Saturday Oct 18, 2008, 01:41 AM GMT

[Post1704330]

. . .because I don't.   Found it today in a box with a giant question mark on it.  Some type of tape player I guess.  Reminds me of an old fashioned movie projector but that's not what it is.  1Skeeter, a little help here!  What is this?

Thanks.

Attics are a strange and wonderful place aren't they?

Also found a few records!

Saturday Oct 18, 2008, 02:22 AM GMT

[Post1704377]

Threads like this make me feel old..  Yes it's a reel-to-reel deck.

Saturday Oct 18, 2008, 02:29 AM GMT

[Post1704383]

jazzbo said

Threads like this make me feel old..  Yes it's a reel-to-reel deck.

Sorry bout that.   What do you think the chances are of finding something to play on it?

Saturday Oct 18, 2008, 02:42 AM GMT

[Post1704400]

I have Styx's Kilroy Was Here on reel tape. Jealous much?

(BTW, I am actually jealous because I have wanted a R2R for years)

You can also mostly likely make decent two channel recordings with it. I would be very surprised if you had to look far to find blank reels of tape for it, provided the machine works. I know guys who had their whole vinyl collection backed up on R2R tapes, you could fit something like ten or twenty hours on a full reel.

Saturday Oct 18, 2008, 05:21 AM GMT

[Post1704518]

Kronz said

I have Styx's Kilroy Was Here on reel tape. Jealous much?

(BTW, I am actually jealous because I have wanted a R2R for years)

You can also mostly likely make decent two channel recordings with it. I would be very surprised if you had to look far to find blank reels of tape for it, provided the machine works. I know guys who had their whole vinyl collection backed up on R2R tapes, you could fit something like ten or twenty hours on a full reel.

 I am thinking more like a couple of hours on a reel.  
 I  don't remember them holding more than a few hours even on the lowest speed setting.  
  I don't remember what the largest reel size were, some of those machines took some pretty big reels.

Saturday Oct 18, 2008, 04:08 PM GMT

[Post1704914]

Thanks a lot for the information everyone - much appreciated.

Yea, I was born in the '70s (not really a youngster but this thread makes me feel like one) so by the time I was old enough to know what was going on the reel-to-reel had sadly disappeared.   My first memories of audio equipment are record players, 8-Track Tapes, and cassettes.   Usually all contained in one large unit with two speakers attatched.   

Well, now that I know what it is I'm going to plug the bad boy in and see if it still works.  I think it probably will because it looks to be in very good shape and was actually in a sealed bag inside of the box I found it in.   Also, - there was a crate full of what I thought were double-disc LPs - they reminded me of the packaging that All Things Must Pass (the three record set) originally came in.  I didn't bother opening any of them because I thought I knew what they were - but now - after reading all of this, I'm thinking maybe there could be R2R tapes in there?   Have to go back up and check it out.

Once again - thanks.   Oh and Kronz & moondoggieferg - I'd love to just ship it out to you both but, I think I'm gonna hang onto it for a while, do some further research and see what happens.  Sorry.   If that changes or I decide I've had enough, I'll definitely let you know.

Sunday Oct 19, 2008, 03:39 PM GMT

[Post1705894]

I would have been the first to answer, but I thought you wanted specifics on that model. I thought you knew it was a reel2reel (no offense).

I've been listening to a Technics reel-to-reel for years. And a Nak dragon. Had to teach myself to repair and maintain the things, but these machines have very satisfying sound quality. I have a great deal on reel/open tape/cassette I've yet to sort out. Mostly jazz of the...esoteric sort.

Nice find. I hope those boxes do indeed contain reels for it. Enjoy!

Monday Oct 20, 2008, 02:01 AM GMT

[Post1706425]

moondoggieferg said

Kindly pm me for my home address and you can send the item to me, please. I have reel to reel tapes of all kinds of weird and wonderful sounds, many of them self-produced garage (and lounge room amd bedroom) stuff.

I havent had a reel to reel that worked in over ten years, but years ago I had a few of 'em and chanced upon a great, if very lo-fi, way of recording using a TEAC as the main recorder.

Skeeter will enjoy this, possibly:

Prior to the luxury of the cassette 4 -track portastudios that were introduced in the early 80s, I discovered that with the TEAC 2-track I had gotten hold of, one could record through both line AND mike inputs simultaneously.
This was unlike any other tape recorder I had ever come across and meant that one could quite literally 'overdub'.

What I mean is that, using two reel to reels, or even the TEAC and a cassette deck, you could layer over the preceding take by bouncing back from the TEAC to the other machine and playing that back through line while you recorded another layer over it through mic inputs. You judged the mix as you went along.

It was a shitload of fun...oh, and because of the TEAC dual input thing, you could run RCAs from in line to out line while recording for quite magnificent tape delay.

I imagine that the TEAC 2-track was probably used for just that in many 70s recording studios.

 I had a reel deck back in I think about 1974 that I could listen to one track and record on the other one on, but sadly it recorded out of sync because the playback head and record head were separate.
  That is what the term "sound on sound" meant,  you could buy two track sound on sound machines that would automatically make up for the time delay and you could record one track then play along with it in perfect sync.   
 I have been taking that kind of stuff apart and rigging it up for years.    My current studio is the product of a long evolution of experimenting with various types of recording devices.

Monday Oct 20, 2008, 01:27 PM GMT

[Post1706897]

The only thing missing is the Ampex tape, though when I ran mine, I liked to use a metal tape spool.  Tape is now being made by something like one factory, and only to fill orders. 24 Track Tape [not being made anymore?] is being hoarded by those who love analog recording like Neil Young, and is used exclusively by Todd Rundgren.  The quality of tape was amazing, though finding particular songs always posed issues.