Ampex
Ampex 200A #33 Golden State Recording Studios - David Buell
David provided the following information which includes his time at Golden State Recording Studios in San Francisco when Leo De Gar Kulka had the Ampex 200A #33 which is in the MOMSR collection.
In 1978, I temporarily moved from Dallas to San Francisco to attend The College for Recording Arts, which was held at Golden State Recorders. At the time, it was one of the only schools in the country teaching recording, disc mastering and other aspects of the music business. As you know, Leo was the owner of Golden State and Sonic Arts disc mastering.
Leo was VERY proud of his Ampex 200 and enjoyed telling stories about it and it’s use at Capitol. He was also very protective of it and wouldn’t allow anyone to use it. Somehow, I managed rise up to be one of the top in my class. I only mention that because, during my final recording project, I talked Leo into letting me record a wind chime sound effect onto the 200 that I then flew into my mix. I had plenty of tracks left on the Stephens 16-track, but for some reason (the challenge maybe?) I wanted to fly it in live during the middle 8 of the song, while we bounced the mix to the 2-track. The 200 performed flawlessly and the high end on the chimes sounded so much better coming off a full-track mono piece of tape, rather than being recorded on the Stephens with a track width of approximately 1 channel of a 2-track 1/4”. On top of that, the Stephens didn’t have any noise reduction (no NR at all, anywhere in the studio).
The Stephens also operated flawlessly. I remember that the meter panel on the front of the machine opened like a door and you had to peer around the panel as you aligned the machine to see the meter readings. Certainly not very convenient. :) I was also intrigued by the closed-loop 3M transport. The machine had no remote. We had a dedicated tape op running it and the 2-track.
I learned so much from Leo and all the instructors there. Leo was bigger than life. Tall with a booming voice and a Czechoslovakian accent, I can still see and hear him coming down the hall, arms out wide and saying, “David! So GOOOOD to see you!!”
One practical thing he taught was how to do a full band recording with no overdubs. Placing the players on the room so they could communicate and play off one another and how to have mic leakage be usable and musical.
One philosophical thing he left me with when I graduated (and I think about now as I’m about to retire) is that a lot of people will help me on my engineering journey and it’s my duty, in turn, to help others on their way up the ladder. I’ve tried to do that in my career, but the business now is nothing like it used to be. Not many positions available where you sweep floors, get coffee and work your way up to engineer.
Thanks for letting me ramble on and please don’t hesitate to reach out if there’s ANYTHING that I can do for you and your very worthwhile endeavor…
Leo in his office at Golden State Recorders; ca. 1978
Michael Mason at the Stephens 16 track; The Ampex 200 is in the background; An Ampex AG-440 2 track is underneath the tape boxes in the foreground. We mixed down to a 2 track Ampex 350. Leo was tube man. He didn’t really like the sound of the 440. :)
Me behind the Quad Eight console, recording my final project. In the picture on the right, a fellow student mans the monitor section of the console. No inline channels on this baby!
Hi David!
It’s interesting that you mentioned the Ampex 200A as a mono machine. At some point the original electronics were removed. When Asleep At the Wheel demoed on the recorder, it had four Inovonics amps and was being used as a four track. I bought another 200 that was supposedly known as the “White” 200s, just to get a set of electronics. Unfortunately the restoration was incomplete, so it will be a work in progress. Cheers! Martin
Hi Martin!
Well there you go, getting me thinking again! :)
I said it was mono, based on nothing but a lingering memory. But now that you ask, currently, I’m not exactly sure of that. I dug out my 1/4” Master of the song, which SHOULD have the wind chimes on it (I also “smuggled out” my 2” 16-track of the session, by replacing it with a new roll of tape-but that’s another story). Once I get a machine hooked up so I can listen, that MIGHT provide us a clue. A LOT of variables, but if the chimes are in stereo, then that would then prove that it was a 2-track, since I'm 100% sure I used the 200 for the chimes, and I’m 100% sure it was on 1/4” tape. If the chimes are mono, then I either recorded it on one channel of the 2-track, or it was a mono machine. I’ll let you know what, if anything, that produces…
I only have a fleeting memory of what was behind the front cabinet doors, As I said, Leo was VERY protective of that machine and took the position of, “there’s nothing to see in there that any of you need to be concerned about”. We didn’t do any kind of alignment on it before the session. It just was what it was. I’m feeling like he told us that to align it, it need some test equipment (VTVM, etc.) hooked up to it and the maintenance department needed to do it. Not the normal front panel adjustments and look at the level meter alignment. He may have made that up to justify not touching anything inside. I'm struggling to form a picture in my mind of what was in there, the one time he did open it up. I do remember him talking about “bathtub (or maybe just “tub"?) electronics, but I didn’t then, nor now, really understand what that meant by that. Does that term mean anything to you?
I was just looking at the pictures of the “White” 200 electronics on your website. I see the two Inovonics electronics, in addition to the chassis electronics, that have the Dymo labels “PB EQ”, “NOISE” (love that one-is that bias?), PB LEVEL etc.. Did those two Inovonics take the place of the electronics in the bottom of the cabinet? Those (I’ll call them the Dymo electronics) are what I remember inside the studio machine. I don’t have a memory of Inovonics amps or anything like a 300 electronics inside, but that memory is over 40 years old and was from probably the first week of school. I feel like those were maybe what he was referring to as “tub electronics”...
View some of the recorders David owned over the years
Ampro
Ampro stories This is information about a later (1970's) company with the Ampro name
Arlyn Studios - Lisa and Freddy Fletcher
Lisa and Freddy Fletcher with Austin's Arlyn Studios were interviewed by MOMSR's Directors Chris and Martin Theophilus. The interviews include Lisa and Freddy's histories and the history of the building Arlyn occupies.
Go to stories about Arlyn Studios, Lisa and Freddy Fletcher
Ray Benson - Asleep At The Wheel
Chris and Martin Theophilus (Phantom Productions, Inc.) interviewedRay Benson at Bismeaux Studio B for the Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording. View the video at this link. We appreciate Ray granting permission for the use of the photo and video content in the interview. Bismeaux Studio A (right)
Austin City Limits Audio Director - David Hough
On January 15, 2013, MOMSR's Directors were granted an interview with David Hough, the Audio Director for Austin City Limits since its inception 38 years ago. We made an appointment with him to discuss MOMSR plans and to see his new facility. At the last moment we grabbed a camera and conducted a casual interview which was very interesting. The video's a bit rough, however the content is excellent. View David Hough video (QuickTime) We also recommend this video produced by AVID about the new ACL facility.
BBC - EMI
The Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording greatly appreciates Roger Wilmut, who worked for the BBC from the 1960's to 2000, for providing us with the following information on the BBC and EMI. This content was provided by Roger from his web site.
Go to stories about the BBC and EMI
Berlant - Concertone
April, 2012
Phantom Productions received this information from Jerry Norton who worked with American Astro-Systems as they transitioned from Concertone tape recorders to supplying high tech gear to the military.
Go to stories Berlant Concertone stories
Berlant - Concertone
September 9, 2021 The following information was shared with us by Alan Fishel who worked for Concertone beginning in 1962.
Here is a little information from my memory that I hope you will be able to use. Feel free to ask for any additional information I may be able to help you with.
I joined Concertone in late 1962. The second-generation 505 with the stainless steel faceplate with the larger VU meters, or as Al Solfe Concertone's chief engineer would call all audio level meters without AES ballistics as "wigglers". The earlier 505's had a tan faceplate with smaller meters.
The 20's and 20-'20s had ceased production before my arrival, but lots of partially built assemblies remained for service. The American-made series 60 production was winding down. Everything was Teac production with the addition of the Telefunken 12AX7 front end tubes and case.
All QC functions were performed in Culver City. There were 6 assembly stations with a sound proof final inspection station. Concertone was still manufacturing their own heads including winding and matching the coils for the series 60 and replacement heads for the 20 and 30 series. They also had an AC-DC 5" reel recorder with an AM radio in the 400 series from Dokorder.
Alan Fishel (left) working on Concertone 605 (below)
Concertone also had a step up to the 505 models, the 607 with
a separate recorder-playback electronics. Their top-of-the-line series 90, a quality 7.5 - 15, 10.5" reel professional recorder for radio stations and recording studios to compete with the Ampex 350. (TEAC 325)
I do remember seeing Arne Berg finalize the 505 "Reverse-O-Matic and its introduction. Arne was a real gentleman and a great guy to work with. There was also the Concertone 605 which was a great prosumer recorder with a removable tape head assembly, (easy too change from 2 track to 4 track) full remote control, and the new front shielded heads developed by Al Solfe. This recorder had full pro specs and was a quality recorder. It was later sold under the Concord brand and TEAC as the R2000.
The 800 was a great machine that did just about everything but it was a consumer and not a semi-professional recorder as the TEAC models were.
Concord and Concertone were not related. Howard Ladd left Concertone to start Concord and later went on to Start and manage Sanyo Corp of America.
Al Solfe before making trips to Japan would have a meeting and ask the sales people, service and QC technicians what needed improvement on our models.
Concertone had 2 buildings at 9449 West Jefferson in Culver City. One was for consumer and imported products and the other was for engineering and development of new products and testing and development of military, multi-channel and new arrow space products. They had a screen room and a full white room.
As I recall Concertone closed their import Culver City building and moved all consumer operations to South El Monte around 1965. I was a QC and service technician from around 1962 to 1965 .The service department assembled several Concertone (American Electronics) series 30 recorder from parts from partially assembled parts from earlier production and was able to sell new series 30 recorders as late as 1965.
I also personally have a lot of Concertone parts like motors heads solenoids etc. I also have a green series 20 deck in a portable gray case, a complete series 90 in a wood portable case, the special legs to mount decks to so that they can be serviced from all sides. I have literature, manuals, and support items for most Concertone models. I even have a couple of photos of me at work at my QC station in 1963.
Can my experience help you with anything? I also worked at Sony SuperScope. I am a collector by heart so I have several Sony models and the first generation Phillips cassette recorders with the microphone cable as part of the carrying strap. I also have Roberts Akai recorders and more. I am almost 80 and it is time to find a home for all of my tapes and tape recorders. I would like to find a home in the Southern California area, but if Texas is the best home I am willing to say good bye. I am sure additional items will come to mind along with all of the people that I worked with as time goes on. Alan
On September 21, 2021 Alan agreed to a telephone interview with MOMSR's Martin Theophilus. Photos have been added providing some perspective to Alan's narrative. Here is a link to the full interview.
Joel Block - The Block House Studios
Joel's experience adds another dimension to the Museum's capturing of magnetic audio recording. His experience comes from radio and in the area of commercials, audio books, industrials, jingles and spoken word projects. We believe you will find the information about Joel's dad, Martin Block, to be fascinating as well. We hope you enjoy this MOMSR interview with Joel Block.
Brush History - A.P. Dank 1931 to 1974 - Brush Development Company photos of A.P. Dank contributed by his Grandson Michael Dank
  |
Hi folks,
I have my grandfather's Brush Sound Mirror BK-443 reel to reel recorder and am interested in selling it. My grandfather Alfred P. Dank worked for Brush-Clevite-Gould for his entire career 1931-1974 and actually had some recording patents through them. This is a complete unit with microphone and original reels. It works great. I have recorded with it with my band in the past.
Also have some other Brush microphones.
I will be sending the information I have on my grandfather Alfred. P Dank's work with Brush-Celvite-Gould in the next few days. As I mentioned earlier he worked for them from 1931-1974. Feel free to use what is applicable and edit it for content. I have included some photocopies of pictures as well. Family lore says his tenure with Brush started before his 1931 hire date. His older brother, my uncle Merv was friends with the Brush family and the two Dank boys as teenagers would cut the grass and do landscaping for the company during the summer.
Unfortunately the photographs and drawing mentioned in the text are unavailable.
Here is the link to the patent AP Dank had while working for Brush-Clevite-Gould
Please shoot me an email when this information posts. I know my two brothers and nephews will enjoy reading it.
Regards, Mike Dank
|
View more photos and comments about Brush by A.P. Dank • Go to Brush Development Company Stories • More about the Brush Development Company • Brush recorders in our collection
Brush Soundmirrr BK-401
"My father owned one of these machines; he obtained it in early 1948, and when he bought it, it was the first tape recorder in Kansas outside of a radio station.
The specifications were fairly primitive - the frequency response was 100-5,000 cycles per second as they called them in those days, and the signal to noise ration was a whopping 35 db! The unit was equipped as standard equipment with a ball-shaped crystal microphone. You could defintely tell the difference between a live performance and a recording on this machine, but it was novel enough to allow my dad to do professional recording for several years.
I don't know of any photos of my dad with the machine, sadly. The only thing I have is about 20 reels of the old paper tape that he recorded. Before he died I was able to play the tapes onto much more modern reel tapes - Dad had an RCA home recorder at the end of his life. Those paper tapes put a quite a bit of wear on an old Tandberg reel recorder that I played them on, that I ended up disposing of because the Tandberg heads ended up worn from the usage of the paper tapes."
Robert Moehle
Remy Ann David - CrowMobile
Recording history stories by Remy David
Floyd Domino
While Floyd Domino is widely recognized for his years with Asleep at the Wheel and the revival of Western Swing, Floyd began his career with a broad grounding in jazz, boogie woogie, swing and blues piano. Floyd's sparkling keyboards and versatility make him the choice of swing, jazz and blues musicians well beyond his Austin, Texas home. Go to Floyd Domino Stories to Play video
Editall - Joel Tall
Joel Tall was born on April 17, 1905 and passed away in December 1986. He was married to Leona B. Tall and was survived by one daughter Benita J. Kaplan. Leona helped Joel Tall found The Tall Company in the 1950's.
Benita Kaplan has generously donated some of Joel Tall's personal papers and photo to our Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording.
In 1950 Joel Tall filed U.S. Patent #US 2599667 A for his Splicing Block stating "This invention relates to splicing blocks, such as are used in splicing film and sound recording tape, and specifically it refers to a block which is particularly suitable for editing sound recording tape." View the full patent More information
Electro Voice
Al Kahn - founder of Electro Voice (07/09/1906 - 06/15/2005)
Al Kahn, the founder of Electro Voice and the inventor of several important microphone models told a great story on how his company got its name. Mr. Kahn was an industry pioneer and an early supporter of AMC and a NAMM member since the year after the company was formed in 1932! When Mr. Kahn was interviewed for the NAMM Oral History program he recalled his early love of electronics and the story of when football coach Knute Rockne named his company after Al had created a PA system to assist Rochne in coaching. In 1942 he released the first differential microphone and hired Al Wiggins who invented the Cardyne Cardioid Dynamic mic in 1946. The company has enjoyed great success as a leader in innovation for decades including the first Acoustalloy Non-Metallic Diaphragm and the company's greatest commercial success, the 664-model microphone, known as the Buchanan Hammer. NAMM
ELM Laboratories - Eugene Leon Mleczko
Martin interviewed Eugene by phone in 2014
Eugene Leon Mleczko ELM Laboratories - "This unit is a one of a kind, it is more than a "home brew" but the company never went in to full production. The founder of ELM Laboratories is a personal friend of my, I believe he is 94 years old. This was a pride and joy of thousands of hours of work and research. He was in the broadcast industry but was not happy with any units available at the time, so he set-out to build a unit that would out perform Ampex Corp. which he claims his has better specs. He has a some run of all custom made parts as spares and/or first run of units. The founder would love to tell you about it, he has an incredible memory, much better than mine." - David Wulf, Best Sound Co. Saint Louis, MO Eugene will donate this early professional recorder ELM-1 to MOMSR. Go to Eugene Leon Mleczko's MOMSR interview.
Ferrograph - Wright & Weaire Ltd. (London, England) - George Boston
The history of the Ferrograph and Wearite is interwoven. The company was originally called Wright and Weaire and the first machines they sold were Wearite tape decks thusexplaining why my father had to fit Quad amplifiers (another British company of the 1950s, 60s and 70s that made what many people considered to be the Rolls-Royce of amplifiers. The Ferrograph complete machine came a year or so after the launch of the Wearite tape deck in 1947. The decks were the same, just the name changed.
Ferrograph/Wearite information
My father, also George Boston, worked for a company called Bishop Sound that provided sound effects etc for the London theatres. Initially these were on direct cut disc, but in the 1950s my father fitted Quad amplifiers to a pair of Wearite decks. These were used for interviews with theatrical personalities including Noel Coward and Ivor Novello. These recordings are in the National Sound Archive in the British Library. In 1985 I was arranging an exhibition of the history of sound recording at the BBC Open University Centre and arranged to borrow some machines from the British library. One of the machines was a Wearite deck as modified by my father.
When I left the BBC in 1992, I was able to take my Ferrograph office tape machine with me. Two days ago, it was passed to Leicester University Oral History unit.
IBM Mincom - Martin Dombey - During my employment with Mincom from early 1981 to 1984…and based out of the Camarillo, CA factory, I witnessed some great sessions, and pristine mixes that were derived from 3M digital recorders by some of the most talented engineers in LA…Dennis Sands, Don Hahn, Roger Nichols, Lee Herschberg, & others. I believe their work stands tall to this day
Michael Leader - Ampex, Concertone, Leevers Rich, ReVox, Scully, Teac and more
The Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording greatly appreciates Michael Leaders providing his history
Magnecord - John Boyers
Information on Magnecord from Dave Boyers, son of John Boyers, one of the original founders of Magnecord
Left - John Boyers 1916 to 09/29/2012 (96).
On September 29, 2012 I was saddened to receive word from Dave Boyers, that his Dad had passed away. Here is the message he sent out.
"Gentlemen,
The last remaining founder of Magnecord, Inc. has now passed into history. Dad has wanted to go be with my mother for some time now, suffering the ravages of Alzheimer's for several years. His wishes were finally granted.
To the degree he could understand it, it has been no small measure of pride that so many people have come to know and appreciate the work he did half a century ago to further the art and science of audio recording.
Similarly, the work all of you do to keep the memory of those early pioneers alive is not only worthwhile, but also gives others like Dad a sense that the efforts they made are not forgotten.
Best wishes to you all,
db"
Go to Magnecord stories
Magnecord/HeathKit
Our Museum received a donation from Lawrence "Larry" Grover of the Magnecord /HeathKit 1020 reel to reel tape recorder. Larry also donated his tape recorder playbackand record pre-amp that was one of the earliest transitorized tape recorder amps.
I was a design engineer for Magnecord when it was a part of Midwestern Instruments in Tulsa Oklahoma. I designed the electronics for the solid state recorders. I have a model 1020 kit version and manuals by the Heathkit company where I was a design engineer. I would be pleased to donate these items to the museum if your interested.
Magnecord Memories
At my first job out of college, I worked for TI in the Germanium Applications branch. While there we got a request for a microphone amplifier from Midwestern Instruments. I was assigned to design the amplifier. As a demonstration project, I designed a fully transistorized record and playback set of electronics to be shown at the 1959 or 1960 Consumer Electronics Show in New Your city. I made a deal with my boss, I’d buy the deck (Viking) if I could have the complete unit afterwards. I believe this was the 1st public circuit of a fully transistorized record playback unit. Other transistorized circuits did not have a transistorized oscillator. About 1 year later, I found out that Midwestern Instruments was looking for a design engineer for the Magnecord division.
Paul Bunker was in charge of sales for Magnecord. He was aware of the emergence of transistorized audio equipment and had decided it was time to develop a solid state tape recorder. The first question was to use germanium or silicon transistors. Silicon was available but was significantly more expensive aimed at military and high end use (computers). Since there was no performance advantage of silicon over germanium (assuming temperature stable biasing design), we went with germanium. In hindsight, we could have gone with silicon as the price of silicon devices started dropping with increased usage. I later designed the electronics for the ANUNQ7 tape recorder designed for submarine use, using silicon.
While the mechanical engineer went to work on the tape transport mechanism, I started design on the electronics. At this time, I had only had 2 years of design experience, but I went 
confidently ahead. At that time we were comparing transistor amplifier distortion to vacuum tube distortion specifications. Our amplifier designs were judged to be good if the distortion levels were at least as good as the vacuum tube amplifiers. Later it became more widely known that the nonlinearity of vacuum tubes tended to cause even harmonics, which are not very objectionable to our ears, since most instruments tend to produce notes with even harmonics. Transistors have a differently shape transfer curve and tend to produce odd harmonics which we find objectionable in music. Also vacuum tube amplifiers have a soft limiting when over driven versus a harder limiting for transistors, again producing less objectionable harmonics. If I had been aware of these facts at that time, I would have been more diligent in pursuing lower distortion designs. The final specifications of the design while comparable to vacuum tube designs of that day, didn’t reflect the more subtle character of the harmonics of the distortion. The fact that magnetic tape is nonlinear gave us additional justification to not to pursue lower distortion amplifiers.
When the breadboards of the circuits were completed and tested, we made circuit board layouts. There weren’t any software programs to aid is this task at that time, so it was all done by hand. I made paper cutouts of the outlines of the components at 4 times scale. On a large piece of Mylar I used black layout tape and pads to lay the circuit out. An xacto knife came in handy to trim the curves and fillets. Of course this was all one sided to keep the cost low.
As I became more aware of the limitations of analog magnetic tape recording, I did some limited experiments on my own. With some success I was able to pre-distort the recording signal to null out some of the tape distortion. I also experimented with placing a magnetic material on the back side of the tape at the recording head in an effort to reduce the fringing flux. This resulted in a slight improvement in the recording of higher frequency signals. About this time we bid on and were awarded a contract to build the ANUNQ7 tape recorder for the navy, so I had no time to pursue either of these further.
The first Magnecord models I designed were the 1020 series, followed by the 2000 series. Later I was employed by the Heath Company. There we made a kit version of the 1020 series. The Heathkit version was the AD-16.
Lawrence Grover 4/26/2017
MCI
Go to MCI stories
NAGRA
We are sad to learn of the passing of Stefan Kudelski, founder of Nagra professional portable reel tape recorders. The following is the corporate release on January 28,2013.
Cheseaux, 28th January, 2013 – The Kudelski Group is deeply saddened to announce that Mr. Stefan Kudelski, 84 years old, passed away on 26th January 2013. Founder of the Kudelski Group in 1951, Stefan Kudelski invented the first portable professional recorder, the renowned “Nagra”, which is still today one of the most recognized brands in the sound recording domain.
Stefan Kudelski led the company since its foundation and until 1991, when his son André succeeded as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Stefan Kudelski was a member of the Board of Directors of Kudelski SA until 2006, and since then served as its Honorary Chairman.
An exceptional inventor and a pioneer, Stefan Kudelski revolutionized the world of sound recording by developing a range of world-renowned recorders used in the radio, motion picture, television and security industries.
In 1983, he entered the hall of fame of motion picture and television by receiving the John Grierson International Gold Medal, joining luminaries of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers that include Louis Lumière, Thomas Edison, Lee de Forest, George Eastman, Walt Disney, Samuel Warner, Léon Gaumont, Ray Dolby and Vladimir Zworkyin.
In the course of his career, he was awarded numerous distinctions among which Oscars from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1965, 1977, 1978 and 1990, two Emmy Awards from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 1984 and 1986. He was also Doctor Honoris Causa from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) since 1986.
Stefan Kudelski was one of those personalities who contributed to the international reputation of Switzerland. Anyone who knew him could only be impressed by his sharpness, his incredible culture, his curiosity and his permanent sense of humor. Stefan Kudelski was more than a brilliant inventor; he was a man of values, a fine mind that will live on with us for a long time,” declared Claude Smadja, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kudelski SA.
“With the loss of Stefan Kudelski, our Group will miss its founder and the inventor of the Nagra recorder. Stefan Kudelski defined our Group. The values he stood for form the foundation of our company and its reputation today across the five continents. Among those values, the determination to demonstrate that technological challenges described as impossible are always successfully achieved by teams that know no boundaries,” said André Kudelski.
Contact:
Phil Mundwiller, Corporate Communications, +41 21 732 01 81, phil.mundwiller@nagra.com
NPR
Presto 3 channel Studio
On January 6, 2020 Larry DeVivo shared the following Presto ads, information and photos. Go to page
"I'm in the process of recreating a 1960’s 3 track studio myself. I have the Presto 850 from Mark Wilder, I have a 12x3 Langevin tube console from UCLA’s theater, film and television department (being modeled to include a two buss section as well speak), I have 6 Altec 9061A equalizers and two Langevin 253 EQ’s built into channels 1 and 2 of the console, I have a custom made 3 channel Highland Dynamics BG2 vari MU limiters (switchable between RCABA6A circuitry and Abbey Road RS124 circuitry). I have a mono EMT 140 plate reverb for the center channel and an AKG BX20 for the stereo sides. It has taken me 15 years to acquire all this equipment... but what a sound."
Recording History - General
• Peter Balint - Edison, Farrograph, ReVox, Uher and Teacs
"...my interest in audio came from my grandfather (who owned an Edison phonograph and many cylinders which I did get to listen to) back in the 60s he thought valve radios were a good source of toys for me, in pieces and complete I had a room at his place full of them. He got me wiring his workshop lights when I was 6 which was about the time he started to leave me unsupervised with live radio chassis protected just by some common sense rules; don't touch the live or hot bits being the main one! (Times have changed eh... sigh!) All was well though and the experiments I did like swapping speakers, extending aerials and trying to match very ancient 78 turntables to radio amplifiers etc, actually cemented my interest in audio.
I used Ferrographs, Revoxs, Uhers and Teacs back when I was a sound engineer in the 70s and 80s for making sound effects and music recording for theatre. When I was head of sound for a major repertory theatre and we had a small studio that opened into a large rehearsal room so what we couldn't fit in the booth went out there, its acoustics were interesting. I moved on and in the 80s I was mainly doing live music engineering for a wide range of genres, rock, soul, reggae, folk, Tex-Mex etc and a lot of jazz and world music towards the end. I had a workshop in London building small high quality PAs and preparing musicians backline for the road quite often for use by established musicians who were fed up that small often meant low quality. I had worked for a large London sound, lighting and AV company and had prepared maintained and used many large systems; I wanted to bring the standard of the large set up to the small PA. I moved the workshop out into the country in 86 and built a couple of recording studios, one for a wealthy musician was a very comprehensive job.
Things change and somehow I had got involved in commercial networking in the late 80s and by 1990 telecoms had become the majority of my work. Now after 25yrs I find myself missing the audio and too ill to do my telecoms work and so in need of a project. Time to resurrect the workshop I think and a bit more.
I was fortunate to buy a few things many years ago, Tannoy Red and Gold Monitors, various amps and mics, stuff that was beginning to become redundant at the time. I have a Revox A77 2 track and I have recently bought a Teac A3340 4 track, (when I first got one in the 70s it was a revelation... multi-tracking had arrived in my life!) So I'm thinking of putting it all together with a few extra bits to make a vintage slightly mobile studio. It's back to basics on some levels, recording straight to two track with minimal but good quality mics. I'm looking for acoustic or perhaps jazz bands that are up for an experiment, if it's just one or a small band we can do it in my living room; I live in a tiny community of 8 cottages surrounded by fields and woods and as long as the sessions are in the day time and occasional I shouldn't get complaints, besides I'll probably invite the neighbours round as extra sound damping! It would be nice to see it progress into local village halls doing a small (cosy) live gig whilst recording a separate mix on to 2 track magnetic tape. Whether I can use old contacts to get an established band or solo act to perform in a village hall remains to be seen but I will need another (retired?) engineer... Although I do see this as a community project and the neighbours very brilliant musical son and other local musicians would also be occasionally welcome to go analogue and use the equipment.
I'm currently looking for a 15 ips master recorder, an A77 or B77 would be nice and probably sensible as there is a Revox service place 30 miles away and they are - in my experience - inherently reliable, but I keep getting sidetracked by the idea of a Ferrograph Series 6 stereo machine. There are high speed versions of these valve machines but they rarely come up; these old Ferrographs being one of the few machines that offered 3 speeds, the standard having 1.7/8 - 3.3/4 - 7.5 and the high speed version 3 3/4 - 7.5 - 15. It's not the sensible choice, they were dinosaurs in their own time, old fashioned tape controls and tape followers whereas Revox and others had already found ways of keeping the tape covering the head without such contraptions! But I really liked the sound of the old beasts, they might look like pieces of old military equipment (they probably were used by the forces in the 50s) but the electronics is top notch and Ferrographs were used a lot by the BBC at the time. Any I buy now would probably need a full restoration and valves - although I love them - aren't perhaps the best to transport around but it would not be the the only master machine as I would have the Revox and perhaps the Teac recording as well, (I could separate say a general stereo pair from the close mic mix.)
The house is now slowly filling up with boxes of equipment, I thought I had a lot of what was needed but then I realised everything from spitting transformers (have you seen the prices!) to mic stands to multicores to patchbays (I got a great deal on some ex-BBC Mosses and Mitchell jack panels) and a lot more were absent. As for village halls, the small matter of a second mixer and a PA; my Tannoy monitors will be fine at home but I'm not risking £5000 speakers as a PA, Tannoys cost a fortune to repair even in England! They are a piece of history though, all the famous British albums of the period 50s 60s 70s were first heard on a pair of Tannoys, Abbey Road, Decca all used them in their studios, however 35yrs ago I bought my first pair because I liked the sound and it was a speaker I had worked with many times.
Well thanks for all your help and look forward hopefully to downloading the rest of the videos, I'm sorry I didn't get it done on time. In case your wondering it is 4.30 in the morning here, a life time of night work has left its mark... although I am going to bed now!
Kind regards again, Peter"
Rupert NEVE
Please view MOMSR's video of Rupert Neve being interviewed by Billy Crockett of Blue Rock Studios during the dedication of the Blue Rock Neve 5088
Phil Van Praag - author - Evolution of the Audio Recorder
Phil Van Praag is the author of the wonderful documentation of magnetic tape recorders in his book "The Evolution of the Audio Recorder." Having worked for Ampex as a Senior Instructor in Redwood City, California and as the information technology for another company, Phil has extensive knowledge of the development of both audio and video technology. Phil published a book about the beginnings of sound recording and presents an excellent description of recorders that were significant from the late '40's through the '70's. The interview was produced by Chris & Martin Theophilus for the Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording.
Roberts/Califone/Rheem
Robert G. Metzner
Founder of Roberts Recorders, Califone A/V December 11, 2012
Go to Roberts/Califone /Rheem stories
Reelsound Recording - Malcolm Harper
Malcolm Harper owner of Reelsound Recording was interviewed by Chris and Martin Theophilus, Phantom Productions, Inc. for the Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording. In addition to Malcolm's great stories about his company, video inserts from one of his Austin on-location jobs shows some of the work involved in completing on-location sound recording productions. Go to Reelsound Recording Stories to Play video
Scully
Scully Stories - Remy Ann David/Crow Mobile
Sony
Go to Sony Stories
Stellavox
Go to Stellavox Stories
Paul Stubblebine - The Tape Project
On October 31, 2014 Paul Stubblebine and his wife Connie with a couple of friends toured our vintage recording collection. Paul sat down for an interview about his history for the Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording. Paul is the owner of Paul Stubblebine Mastering and the founder of "The Tape Project." Go to Paul Stubblebine's MOMSR interview.
Paul began his mastering career in San Francisco in 1973. For eleven years he worked at a recording and mastering facility on Folsom Street which, originally owned by CBS, was later bought by David Rubinson and became known as The Automatt. During the CBS period, in addition to the CBS catalog, the studio also brought in outside work from the Record Plant and Wally Heider's including records by The Grateful Dead, The New Riders of the Purple Sage, Sly Stone, Santana, Joan Baez, Bill Evans, Tony Bennett and Jane Fonda's phenomenally successful workout record engineered by Leslie Ann Jones. This is also where the mastering was done for the US releases of Rough Trade and Factory Records including Joy Division, and New Order. During this period, records mastered at the Automatt were on the charts continuously. Paul then went on to become chief engineer at Rocket Lab, also in San Francisco, where he worked until starting his own company, Paul Stubblebine Mastering, in 1997.
Tandberg
Go to Tandberg Stories
Tapesonic
Go to Tapesonic Stories
Teac 3340 four channel multi-sync reel tape recorder donated to
MOMSR by Steve N. Counter
Hi Martin,
The machine was purchased around 1973 - 74. The band I was in at the time had a band house and we decided to build our own recording studio in the basement of the house because no one told us 'hey, you can't build a recording studio". We had only the vaguest notion of what we were doing but we thought we'd figure it out as we went.
A couple of us had taken a road trip from Denver to LA where I had a family connection who was high up in the Hollywood entertainment sector. That got us a tour of Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank where we got to see a real recording studio, a sound stage in fact - really big studio - and drop by a session in progress. The session was a vocal comping session but i wouldn't know until much later what exactly that meant. The session was for a film soundtrack project, the song was The Way We Were for the film of the same name and the artist was Barbra Streisand.
Armed with that experience we went back to Denver and set to work
building our little four track recording studio with the Teac 3340 as the centerpiece. We outfitted the control booth (yeah it was literally a booth) with the 3340, A Pioneer 1/4 track stereo tape recorder for a mix down machine, a pair of DBX 117 companders for noise reduction, and a trio of Shure microphone mixers. We used a Kenwood hifi amplifier to drive a pair of Auratone Cubes for monitoring and a separate Kenwood amplifier for headphones. We built a homemade patch bay to connect everything together and Presto! Recording Studio...
The upshot of all of this that I got pretty good at jockeying the 3340 and discovered I had a little bit of a knack for this recording thing. I started recording other bands, friends and musical acquaintances which eventually led to a 40 year career as a professional recording engineer and mixer working in studios in Denver, Phoenix and San Francisco Bay Area where i've recorded projects at Starlight Sound, The Plant, Prairie Sun Recording, Coast Recorders,Fantasy Studios and FM Recorders where I was Chief engineer for 15 years., I'm retired now but I had a good run and a few multiplatinum projects over the years with En Vogue, Digital Underground, Tupac Shakur, Tony Toni Toné, Club Nouveau among others. Despite not using it since the late 70's I've kept the 3340 all these years for sentimental reasons as it is the machine that literally "started it all" for me. I have rather fond memories of it.
I'm extremely pleased that it is going to a group of analog tape recorder enthusiasts for whom "analog" is something more than a promotional buzzword for selling plug-ins. Yes I work "in the box" now as does most of the world, but I've also done more audio alignments on Studier, Sony, MCI, Otari and even a Lyric or two, tape machines than anybody should have to, and I'm one of the few people in the world who can fly a Euphonix 2000M-96 console. All in all, I was very happy to discover your museum and very pleased that you can add my "old reliable" 3340 to your collection.
Cheers,
---Steve Counter
Teac Series 50 T-3413 A photos contributed by Dirk van Tamelen
We were not aware of this model Teac reel tape recorder. It's serial number is "01" which indicates it may have been a prototype. It was most likely the beginning of the Series 70 reel tape recorders.
"Had in possession since young electronics tech now over 40 Yrs now. 1/4" 1/2 track with positive large rubberized factory knobs assuming for mastering (didn't know it or about the XLR rear connections at the time of acquisition as an 18yr old ). All worked great then and still does.
Purchased from a commercial electronics parts wholesale reseller with est 3kft warehouse of overstock of many off shoot electronics parts including a chance Teac/Tascam RTR preamps and etc. Located in Westlake Village, Ca USA circa @1976 On Agoura Road. Store owner was Irv Finkel and his wife who tended the shop. Rather a quirky but loveable married couple running a dingy warehouse of spare random components.. but this unit stood out even back then.
Much thanks ! Dirk from US. "
"Ps. After finding and thinking on your website and what brought you to such dedication....
On a personal note of interest regarding magnetic recording, for some unknown reason as a young teenager, our family received a boxed Panasonic reel to reel full sized deck, sent to US from my older Vietnam army brother Chris van Tamelen. It was mesmerizing. As a mechanical and functional audio device. Most every day, after grade school would spend hours spending face time with the unit in the living room. Recording, Stopping. Playing back. Anything. Made so much technical sense.... At the time as playing guitar and piano since a 5 yr old.
Believe it ultimately directed an entire future. Thank you for your reverence to this medium.
Dirk van Tamelen (California)"
TEAC TASCAM
Dr. Yoshiharu Abe (03/31/1931 01/02/2013)
Yoshiharu Abe is known as the father of personal multi-track recording in the audio engineering field. He was one of the five founders of TEAC in 1957 and went on to become one of the company’s most important product designers. Abe-son designed several landmark products over his long career including the 80-8 and the Portastudio series. He later worked for Fostex and was a key player in the teams that created the B-13 and X-15. Beginning in 1948 he also began writing extensively for audio engineering magazines and authored three text books on audio engineering. NAMM
Budd Johnson, VP Teac Tascam (02/10/1942 - 12/04/2011)
Budd Johnson was a key member of the TEAC team that oversaw the development of the American branch of the company known as TASCAM. As a result Budd was there in the late 1960s through the early 70s to witness first hand, the remarkable and somewhat unexpected success of the home recording market. His product spec sheets and ads later proved to have been a key role in the popularity of TASCAM's reel and mixing units. He also played an early and important part in the success of Fostex and served as that pioneering company's president in the early years. Within all of his fascinating stories he stressed the joy he had going to work each day and doing something he loved. NAMM
Go to Teac/Tascam Stories
Terra Nova Studio - Jerry Tubb and Nick Landis
Terra Nova Mastering Studios was founded in 1990 in Austin, Texas by Diane and Jerry Tubb. Jerry and engineer Nick Landis were interviewed in 2015 for the Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording. Go to the interview page.
Tom Vernon
Tom Vernon recently toured our Museum as part of a story he's writing on vintage equipment. He agreed to sit down for an interview. Go to Tom Vernon's MOMSR interview.
Telos Visits the Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording
BY TOM VERNON ON JUN 24, 2015 3:00:00 PM
Most technology museums are started by people who have a passion for the equipment they have worked with. The Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording in Austin, TX is no exception. Martin Theophilus, founder of Phantom Productions, spent much of his career as a recording engineer, working with analog tape recorders. His passion is such that he has turned his entire house into a tape recorder museum. No room has been spared, and he's quickly running out of space. Having never seen a house filled with recorders, this was on the 'must see' list during a recent trip to Austin.
It all started in 1998, when a friend gave Theophilus a 1904 Edison wax recorder for Christmas. The unit had been restored and is in near-mint condition. From that moment, the collection has grown exponentially.
From 1904, the collection jumps to the 1940s, with a Sound Mirror, the first audio recorder for the consumer market. It used a paper-based magnetic tape, which turned out not to be very durable.
Around that time, wire recorders were introduced, and there are few Webster Chicago machines in the collection. There is also a rare Pentron Astra Sonic, which sold in the 1949 Lafayette Radio catalog for $150.00. Wire recorders were a step up from paper tape, but the fidelity wasn't so great, and there was no way to edit programs. Splicing broken wire and having it still pass through the recording head was also problematic. Magnetic tape was already waiting in the wings.
The museum has a very complete collection of Ampex recorders, beginning with the model 200A, which was manufactured in 1947. There are also the more familiar 300, 350, 600/601, and 440 machines built in the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s. At the end of the parade is the last professional machine from Ampex, the ATR 800, made in 1982. All are in working condition.
Teac/Tascam is well represented by a number of machines, beginning in 1956 with the TD 102, and ending with the BR-20, which was built up to 2004. One of the more interesting units is the model 388, which is an 8-channel mixing console and 8-track, 1/4” reel recorder all in one package, a predecessor of Tascam's later porta-studio machines which included a cassette recorder.
From the earliest recorders manufactured, the museum's collection extends to some of the last recorders built before everything went digital. Most interesting is the Sony APR 5000, that company's last professional recorder. It had a unique way of making adjustments. Bias, EQ, and levels are all adjusted by top panel up and down buttons. A digital display shows the hexadecimal code for the level, and that is what's recorded in the maintenance log. The 
only manual adjustments on the machine are for head azimuth and height.
And there are a few machines that are just plain weird. Wanting to work with all magnetic media, one of the museum's recorders will record and play 1/4” reel tape, cassettes, and 8-track cartridges. In addition to tape recorders, Theophilus has acquired many recording accessories for his collection. One of the more interesting is a Heathkit SW-1 Speedwinder, a recent purchase from eBay. It still works, and rewinds reels of tape at an amazing speed.
Preserving documentation is also a part of the museum's mission. Over 13,000 images are on loan from the Theophilus vintage recording collection. It is believed that this is one of the largest documentation collections on magnetic sound recording and specifically on reel to reel tape recorders from the 1940s through the present. While much of the material is advertisements for recorders, the collection also includes magazines, catalogs, and operating and service manuals.
A major service of the museum is identifying individuals who are still available who made significant contributions to the development and use of magnetic sound recording technology. These individuals are being interviewed, with the recordings being preserved and made available to the public.
Among those interviewed: Rupert Neve, Rupert Neve Designs; Robert G. Metzner, founder of Roberts and Califone A/V; Dr. Yoshiharu Abe, father of personal multi-track recording and one of the five founders of Teac; Al Kahn, founder of Electro Voice, and Stefan Kudelski, founder of Nagra professional portable reel tape recorders.
With space at a premium, Theophilus has to place limits on what he collects. There are few video recorders, and no broadcast cart machines or 8-track decks in the house, and just a few Tascam 122-series professional cassette recorders.
With the equipment now filling his house and recorders numbering around 180 and over 100 microphones, Theophilus is planning for a permanent home for the collection.
In 2012 he established a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with the goal of creating a significant permanent museum, open to the public, for the vintage recording collection. In addition to preserving and displaying the magnetic recording equipment, an additional goal is to create an organization that will: research and archive information about sound recording; cprovide education about the history of sound recording; and display related documents, manuals, catalogs, magazines, and memorabili
a.
When completed, the museum will display the vintage equipment in a setting that provides a perspective on how the units were used. Most will be able to be demonstrated. There will be rooms that show how early recording studios were equipped. Items will be displayed with memorabilia of the same period. There will be areas for restoration of the equipment where folks can view how the recorders work and see how the technology developed. Initially, the Theophilus vintage recording collection, related documentation and web content will be on loan to and may eventually be donated to the museum once a facility is established. Blueprints for the facility have been drawn up, and fundraising for the new building is underway.
“Our dream is to have a world class facility here in Austin, Texas - The Live Music Capital of the World,” explains Theophilus. “We want it to reflect the rich sound recording history of the area and to bring it alive in an exciting and innovative museum.”
William Hewton - Ampex 600 restoration
Wollensak 3M
Go to Wollensak Stories
Webcor
Go to Webcor Stories
