The Weirdest Reel to Reel tape recorder I have ever seen! Techmoan style unboxing!
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- čas přidán 27. 09. 2023
- While cruising eBay a while ago I spotted this very bizarre “Tape recorder”! I have never seen anything like it and I had to have it. So, I thought I would take you along for the unboxing a sort of Techmoan style video albeit I know nothing about this machine yet as evident in the video! I have since figured it out how it works and have started ordering parts to replace all the dried-out capacitors. I have scoured the internet for weeks and have never seen any mention of a machine even remotely close to it. I am convinced it was designed as a desktop Dictaphone type recorder!
? Could this be the first "auto-reverse" tape recorder ever made?
if YOU have any information on this machine. PLEASE email me! - Věda a technologie
In the 70's I worked at a recording studio that had been in business since the 40's. When a piece of equipment was taken out of service it was just taken up to the attic and left to gather dust. There was some cool old stuff up there. I did see something that looked kind of like this although there was no telling what recording medium it used. It had multiple track selection, hubs about that size, two heads (I'm assuming erase and record/play), a much bigger chassis and there was a screw adjustment in the back that apparently was used to adjust bias. I asked one of the old timers and he said it was probably a logging recorder. I would have been used to continuously monitor broadcasts (civilian or military, no telling) over long periods of time by rewinding and changing tracks. So there would be gaps in the recording where that operation took place, not unlike a basic cassette deck. It didn't appear to be reversible, although I suppose the reels could just have been flipped. The other cool thing up there was a triple record lathe that was used to record live broadcasts on 16" acetates. These acetates (usually big band shows emanating from nearby hotel ballrooms, etc.)would be played back (just once) every hour and sent down conditioned phone lies to stations in each of the time zones to the west, thus giving the listener the impression that they were listening to a live broadcast in whatever time zone. That old timer had operated that lathe for that purpose back when.
At 55 and grown up with reel to reels and always loved them, I thought I'd seen everything there was in tape styles. Huh, you really do learn something new everyday.
Subbed, just to see this awesome machine come to life.
As a recording machine collector (over 350) I have seen a similar machine in Germany that has multi tracks and moveable head set up. This may be a homebrew or someone's prototype. Paper tape was active 1946-53 made by Scotch, Brush and possibly others . Surprisingly I have dubbed airchecks on paper tape from the late 40's early fifties with pretty good success. It holds up remarkably well. Wax cylinders and their content from the early 20th century dictation machines (edison and others ) are been dubbed and are available on the net . I saw that machine and was tempted. I'm glad you have it !
I have HEARD of paper based magnetic tape. This is the FIRST time I've seen any let alone a paper tape recorder! So COOL! 👍😎👍
Paper tapes were used by the Germans before and during WWII. The Germans version was called the Magnetifone (sp?). The guys that founded Ampex in the late 1940s brought the German machine back after WWII and improved the bias to lower the noise and raise the frequency response. During WWII, the allied radio monitors would hear virtually noise free orchestra recordings and couldn't understand how at 2 or 3 in the morning they heard what they thought was a live orchestra especially in bombed out cities. It wasn't live, it was Magnetifone!! I think I'm correct on these facts......maybe.....?? I have no idea what this device is......has TECHMOAN commented yet?
you are close. in 1927/28 Fritz Pfleumer figured out he could coat paper with magnetic particles as an alternative to wire recording. he Granted AEG rights to use this in 1932, but AEG with Ig Frarben/BASF invented magnetic particles on an acetate base and all of the German machines the K1.2.3.4 series used that.
After World War II, and with the German magnetophons Mullins smuggled back to the USA. the race was on to create consumer tape recorders Brush Development sought the expertise of 3M to create a tape for its BK-401 Soundmirror, the first American-made recorder. the result was Scotch Type 100, a paper tape coated with black oxide. It worked fine on the consumer-quality Soundmirror machines, but was unsuited for the Magnetofon and Ampex' new 200A pro decks. Development continued and paper-base tapes were replaced with modern polyester- and acetate-base tape
@@overkillaudioinc Pyral (France) also made paper tapes. They were in use in Holland too, early 1950's but not many of them survived I guess.
Magnetophon. AEG, and after the war AEG Telefunken. They invented the premagnetization (Bias) and made Hitler sound like he spoke live at every local radio station but they shipped the tapes.
After WW2, Ampex got that technology, but Telefunken remained in Germany.
Kelly's Hero's, Oddball
No but yes.
That is so unusual and cool! Thanks for sharing I can’t wait to see it run after restoration!
I love what I see. Never seen this before. This needs to be further Investigated . Keep us posted and thanks for sharing.
The rig looks homemade but I'm pretty certain the tote box held a small portable typewriter originally. I've got several old portables and all the cases look pretty much the same. Underwood, Royal, Remington -- they all had such cases.
I don't understand why people can't put down their cameras instead of trying to do things with one hand.
Indeed! The presenter's mention of Techmoan did nothing to improve the quality of the amateurish presentation. Techmoan is far more slick.
It's called "hosepiping." Makes me too dizzy to watch in one continuous go.
I've been collecting tape recorders since the 80's, never seen one of these! Thanks for sharing, new subscriber here.
Really excited to see where you get with this one
"Can I use your Dictaphone?"
This must have been a burial gift for Pharaoh Imhotep. I heard they already had electricity in ancient Egypt.
whatever's on that type, it's likely unique! Good to get a clean transfer :)
New one on me, been a tape fan since the 50’s! 🤔
Thought you should know on your latest video you have the comments turned off..
Thank you. it defaults to that and I will go in and fix it! thanks for the heads up!
Sure thing,, I figured it was an error since there may be someone out there ready to comment who actually knows that things story and you wouldn't want to impede that.. @@overkillaudioinc
Sure thing,, I figured it was an error since there may be someone out there ready to comment who actually knows that things story and you wouldn't want to impede that.. @@overkillaudioinc
Whoa... is that the first 2” 24 track ?!?! Man you gotta get this going... please😯
possibly the first auto-reverse deck too!
Techmoan would love this
That thing is amazing,,, please don't make us wait too long for part 2....
This is the most bizarre looking magnetic recording contraption I have ever seen! Yes! I am absolutely blown away by this, Abomination. A 2 inch, 24 Track, home, recorder.
And to be certain. This thing sounds like absolute total crap! It can't really hold a consistent speed over the duration of the tape. There is no fidelity to this. Likely records at 100% Saturation. And requires no erase head. It can record, Talking. I would imagine sort of. It's certainly not designed for music applications. And if it was? Where are all the available recordings? Right never were any made. LOL. This is a Monstrosity!
I had an obsession with tape recorders also. It started with a Weber Echo Tape, recorder in our living room. My grandfather had a Presto 900 series. With its own separate, 4 channel mixer! And then I got a Magnacord P-63! Not those other funky little things. This was as big as an Ampex 350. And then we had an AKAI 800? 8H? I forget? It was AKAI's version of an Ampex 602. Along with a pair of matching 8 inch speakers! But the machine also had a 4 x 5" speaker in the top of its case. And vacuum tube amplifier outputs for the speakers. It sounded great. It had the adjustable, X-Field Heads. At it could do, 1/4 track consumer stereo. It could also do 1/2 track, Professional Stereo. And it could run at 3.75, 7.5 and AND! 15 IPS. Yes! As it had a removable capstan sleeve. And was 2 speeds. But really 3 speeds. But then my world was changed. At 7 years of age.
Daddy was a violinist in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. And for extra dollars he also played string tracks for Stax records and Motown. And there they were!
Ampex-300, Ampex-350, Ampex 351, Ampex 400 pusher, Scully 270 and Ampex AG-440 A-8 Track, 1 inch, recorder. And I knew. I would be using these soon. For the rest of my life and career long. And never did I realize. What was about to happen.
It was only a few years later by 1972. I was able at 17 years of age. To take the, Ampex, Factory Trained and Authorized Warranty Service Person, Course. Learn how they were made and how to fix them.
After that came 3M and their, M-79 multitrack product. Then came MCI of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Where I had moved to. And my apartment. Was 600 feet away. From the back door to the Shop at MCI. And I took their technical training seminars for all of their products. Consoles included. But then a really funny thing happened.
At the advertising agency I was employed by. The boss let me get 4 new tape recorders. 2 MCI machines. At 2 Scully 280 B's.
The MCI machines were great! But I really preferred using the Scully's for most of my work. But what's this? These brand-new recorders are not working correctly? What the hell? Right out of the crate. These things won't tweak up, properly. I have to start troubleshooting brand-new machines? Yes.
In the ensuing weeks. I was on the phone regularly. With the VP of the firm and an electrical engineer himself. But not the company electrical engineer. At they were having terrible problems with their own machines. AMPRO Broadcast Products Incorporated. Had purchased Scully from the Dictaphone Corporation. A year and 1/2 earlier. And none of these machines were working properly. The VP said they needed my help. Need my help? We need your help. And he offered me a management position.
Yes I became the final, QC Manager for Scully. Never in my wildest dreams. Did I ever think I would find myself working for such a legendary company?
They told me they need me to figure out what the hell was wrong? Because 2 electrical engineers couldn't. I am not an electrical engineer. I am a bona fide high school dropout with nothing more than a GED. And a couple of technical training seminars. But? I had a job to do to save the company.
And so it took me a couple of weeks to figure out the problem. And it turns out to be no good. When you use the wrong wiring harness for this series, circuit board. Oh whoops. The right one was lost between Los Angeles and the trip to Philadelphia. There was no record of it. So I had to create the new template. And once wired correctly. TA-DA! And only because they had thought they were wired correctly.
And that was just the beginning of other less serious problems. As is rather fascinating to note. All of the parts that are used. Come from parts manufacturers. That always feature a disclaimer. And the disclaimer reads. COMPANY RESERVES THE RIGHT TO MAKE CHANGES WITHOUT NOTICE.
And while parts might have the same values and ratings. They are not always the same. This causes vastly different performance characteristics. Frequency response characteristics. Distortion characteristics. Longevity. All that stuff.
And I had never worked in a factory before. And I am in charge of Quality Control for the entire factory. And I upped the ante. I improved upon the machines. To make some of the best they had ever shipped.
There is a Scully enthusiasts user board. That I contributed to for some years. And a few years back. A couple of the members. Sent me emails with attachments. They were pictures. Of a test data sheet. For their machine from 1979. With my signature at the bottom. And my rubberstamp inside their machine. Still running perfectly. After all these years. That made me very proud. As I still have my last personal two of them. And I will have to be parting with them after all these years. I have to move and downsize. Down to a motorhome. And there will be no more room for such pleasant memories and luxuries.
I have more than just those 2 Scully's. I have a unique reel to reel recorder. I bet you would love to have. It's a little-known machine. But quite substantial nevertheless. It's a machine from Michigan. From a mathematics and electrical engineering professor by the name of Lesher.
I have a 1/4 inch, Stereo, 2 Track, Lesher. All vacuum tube machine. And virtually like new. With original heads. Not yet broken in. Motown used a 1/2 inch, 4 Track version of this machine. And it's very much like an Ampex 351-2. Michigan Style. As he was a professor at the University of Michigan. And he started making tape recorders in the late 1950s early 1960s. I got it from a friend of the families who was the principal double bass player in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. His wife was the principal harpsichordist. And they were good friends with my parents. And when she passed on. Her second husband Rod offered me this machine. And strangely enough. It came back to me when I turned 60. Though, I had purchased it from John Matthews when I was 15 years old. But mom made me give it back to John. Because it was really too big for our 2 bedroom apartment. And I never saw it again. Until just recently.
I was absolutely blown away. The machine had not changed one bit. The wear on the heads had not increased one bit. It has never been used. It might have 50 hours on it? It's a working collector's item that is virtually new. The microphones I had also gotten with it both at 15 and at 60. Were already sold. They were the first US, FET,, Large-cap diaphragm Condenser Microphone. From, Syneron CU-7. Later known as the Fairchild F-22, microphones. When they purchased the company. As it used Fairchild's first FET transistor. Looked like a Neumann U-87 but was more like an, AKG 414. But only cardioid. But could not be Phantom Powered. They would only take 22.5 volt Malory Batteries. No longer made nor available and no retrofits to replace them. And another weird battery. For the FET powering. As the other 2 batteries were only to polarize the diaphragm. Must have 48 volts. But never got more than, 45 volts. And therefore could never really work to their full potential. Without 48 volts, polarizing the diaphragm. 45 works but not at its best. But they had to start somewhere. And a year or two later Neumann worked out Phantom Power. Sennheiser had something similar but it wasn't Phantom. I think it was called A/B powering? And you would find that on some of those Sennheiser shotgun microphones. And it looked like Phantom but it wasn't Phantom. And Phantom would not work. On those Sennheiser microphones. So you had to have a special battery pack or special AC adapter. Until they joined the Phantom Revolution. And got on board with that. To have a standard. You could plug into any mixer and it would work. And thankfully what we have today. That has also caused its own problems. But hey? Nothing is perfect. When, microphones need power to generate, power. Of which they do not generate, much. It's a teensy little bit. And needs big time pre-amplification. To go anywhere.
This recorder is an amazing piece of trash we are looking at. Obviously from some kind of troubled mind. But amazing in its own right. Because at first I thought it was some kind of, Communications Logger? And wondering how slow that could go? To where you couldn't understand speech anymore? 15/16 IPS? Probably something like that. Likely intended for dictation purposes or, Bible Stories? Where fidelity was of no concern. Because there could be nothing with this contraption.
I venture to say. You're going to have problems finding 2 inch wide paper recording tape these days. Red barn paint will work just as well. It gets its red color from iron oxide. You pay that on paper. And then you drag that across 2 magnetic poles. While modulating the magnetism on the polls. While superimposing a very high frequency carrier over top. So high you can't hear it. But dogs can. And they will wonder why you are listening to such a stupid song? Only one note. Even dogs can hear more than one note. So can birds and cats. Turtles? I'm not so certain? We will not be discussing Turtles here. But they were still a cool old rock group from the 1960s, nevertheless. And they did not play fast. They played slow rock 'n' roll. They were turtles.
Tape recorders are cool gizmos. When they work right. Pieces of crap when they don't.
RemyRAD
Thanks for that story. As interesting as the video. I hope someone looks after your old gear. And now I've got to find a photo of a Lesher.
@@edmatzenik9858 Pretty sure I saw one as a patent validation machine in some electronics article or on the net. it was a fine piece of work with a LOT of precision machining .
Wow, a magnetic _paper_ tape recorder, how funky!
What a fascinating machine! Oh my!
Shame that it wouldn't take those Multitrack reels like what was used in Recording studios.
the 2" wide 24 track studio type tape sadly has a back coating that would cause problems. this machine uses a felt pressure pad to press the tape against the head. there is no capstan to pull the tape. it is a rim drive type system so the rough back coating on most studio tapes i thick would cause too much friction to play well. If i can find some old old 2" quad non back coated tape that would work. or a reel of 2" wide Soundscriber tape that would work as well.
I have a book "Evolution of the tape recorder" The paper belt look the same as one used in something called a Walkie Walkabout. The author had one he loaned to a doctor to retrieve data. By the way if you can find the book it is a great one!
I've been doing audio service and other audio-related work since 1977, and I've never seen one of these. I've seen (and transferred audio from) 1/4 inch paper tape before, but nothing like this. I wonder if you could load it with 2" tape for multitrack machines and see how it works?
Super neat. A local antique shop had an voice recorder, where you electrically recorded your voice onto wax cylinders. I'm assuming this was used for some sort of voice recording... whether documenting news, radio.... something. These are wild to see still out there.
Those cylinder recorders are the direct descendants of Edison's first phonograph. They were used in business as dictation machines.
Some resemblance to Techmoans video "The unique 1960s Hi-Fi systems that became time capsules". For some reason I think that it looks half homebuilt. Can it be parts from another form factor, like a dictation machine, that has been placed in a custom enclosure by someone? Would be interesteing to se if there's any more clues behind that mic input.
If it does indeed work, you could get many feet of 2 inch video tape on that reel. Even 20 year old quad tape would sound better than that shipping tape with glued rust.
The red mechanism looks like a "Dictaphone" from the 'typing pool' circa 1950/60 that has been repurposed for domestic use, mounted on an old radio cabinet with 'homebrew' electronics. Great ingenuity, a home made tape recorder!.........or is it?
I'm really curious to see this machine back in working condition. Even more, I'm very curious to hear what might be on the tape itself. I'm guessing some very boring dictation by a managerial type, but if we hear the language he's using through the inevitable noise we can have a guess in which country this unit originated.
Looking at the components, it's seems to be American.
I had a transistorized one with the same tape 2” wide the head move up and down with a switch
Can you say more about it?
I want to listen to this video a lot. There is a clicking or scratching noise coming from the mic that is terribly distracting to me. I will reload the window to make sure my system isn't flushy, but the crackle is a no-go. Especially for an audio channel.
Very beautiful memories I like it good find
8:15 moving right switch made head go down.....
I love this thing! Haha. Great great!
Yeah, maybe you could use old 2" videotape on this and it would work... as long as it had about the same coercivity.
Impressive presentation thanks xxx
I am pretty sure Techmoan doesn't have this style of package opening. But if I am wrong I am still pretty.
I thought it was a wire recorder at first glance... Interesting intermediate.
The tape was... "TAPED" to a tape reel, heh! Yeah, different kind of tape, so... slight pun.
i have seen this somewhere before......
that's so fascinating
My first word was allegedly “lampa” (lamp in Swedish) and I became an optical engineer and biophysics scientist using light to probe the intricacies of life. Sometimes your first words do give a hint of where your life is heading. 😉
I'm going with a late 1930's or early 1940's recorder.
I cannot imagine that this machine ever worked better than like a toy recorder (even in the 50s).
The tape can't be much longer than 10 meters ? So, 24 tracks sequentially recorded could result in an ok recording length, but the tape has to have some speed in order to record at least in "some" quality. With 18 cm/sec this would be 22 mins, but I doubt that there could be more than 3 kHz freq range.
It could be a prototype or a project of a (mad ?) semi-professional hobbyist. You will have the click of the autoreverse mechanism (if that works) on your recordings, including a short gap.
Erasing a recording is a separate process, this is due to the single head design.
The backside is odd as there is no sign of a panel mounting. Where probably some information could have been printed on.
If you find some old 2'' acetate tape, consider yourself even more lucky. Or, you could buy new tape (this is where luck ends).
I don't think high quality audio was the goal of this machine, My money says it was designed for dictation.
It may have not been high quality but I'm sure it probably works a lot better then some of the garbage that is produced today. Everything plastic and cheep components, it may need tubes, and caps. replaced but it will probably work better and longer than any model produced today, or whenever the last reel to reel was produced.😂😂😂
I hope that before you tried recording on it, you copied what was there before to a nice backup location!
The speaker is a General Electric
Buy a damn tripod.
You are not going to want to find any 2 inch, 3M Scotch, 111, Acetate Tape. Don't even think about it. It has long turned to dust years back years ago. You will be stuck with some, Agfa, Ampex, tape. 3M shut down decades ago. And it's all very sticky now.
And so that thing is now just a mere, museum piece, amusement. 2 inch wide paper recording tape? Not seen in many decades.
Was the case of this device a repackaged something? Of course it was! It was originally a Radio. And a radio, only. Before this top loaded abomination was created.
It is amazing however. And truly like nothing I have ever seen before. I mean who made an alignment tape for it? LOL. Right there was never an alignment tape for this thing. It was not designed for music, to be sure. It was designed for storytelling. It's an abomination it's very funny. It's certainly a unique find. For those who thought they had it all. Nope!
I mean I've owned just about every recorder made on planet Earth also. Not to mention my Sony, Pioneer,, Panasonic/Technics, REVOX, TEAC, TASCAM, Otori who am I leaving out? Who have I owned and the memories have faded? And my very first ever purchased. With my $20 a birthday money. At 8 years of age. I got a Peerless. Portable battery-operated recorder. That could take big 3 in Israel's.
And when I made my first musical recording of mommy singing. And I played it back. I suddenly realized I had been ripped off! It sounded like crap! It was no good for music. It was only good for a little kid who was 8 years old.. And I wanted better!
It was only then. I discovered. What a capstan and pinch roller were for. And that forever changed me.
Because by the time I was 14 years of age. I got my dads, Sony TC-630, recorder. That included 2 nice, 6 inch speakers! And had a built-in audio amplifier with both Bass and Treble controls. 3 heads and an, Echo Control! I was in heaven!
And then I learned what that control called Bias was for. And I would adjust that. Until playback sounded just like the input. Instead of all, muddy. I wanted everything to sound its best! And I found out about, 3M Scotch, 202 and 203 Dyna-Range Tape. And then they came out with 206! And that was a game changer!
But only with the Scotch, 206. My homemade passive, 1/4 inch input, 3 channel mixer. With a pan pot on one channel. So I can have 3 channel Stereo instead of just 2. Left-Center-Right. And with my 3 microphones. And my homemade, spring reverb. I made my first on location recording of mom. At her, Accompanist's home downtown Detroit. With lots of traffic right outside of his window of his home. With trucks and buses and cars going by. And I only had short microphone cords. So I was sitting right underneath the grand piano. With my tape recorder.
And at 14 years of age I got this recording:
soundcloud.com/user3139903/mom-i-dream-too-much-1970
I made this nearly 54 years ago, when I was 14 years old. I was planning on becoming a recording engineer. This is one of my first efforts ever.
Recorded on the Sony TC-630. At 7.5 IPS. Tweaked by ear. Because I had no oscillator yet. Nor voltmeter. I didn't know what those were for yet? Not really. But would become vital to me later that year and for the rest of my career.
And you certainly have a passion for these things. You are certainly nuts. But somebody has to be. To keep this history alive. Because I won't be for much longer. I'm one of the last surviving members. Of one of those legendary American studio tape recorder companies. And it was such an honor for me. I can hardly believe I made it there. And affected the entire industry. With what I've done and what I've discovered. To make them even better. They were amazing devices for the times.. Look at all the fabulous music they recorded. All the history they have captured for us. And that virtually everybody could have their own.
I don't think anything is going to be this kind of wondrous ever again. We were amazed by it. We were enraptured by it. Many of us still are. It's a sickness I tell you! It's a great sickness! But I have to get rid of just about everything I have ever owned if I'm going to live the rest of my days in a motorhome as a nomad hermit. I've got no children of my own. My husband long dead. My younger brother, Ted.. My mother will be 100 in January. She's not going to be around for much longer. And when she goes I go hit the road. To start my new life of retirement. In abject poverty. Since other things went terribly wrong. When you are attacked and robbed. Of all your retirement savings. And your business. And your career. Add your freedoms. From the psychopathic Texans that don't like Americans from elsewhere. Lovely scumbag lowlifes that they are.
And so bad things happen to good people like me. And there is no rule of law in Texas. There's only the rule of Texans. And they are not in their right minds. None of them. There's something terribly wrong with Texans and Texas. It could be arsenic.
As I'm not a doctor. I'm not a research scientist. I'm just a well-informed seasoned engineer. Now retired. And I know that arsenic blowing in the wind in Texas has made the news any number of times. With warnings. For people to stay indoors. Windows closed. Air conditioning on. Do not go outside unless you have to. Do not exercise outside. Do not allow your children to be outside. Arsenic is blowing in the wind. Which is a natural substance in the earth. Not good for human consumption. Great for making LEDs and Semi Conductors like transistors, CPUs, GPU's, integrated circuit chips, LEDs. We can't make any of that stuff without the arsenic needed. And it's free! Free in the ground. A lot in Texas. And I think therein lies the problem with Texans.
And so in a wife of micro dosing arsenic. Texans just ain't normal. They are about as cruel as Hitler. And call themselves Conservatives. Which they hardly are. And don't know the actual meaning of that word, conservative. Because they don't know how to be? They just like saying it. Like say hallelujah! Some know how to say that. They contributed nothing to that.
Tape is gone. It's a thing of the past. The best sounding recording tape was 3M. Hands down! The Ampex product sounded fizzy and the Agfa product sounded dull.. The 3M would jump out of the tape recorder at you. It had the biggest boldest most open quality to the sound. I'll never forgive them for taking it off the market when they did.
And now tape manufacturing has been passed down from, one guy's garage to the next. It's a filthy dirty business. You are dealing with dirty dirt. Lots of carbon black dirt. Just to make some damned recording tape!
At let's be clear here. While 3M made some great plastics. And some great sounding oxides. The best, Slit Tape. Was the Agfa, product. Their slitting was superior. Way better. And you would see the difference. When in Fast Forward or Rewind. The tape would pack smoothly with the Agfa product. Not with the Ampex nor the 3M.
Today? The product is anybody's guess? It's a decent, low noise, high output, oxide recipe. And largely related to the, Ampex formulation. As that was sold from their later name, Quantagy. And now one name after another.
There is a lot of confusion about tape formulations also. When talking about the BASF 900 stuff. Or something like that? That was not a low noise high output mastery tape, formulation. It was Average Normal, mostly. And everybody is getting their information wrong. But it really doesn't matter anymore. It mattered back in the 1960s-70s-80s and 1990s. And that was about the end of it.
Because then we got digital tape and digital cassettes. And nobody needed to water their horse again.
Except for you nostalgic types. That want to keep the lights on and the tape rolling. Thank you.
RemyRAD…… Scully/AMPRO 1979/80
Just wait for the Machines I have coming to the channel! I just acquired several really remarkable machines! and yes I would LOVE to have your rare one of a kind machines too!
3:40 Just put down that darn camera already......Everything is better than these crappy shots....And it saves yourself a risk of damaging goods and is a lot easier....
Please buy a tripod.
PROTOTYPE RECORDER
Moist
That's a WIRE RECORDER. It used a magnetic wire instead of magnetic tape and pre-dates magnetic tape by nearly 20 years. Telefunken of Germany is often credited with the invention of it, circa 1932, but Bell and Howell in the US sold one in Spring of 1931, and the BBC were using Hallicrafter's MagVox brand ones daily in 1932 for news. The FBI used a wire recorder to record Meyers Lansky telling Alfonse Capone in NY City, "You brought attention to us Al. We told you NOT TO. You WILL go to prison to atone. (Arguing from Capone -unintelligible) There will be NO discussion of this, Al. We will take care of your family IF you do what I say. Is that CLEAR?..." This recording was made by the FBI BEFORE Al Capone's tax evasion trial in March 1931. Lansky was aware the FBI had his offices "Bugged", with automatically sound started recorders (records), but he also knew that what was said couldn't be used as "Best Evidence" against HIM, as it was "hearsay" evidence. Your can tell it's a wire recorder by looking closely at the heads. I own FIVE 2" Ampex base-band NTSC color video tape machines from a local TV station, and literally a pick-up bed full of new 2" "metal" tapes, and the support gear for them (the "junk" takes up my 8' x 26' "shed on the back of my garage). I got all of it for hauling it off! I also have two Rec-O-Vox cutting lathes for 16" or 20" lacquer-coated aluminum discs (inside-out recording at 45 RPM) and three Rec-O-Vox turntables from a radio station in Sands Springs, OK when they shut-down and 200-300 new discs and 150+ "Oral Robert's 'The Healing Waters' " radio shows from the 1950's. Those were "cut" at the old KTUL 1370 AM station studios on South Boulder Ave. belonging to James E. Leake (pronounced "LAKE") and his wife, of Muskogee, OK. In 1952, KTUL became a TV station belonging to Leake here in Tulsa, OK.
quite the read there. BUT. this is NOT a wire recorder. it is in fact a tape recorder that has magnetic coated paper tape. it has a conventional head and even a pressure pad to hold the tape to the head! I have owned many wire recorders and quite familiar with most models. but this is nothing like anything i have ever seen...If you have an old old reel of 2" quad, the light brown non back coated stuff let me know
Wire recorders don't look anything like this old girl :-)