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Messages - mikel

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61
General Discussion / Re: Harman closes Studer production
« on: October 10, 2009, 09:09:34 AM »
me too; count me in on any efforts which might be appropriate to protect the Studer parts or info access.

62
Suggestion Box / Re: Suggestion for Series 3
« on: September 30, 2009, 10:52:06 PM »
some random thoughts.....

for Series 3 i support the idea stated above for a large Orchestral work, and Mahler's 1st Symphony would be a good choice from my perspective of limited knowledge of Classical music. i love Classical, it makes up 30% of my listening, but i'm not very knowledgable. it might be good to have a couple really knowledgable members be able to consult during the selection process as to the better performances.

i would like to see some Jazz in the Big Band direction; something with some real energy. ideally it could be Duke Ellington or maybe Count Basie. but Harry James or some other 'golden age' Big Band might be great too. all the Jazz we have so far is small combo. a big band recording should be stereo, not mono. there is nothing like a big band at full-tilt boogie. those of us with full-range systems would like some music that gives those type systems a bit of a workout.

i listen to many different types of guitar music. along those lines i might suggest Leo Kottke (A Shout Toward Noon), Doc Watson (Third Generation Blues) and agree with those above mentioning Ry Cooder (although not specifically 'BVSC') and Pat Metheny.

we can dream about Pink Floyd, or the Beatles, or Led Zepplin. those aren't gonna happen. But a guy like Neil Young might agree to something based on his view of analog recordings......or maybe Donald Fegan and Walter Becker of Steely Dan could be convinced to offer one of their gems.....maybe worth a try.


63
General Discussion / Re: Get together at the Chateau
« on: September 27, 2009, 09:35:37 PM »
Thanks Doc and Eileen for openning your home (once again) for the Get together. it was fun; meeting people, putting faces with names, intense conversations, good food and adult beverages, and lots of great music reproduction done as god would have if he'd of thought about it. from tape at 1.5 generation from the master played thru the Nagra T/Repro. i heard parts of 5 of the Series 2 tapes (that i recall).

Ki Choi and i drove over from the eastside of Seattle to Poulsbo for the festivities. it's about a 80 minute drive each way for us. Ki has amassed a horde of RTR machines and has taken the trouble to learn about them technically. my RTR knowledge grew exponentially from my over 2 hours talking tape with him. thanks Ki.

it was great to meet Larry Toy (Astrotoy), his friend Bob who lives about a mile away from Doc, and Kip Peterson (Kipdent). Larry and Kip both traveled up from California for the event. i truely enjoyed our wide-ranging conversations.

some of the tapes i heard clearly with some listening focus; others during conversation in brief spots. i heard brief parts of 'The Sermon', which i loved--it seemed far beyond my middling Lp pressing.  another brief listen was to 'Brilliant Corners'; again, wonderful and 'i can't wait'. i did spend considerable time with Little Hatch's 'Rock With Me Baby'......WOW!!! this is a killer tape! sooo transparent and immediate. a great recording. another one i liked alot was Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane. a mono, but a mono with space and excellent definition and pulse. great music. i've already had the 'BeAltitude; Respect Yourself' tape in my system; it was interesting hearing it on Doc's system. still alive and wonderful. everyone stopped talking for awhile as it played.

every Series 2 tape i've heard is special as a recording and the music is sublime. bring'm on!

Doc also played some digital music files thru a new dac design of his; it really sounded 'analog' to me. very nice.

it was a fun day in every way (except the Seahawks lost to the Bears--at least i didn't watch and get upset about it) and thanks again to Doc for having us over. i did not take any pictures but others did; hopefully they will post them.




64
Tape Project Machines / Re: some comments about the "competition"
« on: September 24, 2009, 06:05:08 PM »
Doc,

thanks for addressing this issue (and taking the 'High Road' while doing it too). some of my friends have asked me about how the competitors machines and yours compare considering what his website says. your response is much better than my feeble attempts at it (but we agree on the issues).

my recommendation always is to listen and compare for one's self. 2+ years ago that was almost impossible to do. now days if one has the desire to hear these machines playing Tape Project tapes one can do it and decide. there are machine owners, audio club meetings and audio shows all over playing tapes....

the tiny RTR community needs multiple healthy enterprises doing what they do to continue to grow and keep up the flow of great music. hopefully these enterprises will focus on their particular thing. let the customers/listeners speak to comparative performance.

mikel

65
Thanks for the kinds words Mike. I'll suggest that this isn't something one would categorize as a funk album of the Parliament/Funkadelic ilk, even though the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section certainly had the funk groove down to a science. It's more a definitive soul album, by gospel giants, with a massive funk (and yeah, reggae in some places) groove. To pull that all together in one album is what makes this one so special. 
thanks for the correction; i guess i was caught up in the music and wasn't thinking straight. i love gospel/soul and listen to it often, and guess i was just having a senior moment. however you catagorize it; it's great music and sounds superb.

mikel

66
i like the Lp (played on the Rockport/Lyra Olympos/Allnic H3000). i am gaga over the tape. this is compelling music. maybe 'funk' is not everyone's cup of tea....it's not my favorite genre. but this particular music and recording with 'The Tape Project's' magic added is unresistable. i've played the tape all the way thru twice. i want to play it again. the music propells you along and you just hang on.

this tape is alive! it literally bursts with energy. the bass lines are big, bold, and bloomy with seemingly unlimited dynamic range. reminds me of some of Bob Marley's best reggae bass tracks. if you have a full range system (or headphones) you will thank the lord.

the Lp is very good, and until you hear the tape it's hard to imagine it getting much better. but the tape takes things to another level in most every way. the bass is much more dynamically alive, quicker, more textured, and decays more fully. the vocals on the Lp seem a slight bit veiled compared to the tape. it's much easier to hear each background singer individually on the tape, each voice is more distinctive. the Lp has a good sense of space. with the tape they are in my room playing and the tape energizes every molecule of air in the room.

this is an example where you have a perfectly good Lp of really fun music; then the tape comes along and shows you what is possible in reproduced music.

i played 'Respect Yourself' and 'I'll Take You There' on the Lp. very nice; i've heard them a thousand times. then the tape. like normal TV (not HD) to Blue Ray. no easy way to explain it; ya gotta see it for yourself to appreciate the difference. (i played the start of 'I'll Take You There' 5 times it was sooo tasty!!!).

and play this loud.....the louder the better. this recording holds together at warp 9.

congrats to the crew for this choice, and for such a wonderful job on this tape! you have set the bar very, very high for the rest of Series 2.



67
hey Doc,

UPS says my tape will of TP-012 will arrive tonight. i'm excited to hear this tape as i really enjoy the music on the Lp.

i notice that there is not yet a Forum heading for TP-012, Staple Singer's' BeAltitude; Respect Yourself. if it does arrive and i do have a chance to post 1st impressions, it would be helpful to have a place to post them.

thanks,

mikel

68
WOW!

i just got my UPS shipping notification for TP-012. it's suppose to arrive Monday. i had no idea this was happening now.

many thanks to 'The Tape Project' crew for their speedy efforts.

mikel

69
General Discussion / Re: SO - who'se going to Rocky Mountain?
« on: September 15, 2009, 11:45:58 PM »
i'll be there, and will try remember on Saturday at 2pm. that damn music sometimes distracts me.....

70
General Discussion / Re: Get together at the Chateau
« on: August 27, 2009, 06:17:33 PM »
i'll be there either day unless i get tickets to the Seahawks-Bears game on the 27th (unlikely at this point). that's a great line-up of music and gear to listen to and i'm very much looking forward to the event.

oh, and thanks Doc for the extra Tape Project reel that arrived last night; it was a very nice surprise.

a question; have you settled on the sequence of delivery for Series Two? the web site shows 'Heart Like a Wheel' as listed first, then Jimmy Smith, and then The Band. that would be a powerhouse start. but there are no numbers next to the listings.

Mike

71
General Discussion / Re: Anyone interested in a sneak peak?
« on: August 15, 2009, 01:18:13 PM »
Doc,

once you set the date i'll try and make it accross the water; it's been a busy time for me lately (like everyone i suppose).

i appreciate you offering the locals an early listen (any chance of having 'Stage Fright' for this demo?...i'd have to find a way for sure...)

Mike

72
Tape Project Albums - general / Re: Four more titles for Series Two!
« on: August 15, 2009, 08:45:08 AM »
i'm personally very happy with the choices (i like the music first and formost) and am impressed with the diversity of the additions. how can you go wrong with The Band or Linda Ronstadt?

some mainstream pop (Heart Like a Wheel) and a rock n' roll classic (Stage Fright) should add to the street cred of The Tape Project and hopefully it indicates the future genre balance. getting those 2 license's negotiated must have been interesting. both those are pretty good sonically and i can't wait to hear them on tape.

we can only hope that other mainstream artists will want to follow that lead and be open to RTR tape distribution with The Tape Project touch.

i don't have the 'Clifford Brown Memorial Album' or the Jimmy Smith's 'The Sermon' but i have others by those guys and like them so i'm happy with those 2 also.

you guys should be proud of the job you've done on Series Two with bringing us some great (and significant) music; i expect that more fence-sitters will jump in.

i expect Series Two to really rock since we'll get them more consistently and speedily with your more refined production processes. a person will be able to decide to purchase 20 great Tape Project titles and recieve them in a reasonable time-frame. that is enough software to justify the hardware commitment. the more buzz it creates the bigger the upside of potential great music on tape in the future there will be.

73
General Discussion / Re: crack smoker auctions off ATR
« on: July 27, 2009, 07:40:57 PM »
i'm with you Doc.

my Jeff Gillman completly refurbed ATR-102 is cosmetically perfect in new condition. it has the new 1/4" heads and a 1/2" head stack with new extended resolution heads.....similar to the one in the auction. i have the full manual and even a sealed MRL alignment tapes for 1/4" and 1/2".

it would be sooooo gone......


74
Hmmm, it is very strange that the tapes would be head out rather than tail out. The tapes are recorded onto the hub and never leave it before they are shipped. It would be very unlikely that they were rewound onto another hub after recording. Was it perhaps instead that the tail was out, but the flanges were on such that the engraved flange was on the backside and the reel had to be flipped over to rewind it for the first play? That could happen if the guys putting together the reel lost track of the flanges when mounting them - and easily remedied by rewinding the tape all the way off, flipping the reel and rethreading the tape on the properly flipped reel for the first play. If that is the case I will ask the guys to be a little more observant when they mount the flanges and when we QC the package.

sorry, i think my description was incorrect; what i mean't was that the 'tail' was taped onto the inside of the reel instead of the outside; the tape was properly oriented. i have always seen tails taped to the outside of the reel so i assumed that was proper.....and so figured that taping it inside (the first time i've seen that) was somehow not correct. there was no ill effect other than it caused me to wonder.

75
This is great music and one of the true classics of Jazz.....i had not listened to Saxophone Collossus in quite awhile until tonight, and for the life of me i don't know why. This should and will be in my frequent rotation.

the interplay of the group is simply wonderful, the pace is perfect, and each cut delights. it's not so mellow, but never over the top either.....very listenable, tuneful and easy for a non jazz freak to get into.

Mono? who cares? this recording is alive and once the music starts you really don't even think about the fact it's not a stereo recording. (maybe the fact that it's mono has caused me to overlook this for so long.....if so my bad).

i love each cut; but my favorites are 'You don't know what loves is' and 'Blue 7'.....'Blue 7' might be as perfect a cut as i know of.....and it's 11 minutes 15 seconds long......WOW! a real musical journey.

with music this fine, it seems crass to speak about recording quality......but i know that is one part of our enjoyment. Sonny's tenor sax is wonderful on the tape; very immediate, very dynamic, smooth as butta one moment, ruff and gruff the next. the tape captures every nuance and shade without stress or strain. it's all there. the tape also captures the cymbles perfectly; which are prominent throughout the recording.....as perfect as i've ever heard them recorded. overall; the tape has great flow, is very dynamic and detailed.

TP-010 is a great sounding recording of wonderful music and i highly recommend it.....great job and congrats to Doc, Paul and Romo (and crew) for another winner! I feel very lucky to be able to own and play a fully licensed 1/4" 15ips 1.5 generation master dub of Saxophone Collossus.

i will be playing it often.

btw; one tiny nit-pic.....both tapes were 'tails-in' instead of 'tails-out'.

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