What's The First Equipment You Recorded With?

whyseye

whyseye

Well-known member
Mine was a 1/8" portable reel-to-reel tape recorder, back in about 1969, a gift from my dad, who had divorced my mom and now lived across the country. It was meant to be used for correspondence, and I think we exchanged a few tapes for a while.

It had a seperate compartment inside that held the batteries, mic and packet of silica gel. I was absolutely convinced that it was the silica gel which was critical to the recording process, and always replaced it exactly as I'd had found it.

The mic looked like a VW symbol....I always thought I'd buy a VW to match. I used to record an interview show called "Nuttinski" with anyone who would put up with me - an amazing number of people did!

I do think that it was instrumental in my performing career, and in voiceover in particular.

What was your first recording experience?
 
A TEAC 3340S at the Ontario College Of Art in 1976. It was brand new and it rocked. We did some pretty weird stuff.
 
The first tape recorder our family had was a battery powered open reel recorder that used those cute, little 3" reels. It was of course a mono unit and had a box shaped microphone that had an integrated pause switch built into the side of the mic and was a full mechanical transport system that all ran on one motor via a series of different cog wheeles...I know the insides well because I was curious as a kid and took it apart to see what made it tick and killed it by not knowing how to put it back together again. :o But, perhaps I am going back too far? :eek: :D

As far as recorders that belonged completely to me and ones that I used for recording our band's music, the first would be a Tandberg TD300 with a pair of matched Phillips cardioid, handheld mics that were plugged directly into the cassette deck and set up a few feet apart in our practice space and used to capture us playing live during our practices. The results were far from stellar and in truth sounded absolutely retched but that could be attributed to the rotten mic placement, unbalanced pick up of whatever was closer to the microphones coupled with out obvious lack of any musical talent in those ugly but fun, early days of learning to play and play together! :)

A haze of equipment came and went after that and some before it as well but the list would be as long as my arm and off topic for this thread so....

Cheers! :)
 
Not counting video tape recorders in my early TV days my first experience recording my music was with two identical Akai cassette decks of which I forget the model numbers. I used those bouncing back and forth with a Radio Shack mixer. :eek: After that a TEAC 144 portastudio and onward and upward from there.
 
First experiences were as a kid mucking around with either a Ferrograph 2A 2 track mono recorder or an Akai GXC-46D cassette deck - was too young to remember which. Recorded Church services etc on an Akai 4000DB (found one of them recently - sounds surprisingly good 22 years later on my GX265D) and later the GXC-46D.

Did radio stuff on a Revox A77 at a youth group short term station, then a B77 then a Tascam 32 at a community station (plus BE cart machines, then a Digicart/II) and BR-20 at Radio Rhema when they still had a studio here. (before they had the BR-20 I mucked around with an ancient, valve full track mono 1/4 Rola recorder, ex-NZBC).

As for 'real' recording, a Tascam MSR-16 at Radio One in Dunedin (Otago University student radio). Studio time was cheap from 5pm - 7am so we pulled a number of allnighters - great times.

Then 11 years of being a Chartered Accountant and then IT Consultant :( and then re-discovering an enthusiasim for (if not time for) this stuff :) .

Cya
Andrew
 
The first thing I recorded with was my dads Tandberg and Uher tape recorders. One of the Tandbergs was 4 channels, but only in stereo. You could do some fun backwards stuff with that one.

The first thing I recorded MUSIC with was various stereo casette players, one on which we disabled the erase-head. Then it was 4-track portas (don't remember which).
 
I first tryed to record my band using my dad's JVC hifi cassette deck, using a cheap radio shack omni. Then got my 414mk2 and then later a Hoontech CPort for my computer.
 
Beck said:
Not counting video tape recorders in my early TV days....
Click to expand...
Remember the sony Port-A-Packs? With all the gear, they must have weighed 70 lbs.! I used to tromp around Toronto like a guerilla video wannabe in the mid 70's. Great fun but exhausting.
 
In the earliest days,...

(late 60's),... it was my brother's little portable 3" reel-to-reel,... the likes of "Crown" or "Craig", or something. It was before the days of Japanese domination of "Sony" and "Panasonic".

(early 70's),... it was a little portable voice-grade mono cassette recorder.

(late 70's),... I'd graduated to using two bonified stereo cassette recorders, bouncing tape-to-tape to layer my "track" compositions. One cassette was built into an "all-in-one" console, and it had a handy "MONO" switch, by which I summed my stereo tapes down to mono before bouncing,... a very crude "mixing" technique.

(1982),... The Tascam 244 Portastudio. Still have it. Used it two weeks ago to track some new stuff. I'll never get rid of it. You never forget your "first"!!! :eek: ;) My first full fledged multitrack! Man,... AWESOME!!!

(1983),... The Tascam 38 & M30 mixer! WOW, I just stepped up to the BIG LEAGUES!!! 1/2" tape & 8-tracks!!!

FFW... ~15 years,...

(1997),... The Tascam 424mkII Portastudio. I saw this unit as a way to expand my capabilities on cassette-4-trackin',... with it's NORMAL SPEED and DBX DEFEAT capablilities. It enabled me to overdub onto previously recorded "Normal" cassette tapes that I had lying around from sessions. Plus, my 244 had been on steady duty as a PA mixer for quite a while, and I needed a 4-tracker that was accessible, without unhooking & repatching the world.

(2000 & beyond),... I got EVERYTHING with the TASCAM label, in the ANALOG category, that I could POSSIBLY AFFORD!!!

(the rest is history)!!!!!!!!!!! :eek:
 
Beck said:
Not counting video tape recorders in my early TV days my first experience recording my music was with two identical Akai cassette decks of which I forget the model numbers. I used those bouncing back and forth with a Radio Shack mixer. :eek: After that a TEAC 144 portastudio and onward and upward from there.
Click to expand...
Hey, I used to do the same thing with some cheap cassette decks and a super cheap Radio Shack mixer. I then graduated to the TASCAM PortaOne.
 
snipeguy said:
Remember the sony Port-A-Packs? With all the gear, they must have weighed 70 lbs.! I used to tromp around Toronto like a guerilla video wannabe in the mid 70's. Great fun but exhausting.
Click to expand...

Ha ha, those were really only portable for people that could rip a phonebook in half with their bare hands. :D I wish I could remember some of the other models, but it's going back to my teen years -- getting foggy. We used the monstrous Panasonic 3/4" top loading VTRs as well; the ones you almost needed a crane to lower in place. ;) That's really where I learned the fundamentals of recording from a brilliant and patient man named Ed Cisco.
 
MadAudio said:
Hey, I used to do the same thing with some cheap cassette decks and a super cheap Radio Shack mixer. I then graduated to the TASCAM PortaOne.
Click to expand...

It's amazing how much you can do with what you have when it's all you've got. :)
 
arjoll said:
First experiences were as a kid mucking around with either a Ferrograph 2A 2 track mono recorder or an Akai GXC-46D cassette deck - was too young to remember which. Recorded Church services etc on an Akai 4000DB (found one of them recently - sounds surprisingly good 22 years later on my GX265D) and later the GXC-46D.

Did radio stuff on a Revox A77 at a youth group short term station, then a B77 then a Tascam 32 at a community station (plus BE cart machines, then a Digicart/II) and BR-20 at Radio Rhema when they still had a studio here. (before they had the BR-20 I mucked around with an ancient, valve full track mono 1/4 Rola recorder, ex-NZBC).

As for 'real' recording, a Tascam MSR-16 at Radio One in Dunedin (Otago University student radio). Studio time was cheap from 5pm - 7am so we pulled a number of allnighters - great times.

Then 11 years of being a Chartered Accountant and then IT Consultant :( and then re-discovering an enthusiasim for (if not time for) this stuff :) .

Cya
Andrew
Click to expand...

Radio Rhema, eh?... well I'll be damned :D I got my start in a Christian (Lutheran) TV station and used to videotape church services as well. Small world isn't it?
 
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My first recorder was also one of those little battery operated mono 3" reel to reel recorders, back in 1967. I was only 17 but living in Hollywood in the "Hippy" '60s. My buddy and I used to sit on the curb in front of my house at 11:00 or 12:00 at night with his accoustic guitar and my little recorder and practice two part harmonies of Smokey Robinson songs or the Animals' "The House Of The Rising Sun." Would you believe it, I still have those tapes somewhere (I'm a pack rat). Now, if I only had something to play them on.

Steven
 
If I remember correctly, it was a $100 Kenwood double cassette deck that I bought in '99. That, a dynamic mic and a small little mixer with 1/8" mic inputs (and echo/delay) if you can believe. :eek: I went straight to 2 track cassette. With such limitations, I was quite proud of what I accomplished. One MUST become very creative in order to circumvent, to a point of course, the rather amateurish gear.

~Daniel
 
Beck said:
That's really where I learned the fundamentals of recording from a brilliant and patient man named Ed Cisco.
Click to expand...

I also learned my recording fundamentals with that old video gear. Mike Page and Cam Morrison were two of the best teachers I ever had at The Ontario College of Art. I can still remember as clear as a bell, the class where they taught us how to de-mag and clean heads. We did it all; camera technique, lighting, mike choice and placement, splicing and editing and of course, the right way to solder cables. Great times. Ah, to be young again.
 
For me it was the original Tascam PortaStudio. Several thousand dollars later I still have it and take it out once in a while. She still sounds good as long as I keep the levels up where they belong. Nice thread. I think I'll take her out of the drawer again tonight and give her a spin, Dave. :D :D
 
Me and my dad had always had a thing for recording. I did some COMPLICATED shit with a Realistic 80's stereo mixer, a Sears "tuner-tape deck big speakers with 3" drivers" spiel, and an Optonica tape deck and hand held radio shack voice-recorder mics (the kind with the 1/8" connection and the little mini plug for the switch on the mic, lol). We would hang one of the hand held mics over my little POS CB drumset and put one in the bass drum and run a line out of my RMS practice amp. Then we'd record drums and the line out guitar to tape (drums left, guitar right) on the Sears unit, then bounce the drums to the optonica while playing bass to that, premixing the drums and bass, to the left side and i would play guitar that recorded to the right side on the optonica, then that played mono through the mixer while bouncing back to the sears and laying another track during the process. And onanonanonanon. lol.

Ok so then we played around with my mom's boyfriend's Yamaha 4 track......this was our future so we though. We got a used Tascam 244 Porta which I recorded probably about 150 tapes slammed full of shit before the pinch roller and main drive belt went. Seriously I learned almost every piece of crucial information I know about recording from using this beast. I loved it and it still sits with the tapes in my closet waiting for future restoration. Now I'm digital running an Aardvark Q10. How times change eh?
 
My first experience with recording was on top of the Empire State Building in New York City, 1957. My dad was in the Navy and was transferring to Maine from Washington. We did the tourist thing, and went to the top floor where the binoculars were. Lo and behold, there was a machine that you could put a dollar in, and make a 2 minute record. My sisters and I made total fools of ourselves. I think I sang about a half of a minute of "hounddog" by Elvis. I was all of 12 years old, and rock and roll was really really starting to happen then. Buddy Holly, Elvis, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Louis, etc. From the moment I made that record, that was it. Next was an old acoustic guitar. Didn't get around recorders again until I was 17. I met a guy at a beach in Sacramento California, who said his folks had some guitar equipment. Hahahahaha. That was an understatement if I ever heard one. And talk about fate.
We went to his house, and I swear this is what they had. I couldn'd believe it. It was 1962, and they had 2 Stratocasters, a Jazzmaster, a Precision bass, a Blond Fender Single Showman with 2 bottoms, a Bassman, a Twin, a Fender Reverb, an echolette(or some kind of echo machine) a set of drums, 4 mics and 2 Webcore recorders. I had(I think) a black and white Stereo Kay amp that was really stereo with 2 spearker boxes) and a Kay STEREO hollowbody electric guitar with a Bigsby. They liked it so much, they let me use all that gear for 2 years i. Talk about starting out with the best. Within a month, I had a band, playing all the local dances(Air force teentowns) and we recorded every gig on those old Webcor tape decks. Playing back the tapes was a ball. Thats when I became hooked on recording. I still have those somewhere. And the record too. A little 6" 45.
Didn't get my own recorder untill 1978. A JVC cassette and Altec model 19 speakers. I was in recording heaven. I wore that thing out. Then my best friend bought a X-head Roberts, and we started overdubbing sound on sound. WOW!! A few years later, I started working at Skips music in Sacramento. Thats when I really got turned on. Tascam had the new Porta Studio 246, digital delays were first coming out, and all kinds of semi pro gear was becoming available. Still couldn't pull the financial thing togeather though. Years went by, with cassettes, R2R's and whatever we could get our hands on. For years, right up till today, we still record together when ever we get a chance. Now, with ebay, I finally have a couple of MSR's synched via a midiizer with a 42b for mastering. Dabbled with digital, but tape is my love.
Best recording story...1963...playing a party 20 miles from Sac out in the boondox. Nothing out there. Not a tree. Played for 3 hours, packed up and started out for home on a 3 mile dirt road. Late. All of a sudden we heard music. LOUD. Stopped to listen...WHA TH F......K!! Its US!! :eek: :eek: Saw a light down the road. Drove up to the house and there we were...blasting away outdoors on a couple of giant horns mounted on a house. There was a huge antenea beside the house too. A guy was sitting on the porch, laughing his head off when we pulled in. He knew. It was us. He asked us if we wanted to come in. HOLY MOLY!! :cool: There was a complete recording studio and Ham radio station in there. My god. He had recorded us 3 miles away with a shotgun mic. With no trees, and playing up on a hill, he got a great recording. Music probably not as good as the recording. Hahaha! Well, needless to say we were astounded.
We were 18 years old and here we were in the middle of nowhere, with a recording of us blasting out into fields of Sac. What we didn't know, was he was broadcasting on a small watt radio channel too. I'll never forget those days.!!


Well, thats my verbose story and I'm stickin to it!! :p Later.
fitZ :D
 
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1/4" mono! Wollensack

I don't know the year of manufacture but it had to be late 1940's early 1950's.

My grade school teacher used it to record our 3rd grade play. "THE EMPORER'S NEW CLOTHES" I played a lead role as one of the taylors, and sang "INCH WORM".

Dom
 
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