Recording from pc to reel to reel

Audacity 2.4.2. Have PC with windows 10 that I plan to use Audacity to clean up old reel to reel recordings. Have used successfully tranferring from Reel to Reel vis Behringer UCA 222 to Audacity via USB. Now how can I re record output from laptop directly to reel to reel via the same route?

Select the UCA 222 as your playback device and connect the outputs of the UCA 222 to the inputs of of the tape machine. (I assume this is a “full size” reel-to-reel with RCA/line inputs? (Some smaller-portable reel-to-reel recorders only had microphone inputs.)

If the purpose of re-recording onto tape is to add tape saturation,
there are free plugins which work in Audacity (on Windows) which will do that, e.g. …
https://www.kvraudio.com/product/ferrictds---tape-dynamics-simulator-by-variety-of-sound
& Ferox by Jeron Breebaart

There is also a [u]Nyquist Tape Saturation plug-in[/u]. I’ve never tried it, but the description looks good.

Some expensive tape emulation plug-ins add tape-noise which I wouldn’t want.

I was assuming he REALLY wanted tape… I don’t know WHY anybody would want tape! :stuck_out_tongue: Well, it does kinda’ look cool…

What’s the make and model of your reel-to-reel?
Any idea of its of its provenance, meaning has it had a hard or easy life?
Easy life = minimal wear on the erase, record, playback heads, pinch wheel and tension mechanism.
How old are the reels of recorded material?
What tape speed did you record into Audacity - 1" 7/8" ips (inches per second) or 3" 3/4" or 7" 1/2".

This may seem a lot of details, but is necessary to give the right advice.