Show us your Decks!

[dodgeaspen]

I wish I could take pics like Ghost.

 

[sweetbeats]

jjones...THAT's right...the 1516 is a 4-buss isn't it...

What neat match up, the TSR-8 and the 2516.

And I've heard the 909's are a really well-made deck. My dad has one...I'll have to check it out next time I visit.

Rolf...yep. The MM-1000 is (was actually) in the barn.

Mike...needles and hay...yer killin' me.

 

[jjones1700]

jjones...THAT's right...the 1516 is a 4-buss isn't it...

What neat match up, the TSR-8 and the 2516.

And I've heard the 909's are a really well-made deck. My dad has one...I'll have to check it out next time I visit.

Rolf...yep. The MM-1000 is (was actually) in the barn.

Mike...needles and hay...yer killin' me.

The 15xx series are 4 buss and the 25xx series are 8 buss. You got it. I don't know which I like better, the 909 or the TSR-8. Both are very gentle transports on tape. The 909 does wind tape REALLY fast though. It makes me nervous with how fast it gets to spinning sometimes.

Hey Rolf, looks like you have part of a Pioneer stack there yourself. SX-7800 and CT-F950 by chance?

 

[The Ghost of FM]

I wish I could take pics like Ghost.

Thanks for the compliment!

Taking pictures like I do required a huge investment in time and equipment as well as in software and the patience and time to learn it all...and I still have a lot to learn!

This is now my full time hobby and is also something I am trying to do as a living, though this economy isn't really cooperating too well with that.

I'm also unemployed right now and have way too much time on my hands so, as a result, I can take pictures all the time and spend almost limitless extra time after that, fine tuning them in Photoshop...which is a whole other world to conquer!

Do you still wish you could take pictures like Ghost now?

Cheers!

 

[jjones1700]

Thanks for the compliment!

Taking pictures like I do required a huge investment in time and equipment as well as in software and the patience and time to learn it all...and I still have a lot to learn!

This is now my full time hobby and is also something I am trying to do as a living, though this economy isn't really cooperating too well with that.

I'm also unemployed right now and have way too much time on my hands so, as a result, I can take pictures all the time and spend almost limitless extra time after that, fine tuning them in Photoshop...which is a whole other world to conquer!

Do you still wish you could take pictures like Ghost now?

Cheers!

I used to shoot professionally for about 15 years and finally hung it up in about 2001. I just pulled my camera bag out and fired up the camera for the first time since then. My trusty old Nikon N90s and FE. I kind of miss it, but not the headaches associated with weddings. I'd like to get back into landscapes and architecture. I'm an analog person when it comes to photography as well. I'll stick with my film. Too much time spent in Photoshop vs. setting up the shot in the first place. Just not my taste. You have done some really nice work with the mixer and decks though. Very nice!

 

[The Ghost of FM]

I used to shoot professionally for about 15 years and finally hung it up in about 2001. I just pulled my camera bag out and fired up the camera for the first time since then. My trusty old Nikon N90s and FE. I kind of miss it, but not the headaches associated with weddings. I'd like to get back into landscapes and architecture. I'm an analog person when it comes to photography as well. I'll stick with my film. Too much time spent in Photoshop vs. setting up the shot in the first place. Just not my taste. You have done some really nice work with the mixer and decks though. Very nice!

Thanks man!

Wedding though, I refuse to do...too much stress and headaches from all I've heard from those that do them.

Anyway... I don't want to hijack this thread so please return to posting more pics of your decks!

Cheers!

 

[Dr ZEE]

Hey, Jeff, don't use this kind of shots if you ever plan on selling some gear on eBay. As you'll most likely get zero bids but instead email-box full of questions ala "Is it the actual item on the photos?" ...heh heh heh
those photos are hot

 

[evm1024]

The MCI and some reels I got from Sweetbeats

Here is a look at the MCI - That is 3600' of 1 mil tape.

Ethan

 

[The Ghost of FM]

Hey, Jeff, don't use this kind of shots if you ever plan on selling some gear on eBay. As you'll most likely get zero bids but instead email-box full of questions ala "Is it the actual item on the photos?" ...heh heh heh
those photos are hot

Well...they are the actual items, just touched up slightly!

Anyway, I almost forgot! My 38 comes with the 2 DX-4D units so, I might as well throw them into the shot!

Cheers!

 

[sweetbeats]

Ethan...you didn't waste any time. Those 14" reels look HUGE!

 

[Bobby Darko]

Bobby Darko,

I have very similar speakers in my living room.

I got them from my dad,

He got them when he was in college in the late 70s.

do you know what they are?

Actually, those are Philips speakers from the 70's. Top of the line back then, but not really the best you can have for mixing I guess. I am getting used to them, that helps, but I am waiting for an affordable upgrade to better monitors. Cheers

 

[jjones1700]

Holy crap Ethan! 14" reels? What the hell do you do with that?! I'm guessing that it's a half track 1/4" mastering deck that move at 30ips? Wow.

 

[evm1024]

Holy crap Ethan! 14" reels? What the hell do you do with that?! I'm guessing that it's a half track 1/4" mastering deck that move at 30ips? Wow.

I don't do anything with them...except look at them at this point. But, they are monsters. And make the 10.5" gold reel look small.

All my stuff is 15 ips in order to keep the low end. My next recording session is scheduled for the Christmas break. I'll be laying down about an hour of Pipe organ on the 1/2" 2 track.

Some of those pipes give a very solid 32 Hz. Imagine a pipe that is 16" in diameter and 36' long with huge quantities of air moving in it. We are talking watts of acoustical power per pipe. (for those who don't know 1 watt of acoustical power can be heard miles away, think of a 1 watt laser)

-Ethan

 

[ofajen]

OK, here are a few new shots. I had been thinking about moving a few things and creating more room, and this thread got me moving on it, so here goes...

First, the overall situation. Still a few cables on the floor. I've taken some pains to get a decent sonic space for monitoring, though the Studio Traps don't photograph so well...

I moved all the decks over on one side into a sort of "analog ghetto"

Here's the 3M M-23...

The Otari 8-track...

and the Teac A-3340S

I've made some progress this year, as all three decks are operational, up to factory spec and wired in and ready to go.

I don't have a lot of gear at the mix location. I have the handy Yamaha AW1600 standalone with the patch bays right behind it. The Yamaha is a handy recorder (similar workflow to Tascam 388) and can also be set up as a handy mixer for the tape tracks, either run through the inputs or copied onto the recorder tracks and then mixed.

I'm trying out my old Roland line mixer for analog mixing, just like I did back in the early '80s, with a few bits of processing gear down below that can be patched in.

Cheers,

Otto

 

[SteveM]

Interesting set up Otto. What kind of decks are the 8 and 2 track?

 

[ofajen]

Interesting set up Otto. What kind of decks are the 8 and 2 track?

The 8-track is my newer acquisition: an Otari MX-5050 MKIII-8... 8 tracks on 1/2" tape. The 2-track is a 3M M-23 that I pulled together from various pieces, most of which date back to about 1965.

Cheers,

Otto

 

[sweetbeats]

Otto, can you tell me about your monitor speakers? Those are large passive radiators on them right? So they are 3rd order cabinets? Dual woofers...titanium dome tweeters on top? Little deflector thingy...passive crossovers I assume and what are you using for amplification?

The AW1600 shares componentry with my 01X which has been a wonderful tool on the digital side of things...very well thought out, well made...really good bang for the buck. 24 x 2 x 2 digital mixer, two stereo effects engines, GUI interface for patching, flying faders, comprehensive DAW control and 24 channel DAW interface (16 at 24/96). With my Presonus Digimax FS and the Yamaha i88x I have balanced line I/O, mic pres, inserts, instrument pres, ADAT lightpipe, and coax S/PDIF galore plus a 3 x 3 MIDI interface. I almost got an AW1600 at one point when I was waffling between computer-based DAW and standalone...I think they are under-rated. Okay. Analog Only. Sorry, folks!

 

[ofajen]

Otto, can you tell me about your monitor speakers? Those are large passive radiators on them right? So they are 3rd order cabinets? Dual woofers...titanium dome tweeters on top? Little deflector thingy...passive crossovers I assume and what are you using for amplification?

They are Polk Audio RTA-12Bs that I bought back in 1981. I've pretty much just used them since. The 12" flat drivers are passive. The dual 6 1/2" mid/woofers are crossed over differently inside/outside, which I believe helps improve the sound stage.

The tweeters are good domes, but I don't think they are titanium. The tweeters are on top in a separate enclosure which helps with time alignment of tweeter and woofer and also seems to improve the dispersion from the tweeter. The imaging on these was way better than the lower model 10 which had the same tweeter mounted flush in the box above the mid/bass drivers. A number of good (better than mine, probably) speakers from B&W, Kef and Dahlquist have this design.

I'm using the original, passive crossovers with a Hafler DH-200 power amp I made at the same time from a kit. Actually, they came pre-wired for optional bi-amping, you just have to un-make a couple of connections and there you go, but I didn't need the complexity.

Anyway, they have a very natural sound. Stuff just sounds real. I'm sure the Studio Traps help out a bunch there, since I can hear the ambience of the room in the playback, if it is there to be heard.

Bass response is flat in the room down to about 20 Hz, excepting the annoying room modes at 35 and 70 Hz, of course.

Cheers,

Otto

 

[ofajen]

The AW1600 shares componentry with my 01X which has been a wonderful tool on the digital side of things...very well thought out, well made...really good bang for the buck.

Yeah, it has the work flow of a 388, not a DAW, which is a good thing. Right now I'm using it as a synth mixer, and it's patched in along with the tape tracks on the line mixer via the unattenuated "piggyback" stereo inputs. The one weakness is that the preamps are noisy, so if I need much gain I use an external preamp.

Cheers,

Otto

 

[sweetbeats]

Yes, my 01X is the same way, but with loud sources I've been totally happy with them, and if I need something else the i88x has two very quiet transparent pres on it and the Digimax FS has 8 pres that I like even better and both units interface with the 01X digitally and patching can be managed either on the 01X or via the GUI interface on the computer...and its nice that all the audio and MIDI go over the one firewire cable to the computer.

But I'd rather use the M-__ anyway...

Huh! Wierd...it looks so small in that picture...