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 Akai M-6 At a Glance   arrowAkai News(188)   Streaming Video (43)
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arrowReleased: 1960s  arrowVersion: 0.00
arrowRated: Not Reviewedarrow Add review:  (0)
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arrowSoftware: Win 95/98, Win NT, Win XP, Mac, OSX, Linux, Beos
arrow Plugin formats: TDM. VST. DirectX. Soundscape. Audiosuite. Premiere. Audio Units. RTAS
Nick S writes:
i got this when i cleaned out my grandmas attic...she doesnt even know where it came from...its a 2 track 1/4" reel to reel...it takes 7" reels...runs at 7 1/2ips and 3 3/4ips.

4 tracking is possible...you get 2 mono tracks(hard left and right)and 2 stereo tracks...you'd have to record say the drums in stereo first...then flip it to 1st mono channel, record the bass, flip to the second mono channel and record the guitars, then flip to the stereo track to do the vocals...its my understanding this is how alot of early beatles albums(and probably 100s of other albums)were recorded unless they recorded it straight to 2 track studio...though not necessarily on this recorder and not neccesarily putting the parts on the same tracks as ive explained it.

all and all this is a great recorder...im looking to get a nice 1/2" machine...but even if i do, ill keep this around for the tube pres...i realise i put alot in the bad points section...but working with vintage gear is like that sometimes...ive probably put 4hours of service into it...and it probably needs another 2hours or so...but imo its worth it.

Good Points
super warm sound...this thing is chuck fulla of tubes...i think there are either 4 or 8 on each pre...you can really drive the input on this deck and get nice harmonic distorion...i love running my buddy's juno60 into it and sampling off the tape...it also sounds really good recording bass guitar straight from the mixer...hell to be honest...it sounds good recording anything...but it really shines in the lower frequencys.
Bad Points
its heavy...really heavy...it gets hot cuz of the tubes...when i got mine i had to replace the bushings that kept the motors at the right angle to the face(i actually ghetto rigged mine with wine corks wrapped in electrical tape and heat shrink tubing)...its belt drive...so recordings tend to have a modulating sound(i actually like the way this sounds, but purists will hate it)...refurbing the motors may fix this problem, but that is out of my leauge...one time when i was recording a live set..the tape speed jumped up from 3 3/4 to 7 1/2, but that only happened once...im not sure why this happened, and it hasnt happened again...the unbalanced i/o and ungrounded mains plug make it a little nosiy...when i tore mine down to replace the bushings i installed a grounded plug which really helped...im thinking about replacing the i/o with better jacks(dont know if i can install balanced jacks into this)...my rewind quit working after about 3months of use...i havent had the time or space to tear it down again to troubleshoot the rewind...but i think either the belt slipped or the connection from the forward/rewind selector got loose...the internal speaker sounds like poop...but its really easy to disconnect it
 

 Akai M-6 Specifications:

Digital IOs:
nope
Analog IOs:
INS: 2 mic, 2 line OUTS: 2 line All i/o is 1/4
Midi IOs:
nada
Other IOs:
2 speaker outs
Max tracks: 2, but its possible to 4 track
Maximum Resolution:20hz - 20khz, possibly 30hz - 20khz at 7 1/2ips
EQ:
tape speed tone control

 M-6 Links

Try the Recorders links page for more..