Tascam Model 85-16 (1979)
A one-inch sixteen-track that put a real multitrack within reach of the working studio, and helped make the 16-track/one-inch format respectable.
Overview
The Model 85-16 made the case for sixteen tracks on one-inch tape, and it did it at a price that changed the math for small studios. Recording-Engineer (June 1982, p.38) laid out the economics plainly. A 24-track recorder ran about $40,000. The Tascam 85-16 sat in the $15,000 range, and 16-track one-inch studio time cost, on average, roughly half of 24-track time. For a jingle house, a demo room, or a band cutting its own record, that gap was the whole ballgame.
The format itself is a 16-track open-reel recorder/reproducer running at 15 inches per second and handling 10½-inch reels, according to Modern Recording (November 1979, p.41), which reported the unit as newly available in the Tascam line with sixteen full channels of dbx. The transport is built around three DC servo motors, with a four-digit display that reads out either tape speed or elapsed time, accurate zero search, and a ±10% varispeed — features that let an engineer punch in and locate without babysitting the reels. Tascam claimed 28 dB of system headroom and a 62 dB unweighted signal-to-noise ratio, rising to 87 dB with dbx engaged.
The physical layout sets the 85-16 apart. This is a console-mounted machine. The electronics live in racks, and the adjustable angled transport carries sixteen VU meters in two rows across the front panel. That gives you the level of all sixteen channels at a glance. The dbx noise reduction was optional, and given the 25 dB of extra S/N it bought, most owners who could afford it took it.
The 85-16 ended up in real rooms, not just brochures. Studio-Sound (September 1988, p.49) found one still in service years later at Northstar Recording, the basement studio Scott James Hybl dug into the Mount Scott suburbs. It was paired with a Sound Workshop Series 30 console, and clients were billed by an hour-meter that only ran while tape was moving. Recording-Engineer (June 1982, p.38) also documented it alongside 24-track and 3M 32-track digital on the sessions for Raiders of the Lost Ark, which is an odd place to find a $15,000 Tascam.
None of this made it a 24-track. The one-inch sixteen format trades track width and headroom for cost, and engineers who needed maximum channel count moved on. But as a bridge between the project studio and the professional room, the Model 85-16 earned its place — a machine that asked a fair price and delivered honest work.
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