C'est quoi une bande lubrifiée ?c'est quoi comme bande ? est elle lubifiée ?
Don't buy real Roland tapes, they are old, overpriced and the last two I tried to use gummed up in half an hour. There are lots of replacement tapes on ebay, don't use Robert L tapes, he uses BASF tape and they haven't made tape in years, once again, gummed up in about an hour. Now this is an extreme case because it was the middle of summer in Florida and the humidity kills tapes. Now that I live in Virginia it is not as much of a problem.
Lubricated tape is the way to go, the kind they put in carts and 8 tracks. Currently I'm using cobalt lubricated tape and it is WONDERFUL! When I get home I'll look and see where I got it. There is a lot of myth and hype surrounding space echo tape, mostly generated by guys trying to sell you tape. Some guys will tell you that 457 is the way to go while the same guys will tell you that silicone lubricated will eat your heads are selling you mastering tape that will eat your heads. 8 track tape is silicone lubed, cart tape is either Cobalt or Graphite, either is great.
US recording media has splicing tape, blocks, and de-gaussers but the tape stock they have is mastering/recording tape, meant to stick to the heads a little because big decks have big motors, but the space echo only has that puny pinch roller. Quantegy 457 sounds really great but give it a few hours and it will start wrapping around the roller and capstan. If you can get them to respond to you these guys have the perfect tape, it's listed as echoplex 850x http://www.cartguys.com/ctr_prices.htm#anchor973579
Tape not to try; 457, 456, 480, 490, 632, 661 all of which sound really great and they are enough to get through a session but that's about it, of course at like 8 bucks for 1200' you can reload 100 times, just have lots of extra loops pre made ;D Just remember that if you buy cart or 8 track tape on a reel then it is wound opposite of reel to reel tape so you might make a loop that has the back side facing the heads and freaking out because your expensive tape doesn't work, of course I don't know anybody that has done that :icon_redface: