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Author Topic: Decca Tapes?  (Read 16088 times)

Offline astrotoy

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Decca Tapes?
« on: November 20, 2007, 07:10:59 PM »
Has anyone run into any Decca (not London) R2R prerecorded tapes. I mean the British Decca from which London records (tapes) originate. I have literally hundreds of London R2R tapes, but have never seen a Decca tape. I go to London pretty frequently (about 15 times in the past 20 years,) and I do a lot of record shopping there (I am slowing down a lot with the British pound so high). I have seen cassettes with the Decca label, but no R2R. Thanks.
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Offline ironbut

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Re: Decca Tapes?
« Reply #1 on: November 20, 2007, 08:43:36 PM »
I have a London ffst labeled tape originated from the same performance as a Decca blue back record. In fact, I would have sworn it was a Decca till I just pulled it out. It's the Monteux LSO reading of Daphnis et Chloe'. It's on acetate backed tape, bears no dates but is 4 track. Ampex produced all the tapes for London. Perhaps, since they were produced in the USA they might have been legally required to use their US label. Other than Decca, I've never seen an EMI tape either but I do have some Angels.
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Offline U47

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Re: Decca Tapes?
« Reply #2 on: November 20, 2007, 10:41:36 PM »
There are no Decca tapes. Ampex did the duplication from the 50s through the 70s. Stereotape might have made some Dolby tapes of London titles. Interestingly, EMI/Columbia did produce 1/2 track stereo tapes, while they were sold as Angels in the US.
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Offline astrotoy

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Re: Decca Tapes?
« Reply #3 on: November 21, 2007, 03:49:50 PM »
Thanks, I will stop looking. The surmise that since they were all made in the US, they had to use the London label seems very reasonable.
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Offline dwilawyer

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Re: Decca Tapes?
« Reply #4 on: November 25, 2007, 03:31:04 PM »
There are no Decca tapes. Ampex did the duplication from the 50s through the 70s. Stereotape might have made some Dolby tapes of London titles. Interestingly, EMI/Columbia did produce 1/2 track stereo tapes, while they were sold as Angels in the US.

I have a ton of Decca tapes.  Just for starters, The Who, Tommy, The Who, A Quick One.

Travis

Offline dwilawyer

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Re: Decca Tapes?
« Reply #5 on: November 25, 2007, 04:57:49 PM »
Thanks, I will stop looking. The surmise that since they were all made in the US, they had to use the London label seems very reasonable.

If you ever want to do a search for a tape, including by label, go to this site, they have over 5000 tapes listed so far:  http://dantiques.com/openreeltapes/index.html

A search for Decca lists over 70 tapes, and they have no rock tapes listed.  I am trying to get all of my rock entered into this site because they are a little lacking in this regard.  They do not have the Decca Who tapes listed, but I will get those in soon.  As you can see Decca has plenty out there.

Travis

Offline astrotoy

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Re: Decca Tapes?
« Reply #6 on: November 26, 2007, 10:49:10 AM »
Thanks for the great information on the website. It looks like there is only one classical Decca (London) - Stokowski-Encore. The rest look like they may be the American Decca label or non-classical. 
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Offline classicrecordings

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Re: Decca Tapes?
« Reply #7 on: November 26, 2007, 08:48:02 PM »
The "Decca" label that was refered to in the original post was to UK Decca tapes; as in, the mother label of the London issue tapes, not the US Decca label.

And I agree with U47, UK Decca never manufactured any tapes in any format for public release.

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Offline High and Outside

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Re: Decca Tapes?
« Reply #8 on: November 27, 2007, 01:01:57 PM »
The "Decca" label that was refered to in the original post was to UK Decca tapes; as in, the mother label of the London issue tapes, not the US Decca label.

And I agree with U47, UK Decca never manufactured any tapes in any format for public release.

David

Then TP 005 and TP 006 will be the first, although not manufactured by UK Decca, rather manufactured by us under license.
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ceved

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Re: Decca Tapes?
« Reply #9 on: January 22, 2008, 10:05:50 AM »
Does anyone have any of the 1/2 track Angel tapes that were mentioned?
How common/rare are they?
Thanks,

Offline U47

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Re: Decca Tapes?
« Reply #10 on: January 22, 2008, 12:49:22 PM »
Hi Charles
The Angel 2 tracks are not super rare, especially the lighter titles. I have had about 25 different Angel/EMI/Columbia two tracks over the last 20 years. There are a few great ones, most left me less than thrilled. The Angel releases I have now do not indicate whether they are NAB or IEC eq. I suspect they are IEC. The EMI/Columbia releases I have seen are all IEC. I have one lovely Oistrakh Encore tape that has notes by Neville Marriner- Angel ST-4001. Some of the same titles were also available as an EMI or Columbia 2 track in the UK- they are usually in a red box. Bob Witrak at HDTT has released one Klemperer EMI Mozart 2 track on high resolution digital(DVD or download). It is a pretty fine recording and transfer. I think he even has free download samples.

Rich Brown
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Re: Decca Tapes?
« Reply #11 on: January 22, 2008, 07:29:52 PM »
Thanks Rich,
Great feed back.
I will have to keep an eye out for them; even the lighter titles can be enjoyable.
Is it OK just to post a thanks as appreciation and positive feedback, or does that just clog things up?
I don't do chat or IM so I am not sure of the protocols.