Topics

31

Events / California Audio Show 2015, San Francisco

« on: August 02, 2015, 12:27:44 AM »

Anybody going? August 14, 15, 16 at the Westin SFO by the airport.

We'll be spinning tapes in the room of Burwell and Sons Loudspeakers, San Francisco Suite, third floor. Running an all Bottlehead system, no less. Any time during the show that you get there you'll probably see at least one of us: Dan, Eileen or myself.

We have something special for subscribers too: a little get-together Saturday afternoon and a bit into the evening. Dan and I will be available to field all your probing, hard-hitting questions about the Tape Project. But someone else will probably be the star of the show: one of TP's artists, the sultry, sensual and sensational Jacqui Naylor. We'll be playing a track or two from Jacqui's exclusive Tape Project release, TP-001, The Number White, and discussing the technical challenges in the making of this pioneering effort in the 21st century rebirth of audiophile tape listening - an album recorded entirely on analog tape. Jacqui will have her other albums available as well and you will be able to buy autographed copies and have a chat with one of the most gracious and charming artists in the business.

Later we'll be playing our newest album, TP-027, the Jerry Garcia and David Grisman tape in its entirety. So come on by for a light nosh, a thirst quencher, some good tunes and a good hang. 5:30 PM on.

32

Events / T.H.E. Show Newport 2015

« on: May 15, 2015, 09:28:40 AM »

Anyone planning to be at the Newport Show? We are. We will have a booth in the vendor area, E-18. That's in the Grand Ballroom. It's a new venue this year, so we will all have to figure out the lay of the land together. But we shouldn't be too hard to find--look for the large Tape Project banner.

Dan and Eileen will be at the table most of the time. We'll have the BottleNagra, a couple of headphone listening stations, and a bunch of tapes to spin. Please stop by and harass them. It's rumored that there might be Show Specials, you'll have to come by the booth to find out.

I'll be at the table some of the time, and rolling tapes occasionally with Philip O'Hanlon in the On A Higher Note room: The Pelican Hill ballroom on the main floor. And taking a minute out to appear on a panel Saturday at 2:00.

Our Senior Duping Artiste, Nigel Brown, might be spotted at any of these locations as well.

We always like to meet and chat with our subscribers.

33

Events / Listening party at the studio, SF

« on: June 20, 2014, 04:24:41 PM »

Calling all tapeheads. We will be gathering Sunday July 20, 2014, 5 PM in the friendly confines of Michael Romanowski Mastering in central San Francisco, for the express purpose of having a good time and spinning some reels. We have specifically invited the subscribers of the Yahoo reel-to-reel list as well, and promised to be ready to play 7 inch reels as well as Tape Project tapes. Anyone is welcome to bring along any tape you'd like to play.

In this instance we need to know in advance who's coming, so please RSVP to queen at bottlehead dot com. Eileen will confirm by email and include the rest of the details.

Romo, Dan and I will all be there (as well as Queen Eileen, and possibly surprise guests.) More such events are being planned in other cities as well. 

34

Reel to Reel Tape Machines / Otari MTR-20 manual

« on: September 25, 2013, 11:04:25 AM »

I'm pulling this out of the Sony Studios thread and starting a new thread to make this easier to search in the future.

A manual has been obtained and a scan is available for forum members who need it. It is complete with schematics.

Thanks to Chris Jones who provided the contact so that this could finally happen.

35

Events / T.H.E. Show Newport

« on: May 31, 2013, 01:21:07 AM »

Starts tomorrow. Greg Beron of United Home Audio will be hosting after-hours tape listening at the Hilton Dana Point Boardroom both Friday and Saturday, 6-9PM. Greg always has good sound, and this year he has three systems rolling tape.

There will be other exhibitors with tape decks as well. Music First Audio is one that I know of. I'll report later on other ree2reelers I see.

36

Events / Subscriber event at Rocky Mountain

« on: September 26, 2011, 10:03:27 AM »

Hi Tapeophiles, anyone going to RMAF?

Most of the TP crew will be there, so we decided to have a little subscriber party to socialize and play some of the Series Three titles. We're holding it Saturday evening at 6-7:30PM, right after show hours, in the VTL room. They're in Suite 2030, that's on the second floor of the tower. We'll have some light nosh to hold you over until dinner, and libations of some sort. So come on by, meet the people behind The Tape Project, and bring any questions you've been saving up for us.

Of course you can come by during show hours and hear tapes as well. Piper, our duping artiste, is working for VTL during the show, so she'll be there most of the time, and she'll be happy to spin your requests. Tape should be spinning in a couple of other places too. Philip O'Hanlon's Vivid room on the mezzanine for one. And United Home Audio will be showing off their decks in two rooms: 2000 and 2006. Maybe more.

Hope to see you in Denver!

37

Events / THE Show, Newport, CA June 3-5

« on: May 25, 2011, 10:52:29 AM »

Hi Guys,

Several exhibitors will be spinning tapes at T.H.E Show:
United Home Audio with the latest version of their UHA-HQ deck, the series 9. Look for them in the Von Schweikert room.
Philip O'Hanlon, wherever he's showing his Luxman electronics and Vivid loudspeakers.
Arian Jansen, who will be showing a deck based on the ReVox PR99. Arian has made substantial improvements to the transport, and has new audio electronics in it, newly designed from the ground up. I'm especially interested in this deck, since I use a PR99 at home, with Arian's modified ReVox electronics. It sounds pretty good, but I can't wait to hear what his all-out assault sounds like. Look for him under his company name: Sonorus.
I'm assuming Dan Meinwald will have his de Paravicini-modified Technics 1500 in the EAR-USA room.
And probably a few more. If you know of any I missed, please add a response.

I'll be there myself Friday and part of Saturday. Hope to see some of you there.

38

Tape Project Albums - general / New title added to Series Three!

« on: March 07, 2011, 09:17:16 PM »

We are very pleased to announce that we will be releasing Nat King Cole Sings/George Shearing Plays in Series Three.

We have long wanted to include something from Nat King Cole, one of the all time great singers in American musical history. The difficulty is not just to choose from such an iconic body of work. It's also complicated by the fact that much of his defining work was recorded before the stereo era, in fact most of it before the HiFi era. We give a grateful tip of the cap to subscriber Philip O'Hanlon, who pointed us toward this gem. In 1961 someone had the great idea of putting these two together. Cole loved Shearing's piano playing (and since Cole was a great pianist himself that's no small compliment.) And of course everyone loved Cole's singing, including Shearing. The joy they had in collaborating clearly made it on to the tape.

It's beautifully recorded in the pop studio style of the day. The vocal is mixed out front, but if you were going to choose a vocal to spotlight... 

39

Events / HiFi Hawaii Grand Opening August 19

« on: July 27, 2010, 03:09:16 PM »

Our dealer in Honolulu, HiFi Hawaii, has been working diligently on building a new larger store. The owner, Shane Drew, has set August 19 as the day he plans to cut the ribbon. I'm going to be there, talking about the Tape Project and spinning a few reels. There will also be factory guys from Wilson, B&W, MacIntosh, Linn and Avielo.

If you're in town, please come on by and say hello. 5PM to 10PM. (Actually Shane would prefer that you RSVP.)

http://www.hifihawaii.com/home.php

40

Heart Like a Wheel / Breaking our own rule

« on: January 26, 2010, 07:20:21 PM »

You all know the rules about what titles we do: we have to love the music, the master has to exist on analog tape, and we have to be able to get our hands on the original tape. The Linda Ronstadt title meets the first criterion, but there turned out to be a problem relative to the third.

Once we had concluded the deal and I got home with the tape, I couldn't help noticing that it sounded pretty crummy. Upon close inspection, I determined that they had given me an EQ copy that they used for LP cutting. I immediately got on the phone to their vault guy, and thus began a very long and interesting journey. In brief, they didn't have the original mix reels in their vault. So I started trying to find them. I checked in with everyone I could find who may have had anything to do with the tapes. Eventually I had pestered the producer, the main engineer, one of the other engineers, Linda's manager, vault guys in three record companies, the original mastering engineer (Bernie Grundman,) two tape librarians who had been at his mastering facility in 1974, Doug Sax (who had mastered a greatest hits package in 1975 that used a couple of the tunes,) the manager of the studio where the record was mixed, a guy at a third-party storage company in the LA area, and several other people whose connection to the tapes is just too hard to describe. I went over ground that other people had plowed before me, and ran down some leads that no one had pursued before. This whole process took months. The upshot is that the original tapes went missing some time late in 1974 or early in 1975, and they are still missing.

However, in the course of all this I did find (with a little help from Steve Hoffman. Thanks, Steve!) a flat copy that had been made direct from the mixes, with no processing. It was reputed to sound pretty good, so I got hold of it and brought it up to the studio. We were faced with the choice of using the copy or blowing off the title. We had to hear it for ourselves first, of course. We took our time, listening to the tape and talking it over among ourselves. We still love the music, and it still as a lot of that direct connection to the original event. So we eventually decided to put it out from the safety copy. That's what will be showing up on your doorsteps over the next couple of weeks. We have been enjoying it in our living rooms for a while now, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

41

General Discussion / T-shirts and mousepads and coffee mugs, oh my!

« on: November 20, 2009, 03:49:25 PM »

There is a new source for that Tape Project logo merchandise you've been craving:

http://www.zazzle.com/TheTapeProject

We used to have it at Cafe Press, but no more. Zazzle is the same basic idea: they'll slap a logo on just about anything you can think of. We haven't listed aprons or refrigerator magnets yet, but if there's a demand we will be happy to.

42

Tape Project Albums - general / Why only two classical in Series Two?

« on: August 12, 2009, 12:42:09 AM »

Some of the classical music listeners among our subscribers have been asking if any of the remaining four titles for Series Two would be classical music. Now that we are announcing the balance of the titles, I'd like to address directly the place of classical music in our release schedule.

The reason that there are classical titles in both Series One and Series Two is that we, the three principals who make the A&R decisions, love classical music. At the same time, we love lots of other kinds of music.

Looking at the feedback we receive from our subscribers, we see that there are a lot of people who listen primarily to other genres, but enjoy classical too, and appreciate having some classsical in our mix if it's well chosen. There are also some who indicate that they only are interested in classical. However committed that group of classical listeners may be, the group is small. If we ran a classical-only label, that group would not be large enough to keep the operation afloat.

By the way, Series One had four classical titles, which may have set an expectation that our norm would be something like four out of each ten titles to be classical. It was not our intention to have that ratio. It just worked out that there were some irrestistible titles that happened to become available in the first year. Our original thinking had been more like two out of each ten. But lately our thinking has added another direction. Without going into too much detail (because the details aren't set yet) we are working on a plan to make more classical titles available.

My own feeling is that the benefits of the tape format work particularly well for large orchestral works, so that's where my interest is focused. As always, your thoughts on specific titles are welcome in the Suggestion Box, and I invite them there. In this thread, I welcome your perspectives on the place you'd like to see for classical music in The Tape Project.

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Tape Project Albums - general / Our pricing (and subscriber special price)

« on: August 12, 2009, 12:40:10 AM »

We had wanted to make the subscriber special price effective until all ten titles had been announced. It took a lot longer than we had hoped--long story--but finally here we are. So, in order to head off any confusion, here is the actual deal:

Starting back when we announced it in January, the new price per album is $300 plus shipping. We still offer both selective (six out of the ten, your choice) for $1800 plus shipping, or full subscription (all ten in the series) for $3000 plus shipping. Single tapes are available for $500 plus shipping.

Since we appreciate our subscribers so much, we are offering a substantial discount for anyone who has already subscribed to Series One, or who subscribes to Series One by September 10, 2009. For any of these subscribers, the following prices are available: selective subscriptions for $1500 plus shipping, or a full subscription for $2500 plus shipping.

The window is open for thirty days on the special pricing. Until September 10, anyone who is a subscriber to Series One can get Series Two at the discounted price. And people who hadn't already subscribed to Series One and who want to subscribe to Series Two may do both at the at the discounted price. After that, everything is at the new price.

Again, thanks to all our subscribers, especially the early ones who subscribed with the knowledge that we didn't yet have a product to ship, and who showed extreme patience, waiting up to 11 months to receive their first tape. We haven't forgotten that your early support made this venture possible.

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Tape Project Albums - general / Lots of tapes shipping

« on: March 09, 2009, 04:23:21 PM »

We weren't shipping for a while--waiting for some parts in the supply chain--but duping was still going full steam ahead. Now we are able to ship again, and I am seeing very large piles of tapes going out the door today. This includes lots of catch-up of earlier titles for people who subscribed more recently as well as some TP009's. More will be shipped over the next few days.

Many subscribers will see shipping notices in their email inboxes over the next couple of days. If you just can't contain your curiosity you can email romo at tapeproject dot com and he'll look up your orders--but BE PATIENT. He's super busy right now supervising this big batch of shipping, and it might take him a week to recover.

45

Suggestion Box / Tape Project Alignment Tones

« on: May 27, 2007, 01:20:02 PM »

This is a continuation of the discussion started under the title "Test tones on ALL tape releases??" but I'm starting a new thread that is concerned solely with the alignment tone reels that we will be making to go with our releases.

First of all, the parts that have already been decided: it'll have 1KHz for level setting, 10K for HF EQ, 15K for azimuth, and some tones for LF EQ setting (discussion below.) All tones will be at zero level. (How many nanoWebers/meter will that zero correspond to? That's still under consideration.) It will have two signals for polarity: an asymmetrically clipped sine wave and pops. The clipped sine is useful, but needs a scope. The pops will be useful only if you have a polarity popper set (which I highly recommend anyway*) but has the advantage of being able to confirm polarity all the way through your chain to the speaker output.

The LF EQ has been brought up in the previous thread, and we've been thinking a lot about it too. Our current thinking is three tones: 30, 60 and 90. We are interested in input from others on this as well.

Is there anything else that people would like to see included? We have considered frequency sweeps, but are currently leaning against including them.

The tone reels will be available for purchase. They are not a replacement for a test tape from MRL if you have the instrumentation and skill to use one--or you have a tech who does. They will be valuable for making sure your machine is set up to get the best out of The Tape Project albums. We don't have  a price yet, obviously, if we still haven't finalized what will be on them. All first year subscribers will get one gratis.

*These used to be hard to find, but now Galaxy Audio makes one that's perfectly good, easily available and cheap--about a hundred bucks. http://www.galaxyaudio.com/CRICKET.html