHARTS

The charts on this page are provided to give you an idea of running times for various reel-to-reel audio tapes and records. Starting with analog audio tape, the chart below is from the box of an old reel of Irish (brand) tape and is calculated for 7” reels. The lengths shown on the left of the chart represent the different thicknesses of audio tape. The Single Track listing is for recording in one direction. This column can be used for full track mono or any format for stereo recording, recorded in one direction. The Dual Track listing is for recording in both directions. 1/2 track mono was the available consumer format when this tape was produced. The same “Dual Track” column can be used to calculate 1/4 track stereo recorded in both directions. This tape is from the 1950’s. Notice the price stamped just below the brand logo. It’s barley readable, but it is $2.88. Pretty pricey for 1958. The tape in this particular box is 1.5 mil acetate, and it played just fine. There is a picture of the reel here (Fig. 1) if you are interested. The chart lengths; 1200’ is 1.5 mil thickness (1 mil = one thousandth of an inch) 1800’ is 1 mil thickness. 2400’ is 0.5 mil thickness. If you have any audio tape that is 0.5 mil (1/2 mil); It was fragile and hard to work with in its day, and it is very fragile now. Some 0.5 mil tapes were 3600’ long. RECORDS The running times listed above represent the approximate maximum time available. The average running time for a 10” Dia. 78 RPM record is about 3 minutes. The average running time for 12” Dia. 33-1/3 RPM micro-groove records varies from about 18 minutes to about 22 minutes (I’ve seen as much as 27 minutes). Return to TOP of page © Corey Bailey Audio Engineering

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