A note for Ms. Cauliflower, re. the Ry Cooder tape I need to know the size of the reel, you hinted at 101/2", stereo or mono, the speed it was recorded at, and the format it's in; If it's on a reel it's ok, if it's a pancake I don't have the where-with-all to load it, My Revox has two speeds 3 3/4" & 7 1/2" ips, if it's 15ips I can't handle it.
I pulled my Revox A77 back into service and connected it into my Mac and dubbed an old tape from my father to CD, it worked fine.
I must sing the praises of Revox, a division of Studer; I bought this machine in 1970 for about $500, it had a lifetime warranty, consequently I took in to their service unit on Hollywood Blvd annually for a check up. At one point I owned 3 of these, not sure why.
I just checked eBay and they're still asking more than I paid new!
This has caused me to think about the entire process of recording audio, I bought my first recorder, a cheap Phillips unit, in about 1953, I immediately hooked it into AFN and Radio Luxembourg. When I moved to the US I bought a cheap consumer grade Wollensak, I later moved up to Revox. When I think back I realise that I've always had at least one recorder in my music system whether it's been a cassette, a VHS, an open reel or a mini disc, and more lately my hard disc. If I hear of something of interest coming on I hit 'Record', I've got a huge archive of tapes and discs, most of them logged into the Mac.
Anybody else this obsessive?
7 comments:
Obsessive about investigating / obtaining / hoarding music?
I'd say I'm not ... DarceysMam would look askance and mouth silently at you "Oh yes he is".
Well this is me up and running on the new PC; only took me 5 hours!!!!
Goodnight gf.
It took 5 hours to get a PC working?!!!
We just got a new macbook (there's now 4 macs in the house; there's my techy obsession methinks) and it worked straight out the box. Internet and email configured in 15 sec/2 mins respectively. Blam!!
Well of course it takes 5 hours to get a PC working, don't you remember?
Hurry up with the digitising folks - there's a 'virulent mould' about which is damaging old video and audio tape!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jul/20/heritage.familyandrelationships
Yeah, I read that piece, fortunately for me it's indigenous to England's famous wet. The tape I transferred was about 48 years old, it had become brittle and broke a couple of times, the main problem with old tape is that the magnetic coating breaks loose from the backing tape and clogs up the playback heads.
So sorry it's taken me such a long time to get this together - overwork, illness and absence for summer all contributed to making it impossible...
But I now have the tape in my grubby little hands! It's yours if you want it. I have no idea about the spec - I deliberately erased all sound-tech knowledge on leaving BBC, in an attempt to try and forget...
I suspect it's 15"/s but it might be 7.5, The only way we'll ever know, and to find out if it's worth bothering with, would be for you to have a go - or someone.
If we can figure out a destination address (local post office, with a covering letter you could print out from here to match one on the package, so they'd know it was for you?) I'll send it immediately...
I'd love to know if there's anything worth listening to on the tape ;-)
Cauli - email me (link in my profile), I've got gf's address.
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