If it's on standard 1/4" tape and there are four tracks, the usual arrangement for stereo recording is that side 1 of the tape uses tracks 1 + 3 for stereo while the side 2 uses tracks 2 + 4. However, when you turn the tape over for side 2, the turning over puts the tracks for that side into position as 1 + 3 again (a napkin sketch will show why that is, if it's not immediately clear).
Anyway, to have a stereo recording on tracks 2 + 3 would be quite unusual, and wouldn't even be possible unless a four-channel recorder had been used. If it really is recorded that way then you'd need a four-channel deck (such as a Teac 3340, if I recall the model number correctly) to play it back on; the usual "quarter-track stereo" type of consumer tape deck wouldn't be able to read both of the recorded tracks at the same time.
On the other hand, if the recording was made on a quarter-track stereo deck but it isn't stereo, and only the right channel was used for the recording, then your description would fit--and you could play it back on an ordinary quarter-track stereo deck. You'd just take the right channel output, then use that to make a CD or whatever the "delivery medium" is supposed to be.
Do you not have a way to transfer this recording, and are you looking for help from someone here for that? If so, it might help if you said what part of the world you're in. The idea of asking you to mail a unique, irreplaceable tape to a stranger is not a suggestion that I'd be about to make ...
--best regards
Topic: Separating tracks on an old reel-to-reel. (Read 2748 times)