Mellotronists

from the page at:
http://egrefin.free.fr/eng/mellotron/markVIE.html
[also stated at www.mellotron.com]

i see this quoted:
A brand new tape frame has been created. It is lighter and stronger, and
it allows to play longer tapes, which advances the time of playing by 20%.



so i would have to assume that this "longer tape" precludes the use of
the original recordings, since they were limited to the "old" length?

am i missing something obvious here?

how does the new tape frame "handle" the older short tapes tension-wise?


if this has all been addressed before, sorry, i don't recall it.
[but i am old and senile (obvious to anyone that has met me)]

...jeff