Anybody ever heard wire recodings?

[radi0j0hn]

A while back I was asked to archive some wire recordings from the early 50's. Happily, someone in the 60's had made reel-to-reel copies, as it was tough to find a wire recorder and it only lasted aboout 10 minutes before some part failed!

But I was surprised at how relatively good the sound was! Ae there archives of music recorded on wire?

 

[vrinner]

I have heard some stuff on a Silvertone wire recorder that I got from my Dad when he passed away. Just speaking, no music. I think I need to break it out of the garage and see how it does again.

 

[A Reel Person]

...

There is a wire recorder in pretty good condition for sale at the local swap meet. The owner believes it works. It needs a power cord and has not been tested, but has a couple spools of wire which supposedly have recordings of an unknown nature on them. I find it very interesting, but I can't afford another piece of gear or possible fixit project. The unit looks like it's from the 40s.

 

[Bobbsy]

My dad had a wire recorder when I was a sprog--he'd replaced it with a quarter inch tape machine by the time I was about six but the wire recorder was around to play with for a while. Obviously my memories are distant (and coloured by youth) but the wire recorder seemed pretty good quality to me.

 

[mdainsd]

My very first recording device was a Webster wire recorder I found at GoodWill when I was 8. I had to do a bunch of extra chores to "pay" for the expense of buying it for me. It came with a bunch of spools of wire. Most had been used for transcription (voice). But it worked, had a magic eye, I was happy. I recorded the Beatles off of the television when they in the States on the Ed Sullivan show (1964?). Didnt sound all that good, but back then it was the shit as far as I was concerned.

 

[schlechtj]

I seem to remember that black boxes for planes were wire recorders (a long time ago). That's where they got the reputation of being indestructible.