Recording audio from a Grundig TK140 Reel to Reel recorder

iggystooge

New member
Hello all,

What I'm hoping to do is to transfer some old recordings from a Grundig TK140 Reel to Reel recorder while the tape is still good. I use Ableton Live 9 and have a Saffire Pro 24 pre-amp I use to record guitar and vocals.

Can I connect the TK140 to my pc using the pre-amp and if so what additional cables will I need?

Thanks very much for any advice you can offer me.

Iggy
 
Theoretically you can connect the TK140 to the Saffire.

The Saffire Pro 24 is a firewire interace (I believe) so that will got you into the computer.

You just need to connect the TK140 to the Saffire's line in.

However, I don't know what outputs the TK140 has . . . most likely DIN. So you would need DIN to 6.5mm jacks.
 
I think jack 3 is for audio in and out. You can find the 5-pin DIN to RCA cables easy enough, or just put little nails in the DIN holes and alligator clip it to your regular wiring. I think I was using nails sized for picture framing.

The USA eBay usually has a cable for B&O gear for $25, but I think I found some for 12-14 dollars
 
There is a cable on Ebay described as 1M 6.35MM JACK TO 5 PIN DIN PLUG B&O NAIM AUDIO CABLE LEAD STEREO DJ AMPLIFIER. I cant get the picture of it to show on here. Am I allowed to post a link to it on here?
 
I can't find that description on my ebay, but the link should be OK. The normal Stereo cable for all that old euro and Nipponese stuff is the 5-pin DIN to four male RCA. You only need L&R out and the common pin and don't need the L&R in - 3 of the 5 pins
 
No. they are around 4 pound in UK;
5 Pin Din to 4 Phono (RCA) Audio Stereo In/Out

Doesn't mean it will be any better than the nails and alligator clips, though. hahah

There might be din to 6.5mm L&R, but that would be rare. If you look for two plug cables, you have to know if they are out from your Grundig, or, not. With four plug, you have to see which ones work - meaning sound will arrive at the interface when you find the right plugs
 
The 5 pin to phono, then an adaptor to jack is a better bet because the 5 pin to TRS cable is almost guaranteed NOT to work, because the recorder is mono, and going in went in on pins 1 and 2 (2 is ground) and on later machine pin 4 was the other channel in - but that recorder of yours from memory has a 3 pin din socket, not 5? Even if it is 5 - nothing says pins are connected to allow mono/stereo operation.. Output will be on pin 2, ground and pin 3 mono signal - so that 4 phono cable has all the possibilities and an unbalanced output, which is ideal.

With Din equipped kit no matter what you did, you always ended up with the wrong connections. To go from some kit to another you needed 1 to 3 conversion cables or you ended up with an input connected to input.
 
Well, I thought the google image I saw of the I/O was the 140, but there was a lot of models. I should think I'm probably guilty of assuming too much.

However, my 1960 (1959-1961) era MONO Magetophon has 5-pin. One might assume that since it is MONO it wouldn't have sound on sound. And one would be wrong : ) It has two 5-pin and two inline 3-pin ! hahah

I think there's a service man for the 140 that might have the diagrams
 
Well, there, maybe wasn't any sound on sound. Before the net went to crap, I was able to archive a Gramophone review from Jan.,1960
There was the MONO 75, and this is the 76. They explain the the reader about twin-track and how 4-track works. Telefunken put a white and a red button between the spools to record track 1, or, track 3.

From the article;
"Thus one could record say piano on one track and sing to it On
the other, and if dissatisfied with one's vocal efforts rub them out and try
again without losing the piano part; until, eventually satisfied, pressing both
buttons enables both tracks to be heard together"

I could paste the full un formatted text, if you like that stuff
 
Thanks for the help guys. I've ordered the cable today. I've been listening to some of the old tape and found some great recordings of my grandfather whose voice i'd never heard before. Unfortunately the sound quality is pretty bad, very crackly and hissing and breaking up at times. Is this likely to be down to the player or will it be the tape?
 
I never worked with any mono 4 track machines? You had mono recorders which recorded on the lower half, then you turned the tape over and recorded a new mono track. Then we moved to 2 track stereo and 4 track stereo - 2 track losing the ability to turn the tape over and double recording time, and of course 4 track, which was just two tracks on half of the tape width. My first sound on sound was on a Ferrograph 722HD, and it was pretty simple to use and quality decent.

There were, I believe a few recorders that you could switch the erase head off, and then superimpose a new recording on the old one - as a once only no going back recording.
 
Both can be very troublesome, but most of that sounds like the hardware. Electronics, often, can't just sit for long periods of time without "blood" flowing in the circuits.

I have bought a lot of non-working machines and you can probably find a better machine without much expense should it come to that.

If you can find something like a scratch tape in the lot, you can experiment with that, and save the valuable tapes. It is possible you can work out some of the machines issues with use., and maybe a little bit of care and cleaning

That is really cool that you hear your Grandfather
 
I never worked with any mono 4 track machines? You had mono recorders which recorded on the lower half, then you turned the tape over and recorded a new mono track. Then we moved to 2 track stereo and 4 track stereo - 2 track losing the ability to turn the tape over and double recording time, and of course 4 track, which was just two tracks on half of the tape width. My first sound on sound was on a Ferrograph 722HD, and it was pretty simple to use and quality decent.

There were, I believe a few recorders that you could switch the erase head off, and then superimpose a new recording on the old one - as a once only no going back recording.

Well, the engineering wasn't by some cost/profit dictated department : ) I think this machine has dual erase/record. The old Akai "KNOB" moved the darn headblock. Anyway, the public was more kit oriented and could be doing their own MODs. I think with the TEAC 2340, engineers took a cue from what hobbyists were doing ?

Ya, there are so many machines on the list. I'm mostly looking for the under $50 bargain. I guessed the $12.50 magnetophon was "as-is" just from a slipped belt. Most of my interest is the recorder, so I have this collection hole with no philps ?? 1343 was it - the last of the tube stereo models from any of the makers. I've got first model transistor and some SS preamp with el84 out, etc..

PIC of my record Club MONO tape. Came Royal Air within a week. What am I gonna play this on ? Does alright on the Wollensak and others, but those telefunken tubes take it up a notch
 

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Just to do a quick update, the cable arrived and after a lot of messing about I got it working. I went from the Monitor Headphone Socket on the Grundig, then the black and white RCA's into a Jack adapter into the pre amp. I set the grundig tone control to speaker. There seems to be significant noise, a humming/droning being recorded that increases when I turn the gain up on the pre-amp so I've been leaving it on about 3 to try to keep it to a minimum but that's meaning the sound being recorded is very quiet. What would cause the humming/droning and can I reduce it in any way?

Also unfortunately today the tape stopped playing and one of the belts has snapped. Looks to me like the others are on the way out too. I'm not sure I'd know how to replace them even if I could get replacements so am thinking about picking up a replacement machine but don't want to spend a lot of money on one. Can anyone suggest a suitable player that can be picked up cheapish to replace a GRUNDIG TK140. Thank you very much.
 
Old decks and recorders can have hum, and, there is also some connection possibility. Hum at the connectors is much easier : )

Be sure the belt broke, rather than came loose. Replacement machine will be another crap shoot to some degree. newer machines won't be MONO, but you just record the channel that works

I see there are lots of Wollensak t-1500 on eBait, but most of them should be humming, also. I see I did managed to get a stereo TEAC A-1600 suitcase recorder for $61 - ordered the drive belt right away, too. It had a spring issue on the take-up tensioner, and it needs a capstan wheel. I wouldn't say anything is gonna be good unless the seller cleaned it all up

If you did manage some recording and have a clean section of noise, you can dupe that in another track and invert it to act as a mask filter - might work ?
 
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