Purpose of leader tape

[ShaunDaley]

When I used to use my reel-to-reel I never bothered with leader tape. I simply wound some of the normal tape onto the empty reel, pressed play, counted about half a minute in, then started to record. I never encountered any slippage and because my tracks were that half minute in, I only wound back to the very start when changing reels.

Now as I'm about to start using my recorder again, I can see that many use a bit of leader tape, but I'm not sure why. Can someone please enlighten me as to its main purpose.

Cheers,

Shaun

[Michael Maurice]

There is nothing wrong with the method you have been using, but leader tape was leader tape is more flexible and less likely to break than the main tape, also a lot of tape was produced for domestic users and provided an accurate start to the tape, it could also be used to identify which side of the tape was in use. Green was usual for side 1, red for side 2

[Mike-repairman]

Hi Shaun,

I would think it's the same reason we use a leader on movie film, allows you to load up the tape or film and start recording/playback at the beginning of the tape/film.

I suppose it looks tidier as well. Can't think of any technical reason other than that.

Mike.

[Peter.N.]

It also give a leader section which you can handle without contaminating the tape with anything you may have on your fingers and damaging the tape when lacing up.

[Tim]

During my time at Bristol Hospital radio we used a colour code to identify tapes for different purposes.

White===Program material(check before recording erasing!!!)
Blue ===Virgin(no splices-blank)
Red and White===Special purpose/Test tapes
Green===Used tape (may contain splices)
Yellow===Section dividers
Red ====Tail

Of course using a leader makes cueing easier(ie the program material starts instantly, and is easily found) and prevents damage to the start of a tape, which would be otherwise caused by wrapping the tape itself onto the reels, particularly if it is heavily used.

[ppppenguin]

Years ago I occasionally did some sound for amateur drama. I used clear leader between sections to operate the auto-stop on my B77. Doing cues on RR tape is so easy.

[ShaunDaley]

That's great, guys - all sorts of reasons for leaders, then!

Cheers,

Shaun

[SaSi_SiDi]

I have purchased a batch or used tapes off ebay from Germany. The leader tape was used to write with a permanent marker the contents of the tape, speed and track configuration. So well written that I felt bad to replace the leaders on the tapes.

[ben]

several of my decks (tandberg, grundig, akai, telefunken) have automatic endstop which stops the tape running off the reel. A short piece of foil is attached to the leader tapes, activating a solenoid or relay. Very useful feature.

[AndiiT]

Hi,
I am not too sure on this but I believe that some manufacturers used different coloured leader tapes to identify whether the tape was "Standard Play", "Double Play" or "Triple Play"

Standard play having a Green leader on side one and the others having something like Blue or Yellow; the tapes only seemed to have different leaders on side one though, Side 2 was always coloured red.

Andrew

[Jimmyhaflinger]

Originally Posted by ben

several of my decks (tandberg, grundig, akai, telefunken) have automatic endstop which stops the tape running off the reel. A short piece of foil is attached to the leader tapes, activating a solenoid or relay. Very useful feature.

I have many 60s Basf, Philips and Agfa tapes with the metal foil and i'm afraid it might scratch the heads, am i right?

[llama]

One manufacturer (maybe 3M) produced white leader with chevrons every 7.5 inches. Given enough of it you could make an accurate deck speed measure or count-in. Being matt white it was easy to write on.
Graham

[ben]

Originally Posted by Jimmyhaflinger

I have many 60s Basf, Philips and Agfa tapes with the metal foil and i'm afraid it might scratch the heads, am i right?

I've never had any problems, even on decks which don't stop on foil, since the foil is so soft and there is so little of it I doubt it would do any damage. Most foil looks even less abrasive than tape !

[techladuk]

SIMPLE! .....

Leader Tape is there to prevent damage to the recorded part of the tape when threading or winding tape on a machine. OR to separate sections of tape of alternate takes/tracks/songs etc

If you just threaded tape as it was, eveytime you do so, tape can get damaged with creases, fingerprints etc. Once the damage gets really bad and you want to repair it, how much tape do you chop off? where does the recording start? It's impossible to tell! All tape oxide looks the same, recorded or not!

A tape machine with faulty or no auto-stop will wind the tape off the end of the spool that will thrash about till the spool stops causing damage to the tape end. It's better a replaceable leader takes this abuse than an irreplaceable master tape!

Pro Recordings of albums on analogue usually have the final mixes of each track edited together on to one nab reel / or reel per side for an LP Master. (CD masters would probably be on DAT or another digital format) It's easy to fast wind a tape and see a section of coloured leader wizzing through the head block between sections than to manually find the track you want. Also reduces the tape oxide repro noise to nil, which is handy if the master is recorded with no noise reduction!

LOTS OF REASONS REALLY! ....

[Beechwoods]

The best reason for leader tape in my experience is because it's impossible to tell where the recorded content starts - if you're winding mag-tape onto a reel - how much tail can you get away with is difficult to tell, and like others have pointed out, you could easily be handling the recorded portion while you're at it. A good few feet of leader gives you something to play with, and allows the tape to settle down prior to hitting the oxide (if you fix the leader to the take up spool by it gripping against itself, rather than pulling the leader out of the spool and holding it while you wind the spool a few times to hold the tape in place).