Question on reel-to-reel tape deck

[bigbassdrum]

Not sure which forum to put this, but here goes ...

My friend and I have a Sony TC-630 Reel-to-Reel tape recorder. It is a 4-track stereophonic deck. We recorded songs on many tapes, some were simple left and right, but other tracks used the 'Sound-on-Sound' feature to add additional tracks.

Alas, the deck is dead.

Would I need a Sony TC-630 to be able to properly playback the tapes? Was it a proprietary feature?

[rcarlberg]

Probably any 4-track deck (viz Teac 2340, 3340) would work but head alignment might be a problem if the Sony was non-standard or mid-aligned (always a possibility with 4-tracks).

[progmatist]

You could use any standard deck. Just flip the tape and record the other two tracks backward. Then use a program like audacity to reverse them so they're forward again. All that'll be left is to sync all the tracks...tricky, but doable. I would however recommend using the same deck for all play back. The slightest variation in speed between two different decks could make syncing impossible.