Tails Out

A method of winding tape onto a reel. The tails out method involves winding the tape backwards (or forwards, depending upon how you look at it) so instead of rewinding the tape at the end so the tape ends up on the supply reel, you forward it off onto the take up reel. This makes it so the end of the tape (the tail) is on the outside, while the beginning is buried at the beginning of the reel. Most professionals store analog tape tails out mainly because it reduces the consequences of print through. Instead of the slight echoes being heard before material (or before a song starts; called pre-echo) they occur just after (post-echo), which normally makes them much harder to detect.