TASCAM Wallpaper

[sweetbeats]

You got it!

I was planning on getting as faaaaar back as I could and zooming in to take the shot.

I was wondering if that faceplate was a scratch creation...I was trying to figure out which shot you used...I looked at the one with the cards exposed and I thought ".....nahhhhhhh." but you DID!!!

I too love the humongous meter.

 

[The Ghost of FM]

Another concept piece to some degree...The 234 "Woody"!

wallpaper file here:
https://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h250/thefontmeister/234woody.jpg



Cheers!

 

[The Ghost of FM]

Sweetbeats was kind enough to take some fresh pics of his freshly cleaned up 3M channel amp units and this is the first one I've processed...

Larger file size here which will look pretty cool if you tile it across your screen!
https://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h250/thefontmeister/IMG_3993v1wallpaper.jpg



Cheers!

 

[sweetbeats]

Heheheh...you SNEAKY Ghost!!

There will be D-SLR shots coming, Jeff. Just waiting until I can get the modules rack-mounted and apply power. It will be the first time I've had the electronics powered with the transport. I need to modify a device I built to troubleshoot devices and add a simple manual slow-start circuit to it. I don't know how long its been since they've seen power and I'd be more comfortable doing it that way.

Love that meter!

And thanks for mating my favorite cassette deck with wood paneling...that looks really nice. Hmmm...I have 3 of those machines...hmmm...I have lots of walnut...

 

[The Ghost of FM]

Thanks again for the feedback on the shots!

Looking forward to some lit up, D-SLR shots of the 3M beasts for sure!!!

About the 234 woody, yeah, I think it adds a bit of extra class to an already totally cool 4 track cassette. Glad to know you've got 3 of them as I can hang on to the faint hope of eventually getting some decent pics of a fully assembled and cleaned up one! The image I used for that shot just posted was an ebay shot from a while back and was pretty choppy and blurred, but the angle was spot on for what I wanted to use for that woody design idea in my brain.

Not sure if any other shots from your clean up project there will be usable though...we'll see.

Cheers!

 

[The Ghost of FM]

A long time ago before there was such a thing as a Portastudio, TEAC had a piece called the 860 from their Esoteric series, which was a stereo deck but included a 4 channel mixer which had pan pots and Mic/line switching along with a pretty serious set of calibration controls that were user accessible! Anyway, I was searching around on the web and found a semi-decent image of it which I cleaned up in Photoshop and gave it a new background and formated it for a wallpaper background.

And here she be...

1920x1080 wallpaper file here:
https://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h250/thefontmeister/860-4wallpaper.jpg



Cheers!

 

[sweetbeats]

Woah no way!!! I've been a Teac/Tascam enthusiast for years no and have NEVER heard of/seen that unit! So cool! Way to go Ghost! That is just a FASCINATING device...built in limiter??

 

[The Ghost of FM]

Wish no way!!! I've been a Teac/Tascam enthusiast for years no and have NEVER heard of/seen that unit! So cool! Way to go Ghost! That is just a FASCINATING device...built in limiter??

Yep! Very cool unit! 3 heads, dual capstans, pitch control, variable cue level during fast winds and yes, a switchable basic limiter!

It actually shares a lot of the same design standards and touches of the 7300 open reel deck which also had a 4 Mic input system and the same transport keys and knobs. On the 860, you can really see the skeleton of an M2 mixer, which shows how TEAC borrowed bits and pieces of their different models to put stuff together!

Cheers!

 

[The Ghost of FM]

One more rendition of the 860, this one a composite of several different images of both the 860 and the 7300 reel to reel deck which shares many of the same components. So this might look a bit un-natural in terms of the perspective of certain elements but over all provides far more clarity as to what each part is. Also took about 10 hours in Photoshop to put this together.

wallpaper file link here:
https://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h250/thefontmeister/860templatewallpaper.jpg



Cheers!

 

[The Ghost of FM]

Continuing on my current "early TASCAM years" series, I present the rarely seen 25-2 recording amp unit. There is also a matching transport to this beast but I'm having trouble finding any decent images to put something together. As it sits, this image below is a composite from several different poorer images which each had a couple of salvageable bits to use as building blocks for this one.

Anyway, her she is...

wallpaper file here:
https://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h250/thefontmeister/25-2wallpaper.jpg



Cheers!

 

[The Ghost of FM]

And the 25-2 complete!

wallpaper file here:
https://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h250/thefontmeister/25-2wallpaper-1.jpg

Cheers!

 

[sweetbeats]

I sincerely think this thread needs to be a sticky.

 

[fgonza2]

Well, I'm not really clear on some of the items that you listed, so it would probably be best if you did your own drawing of all of the functions and buttons, (even a rough pencil sketch on paper and then scanned), and then I'd have a much clearer idea of exactly what you're after.

Some things like the spooling function are built into the AQ-65 by design, even though it's not labeled directly, doing the quick double tap on either fast wind mode will initiate that or exit out of it, just like on your MS16. Things like the repeat looping functionality are also in there by default. But I guess because you don't have that unit or it's owner's manual, those things wouldn't be apparent to you.

Cheers!

HI GFM, sorry for the delay, i've been focused on reverse engineering the serial protocol(TSR8,MSR16,MSR24) and i can report happily now, that i was able to do it successfully after a significant(for me) hardware and software development effort. I have now a prototype working using a microcontroller. I can calculate speed, all the functions in the panel, counter at the frame resolution. I will provide some basic artwork foryou to help me, so i can use that as the front end for the mac/iOS app to control it. i am also able to apply PWM control, so i can add spool mode to the TSR8. This will be very easy now also to replicate for parallel port machines, like the MS16, 58, 52, 42.

 

[The Ghost of FM]

I sincerely think this thread needs to be a sticky.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Cory!

I know personally, I tend to ignore the sticky threads just out of subconsciously not looking up that high...sort of like how I ignore the crawler at the bottom of CNN news, if that makes any sense?

HI GFM, sorry for the delay, i've been focused on reverse engineering the serial protocol(TSR8,MSR16,MSR24) and i can report happily now, that i was able to do it successfully after a significant(for me) hardware and software development effort. I have now a prototype working using a microcontroller. I can calculate speed, all the functions in the panel, counter at the frame resolution. I will provide some basic artwork foryou to help me, so i can use that as the front end for the mac/iOS app to control it. i am also able to apply PWM control, so i can add spool mode to the TSR8. This will be very easy now also to replicate for parallel port machines, like the MS16, 58, 52, 42.

Your progress sounds encouraging and I'll look forward to seeing some sketch ups from you.

Cheers!

 

[jpmorris]

HI GFM, sorry for the delay, i've been focused on reverse engineering the serial protocol(TSR8,MSR16,MSR24) and i can report happily now, that i was able to do it successfully after a significant(for me) hardware and software development effort. I have now a prototype working using a microcontroller. I can calculate speed, all the functions in the panel, counter at the frame resolution. I will provide some basic artwork foryou to help me, so i can use that as the front end for the mac/iOS app to control it. i am also able to apply PWM control, so i can add spool mode to the TSR8. This will be very easy now also to replicate for parallel port machines, like the MS16, 58, 52, 42.

What controller is it? An arduino or something?

 

[The Ghost of FM]

Here's the initial list in no particular order:

Transport buttons
Tape time (M:S:F)
Pitch display in % (one digit, one decimal)
Pitch control coarse
Pitch control fine
Repeat X-Y
Auto Play
Spool indicator
Counter Reset
Track arming (8 tracks for now) with LED indicators
All tracks off
All tracks on
Safe button (to protect tracks from being accidentally armed)
List of preset locations (with names) not sure what will be the best font to use in there
Add column with a switch next to it in order to select it for repeat or for punch in/out
Tape speed in IPS with 2 decimal points
Keypad to enter a manual location in H:M:S:F
CUE (add a location point to the list - for user to enter the name)
Tape lifter control
Search

That is whay i can think of. I know it is a lot... these are all the functions that i'll be able to make work so far.

Focusing more closely on your list and trying to concentrate on what buttons you wanted versus what functionality I know the AQ-65 already has built into, I have redrawn a second rendition which I believe covers off all of the goodies you were after on your list.

1920 wide image file link here:
https://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h250/thefontmeister/amastercontrollertemplateIIwallpaper.jpg



I've saved a multi-element Photoshop file which is around 75 megs and with that one I can still make smaller changes to the layout and labeling so let me know what you think!



Cheers!

 

[The Ghost of FM]

Not a TEAC or TASCAM piece per se but an often used companion to them in many cases.

This is my very own 224, which sits in my stereo rack in the living room.

1920 wide file here:
https://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h250/thefontmeister/VV4G112243wallpaper.jpg



Cheers!

 

[sweetbeats]

The RC-2016 master controller...*gasp*

I have a concept for ya...a 16-channel 388. I was toying with what the model number would be, but I'm not sure it would be different because I think the 3 is for the 300-series, the first 8 is for 8 record busses and the last 8 is for 8 tape tracks. Maybe it'd have to be the 388-16. I recall hacked something together once using gimp, but I betcha The Ghost could do much better...heheh...

Looking through my 388 pics...I thought I had some decent ones of the full unit but I see all I have preceded my informal photography lessons you have given me, Jeff...funny angles, parts of the machine outside the frame, etc.

One of the better ones I have actually is the last one I took before it sold and its pretty fuzzy with some complications, but maybe good enough for a "fun" concept shot...then there's always the pile-o-pics in this directory...

Could be kind of complicated I suppose because of the meter bridge...I think it would still just have the 10 meters (for the 8 busses/tape tracks and the 2 main/aux-effect meters)

 

[The Ghost of FM]

The RC-2016 master controller...*gasp*

I have a concept for ya...a 16-channel 388. I was toying with what the model number would be, but I'm not sure it would be different because I think the 3 is for the 300-series, the first 8 is for 8 record busses and the last 8 is for 8 tape tracks. Maybe it'd have to be the 388-16. I recall hacked something together once using gimp, but I betcha The Ghost could do much better...heheh...

Looking through my 388 pics...I thought I had some decent ones of the full unit but I see all I have preceded my informal photography lessons you have given me, Jeff...funny angles, parts of the machine outside the frame, etc.

One of the better ones I have actually is the last one I took before it sold and its pretty fuzzy with some complications, but maybe good enough for a "fun" concept shot...then there's always the pile-o-pics in this directory...

Could be kind of complicated I suppose because of the meter bridge...I think it would still just have the 10 meters (for the 8 busses/tape tracks and the 2 main/aux-effect meters)

Thanks for the feedback on the RC2016!

That was a difficult image to put together as I struggled to balance functionality against desired aspects and have it be realistic looking! In many ways, a very draining experience as it took me close to 10 hours to assemble that.

About the 388 extended concept piece, that's a very intriguing ideal!

Ideally, the best way to put something like that together is to have the camera sit in the same spot and then slide the 388 into the extended position so that the perspective lines line up correctly. And while you took many good quality images, taking a quicker cursory look over them, I'm not immediately seeing two shots that would line up convincingly to fit that critical perspective parlor trick. But...I have downloaded a number of possible candidates and will take a stab at it. No promises though at this early stage.

Cheers!

 

[fgonza2]

What controller is it? An arduino or something?

i am using a texas instruments 8051 clone controller. The arduino is good for prototyping, but expensive and limited. after i finish this if someone is interested i may be able to do more than just mine.