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Actually, David Kean bought up pretty much everything John still had in the way of tape machines, but I think it was a bit before John passed away. Perhaps he got the desk from the estate later on. Cheers, Otto

Hey, I resemble that remark! Anyway, you gotta give John credit: the console weighs 100 pounds. Any other comparable rig would way many times more and be much bigger, and probably not sound quite as clean. It would go nicely with a 2" 811 or 821 machine, but there is the small matter of the...

Have to admit, the guy who sold me the Otari 8-track just took it to UPS and paid them to pack and ship it and they did an excellent job and it arrived unharmed. Cheers, Otto

Again, it depends. Floating the minus output of active balanced gear costs you 6 dB. Unbalancing most transformered outs won't affect the level. Cheers, Otto

Unbalanced gear can be sonically superb. OTOH, if you already have balanced gear, you should connect it properly. Inputs can generally be unbalanced by having the minus leg tied to ground, but outputs vary. Most transformer-balanced outs can be unbalanced by tying the minus leg to ground, but...

I'm not so sure. These days I'm tracking on a little Otari 8-track that sounds really quite surprisingly good, given that I'm used to 3M machines and still mix to one. I'm still probably going to pick up a Stephens 2" 16-track fairly soon, but the Otari I bought just as a backup/demo machine...

LOL! Sorry about that... just meant that I've been busy doing music stuff, when I have time, and haven't had much to say. And while I'm posting again in this stream of consciousness thread, one other sort of random, analog thing is that I'm thinking of picking up a few old spring reverb tanks...

Just been playing and practicing and a little recording. I really like having this little MFB drum box to play along with. I've been liking my vocal sound up close thru an omni mike with heavy compression. I did get the care package of M-23 stuff from Mitch, which is mentioned in another...

I need to do a new picture. It's very slightly out of date, since it now has a power button and Otari reel hubs that match. Also, I only use those plastic reels for storage and spool onto those gold 3M precision reels when tape is playing on the machine. Once I get bulbs for the power and...

A small update, one year later. I just got some parts for my M-23. I got the reel tables from another M-23 parts machine. They fit the same and have the same reel height, plus the same rubber tire underneath for the braking mechanism (activates automatically when power goes off to prevent...

Yes, it's that part. I figured I might get to that point before buying a replacement, but I'm budgeting for it over the next few months. That was a standard field technique for taking the shine off of capstans, though I think the recommended technique is to gently slide the sandpaper parallel...

All I have to add is that you don't often see someone wringing their hands and trying to figure out how to make their tape tracks and mixes sound like they were recorded and mixed on a DAW. I see a lot of hand wringing from those doing everything in a laptop and wondering why it's not sounding...

Might be getting to that time... I've been noticing that the tape timer on my Otari MX-5050 MKIII 8-track doesn't register properly in reverse wind. It does fine in the forward direction, whether in play or fast wind but slips about 3% in reverse. I can make it better temporarily by swabbing...

LOL! Certainly an example of situational irony and I'm stunned that it didn't occur to me before. Good one! Cheers, Otto

Just check out Sticky Thread #2 on this forum: "Sticky Shed Help Thread" for much useful info, primarily thanks to Beck. Cheers, Otto

Yeah, 996 was a very good sounding tape, especially for "pro" recorders designed for higher recording levels and with transports that can deal easily with thicker tape. OTOH, I had varying levels of annoying shedding from a little to a lot and, if memory serves, even some sticky issues. My...

Almost all were multi-tracks. Very few small format 2 or 4-channel machines. I've read that he only made about 400 machines in total. David Keane in Calgary has the Audities Foundation and he bought the last dozen or so machines John had on hand a short while before his death. David is now...

Dale Manquen worked for 3M and made the first M-56 16 track machine, and then he went on to work for Ampex for a while. He did some work on the AG-440 C-series machine, but in our discussions he was quite clear about how far ahead he thought the 3M machines were of the Ampex machines in terms...

Good point. Back when my little studio was the "land of many 3M machines" I had an M-56-8 and M-79-4 and M-79-2 along with an Ampex AG-440B 2-track (my M-23-2 was not working and lurking out of the way in several pieces at the time). The AG-440 was a solid performer, and perhaps better than...

The preamps alone could bring about that much these days. Someone in a colder clime should buy it, as it could be an excellent heat source, in addition to being an audio recorder. :) Cheers, Otto