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Messages - audio salvage

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1
Tape Project Machines / Re: Nagra TA
« on: January 20, 2011, 02:25:59 PM »
Here are photos showing the RS 422 splitter that connects to rear panel BJ 13 and the green "amp" connectors P1 & P2 inside the control panel.

2
Tape Project Machines / Re: Nagra TA
« on: January 20, 2011, 02:11:09 PM »
Hi all,

The machine has a TAERS.
The RS422 cable to the control panel has a splitter that plugs into BJ13 on the rear panel of the machine.
The splitter has a cable (that's been cut) that goes to the control panel and a female DB9 connector.
The RS422 cable to the TAERS connects to the female DB9 of the splitter.
The cable to the TAERS is no problem to repair.
It has 8 individual conductors, each with a unique color and an overall shield.
The cable to the control panel, however, is not so easy to re construct.
It is 5 pair with an overall shield. There are 5 black wires in the cable.
The cable connects in the control panel via one 6 position and one 12 position green colored "amp" connectors labeled "P1" (6 position) and "P2" (12 position).
Drawing attached shows what I'm dealing with.
Does anyone have specific info regarding which black wire goes where?

3
Tape Project Machines / Re: Nagra TA
« on: January 14, 2011, 11:06:04 AM »
Thanks all for the info.

Ki, your photos are most helpful, that's quite a beauty you have.
Paul, please keep me posted on progress with the manuals.

One of the studios' building maintenance men came to me saying I should check out the "scrap metal" on the curb.
Besides the TA were 2 Otari MTR 10 1/2" 4 tracks, a 35MM projector with lamphouse and lamphouse supply, a 16mm film edge coding machine and a Sony 4:2:2 digital time base corrector. Everything seemed complete.
3 fellows were loading it all into a truck. They had purchased it as scrap metal.
Several sawbucks and they let me take the TA.
Sadly I had no place to stash the Otari decks so I had to let them go.

Only thing missing on the TA is NAB hubs.

4
Tape Project Machines / Nagra TA
« on: January 13, 2011, 03:00:24 PM »
Salvaged from a scrap truck.
serial #00390
Seems to be in excellent condition except the cables from the control panel have been cut.
I'm quite certain the upper cable from the control panel goes to the side of the machine by the take up reel.
What about the lower one? (see attached photo)
My guess is it goes to BJ13 "RS-422" on the rear panel.
Can any TA users here confirm this?

I'm also looking for operation and service manuals.

Dominick Costanzo

5
Reel to Reel Tape Machines / Re: Check out Sony studio in NYC
« on: December 13, 2009, 07:01:00 PM »
The Studer / Cello machines were purchased by Sony Classical early '90's.
When Sony Classical moved into W 54th St. in 1994 the machines came with them.

As Mikel mentions, the modified circuit he heard was quieter & more detailed but something was not right with the bass. There is always a give & take and the tradeoffs must be chosen to best fit the program.

Each of the 9 mastering engineers at Sony NYC 54th St. had different reasons why they preferred a machine. The did not all choose the same machine. Some preferred Ampex, some Studer, some chose machines on a project by project basis, but the Cellos were rarely used.




6
Reel to Reel Tape Machines / Re: Check out Sony studio in NYC
« on: December 13, 2009, 07:46:05 AM »
Mikel,

ERP = erase, record, play
The stock heads are used with the Cello unit, the preamp on the head assembly is bypassed.

We sold the Cello electronics for a reason.
After living with stock and Cello modified A820, our engineers preferred working with the stock machines for 2 track or switched to ATR Services rebuilt ATR 104 machines.

7
Reel to Reel Tape Machines / Re: Check out Sony studio in NYC
« on: December 12, 2009, 07:03:43 PM »
The Studer/Cello A820 machines had the 6 RU 4 channel record play electronics and 2 RU power supply mounted under the deck. We had the following head assemblies - 1/2" 4 track ERP, 1/2" 3 track play, 1/2" 2 track ERP, 1/4" half track stereo ERP and 1/4" mono ERP. No 1".
The original Studer electronics were left intact.
We sold all of the Cellos at the '07 auction. No idea where they are.

8
Reel to Reel Tape Machines / Re: Check out Sony studio in NYC
« on: December 12, 2009, 06:50:06 AM »
Ki,
We had one lone APR-5003 in our audio post department back at 54th St.
By the time I started at Sony (2002) it wasn't being used very much.
We sold it at the 2007 auction.

We did have a lot of Sony digital recorders.
4  PCM-3348HR, 2  K-1183 (20 bit version of the PCM 3402) over 20 PCM-1630/DMR-4000 systems, about a dozen PCM-7030, another dozen PCM-2800 and countless Sony CDP-2700.

Analog was Studer & Ampex. In 2002 we had;
5  A827, 5  A800 MkIII, a dozen or so A820, 4  A820/Cello 4 track, 2  A807 4 track, 1 A80RC, 1 A80VU-2, 1 ATR-104/Aria, 2 ATR-104, 6 ATR-102. All the ATR's were rebuilt by ATR Services.


9
Reel to Reel Tape Machines / Re: Check out Sony studio in NYC
« on: December 11, 2009, 03:57:24 PM »
Thanks for the clarification Dominick, and welcome to the forum.

If you get a moment, I'd love to get a little technical info about your transfer facility.
Do you guys restore your tapes and older media like metal/lacquers in house? If so, how do the different labels differ in condition in general? I guess I'm wondering how carefully these items were stored and which particular labels are more at immediate risk of being lost?

Also, since Columbia is in Sony's stables, there seems to be some debate over the equalization of their 78's. I'm hoping you could share the eq curve your facility uses?


Thanks again for sharing!

Restore the original media? Not sure what you mean by that.
Preservation more than restoration.
We will bake tape that needs to be (a temporary restoration at best)
We clean discs only when absolutely necessary. No disc cleaning machine.

Most of of the Columbia & RCA Victor stuff has been well kept.
Even under optimum storage conditions some stuff is breaking down
Priority for digitizing is determined by media most at risk and commercial value of the program.

Matt Cavaluzzo is our transfer engineer. I'm a tech.
I'll ask him about the Columbia 78 eq but IIRC, disc transfers are done with only turnover eq, no HF roll off.
HF roll off is applied during the mastering.

10
Reel to Reel Tape Machines / Re: Check out Sony studio in NYC
« on: December 11, 2009, 11:39:17 AM »
Hi folks,

Bruce B. -
The room shown in the NYT article is not a mastering room. It is a transfer facility for the archive department.

Ki Choi -
The ATR in the picture is not normally used in this room, just happened to be parked there that day.
Matt Cavaluzzo, the transfer engineer, like his Studers.

Normal compliment of machines in the room (the Studers have names) is:
Studer A820 "Trudi"1/4" full track mono, 1/2 track stereo or 1/4 track stereo
Studer A820 "Ursula" 1/2" 2 track stereo (no 4 track A820's made to my knowledge)
Studer A807 "the Three Track" 1/2" 3 track
Studer A807 "The Four Track" 1/2" 4 track
Studer A827 "Louise" 24 channel set up for 1" 8 track
Studer A827 "Gwen" 24 channel 2" 24 track, 16 track or 8 track
Sony PCM-R500 DAT
Sony CDP-D500 CD

When needed we can roll in..
Sony PCM 3348 HR 48 channel digital
Sony PCM 1630 / DMR 4000 2 channel digital
Sony K1183 2 channel digital
Mitsubishi X850 32 channel digital
Mitsubishi X86-HS 2 channel digital
Mitsubishi X80 2 channel digital

besides tape machines you can see in the photo
Rockport Technologies turntable w/ Cello preamp for vinyl & acetate discs
BC 16-C turntable for 78's and metal parts.

2 channel A-D conversion - dCS 904
Multi channel A-D conversion - emmLabs ADC8-MkIV
D-A conversion dCS 954

We have 4 mastering rooms and another transfer room in addition to this room.

Dominick Costanzo
Battery Studios / Sony Music Entertainment

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