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Vintage Tape (Audio), Cassette, Wire and Magnetic Disc Recorders and Players Open-reel tape recorders, cassette recorders, 8-track players etc.

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Old 5th Nov 2020, 5:25 pm   #101
EMI BTR 3
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Default Re: Interesting things on old tape reels

Some years ago I found a 5" reel box that had originally contained a reel of Silvertone (as in Sears) recording tape. Instead it had a 5" Scotch reel with only enough Scotch 111 tape on it to suggest the tape came from a 3" reel--one of those 'Living Letters' items.

It had been recorded by a female missionary in Nigeria, mainly talking about ordinary things there. There is also the bit where she's talking about the new Sony transistorised tape recorder she got, and a short segment of children singing and playing outdoors.

At the end of the second side (1/2 track mono at 3 3/4 ips throughout) comes the bit that sharply dates the recording to 23 November 1963, as she talks about the assassination of President Kennedy the day before, and she relates what locals thought of him and told her.
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Old 6th Nov 2020, 1:44 pm   #102
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Default Re: Interesting things on old tape reels

I bought a couple of random reels of tape from ebay to use on a KB TT40 I got going some months ago.
There were half-track recordings on both. Each side appeared to have the contents of a language course transcribed from LP records but the latter part of each side of both tapes had earlier recordings of a family sitting around a table, playing cards, and generally putting the world to rights. The highlight for me was when the TV was switched on and allowed me to date the recording precisely

Half a minute past six-thirteen, Sun 18 Oct 1964, the Sunday following Thursday's General Election.

https://youtu.be/t0eZY8DTcck

The BBC News theme music is a different arrangement to the similar, but brasher one I remember.

Can anyone identify the epic music which precedes the news?
The scheduled programe was "Pinky and Perky: Gunfight at Mattress Springs"

https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedule...don/1964-10-18

but I doubt it was that!
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Old 7th Nov 2020, 12:08 am   #103
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Default Re: Interesting things on old tape reels

It's good when you can pinpoint a recording thanks to something like the news.
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Old 11th Nov 2020, 1:00 pm   #104
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Oh gods I've found some interesting, fun and downright weird stuff in my time.

I remember in the mid 80s, before the copyright police more or less stopped it, charity shops used to sell used reels and cassettes. I remember buying a few Scotch 7" 1800' reels and on one of them was recorded a bunch of "Pick of the Pops" type shows from BBC radio in the late 60s. Four track mono 3 3/4ips so hours and hours...I really wish I'd not wiped it.

The other one I wish I had not wiped was a recording of a meeting where those present were of the opinion that television was somehow evil and should be banned. The evil box was going to rot our minds and put an end to critical thinking. They were debating the wording of a letter to send to their MP. Likely early 60s.

I've had snippets of school plays, family discussions....and on some BASF triple play reels some scientists dictating the readings from some experiment.

On some reels where the original owner had recorded the original broadcasts of the BBC radio version of Steptoe & Son there are news broadcasts after...which prove little changes....stories about doping in sport, trouble in the middle East, dodgy politicians....

Unlike when I was a teenager, these days I am now much more likely to keep interesting old recordings...even if I want to record on the tape, I will often dub to cheap cassette or keep a digital copy of at least part of the tape.

The most unusual magnetic recording I have is on a "Recordon" magnetic disc dictation device....a police doctor dictating letters to his secretary in 1953. He mentions the "Spanish Flu". In one letter he's certifying a WPC as ready to return to work after illness, and the chief constable (who was over the usual retirement age for a police officer) as fit to do another year in his role.

When I obtained that Recordon machine some 15 years ago I wrote to the police force concerned and recieved a letter. They'd actually taken the trouble to talk withe a couple of retired coppers who remembered the doctor and his strange dictation box. So I got the name of the doctor, his secretary, and a little info about the chief constable mentioned in the recording.
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Old 11th Nov 2020, 1:12 pm   #105
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Oh.....my Grundig Steonrette came with a bunch of tapes and the machine all in a carrying case....but they're rather boring....a secretary dictating the accounts of a local gas board in 1963.

I did once buy a reel of TDK tape which has a rather good amateur rendition of Handel's Messiah on it...recorded in good stereo by a keen recordist from a live performance. I've thus far kept that one.
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Old 11th Nov 2020, 1:23 pm   #106
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Default Re: Interesting things on old tape reels

I've not bought my tapes but I imagine there are a few examples of children making their own radio shows. Me & my cousin made a few of these in the late 1980s, which wobble from the amusing to the cringeworthy quite a lot.
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Old 11th Nov 2020, 3:46 pm   #107
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rambo1152 View Post
I bought a couple of random reels of tape from ebay to use on a KB TT40 I got going some months ago.
There were half-track recordings on both. Each side appeared to have the contents of a language course transcribed from LP records but the latter part of each side of both tapes had earlier recordings of a family sitting around a table, playing cards, and generally putting the world to rights. The highlight for me was when the TV was switched on and allowed me to date the recording precisely

Half a minute past six-thirteen, Sun 18 Oct 1964, the Sunday following Thursday's General Election.

https://youtu.be/t0eZY8DTcck

The BBC News theme music is a different arrangement to the similar, but brasher one I remember.

Can anyone identify the epic music which precedes the news?
The scheduled programme was "Pinky and Perky: Gunfight at Mattress Springs"

https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedule...don/1964-10-18

but I doubt it was that!
I'm confused here. Help me out please. Not wishing to talk about politics, but the news reader talks about a Conservative cabinet, but didn't Labour win the election in 1964?

Cheers

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Old 11th Nov 2020, 4:17 pm   #108
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Default Re: Interesting things on old tape reels

This is from October 1963 when Harold Macmillan resigned as prime minister and Alec Douglas-Home took over.

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Old 11th Nov 2020, 4:26 pm   #109
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Default Re: Interesting things on old tape reels

Quote:
Originally Posted by rambo1152 View Post
I bought a couple of random reels of tape from ebay to use on a KB TT40 I got going some months ago.
There were half-track recordings on both. Each side appeared to have the contents of a language course transcribed from LP records but the latter part of each side of both tapes had earlier recordings of a family sitting around a table, playing cards, and generally putting the world to rights. The highlight for me was when the TV was switched on and allowed me to date the recording precisely

Half a minute past six-thirteen, Sun 18 Oct 1964, the Sunday following Thursday's General Election.

https://youtu.be/t0eZY8DTcck

The BBC News theme music is a different arrangement to the similar, but brasher one I remember.

Can anyone identify the epic music which precedes the news?
The scheduled programe was "Pinky and Perky: Gunfight at Mattress Springs"

https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedule...don/1964-10-18

but I doubt it was that!
I fear your date is incorrect - the news item refers to the appointment of a Conservative cabinet by Sir Alec Douglas-Home, who took office on October 19th 1963. The music sounds like the end of a Hollywood film.
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Old 11th Nov 2020, 5:23 pm   #110
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Ah thanks. I wasn't going mad then 😄

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Old 18th Nov 2020, 10:02 pm   #111
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I may be a bit late for this thread but . . . Here goes.

A few years ago I bought a job lot of tapes as an estate sale. They were part of a complete studio package of Revox A and B 77’s. Amongst them I have a large quantity (and I do mean large, 100+) of old jazz recordings. They range from very early in the 1910’s to 1950’s. All from shellac discs. The guy who made them was a very clever electronics man and the Revox’s were really well set up, he built various filters to iron out the surface noise as well as a speed control for his turntable. He needed this as some of the early music was recorded before 78rpm became standard. He also had contacts in the USA who he used to swap tapes with so I have a few that are recorded direct from the clubs. It’s an interesting collection and I should go through it and make up a catalogue but don’t have the time (yet). It was obviously a labour of love for him so in some ways I feel quite honoured to have it.
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Old 19th Nov 2020, 12:44 am   #112
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Default Re: Interesting things on old tape reels

That's very interesting Linnovice. My primary interest is in archiving and I have some material but on a very much smaller scale [by the sound of it anyway .] I appreciate your positive comments about the impressive person who recovered this audio but it's a difficult subject overall. Some time ago I went to a Jazz Club in Hastings. They were raising funds by selling off live cassette recordings that had belonged to a deceased member! I bought some but made the mistake of innocently suggesting that it might be my items next. This reference to mortality did not go down at all well with the mainly older fan base . I'm struggling to put my own items in order and it's very hard work. I see you are retired but Cataloguing is tedious, as I'm sure you will know? Time is short!

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Old 19th Nov 2020, 12:11 pm   #113
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A number of years back , I was offered equipment from a nightclub that had closed down some time earlier and was about to be demolished ; I wasn't so interested in the PA equipment , but there was a Soundcraft mixing desk , a Revox A77 and some microphones , a mixture of Shure , AKG and a few Sennheiser radio mics . Along with the Revox there was a box of 10-1/2" NAB reels - these turned out to be recordings of various acts that had played there - I can recall that there was a performance by The Drifters ( the American group , not The Shadows ) and a few others who were less well known . I still have these and have never done anything with them , but I suppose they might be worth something .
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Old 4th Dec 2020, 8:38 pm   #114
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I have several reel to reel tapes going begging, mostly recordings from LPs in the 1970s. I had a chap interested in them so I kept them but he hasn't been back with contact details, since mid 2019. I have a photo of them in my garden May 2018 if anyone wants to see. I can't see any degradation on them, they have been stored in original boxes indoors since I came home from Uni in 1973. Untouched. Previously played on Grundig, Truvox, all well maintained. I no longer have any suitable player to check for faults.
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Old 4th Dec 2020, 8:39 pm   #115
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Oh also played on Revox!
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Old 4th Dec 2020, 9:26 pm   #116
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Hello Diane,

I think you should advertise them on this Forum link, either stating a fixed price or FOC plus state collection or postage details.

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...splay.php?f=27

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Old 5th Feb 2021, 7:42 pm   #117
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[QUOTE=Accumulator;1253587]Back in my youth I used to record from the wireless via a microphone onto an old Elizabethan reel to reel, mainly Radio Caroline and Radio London(Big L). Still got the tapes but I used to pause the tape when the D.J's did the talking and so just got the music and that means I missed out the part that would be of more interest now. All the same I did get some Kenny Everett and John Peel when they were with Radio London in about 1966.. I've still got the recorder and the GEC radio that I recorded from. Doesn't seem long ago to me till I look in mirror.[/QUOTE)

Have you digitised those recordings of John Peel and Kenny Everett? I would really love to hear those. I also contribute to a site called the John Peel wiki where we try to collate all available Peel recordings.
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Old 5th Feb 2021, 7:57 pm   #118
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I always love going through old reels and cassettes. I’ve got a big collection of interesting things I found. Pick of the Pops recordings, and the later top 20 and top 40.
Also several different recordings of amature bands and musicians, some of them are really good!
A few years ago I got given a grundig tk-18 with a bunch of about 10 reels, turned out the lady had been a big Beatles fan and had recorded everything she could from the TV and radio relating to the Beatles. Some good quality Saturday club and Top Gear Beatles performances, and interviews.
I have several times digitised reels for other people as well. It’s strange when sometimes they are expecting a certain recording to be on the tape, and it turns out to be something different. A lady wanted to hear some recordings of her late brother’s reels, so I digitised them for her, they contained several tape letters from Australia, however she reported back that she wasn’t aware of any family from Australia so she had no idea who the people were!

Another time a chap asked me to digitise some reels which he said included recordings of a band he was in in the 60s. When I sent him the recordings, I told him how one of the Tapes I believed to contain his band, and I said I really enjoyed it. However when he listened to it, he said that it wasn’t his band, or his family voices on that particular tape, and he had no idea where it had come from.
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Old 5th Feb 2021, 9:30 pm   #119
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During the 1960's and early 70's I recorded all the news broadcasts on the Apollo space missions including Apollo 11 when Neil Armstrong spoke those historic words when he first stepped off the lander on to the moons surface. Having just restored my Truvox to full working order again I played the tape for the first time since it was recorded in 1969 and it was wonderful to hear the voices of James Burke and Patrick Moore as they wait to hear what was happening. Listening to the landing sequence and Armstrong taking that first step was no less tense that the day I first heard it all those years ago!
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Old 6th Feb 2021, 1:13 am   #120
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I find this type of recording fascinating, as originally it would have been made for posterity as a means of documenting an important historic event, but today, there are ample sources of such documentation, and the recordings then fulfill a secondary purpose of nostalgia, and also on a meta level of documenting the fact that it was considered an event important enough to be documented!
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