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General Discussion / Interesting tape uses discussion
« on: June 29, 2014, 04:11:42 PM »
Hey Folks,
Been pretty busy in school studying music technology (ProTools, Sound Design, Studio Production) so I haven't had a chance to post here as much as I'd liked.
Now that I'm free for a couple of months, I'll try and post items that I think might interest some of you.
I can't recall if it was an email or phone chat I had with Paul a while back, but we were discussing who might be some of the big consumers of new tape these days.
Here's a quote from the good old Ampex List which started as a discussion of the rare ATR124 that was certainly eye opening to me.
"Following up on my June 16th post, I discussed this with Mike Guerra,
Technical Operations Manager at Ocean Way Recording in Hollywood. Here is
what he had to share:
"This year in particular, our machines have seen a remarkable spike in use:
we just finished a session that burned through in excess of 50 reels of 2”
tape in two weeks flat. (They would have used more but we depleted the
available stock on the west coast, for the *third* time this year, so they
wound up rolling over outtakes as a workaround.) We’ve easily hosted over a
dozen extended sessions on the 2” machines over the past year, one of which
required me to fire up one of the old Dolby SR racks for the first time in
over ten years! Go figure…
The ATR-102 2 tracks have witnessed a marked resurgence in use as well but
coming up with tape has proven to be a very tricky, recurring problem.
(Seems that both ATR and RMG are unable to keep up with the renewed and
unexpected demand for tape, in any format. Who knew such a thing?) For
instance, we just completed our second “live to 2 track” session this year.
A progressive jazz sextet cut an entire album direct to 2 track (two of
them simultaneously, in fact) burning through two cases of ¼” tape over two
days. No overdubs, no mixing, bang, there’s your record… I would
conservatively estimate that over 25% of our mixing sessions now wind up on
½” tape either as the sole format or in conjunction with a print back to
the digital domain.
In recent conversations with Bruce Marien, the former chief tech here at
Ocean Way, (he was a master at servicing the ATR-124’s) he confirmed that 7
ATR-124’s were in the old Western Studios building at 6000 W Sunset Blvd
when Allen Sides sold that portion of Ocean Way in 1999. All 7 machines
eventually fell into disrepair, were decommissioned, stripped down to the
frames and disposed of. Bruce says he knows of at least one other machine
operating in Southern California at a private studio. (Down in Orange
County, I believe.)"
Regards,
Steve Jackson
Pulse Techniques, LLC"
A follow up message could be interesting to the ATR100/102 owners out there;
Tony Arnold still has his two Ampex ATR-124s in operation at his studio in France.
I know that those two machines are in 100% top shape.
His facility is somewhat of a private studio now that he is retired although he might not call it a private studio.
He has a fantastic ex-BBC Calrec console and used to have Big Brownie (the Helios that was at the Manor.)
For a "private"studio he has a staggering amount of vintage mics and gear.
He also has all of the remaining spares stock that was in Europe when he bought Ampex's European stock when they closed shop.
If anyone needs AT-100 parts he has quite a bit.
I believe that he has ATR-124 spare parts as well.
Now, I don't know if Tony's ATR-124s are the only machines in operation in Europe or not.
I do know that although he is retired he still services quite a few MM-1100s and MM-1200s along with ATR-102s, AG-440s and other Ampex machines.
I'll ask him about the existence of any other operational ATR-124s in Europe or elsewhere.
Danny Brown"
Been pretty busy in school studying music technology (ProTools, Sound Design, Studio Production) so I haven't had a chance to post here as much as I'd liked.
Now that I'm free for a couple of months, I'll try and post items that I think might interest some of you.
I can't recall if it was an email or phone chat I had with Paul a while back, but we were discussing who might be some of the big consumers of new tape these days.
Here's a quote from the good old Ampex List which started as a discussion of the rare ATR124 that was certainly eye opening to me.
"Following up on my June 16th post, I discussed this with Mike Guerra,
Technical Operations Manager at Ocean Way Recording in Hollywood. Here is
what he had to share:
"This year in particular, our machines have seen a remarkable spike in use:
we just finished a session that burned through in excess of 50 reels of 2”
tape in two weeks flat. (They would have used more but we depleted the
available stock on the west coast, for the *third* time this year, so they
wound up rolling over outtakes as a workaround.) We’ve easily hosted over a
dozen extended sessions on the 2” machines over the past year, one of which
required me to fire up one of the old Dolby SR racks for the first time in
over ten years! Go figure…
The ATR-102 2 tracks have witnessed a marked resurgence in use as well but
coming up with tape has proven to be a very tricky, recurring problem.
(Seems that both ATR and RMG are unable to keep up with the renewed and
unexpected demand for tape, in any format. Who knew such a thing?) For
instance, we just completed our second “live to 2 track” session this year.
A progressive jazz sextet cut an entire album direct to 2 track (two of
them simultaneously, in fact) burning through two cases of ¼” tape over two
days. No overdubs, no mixing, bang, there’s your record… I would
conservatively estimate that over 25% of our mixing sessions now wind up on
½” tape either as the sole format or in conjunction with a print back to
the digital domain.
In recent conversations with Bruce Marien, the former chief tech here at
Ocean Way, (he was a master at servicing the ATR-124’s) he confirmed that 7
ATR-124’s were in the old Western Studios building at 6000 W Sunset Blvd
when Allen Sides sold that portion of Ocean Way in 1999. All 7 machines
eventually fell into disrepair, were decommissioned, stripped down to the
frames and disposed of. Bruce says he knows of at least one other machine
operating in Southern California at a private studio. (Down in Orange
County, I believe.)"
Regards,
Steve Jackson
Pulse Techniques, LLC"
A follow up message could be interesting to the ATR100/102 owners out there;
Tony Arnold still has his two Ampex ATR-124s in operation at his studio in France.
I know that those two machines are in 100% top shape.
His facility is somewhat of a private studio now that he is retired although he might not call it a private studio.
He has a fantastic ex-BBC Calrec console and used to have Big Brownie (the Helios that was at the Manor.)
For a "private"studio he has a staggering amount of vintage mics and gear.
He also has all of the remaining spares stock that was in Europe when he bought Ampex's European stock when they closed shop.
If anyone needs AT-100 parts he has quite a bit.
I believe that he has ATR-124 spare parts as well.
Now, I don't know if Tony's ATR-124s are the only machines in operation in Europe or not.
I do know that although he is retired he still services quite a few MM-1100s and MM-1200s along with ATR-102s, AG-440s and other Ampex machines.
I'll ask him about the existence of any other operational ATR-124s in Europe or elsewhere.
Danny Brown"