Tascam ATR-60-2T
A quarter-inch two-track with a skinny center stripe of time code. It was the mastering deck that let a studio chase picture without giving up its audio head.
Overview
The ATR-60-2T is the IEC-format member of Tascam's ATR-60 family. It is a quarter-inch half-track stereo machine with one crucial addition: a 0.3 mm center stripe reserved for time code. That thin third track is the whole point. DB-Magazine (May 1987, p.51) described the deck as employing quarter-inch tape in a half-track format with the extra IEC center stripe for time code. It also noted that the transport's major rotating components ride on ball bearings, and that speed is governed by a phase-lock loop servo. That is facility hardware, not bedroom hardware.
Tascam's own advertising of the period shows the logic behind the center-track layout. The company billed the ATR-60-2T as keeping time code coming off the sync head regardless of which audio monitor mode the engineer had selected, so a synchronizer wouldn't get confused double messages when modes were switched. Anyone who has chased a sync lock at two in the morning knows what that is worth. The same ad copy promised that heads designed and manufactured in-house meant sync frequency response matched repro response, so critical audio decisions didn't require rewinding and flipping modes to check.
Tascam positioned the -2T at the head of a five-machine ATR-60 lineup. The advertising of the day listed the ATR-60-2T alongside the ATR-60-2N and 2D quarter-inch mastering decks, the half-inch high-speed 2HS and 4HS, and the half-inch eight-track ATR-60-8. The family resemblance is real, but the formats are not interchangeable. The -2T is the quarter-inch two-track with the time-code stripe.
The transport was sold on durability. Tascam's copy insisted the deck plate wouldn't flex, ever, sparing owners the flex-induced phase and wow-and-flutter corrections that plague lesser machines in post. The Omega Drive tape path was claimed to put less stress on the tape, so the cumulative tension of a thousand start-stop passes wouldn't reach the reel. Take the ad copy as you like, but the design intent is clear: a machine meant to run all day in a production house.
Connectivity was aimed at the patchbay crowd. The ATR-60 line offered +4 dBm, +8 dBm and even +10 dBm output levels, so long cable runs to a console or a house sync system didn't bother it. Input Enable/Disable let an engineer monitor any source without repatching or disturbing mixer settings. That prevents a very common cause of aborted takes.
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