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Messages - astrotoy

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16
Tape Tech / Re: Setting Bias 1/4" vs 1/2" Tape
« on: December 24, 2016, 07:51:26 PM »
Hi Sam, I am either dubbing 1/2" to 1/2" or 1/4" to 1/2" and sometimes 1/2" to 1/4".  Everything is at 15ips, the speed at which the tapes were recorded originally. 

Thanks,  Larry

17
Tape Project Albums - general / Re: Tp 029 and 030
« on: December 23, 2016, 04:19:33 PM »
My Doshi came back Tuesday night late.  I let it warm up over night and played the Mozart Concerti.  A quite splendid performance with typical great Keith Johnson analogue sound.  Agree with Tom's earlier comment about the Mozart Piano Concerti overall.  The famous C Major, #21, was made more famous 50 years ago (1967) when the beautiful slow movement was used as the main theme of the Swedish movie "Elvira Madigan".  I remember seeing the DGG recording (which was used in the film) reissued with a picture of the title character.  I think it was a best selling album.  Joan Kennedy, Teddy's first wife, played the second movement of the concerto at some televised concert back in the late '60's.

Larry

18
Tape Tech / Re: Setting Bias 1/4" vs 1/2" Tape
« on: December 23, 2016, 04:03:26 PM »
Hi Sam, I am not using SM900.  I am not doing any live recordings, only dubs of tapes and some experiments with hirez digital files to tape. So I think the SM468 and SM911's have enough headroom, particularly when I am dubbing to 1/2".  I have also used the ATR tape with fine results (1/2" only), but decided that SM468 for 1/2" and SM911 for 1/4" was fine.  I do have a bunch of SM468 1/4" reels with splices that I bought from TP, when they were selling those.  I probably will use them also, when I finish going through my several cases of SM911.   The collection of safety masters appear to just about all been recorded on SM911 with a Studer A80.

Larry

19
General Discussion / Re: Retiring!
« on: December 21, 2016, 05:55:21 PM »
Dan, thanks to you and Eileen for all the work involved in TP.  At the recent RMAF show, Romo was on a panel on tape moderated by Myles Astor. The packed audience gave a great round of applause to Tape Project for getting this who mini industry started a decade ago. A great ride so far for TP and as the world of tape is expanding, the ride will continue, thanks to the big push that you, Paul and Romo gave it.

Larry

20
Tape Project Albums - general / Re: Tp 029 and 030
« on: December 11, 2016, 08:09:29 PM »
I got my TP-29 Friday or Saturday (didn't see it until Saturday morning).  My Doshi is out for an upgrade, so I have to wait a week to listen.  Both concerti are nearly a half hour long each, so the tape reels are very full!

Larry

21
Tape Tech / Re: Setting Bias 1/4" vs 1/2" Tape
« on: November 28, 2016, 08:30:09 PM »
Thanks, Paul.  Will do.  Thanks to your instructions, setting the bias is not the frightening experience I thought it might be!!

Larry

22
Tape Tech / Setting Bias 1/4" vs 1/2" Tape
« on: November 24, 2016, 02:25:25 PM »
I have learned to set the bias and trim the recording levels on my new Ampex ATR-102, thanks to instructions from Paul Stubblebine. Fortunately I have 3 sets of audio cards for the 102 where the bias and level settings are made.  All my recordings are being done at 15ips 2 track.  I am currently using three different types of tape to record: ATR Mastering, SM468, and SM911.  The ATR tape is all half inch, the SM911 is all quarter inch. So I have used one set of cards for the ATR and another set of cards for SM911 and just switch cards, rather than having to rebias every time I switch tapes.  However, I have both half inch and quarter inch SM468 tapes.  I have set the bias and levels for the half inch with my third set of cards.  I was wondering if those settings would work for the 1/4" SM468 tape also.  It would save me from having to rebias and change level settings when I switch between those two.  The problem with the Ampex cards is that I don't see any easy way to restore an old set of settings on the cards.

Thanks, Larry

23
Tape Project Albums - general / Re: Tp 029 and 030
« on: November 08, 2016, 03:35:14 PM »
Hi Tom, Keith Johnson continued to do R2R recordings with his special tape recorder, into the mid '90's even though only the CD version was released (Exotic Dances is another one). Not sure when he stopped doing tape recordings.  Paul has transferred some to vinyl, along with some of Keith's digital recordings.  TP, of course, is sticking with those with analogue tape masters only.

Larry


24
Tape Project Albums - general / Re: Tp 029 and 030
« on: November 07, 2016, 09:56:10 PM »
I had lunch with Paul last week and he spilled the beans on TP29 and 30. 

TP29 is coming out shortly (according to Dan) and is a Reference Recording album, Mozart Piano Concerti 21 and 24 played by the late, great, pianist Eugene Istomin in the mid '90's with Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony.  It was a record of the month at Stereophile. 

TP30 is a brand new release of the two Brahms String Sextets, played by the recently disbanded Cypress String Quartet and guest viola and cello.  They recorded it at Skywalker on tape this year.  It is in the initial stages of being edited.

Both albums are around 60 minutes each, so the tapes will be quite full. 

I never heard Istomin, who died in 2003.  I have several recordings (including the HRx version of the Mozart Concerti).  He played with Isaac Stern and Leonard Rose in the Stern-Rose-Istomin piano trio on Columbia, back in the '60's.  One bit of trivia - he married Pablo Casals's widow, who has outlived both of them.

I know the Cypress Quartet and their engineer, Mark Willsher, who taught me how to use Pyramix software.  He invited my wife Pearl and me to spend a day with them at Skywalker Ranch when they recorded the Barber String Quartet a few years ago.  The Cypress had played in my wife's concert series at UCSF.  One interesting coincidence.  The violist of the group, Ethan Finer, looked familiar to me. Turns out he and my daughter learned Suzuki violin together 30 years ago when they were both little kids.

Larry

25
Tape Tech / Re: Flat Copy?
« on: November 05, 2016, 04:55:23 PM »
Charles, I think it means that the original EQ (IEC I assume in this case) was preserved without any additional EQ being applied to the tape.  I do have a few tapes which say "Production Master" with a notation that they were equalized, limited, etc. I assume for cutting vinyl.  When I listened to the tape, with IEC, I think it sounded right - it is a rock album, so I don't have a good reference, certainly not in my collection. :-)

Larry

26
Tape Tech / Flat Copy?
« on: November 05, 2016, 01:26:31 AM »
What is a flat copy?  I have a master copy which says "Flat Copy".    Thanks, Larry

27
Prerecorded Tapes / Chad Enters the R2R Business
« on: October 18, 2016, 12:01:37 PM »
Since Dan, Paul and Romo began TP 10 years ago, creating the high end R2R tape business, there has been many (about 20) new companies following the leader. One thing they had in common was they were small - usually one person operations, with a limited catalogue, mostly self recorded and produced. Most of them are excellent/superb, but limited in their repertoire.  Now, for the first time, we have a major player joining in.  Chad Kassem of Acoustic Sounds has announced his entrance into the 15ips 2 track 1/4" tape world, with 12 albums, including 2 which have just been released. 

http://store.acousticsounds.com/c/397/Reel_to_Reel

The albums copy the TP format, with superb packaging of 2 reel albums, copying the master tapes onto 1/2" 30ips running masters (instead of 1" that the TP does), and then onto 1/4" 15ips 2 track tapes.  Everything is done using Ampex ATR machines (TP also uses Amper ATR's) with Fllux magnetic heads. Price is the same as TP - $450 per 2 reel album. As a classical music fan, I am especially happy that 8 of the first 12 releases are classical, including 5 of the most famous RCA Living Stereo albums (mostly Reiner and the Chicago Symphony) and 2 of Dave Wilson's albums.  The first two albums released are Janis Ian's Breaking Silence and Ben Webster's Gentle Ben.  I received my copies on Saturday and they are spectacular - I feel much the same way I felt when I first listened to my TP tapes! 

Acoustic Sounds is offering a subscription where if you buy the entire set, the 12th tape is free.

Chad's access to a broad and deep catalogue of analog master tapes is a very exciting prospect.

Larry


 

28
Tape Tech / Signal Generators
« on: September 29, 2016, 09:57:51 AM »
Does anyone have an extra signal generator?  I need one to set the bias for recording on my new ATR-102.  My tech also said I could use a test CD - I think I have an old Stereophile Test CD with test tones.  Could I use the Tape Project allignment tape and connect the output of my Technics/Bottlehead to the input of the ATR-102?

Thanks, Larry


29
Reel to Reel Tape Machines / Re: My New 102 - In Heaven playing tapes
« on: September 28, 2016, 09:20:45 PM »
I've returned from a long trip and after getting tech supreme Krieg Wunderlich (who does the Ampex work for Tape Project) to fix a couple of issues with my new ATR-102, I have been playing my tapes, starting with a number of 1/2" tapes, part of large collection I bought, about the same time this Spring as the 102. Using the Doshi 3.0 tape prepro, I have been in music lovers heaven, even playing jazz albums that I do not know.  The albums were first recorded more than 50 years ago, but they sound like they were recorded yesterday. 

A few standards include Time Out, Kind of Blue, and A Love Supreme, but others including Art Blakey's African Beat and one classical album - Reiner's Bartok Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta - all on 1/2" tape.  I also have 8 of the first 10 of the Tape Project albums (all but the two Deccas) on 1/2" which were part of the collection. 

I'll be playing through the 1/2" tapes over the next week or so, and then to 1/4" tapes.

What an amazing experience!

Larry   

30
Suggestion Box / Re: A Jazz Message - Art Blakey Quartet
« on: August 13, 2016, 11:00:27 PM »
No, I don't have that one.  Larry

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