Vintage M79 3M Tape recorder

[Mr Blues]

I went to a studio the other day and they had lovely classic neeve mixing desk which the sound guy was using with pro tools.

He will also be mixing down this weekend and will be going through one of these old vintage reel to reel M79 3M 16 track recorders.

Has anyone ever used these machines? I hear the really have a lovely anologue warm sound.

Apparently you can get thm on ebay for a grand or two but they are hard to find parts and repair when they go wrong.
Dave

 

[ofajen]

Yup. I had an M-56 8-track, an M-79 4-track and M-79 2-track for about ten years. They are about the best machines ever from an audio perspective. A bit hard on tape, due to their unconventional, Isoloop transport (which also happens to be a part of why they sound good).

There are still a few folks with some old parts stores (Matt Allen in Nashville and Sir Clive Kavan in UK, to name two). The 3M user world is small and connected.

I still use an M-23 2-track as my main mix machine, which is the first generation from about 1965 or so. I sold the other machines mostly because they didn't work well for me tracking and mixing in one room (too big, and too much transport noise).

Cheers,

Otto