Making Tapes

oldrocker

Since I still have my RTR's and that I'm SO SICK of the snow, I decided to make some recordings.

Back in about 2005 I got a Akai GX-280 D-SS, I messed with it some and then as usual stuck it on a shelf.

So tonight I pulled it out, hooked it up.
I remember when I got it, the thing came with a bunch of reels open/new.

Apparently I never really went through each reel to see if anything was recorded on the open ones.

Well, they have some music on them.

3 Dog Nights-Naturally.
Steppenwolf's debut-Steppenwolf
Sly and The Family Stone-Stand

^This one has some un different stuff on it, my wife came in the room asking "what we're
those lyrics?"

Jimi Hendrix, not sure what recording, might be a mix of stuff.

One reel has a bunch of Bob James I II III & IV, another has some Tim Weisberg.

Still got about 15 reels to go through. Who knows what's on these things.

msg

I don't, but am following along to find out. Sounds like fun!

oldrocker

Just got real weird, Dueling Banjo's.

If Ned Beatty shows up squealing like a pig, back on the shelf if goes

mhardy6647

Yeah, I have boxes of (other people's) random, home-recorded tapes. Some labeled, some not. Some labeled but the contents of the reel don't match the documentation -- a pretty easy occurrence with tape reels if one isn't fairly fastidious.

I get weirdly possessive of (or maybe defensive of?) other folks' recordings and have a hard time convincing myself to erase any of them.

Most of them are inconsequential, though.

On the other hand, here's a cool one I found. A live, off-air recording of an interview with Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir from the very early 1970s from a radio station (WHRB) in Cambridge, MA.

ReVox WHRB Dead aircheck by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

oldrocker

Scanned thru a few.

One has some REALLY nice classical music.
Bill Cosby on one???
A bit of old country on one.
And some 60's/70's rock.

I can clearly hear pops and hisses from a dirty needle and which album was heavily used compared to others.

So far I have 15 recordings, 8 new and 7 take up reels.
There is another box of reels at my Daughters.

mrbigbluelight

Sly and the Family Stone... underated IMO

Keep with the updates.

oldrocker

Got some Jerry Reid style/songs.
Johnny Cash stuff.
More country stuff.
50's sock hop era songs. This one is neat.
50's/60's variety stuff.
70's groove/instrumental tunes. This one is neat.

One that sounds like old Disney soundtracks/songs, old stuff.

Whoever recorded this stuff used both 3 3/4 & 7 1/2 speeds on certain reels.

Have some 5 inch reels with recordings that I've not listened to yet.

Daughter has a phone app that will identify the who/what of the songs and might try that this weekend.

Some of them have stuff recorded on both sides of the tape.

I re-clean the heads after each session as the tapes appear quite old with the player being 1973 era but still works.

Oops, I got the Akai in 2015 not 2005.

I won't be recording over these as I have enough new/sealed reels to make some new recordings.

oldrocker

Also have what appears to be the original Akai ATD-74 4 track 4 channel demonstration tape.

Haven't messed with that yet.

oldrocker

Just found one on ebay for 54 bucks.

I'm in the money now

mhardy6647

oldrocker wrote: »

Also have what appears to be the original Akai ATD-74 4 track 4 channel demonstration tape.

Haven't messed with that yet.

That should be a hoot!

oldrocker

Found another box with 11 more reels in it.

This one has an interesting date and location on it.

JayCee

That's cool. The very specific instructions on the bottom right are also interesting. Is it a live recording?

oldrocker

5/6/1976-7/6/1976

PHEW, these things smell really musty.

JayCee

oldrocker wrote: »

5/6/1976-7/6/1976

PHEW, these things smell really musty.

That tape list would've been right at home in my 70's childhood.

oldrocker

This one stinks the most

oldrocker

Haven't loaded any up yet.

oldrocker

Stuff inside the Glenn Miller box.
One year free subscription to Tape-Log.

oldrocker

Only 50 cents for the catalog and you ACTUALLY mailed in 50 cents

jdjohn

I found a stash of open-reel tapes myself, but many of the leads broke-off during playback/testing, so I invested in a simple splicing kit to reattach the leads to the recording tapes. Basically, it involves putting fresh connecting tape in place - the blue tape in this case.

jdjohn

I got lucky with this particular batch/box of tapes from my dad's stuff:

Sadly, a few back-coated Ampex tapes were not worth the effort - too messy to deal with.
Other batches/boxes of tapes are forthcoming, but I'm not hopeful regarding content.

oldrocker

Those are some good tunes.

Yep Ampex not that great.

mhardy6647

Do you need any additional leader, @jdjohn or do you have plenty?
If you need some, I have... a bit on hand.

jdjohn

Thank you, Mr. Hardy, but I think I'm set. This kit also came with 250ft of the stuff

mhardy6647

Sounds like it, but it never hurts to check, you know?
besides...
I think there's about a mile of it here (and I am not being facetious)

jdjohn

Absolutely...thanks for the offer! I'm actually kinda surprised at the length of leads on these tapes. It seems like about 6ft on each one!

mhardy6647

At 7-1/2 ips, it goes by pretty quickly

jdjohn

Another installment here since I recently found some Orradio/Irish Tape reels in my dad's stuff.


The story about John Herbert Orr is quite fascinating https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Herbert_Orr It's very interesting to me how an individual could profit from technology discovered during a time of war, but I guess all is fair in love and war.

I found a box of about 15 home-made/dubbed tapes while going through the stuff in my dad's garage. He did not record/make these tapes. It appears to me that the original owner/enthusiast who made these tapes was also an amateur artist, and created their own artwork for the tape boxes.

Here are a couple of the Frank Sinatra tape boxes:



There are a few Judy Garland tapes as well in this particular stash, which I think helps set the time period. There is a hand-written note of '4/4/1959' inscribed inside one of the Sinatra boxes, which I assume is the date at which the tape was recorded...likely from shellac(?). The owner/artist signed each box, and here is an example of 'her'(?) signature:

I've only listened to one of these tapes so far, and it was two-track - meaning one mono track for side one, and one mono track for side two. I do believe I heard needle drops in the recording, so again, recorded from a 'disc'. The quality is actually quite nice, although it does benefit from a bit of bass boost. I actually ran the signal through a Parks Audio Puffin, which allows for a myriad of DSP tonal/EQ adjustments, as well as 'phase' adjustments. The Puffin is marketed as a phono preamp, but it is actually much more than that. I highly recommend the Puffin, in general.

EDIT: Testing the edit feature here for grins and giggles, and also to mention that Opelika, AL, from where John Herbert Orr came, is just a stone's throw from Auburn - a technical/engineering school. I think the largest current employer in Opelika is auto-maker KIA, and supporting suppliers/vendors.

mhardy6647

Neat-o. You covered a lot of ground in that post.
It is really interesting to me to see home-made recordings from that era gussied up with box art a la the cassette mix tape boom of the 80s into early 90s!