Otari MTR-100A (1988)
Two hundred seventy kilograms of analog multitrack that aligns itself in under four minutes. It was Otari's last great tape machine, built for engineers who refused to abandon the medium.
Overview
The MTR-100A was first shown at the Paris AES convention and became commercially available toward the end of 1988. It succeeded the MTR-90 Mk 2 as Otari's top analog multitrack. It is a 2-inch, 24-track mastering machine, digitally controlled but still analog where it counts. At 270 kg it weighs a full 70 kg more than its predecessor, and it is noticeably taller. Nobody moves this thing casually.
The big difference was fully automated alignment of all record and reproduce parameters: level, bias, HF, MF and LF record EQ, phase compensation, HF and LF repro EQ, and repro level. A backlit LCD panel handles entry of alignment parameters. The automatic alignment completes in less than 240 seconds, so under four minutes to recalibrate the entire record and reproduce electronics for a different tape type. Four nonvolatile memory locations per tape speed are provided, twelve total, storing alignment data for different tape stocks. Engineers who spent whole sessions tweaking and re-tweaking between takes understood right away what that meant for a working studio.
The transport is pinch-rollerless and microprocessor-controlled, and it descends directly from the MTR-90 lineage. Otari's own advertising billed the reel motors as approaching one horsepower, giving fast wind speeds of up to 474 in/s, nearly double the MTR-90's 250 in/s. The machine runs at 7.5, 15 and 30 in/s with ±50% varispeed, and takes reels up to 14 inches. A cue shuttle wheel handles jog and shuttle, with selection of library pack or fast winds. The transport permits phase-locked reverse play, reverse recording and erase. The tension arms are a different, more rigid design than the MTR-90's, and the rubber compound on the tach and capstan rollers was changed for better stiction. Loading is simpler than before. A single press of stop takes up slack and applies correct tension, and a dedicated unload button disables the reel servo and relaxes tension.
Otari mounted the head amplifiers directly beneath the head assembly to improve frequency response. It also fitted cylindrical-contour heads built by the company especially for this machine, a design Otari claimed yields remarkably low crosstalk and outstanding low-frequency performance. Equalization is NAB/IEC with 30 in/s AES, switchable from the alignment console via menu selection. Internal Dolby HX-Pro circuitry is built in for enhanced high-frequency headroom. An optional internal card frame accepts Dolby SR Cat 350 cards or the combined SR/A Cat 300 cards. The internal Dolbys can themselves be auto-aligned, with reference Dolby tone or noise added to the tone run. Noise reduction is switched from the remote, where an NR select mode button maps the monitor selectors so that Input engages Dolby A, Sync engages Dolby SR, and Repro runs NR off.
A full-function remote session controller is standard. It offers seven nonvolatile cue memories and two speed-search functions, and it can sit up to 100 feet from the recorder. Inputs and outputs are active, balanced XLR. The VU meter panel tilts for better visibility and service access. A mini-autolocator allows selectable indication of timer, timecode frame, or tape speed in in/s or cm/s, along with search points, search cue points, last play point, shuttle, drop frame display, reverse play, and library wind mode. Transport switch order was available in three variations. Options include the EC-103 chase-lock synchronizer, which maintains frame-lock in forward and reverse from 0.2× to 2.5× play speed and typically parks with zero frame error; an SSL console interface; the CB-120 autolocator with up to 99 memories and automated rehearse and punch-in/out; a mixing console interface; and second RS-232C and RS-422A serial ports.
The machine was available in one-inch 8-track, two-inch 16-track, 16/24-track, and 24-track versions. The 24-track sold for $59,950. Otari's advertising pitched it bluntly against the digital tide: for applications that could be done entirely in the analog domain, at less damage to the budget, the MTR-100A was the answer.
Period users took the pitch seriously. Recording-Engineer (August 1991, p.17) reported that Emmy-winning sound effects designer Bill Koepnick and re-recording mixer Jim Hodson, both of Advantage Audio in Burbank, chose the MTR-100A with its integral Dolby SR/A because they wanted digital audio quality without the expense of going digital.
Collectors and studio survivors should know the realities. This is a 270 kg machine that needs real floor space and real power. Its value today depends heavily on service history. The auto-alignment electronics and the Dolby card cage are the things that fail expensively, and parts support for a late-1980s Otari is a specialist's game. The pinch-rollerless transport, the head-mounted preamps and the sub-four-minute alignment are what made it the last word in Otari's analog line, and what still make a well-kept example worth restoring rather than scrapping.
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