@korte1975 why do you always have to kill my threads, this thread was going places, lol.

 

I want a Ampex 440 w a 1” headstack

 

Yes Von-Steyr, i use a old, but in good condition, Akaï DS4000 MKII, to record my master channel with a good RTM tape, and sometimes i record on a old used BASF tape, i use it to record kick snare skank, to add some gritty crunchy lo-fi tone to my stuff, i have bought it, in a "vide grenier" it's local people street market, at the price of 5 euro.

PS: Sorry for the bad quality pic

 

Anybody working with tape? I hope not. You can't get Ampex any more and so has Quantegy. New Old Stock sheds like brown dandruff, and as far as I now all there is available is made is eastern europe at factories that wouldn't have been used in a pro scenario when the good stuff was available.

Then there's head wear. And do you know how to use a degaussing iron?

I can understand the allure of the mystery, but really, it's going to cost so much to do properly, and it's going to be so dissapointing.

 

If you read the thread you`ll see a lot of people work with tape.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Oct 9, 2017

Slightly off subject but, well now for something completely different!

 

I see a lot of people using quarter inch four track. That wouldn't get past the mailing room in most labels I knew back in the day. There's lots of people using chemical photography, the world pays for file based digital. Andrew Schepps mixes in the box and surcharges six figures to anybody wanting him to load the mix to the console. It's gone. You can't get the tape, you can't get the spare parts and you can't get people who know how to use tape in professional practice under the age of 55.

But I'm sure it's a fun thing to try.

 

i just bought this : circa 72 or so :
its certainly not pro grade , but its fun so far ! :
Dokorder 9100

 

People and the industry said the LP is defacto dead, today we see a huge surge in sales....you know, things go away and come back in waves...
I would say its dead-ish, though not quite dead.

 

You're not wrong. Cassette Sales Grew By 74% In 2016!!11!!

ProTip: skip all that trendy vinyl/cassette hipster bullshit; go straight 2 8-track --teh ne plus ultra recording medium 8)

Edit: I didn't post this just to sell you my boutique Sears Roebuck 8-track Professional deck, retrofitted with 75lbs precision-machined depleted uranium capstan flywheel, spinning in zero-friction neodymium magnet bearings.

 

Last edited: Oct 9, 2017

KIds never knew proper medium, they were born into the world of files and mp3`s and they are now learning that its actually cool to hold a real paper booklet in their hands, music becomes more personal.

 

Cassette box/inserts were more personal than CD crystal/liners? Like a precious locket, with a teeny oil miniature of m'lady inside? I'm a huge vintage gear junkie (see avatar), but it's more about gear than music; just like how the stuff feels/looks/smells.

 

All your senses get involved, you smell it, feel it, it definitely adds something more to the experience.

 

I suppose I should be a bit more enthusiastic about it, because if people started using tape again the tape lines would come back. In my day every cockamy little town had a recording studio. What nobody realised at the time that it was all those bazillions of no-hope musical acts paying for demos that kept the market running for the pro end of the business.

I'd wish any body who tries to keep the past alive the very, very best. It is a lovely sound when it's done well.

 

Almost like a You Tube video but static, a printout :|
I mean I get it, liked the process -- thumbing through records, pulling them out of liners, a sweep with (what was that called? Lint brush? I mean the big one, not the teeny one dangling from Stanton carts), playing lab tech with all the tonearm doohickeys. Even had one of those ̶r̶e̶c̶o̶r̶d̶ ̶g̶r̶i̶n̶d̶e̶r̶s̶ broadcast turntables built into a slab of granite, appropriately named Rec-O-Cut. None of this has anything to do with tape. Tape was strictly a car/boombox medium for most, you grope around under your car seat for the cassette that fell there; inspect for obvious coffee damage; stick in slot.

That time is gone;Trying to bringing it back isn't just an affectation, it could be dangerous :|

 

Now we have DAWs & everyone's a producer. Roughly 20 producers per consumer.

 

This is what I mean about having to know what you're doing with tape. The following recording was made by Paul McCartney himself at his home studio around 1980.

The azimuth on the heads is wrong. They're not all properly lined up to dead perpendicular, and the top end sounds like somebody put cotton wool around your ears. Worse, it sounds to me like he started with the drums and worked his way outwards with at least one bounce along the way. The problem gets worse the more the recording is worked. You'd be sacked as a junior, for handing a machine over in that state in cash money pro studio. And even with the tools available in 2011, it can't be fixed. It's an effed recording. Still charted though (well it was HIM).

Compare with this, recorded nearly ten years earlier at two different studios and mixed at a third in the US. This was one of the best recordings I'd heard when it came out.

To get that kind of quality took hard effing work by people with ears like shithouse rats. Tape is not for amateurs, digital is so much easier.

 

Well you do have a trusting face. I use to adore Shari Lewis!

 

It's not like that's even hard to fix.

Thing is though, it sounds to me more like he had just cleaned the heads with meths and a cotton bud, but forgot to let it dry first!

 

Real fanatics pay $15,000 for a laser reader that doesn't even touch the precious plastic surface.