what is this all about !?!?

  • Thread starter Thread starter lonewhitefly
  • Start date Start date
Cool pics. I just don't understand why a lot of sellers do not take pics of the heads. It has never made sense to me.
 
sweetbeats said:
Dupe factory...this was the way they did it.
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What would you need 10 2-track copies for, though? I've seen things like this where they're writing to cassette tape or 8-track tape, but this is confusing me.
 
For distribution...commercial recordings back in ye olden days when you could go to the music store and buy it on dem dere reel tape...the classic open reel equivalent of a cassette duplication rack.
 
sweetbeats said:
For distribution...commercial recordings back in ye olden days when you could go to the music store and buy it on dem dere reel tape...the classic open reel equivalent of a cassette duplication rack.
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I thought commercial tapes were 4-track stereo?
 
jpmorris said:
I thought commercial tapes were 4-track stereo?
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That's most likely what it is - 2 tracks in one direction and two tracks in the other direction (or side), similar to how a cassette has 2 sides. Quarter track is what it's referred to - you only hear 2 tracks at any given moment.
 
Muckelroy said:
That's most likely what it is - 2 tracks in one direction and two tracks in the other direction (or side), similar to how a cassette has 2 sides. Quarter track is what it's referred to - you only hear 2 tracks at any given moment.
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Maybe, and without seeing the heads we can't really tell. Most of these systems ran all four tracks in parallel, though - and there's only two VU meters on this one.
IIRC, most of the setups that I've read about used 1/2" 4-track tape as the master.
 
I'd venture that this was a dupe sutup for commercial use....distribution to radio stations perhaps. Commercials, PSA's, serial radio programs. I saw a setup like this locally that a religious radio network used for content distribution
 
I think their transition to digital occured only a few years ago at most. I picked up a few machines from them sometime back and they still had a couple more in their dupe area for dumping old tapes from their library to CD.
All their stuff was OTARI
 
It looks more like a cassette duplication line. Yes, you can run fragile 1/8" tape through those big beasts! They handle it very delicately indeed.

This looks like the line that came from ATT Recording in Los Angeles. I bought some random equipment from them a few years before this was sold, and the tech demonstrated it in operation. All completely automated to run copies at 64x (I think) speed, then leave a tone to mark the end, then another copy, and another, all from the one pancake of tape. Multiply that by the number of machines and you can make a lot of cassettes in a very short period of time. Loading into the cassette shell happened separately, but again automated.

Times change, and with no demand for pre-recorded tapes they eventually had to shut down. I think their main work was relatively short runs, so I don't *think* they did major record label stuff.

I got some very nice test equipment from them in a subsequent visit, when they were basically cleaning out the building. The guy who bought the duplication line drove down to pick it up, not only expecting them to load it into his truck very late at night, but also before that to demonstrate to him how to connect it up at the other end. I wonder what he was going to do with it?

Regards

David
 
Oh HEY!

That makes a whole lot of sense...I just looked at the pictures again and those AREN'T standard 350 series headblocks on there...and them guides do look a little squatty for 1/4" tape. ;)

And...and the reel idler rollers are fatter and...the capstan shaft is HUGE! :eek:

Guess that'd be ONE way to get playback at 64x speed...let's see...

mumblemumblemumble...

Yup!

I was thinking that the capstan shafts looked to be about 1" in diameter and that's what would be needed to run tape at 120ips (64x 1 7/8ips) assuming a capstan motor that would run 30ips with a standard shaft. I'm assuming the transports have been upgraded with a servo system.

Can you imagine the wonderful "CHUNK" when those all go into PLAY mode???

SO...if you got these machines and ran 1/4" tape on them they would be just awesome at shredding the edges of the tape while it ran at spooling speed all the time.

Hm...

Buyer beware? YMMV?

"Custom" indeed...and that pipe must be for hitting yourself on the head when you realize you didn't just buy what you thought you'd bought. Nice of them to throw that in.
 

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Hi Cory

Your analysis sounds good.

There was no servo installed, but they did have Tentrol units fitted to the supply side (possibly the takeup side too) to make them constant tension.

I still have a box of their Tentrol units in my storage unit, and one of these days I'm going to put one on my AG-440 transfer machine.

Regards


David
 
It's just across the Bay from me about an hour away.

So if anyone is interested I'd be happy to go look at the equipment and photo, etc.
 
David,

How do the Tentrol units get their feedback? And then does that just vary the resistance to the supply motor?
 
Tentrol units take pulses from a strobe wheel mounted on the spooling motor (on the 440C they can share the pulses from the built-in one) and in conjunction with the speed setting of the machine, they calculate the diameter of the tape pack on the reel. Then they adjust the tension between a fixed range based on that.

So, it is not a servo, it is calculated. The MM-1200 constant takeup tension card works the same way, and the Otari MTR10/12 machines also use the same technique.

Regards


David
 
Ah!

Okay...I see.

Found a Tentrol manual I got with the MM-1000...hm...could one be retrofit to the MM-1000? Probably not...totally different motors...I do see that Tentrol included the 440-8 in the list of eligible machines...
 
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