Press Play > Dedicated to All Things Reel-to-Reel

This is an audio version of a presentation I deliver at Hi-Fi shows and to interest groups. 

It covers:
Application
Reels sizes
Track layout
Tape speeds
Reversable machines 
Eq
New or used machines

A transcription can be found as a blog on the Reel Resilience website.
https://www.reelresilience.co.uk/post/press-play-episode-28-buying-a-reel-to-reel

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Reece Beard is a final-year student at Salford University in the UK.  I thought he would make a great interview as to why GenX, Millenials and Gen Zeds are going back to the analogue tape format.

You can also hear why it's good that a machine doesn't record sometimes and how I trashed an MRL alignment tape. 

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In part 2 of this two-part podcast (see Ep 24 for Part 1)  we continue our talk with Dan Labrie owner of  Myriad Magnetic.

Dan has been involved in professional analogue recording technology since 2010. He began his career replacing switches and capacitors on an Amek console at a recording studio in Detroit. As a result of  working for analogue tape pioneer Mike Spitz, who owned ATR Services and the tape manufacturer ATR Magnetics, he has gained valuable experience in, not just the machines, but also  in the tape they record and play.

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I have been meaning to do  this for a long time, a bit more about me and my experience, so you get an idea of the person behind all of this. I did an outline of my background in Episode 1 but there is nothing like being interviewed and answering those, sometimes tricky questions, that get you searching the depths of your memory to answer them.

I was asked to appear on Darren Harte’s radio show on Harborough FM, to talk about the resurgence of tape. Darren is a client of Reel Resilience , I have serviced his cassette deck and reel to reel machine in the past. In the interview Darren also mentions the audio archive at the University if Leicester who are also one of my clients.

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In part 1 of this two-part podcast we talk to Dan Labrie owner of  Myriad Magnetic.

Dan has been involved in professional analogue recording technology since 2010. He began his career replacing switches and capacitors on an Amek console at a recording studio in Detroit. As a result of  working for analogue tape pioneer Mike Spitz, who owned ATR Services and the tape manufacturer ATR Magnetics, he has gained valuable experience in, not just the machines, but also  in the tape they record and play.

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The resurgence of reel-to-reel, whilst great, has brought with it a few myths and misnomers and, shall we say, less than best practice in using them. In part 2 of this 3 part mini-series on supporting reel-to-reel, Iain Betson of Reel Resilience discusses with his guests, Rob Brinkworth and  Gary Hedge, about looking after the audio format we love. 

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In the 1960s to 1980s, when tape recorders were in regular use, there were many people to fix them. Half a century down the line, the number who now do this has reduced for many reasons. So who's going to keep these recorders running for the next generation to enjoy? In part 1, of this two-part podcast, Iain Betson of Reel Resilience is in conversation with Rob Brinkworth and Gary Hedge, two UK based people who do just that.  We talk "Guinea pigs", Fostex reliability and why a hit making studio of the 1980s hated their Studer A800! 

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Part 2 of my conversion with Rob Brinkworth. In Episode 20 we talked about Rob's collection of Revox A77 and B77 machines and we carried on talking about the other recorders in his collection too, so I thought it would be a shame not to hear it. 

One of the models we spoke about was the successor to the B77,  Studers attempt to bridge the gap between their consumer, Revox badge products and the professional Studer line-up, the Revox PR99.

Then we got onto the "fun" of owning a Revox  A700 and comparing it to its Studer brother, the B67. Listen on!

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It’s rare you can use the term game-changer in the world of reel-to-reel, In the genesis of the format developments came organically, with perhaps only the discovery of AC bias, to radically improve the recorded audio quality,  being worthy of that title. 

But in terms of actual machines that title must go to a product introduced in 1968 by Studer under it's Revox brand name: The A77. 3 heads, 3 motors and tape handing that could match some professional machines.
In this episode of Press Play> we talk all thing A77 (and a bit about its successor the B77) with a collector, font of knowledge about these models. and owner of an A77 that was mad eon day one of its production.

We talk about our upcoming events too:  The next webinar on the 29th January  and the big one – the one day live attendance workshop on March 20th 2022. Both events can be found on Eventbrite.co.uk – search for Buying and Owning  Revox A77 and B77 Tape Recorders  and The Reel to Reel Tape Recorder Experience or go the home page on the Reel Resilience website www.reelresilience.co.uk and click on the Orange event tab on the home page. 

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This episode is part 2 of our two-part look at (Sony) MCI  tape machines - I am told, by those with minds immeasurably superior to mine, that there is no difference between those machines badged with the Sony or MCI logo. 

We talk to Graham Nystrom of Rope Room Studio based in Astoria, Oregon (www.roomstudio.com). He has an MCI  JH-24, or nearly one, because as you will hear, it’s a both a work in progress and a labour of love to get his machine up back up and running. 

Our next webianr on an aspect of reel-to-reel ownership is on the 31st July 2021. It's about the stuff no reel-to-reel can do without: Tape. The What, Why and How of tape to be exact. 

We’ll have a Q & A too, so you can ask your questions and I’ll do my worst at answering them. You can send them to me in advance if you to [email protected] 

Booking on our webinars is easy just go to www.eventbrite.co.uk and search for reeltoreel or openreel and that should find it. 

https://roperoomstudio.com/

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This episode, and the next one, of the Press Play > podcast is all about MCI tape recorders. I put the word out on the Facebook groups that I wanted to talk MCI tape machines and studio owners Thomas Yearsley and Graham Nystrom replied they would be happy to hook up. 

Both Graham and Thomas are great speakers and passionate about their MCIs so, with so much material, only two episodes could do the subject  justice.  

This episode sees me in conversation with Thomas, owner of Thunderbird Analogue Studios in Oceanside, California about his music, studios and, of course, his MCI machines.

https://www.facebook.com/ThunderbirdAnalog/
https://www.instagram.com/thunderbirdanalog/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbH2U51xP1M

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In this episode we introduce the fourth new reel-to-reel machine to arrive on the market. Thorens show their confidence in the resurgence of reel-to-reel by the launch of the TM1600 player. Gunter  Kürten, CEO of Thorens, talks about why he wanted the Thorens name on a reel-to-reel , who the machine is aimed at, why it costs what it does and, the question most asked, why a player only.

https://www.thorens.com/en/thorens-news-infos/231-high-end-2019-thorens-tm-1600-%E2%80%93-high-end-tape-machine.html

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Andrew Morton runs the website Parlogram Auctions. A site specialising in the sale of rare and collectable Beatles memorabilia.  An Englishman living in Austria, Andrew has an encyclopaedic knowledge of anything Beatles and has made a personal collection of all the studio albums of The Beatles that were released on open-reel tape. In this episode we discuss not only those tape-based albums, but also the band's use of tape in the studio as a creative tool.

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In conversation with Stuart Blacklock on buying an entry-level reel-to-reel machine. Stuart has been a guest on Press Play before, and it's with good reason we welcome him back. He is a man with a wealth of reel-to-reel experience and, as you’ll hear, a tape machine collection to match. We discuss machines to consider buying when first getting into the reel-to-reel format: What's affordable. What to look out for. Pros and cons. What it will cost. Also in this podcast is exciting news of a webinar Iain Betson of Reel Resilience will be running in late January 2021 on how to line-up your open-reel recorder. 

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Kostas Metaxas of Metaxas & Sins: This episode is part 2 of our two-part chat with Kostas Metaxas of Metaxas & Sins. We’ll hear about the TRX recorder, move onto discuss the new limited-edition product Papillon 15 and then about his beautiful pens. We will also hear, straight from the designers mouth, the answer to the question so many ask when they see the these new recorders: How much are they?

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Kostas Metaxas of Metaxas & Sins: Despite the resurgence of the tape format, few people, or companies, have created a new tape-recorder. Kostas has not just done this once, but twice. First with the TRX recorder, positioned as a replacement for Nagra and Stellavox field recorders, and later with the Papillion 15, a studio based, or high-end audiophile, product. In part 1 of this two-part podcast Kostas takes us through his early years in hi-end hi-fi and music recording, to the story of how the TRX, and recently the Papillon, came about.

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Tape heads: It all stops with a head when the audio is recorded on to the tape and starts with it on replay. Fortunately magnetic heads for audio recording are still manufactured by at least three companies across the World. Press Play > talks to two of them. In part 2, of this two-part podcast, we talk to Federica Galantino and Andrea Babuto, of Photovox Technology of Italy https://www.photovoxtech.it/. We talk head re-lapping, toll machines on subways and why cassette deck owners should be worried.

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Tape heads: It all stops with a head when the audio is recorded on to the tape and starts with it on replay. Fortunately magnetic heads for audio recording are still manufactured by at least three companies across the World. Press Play > talks to two of them. In part 1, of this two-part podcast, to Peter Van Rompay, of AM Beligium http://www.ambelgium.be/en and in part 2, to Federica Galantino and Andrea Babuto, of Photovox Technology of Italy https://www.photovoxtech.it/. We talk head re-lapping, butterfly heads and toll machines on subways and roads. 

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This episode of Press Play> very much deals with the visual, which may seems strange considering open-reel is a sound format, but pretty much since the visual media started, tape machines have made an appearance. Asthetically they have just got it – those big reels turning, the meters moving, the lights flashing.  The guest interview this episode is a person who addresses the visual image of the tape recorder: John Farrar runs Righteous Reels based in Dalton, Pennsylvania https://www.righteousreels.com/ where he produces a range of, well, simply awesome aluminium reels for tape machines. You can find the links to the Youtube videos mentioned in the podcast on the reelresilience blog https://www.reelresilience.co.uk/post/righteous-reels

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It may seem crazy, but Steve Fensome took a working, and hard to find, Studer A810 MPU board and dismantled it. But it was all in the name of tape machine progress, because, as a result, he is now producing new MPU boards for the A810 and A812 models. https://studer-mpu-boards.com/ Listen to our conversation as he tells us why, and how, he did it and about an Aladdins cave of tape machines he found in Manchester, England. 

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