[Richard Crowley]

"Dave Platt" wrote ...
Richard Crowley wrote:
It is stereo

If it is really 1/2 track (as YOU claimed) and if you are hearing
the "other side" backwards (as YOU claimed) then it is impossible
for the tape to be "stereo". If there are ONLY TWO TRACKS,
then there is only ONE track *in each direction*. One track = mono.
It has been this way since before you were born.

Richard,

Half-track stereo tapes certainly did (and do) exist. There's nothing
"sacred" about having to use one track in each direction - a tape deck
can quite easily record both tracks simultaneously, using half the
width of the tape for the left channel and the other half for the right.

Of course there are 1/2-track stereo tapes. I have recorded
hundreds of hours of them. It is still a popular format for "mastering'
among the die-hard fans of magnetic tape recording.

But if the OP is hearing "avant garde jazz" on the right channel
of his 1/4 track head (and *backwards*) then he has a 1/2-track
mono tape with one program on each "side". He can flip the tape
over and hear his avant garde jazz recording in his left (mono)
channel.

If the OP really heard a 1/2 track STEREO tape, then he would
be hearing the other channel of the same program (but maybe not
terribly good) out of the right channel of his tape machine.

If he had a 1/4 track stereo tape, then he would hear BOTH
channels of his big band program on the first side, and BOTH
channels of his jazz program on the other side. But then it
would not be a "1/2 track tape" as the OP claims.