open-reel tape

[oh-puhn-reel]

noun

1. audiotape, usually 1/4 inch (6.4 millimeters) wide, wound on a single reel and requiring a separate take-up reel for playing or recording.

Word History and Origins

Origin of open-reel tape¹

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

There are cassette recorders and machines from the days of open-reel tape, for example.

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Nicole Lizée's The Golden Age of the Radiophonic Workshop, with its open-reel tape machines, games console and typewriter, was a disappointment.

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Does it make a difference whether a singer performs the work to the accompaniment of Babbitt’s four-track open-reel tape — something many halls are unequipped to handle — or the same recording played on a laptop?

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Suzanne Thorpe and Alex Chechlie, armed with open-reel tape decks and stacked oscillators, recreated Ms. Oliveros’s “I of IV,” an alien soup of brays, squeals and subsonic rumbles.

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Oh, the joys of open-reel tape.

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