Otari MTR-20
A mastering deck that lets you reorder its own transport buttons and recalibrate itself while you watch.
Overview
Take a half-inch four-channel machine with 14-inch reels running at 15 ips. That works out to one hour of recording before you have to stop and thread up again. That was the pitch Otari built around the MTR-20. The company's own advertising in Recording-Engineer (December 1985, p.14) billed the "20" as the only new half-inch four-channel deck with 14-inch reels capable of that hour-long run at 15 ips. For a mastering or post-production room, that means fewer stops for reel changes.
The MTR-20 was a microprocessor-controlled analog open-reel machine, and Otari built it as a family rather than a single deck. The same advertising laid out the variants: a quarter-inch two-channel version, a quarter-inch center-track time-code version, a half-inch two-channel, and the half-inch four-channel that anchored the line. Coverage of the MTR-20 Series at SMPTE, reported in the trade press of the period, confirmed those same configurations - quarter-inch two-track with or without IEC center-track time code, half-inch two-track, and half-inch four-track. Used buyers will run into all of them, and the format stamped on the headblock matters more than the model badge on the front panel.
The automation in the control logic is what sets the MTR-20 apart from an ordinary studio reel machine. The headline is Otari's Auto-Alignment, a fully automatic calibration routine for the record adjustments. Record level, high-frequency EQ, mid-frequency EQ, bias, and phase compensation all set themselves under microprocessor control. Anyone who has spent an afternoon with a tweaker and a test tape knows what that saves. The deck also stores four cue points in memory and accepts user-programmable functions for both the transport and the electronics. That includes variations on how the transport buttons behave and whether locate-to-cue runs for maximum speed or maximum accuracy.
Then there's the customization, which borders on the eccentric. Otari's advertising claimed the "20" could be programmed to more than 400 different setups, everything from controlled wind speed to a complete reordering of the transport control buttons. It could even be made left-handed if the operator wanted it that way. Whether most owners ever dug into that menu is another question, but the capability was there.
The transport carried the expected professional conveniences: four speeds with ±45% varispeed, a cue shuttle, a built-in cue speaker and headphone socket, and remote fader start. Options included DIN or NAB stereo formats, center-track time code, FM pilot tone versions, multiple cue memory, an autolocator, and an edit marker with scissors. A broadcast-oriented sibling, the BTR-2, took the same basic platform but topped out at 12-inch reels. The MTR-20 kept the full 14. Otari positioned the MTR machines for studio mastering and VAPP work, with the BTR line aimed at on-air and production rooms.
The MTR-20 shows up in the record of real facilities, not just brochures. Trade coverage of the period noted Miami's Limelite Studios running Otari MTR-90 and MTR-20 machines alongside Sony video recorders and Mitsubishi digital decks for sweetening work. That is a room where a two-track mastering deck sits next to the multitrack. In a post house or mastering suite, the MTR-20 handled the stereo (or four-channel) master while the heavy lifting happened elsewhere. It was also shown repeatedly at the trade conventions of the mid-1980s, appearing in Otari's booth lineups next to the MTR-10/12II Series, the MX-70, and the MTR-90-II multitrack.
Buying one now means taking on a specific kind of maintenance. These are microprocessor-heavy machines from the mid-1980s, and the automatic alignment depends on the electronics being healthy. When Auto-Alignment drifts or refuses to complete, the deck is a doorstop until someone with the service documentation sorts it out. The 14-inch reel capability is a genuine draw, but it also means the deck needs serious reel hardware and a sturdy shelf. Head wear on a half-inch four-track stack is expensive to remedy, and the format variants mean parts and heads are not interchangeable across the family. Collectors note that the center-track time-code versions carry extra complexity that only pays off if you're actually working to picture.
The MTR-20 sits in a useful middle ground, with more automation and capacity than the smaller MTR-10/12II machines and without the multitrack scale of the MTR-90. Budget for the service documentation and a technician who understands it, because the deck's best tricks live in the electronics, and that's where age takes its toll.
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