Marvel Posted October 9, 2022 Share Posted October 9, 2022 @RealMarkDeneen First up, how this got started... Started learning guitar in the mid 1960s, and somewhere along the line, before the '70s arrived I got a Sony portable 1/4 track stereo recorder. It was only a 2 head recorder but you could record the left or right channels independently, which meantdoingadditional parts. I still have a tape my best friend and I made back then. About 1972, I got a Teac TCA42 series. It was a 4 track with sync so you could record 4 tracks one or more at a time and mix them down. More fun! It only handled 7 inch reels max. That was still a fun deck as well. The pic. Which isn't mine, shows a transport without the sync switches on the headstack panel. Moved to Memphis in '72, and was working at WHBQ-TV as a news photographer (pre eng news gathering... used 16mm film). Got another Teac, a 3340S, a 4 track with sync that would handle 10 inch reels. Now we're talkin'! DAWs aren't around yet... I still have the 3340... 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racer X Posted October 9, 2022 Share Posted October 9, 2022 Doesn't look too digital...yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted October 9, 2022 Author Share Posted October 9, 2022 I figured I'd start at the beginning. 🙄 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RealMarkDeneen Posted October 9, 2022 Share Posted October 9, 2022 Keep it rolliing.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
babadono Posted October 11, 2022 Share Posted October 11, 2022 Eagerly awaitng more input 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted October 13, 2022 Author Share Posted October 13, 2022 This was taken in the summer of '77, while on vacation in northern Wisconsin. My older son Josh (Invidiosulus) posted this on another thread and got MD's curiosity going. This was about the time his mom and I were getting back together. We had divorced the previous year, but got back together and remarried. That's a pretty long story in and of itself. The three awesome kids came after we got back together. I've got the tape from this trip... need to use the DAW to get it transferred and mixed. I know I recorded 'Wasting away in Margaritaville' and a Tom T. Hall song, 'Pamela Brown.' Can't remember the rest off the top of my head. Still have the Guild... and... well, all of it. The Teac and the two EV RE16 microphones. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickyboy6100 Posted October 13, 2022 Share Posted October 13, 2022 Really cool photo Bruce. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted October 13, 2022 Author Share Posted October 13, 2022 We lived in Memphis at the time,where I worked at WHBQ TV as a news photographer. Earlier I had played lap steel/slide guitar with former grads of Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College). The were headed by Rob Junglas, who still perfoms in Memphis. I may have tape of a couple of that time but all we had was some stupid thin half mil tape, which would stretch just looking at it. I DO have a cut of one song we recorded in Jackson, MS, where we all backed a friend on Rob's. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted October 13, 2022 Author Share Posted October 13, 2022 My first 'digital recording device', an Alesis ADAT, an 8 track 20bit, 44.1/48kHz recorder that used helical scan recording. It used a more industrial vhs style cassette. Underneath the ADAT is a Tascam DAT recorder. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
babadono Posted October 13, 2022 Share Posted October 13, 2022 15 hours ago, Marvel said: Still have the Guild... and... well, all of it. The Teac and the two EV RE16 microphones. What about the Datsun? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted October 13, 2022 Author Share Posted October 13, 2022 2 hours ago, babadono said: What about the Datsun? I wish... it was a great little truck ... $2700 new. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
babadono Posted October 13, 2022 Share Posted October 13, 2022 And now $27,000 won't buy a piece of junk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racer X Posted November 19, 2022 Share Posted November 19, 2022 @Marvel Awaiting more details: What year for and cost for the Alesis and Tascam DAT ? Did they get much use ? When did things get hard (disk) ? When if did the quality or techniques improve ? My limited take is recording used to be a specialized niche and required a lot of expense and equipment. Then one day it didn't and anyone could make good quality multi-tracks on their laptop. Distribution likewise transformed greatly from single cassettes to cheap CD duplicates (both required significant effort and expense) to the youTube (instaneous and free). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted November 20, 2022 Author Share Posted November 20, 2022 Soon... It was an ADAT-XT20, which would record 20bit instead of 16 and had a driect drive instead of belt as the the original had. Can't remember exactly when I got it and the Tascam DA-30MkII DAT recorder. I loved what was to me a huge jump in audio quality. What I used it for is probably on three or four tapes, so not very cost effective. Low priced daw software showed up and I was mostly using it for myself. A regular full time job and family kept me from really making use of the gear. That and my own laziness. Can't remember exactly when I got the ADAT, but probably early 2000s. My older son or daughter would know the time frame. Up next... a transfer of a 4 four track rtr to the computer, to mix and archive. Today I got the newest ver. of Harrison's Mixbus 32C installed on one of my laptops. It should be able to handle four tracks of simple acoustic guitar and dobro. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Invidiosulus Posted November 20, 2022 Share Posted November 20, 2022 @Marvel I was thinking 1999 or maybe spring of 2000. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted November 20, 2022 Author Share Posted November 20, 2022 Houston, we have a problem... Forty plus year old tape. Oxide shedding on edges of tape. Have to go back over the tape guides/path to see if it's might be the transport... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racer X Posted November 20, 2022 Share Posted November 20, 2022 Tape seemed like a pretty good idea at the time.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Invidiosulus Posted November 20, 2022 Share Posted November 20, 2022 Yikes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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