Attn: Reel to Reel Owners, music exchange

[Parrot]

I'm sure Maron would agree that the old time techniques of recording symphonies were better than modern times with dozens of microphones to play with through the mixing board, which leads to excessive spotlighting of instruments so that you hear them close-up, as you never would in concert.

An LP I just picked up today, recorded 11/17/56, has extensive notes, including, under "HI-FI FACTS":

A single microphone was suspended in the exact focal point of the Northrop Memorial Auditorium. A normal concert setup was maintained throughout the entire session. Once the levels were ascertained, the conductor, and not the recording engineer, was in complete command of balance and dynamics. The performances were recorded on Fairchild tape machines and transferred to disc through 200 watt McIntosh recording amplifiers to a specially designed Miller cutting head mounted on an automatic variable pitch Scully recording lathe--all of which is designed to preserve absolute fidelity to the master tape, a proud mark of Mercury's Olympian series.

All this equipment, of course, was tube. This LP sounds great played back through one Klipschorn.

[Parrot]

I saw maybe 30-40 classical reel-to-reel tapes at the local thrift store, looked to be barely played, if ever. Deutsche Gramophone and London were two of the labels. $2 apiece they were.

You could make a pretty return on these if you bought them and put them up on eBay.

Pre-recorded open reel tapes by the majors were often released at 3 3/4 ips and were duplicated at terrifically high speed from dubs. Usually sound pretty bad, nowhere near the fidelity of an LP. On the other hand, early reels, usually released on half track instead of quarter track, and usually at 7 1/2 ips, can sound excellent. Some of those go for fairly good money.

Even if the tapes you saw were of the mediocre variety, they'd sell well on eBay if the pieces/artists are good.

[Travis In Austin]

I sent you an email with the address, let me know if you did not get it. I am not really a fan of classical, but can and do enjoy an occassional listen. So it will be nice to hear. One of the audio magazines recently talked about a DVD course you could take on classical music done by a college professor and I think I will do that one of these days to try and gain a better appreciation for it. ONe thing they discussed in the article is that "classical" is a misnomer, classical is really American music from the 1800's I beleive, at least accoriding to the professor who teachs the music course.

Travis

[Parrot]

ONe thing they discussed in the article is that "classical" is a misnomer, classical is really American music from the 1800's I beleive, at least accoriding to the professor who teachs the music course.

Nah, he is being pedantic. Everybody knows what "classical" music refers to generally, so why re-define terms?

My music guru broke down the genre into more limited categories, and he defined classical as a specific category as

*Classical*- Further simplified and clarified [from Rococco, which in turn had come from Baroque], inspired by the visual artistic styles of ancient Greece and Rome; more homophonic in texture (one melody supported by chords); emphasis on clarity, restraint, logic; lasted from approx. 1750 to 1815

[Travis In Austin]

Coytee,

You are also welcome to borrow my Pioneer RT-1011, good recording, great playback. I think the shipping would be about $50.00 to you. As far as repairing that X-7, I could take it all apart and . . . that's about it. Might be something simple like a belt.

Travis

[Travis In Austin]

ONe thing they discussed in the article is that "classical" is a misnomer, classical is really American music from the 1800's I beleive, at least accoriding to the professor who teachs the music course.

Nah, he is being pedantic. Everybody knows what "classical" music refers to generally, so why re-define terms?

My music guru broke down the genre into more limited categories, and he defined classical as a specific category as

*Classical*- Further simplified and clarified [from Rococco, which in turn had come from Baroque], inspired by the visual artistic styles of ancient Greece and Rome; more homophonic in texture (one melody supported by chords); emphasis on clarity, restraint, logic; lasted from approx. 1750 to 1815

That was my thought exactly, why redfine something that everyone understands? I think that article was in Stereophile, talked about a company that produced college courses on almost any subject that you could listen to at home. They are done by college professors but structrued more for home learning. I believe, may be wrong, the author of the article said that what we traditionally call "classical" is Chamber Music in the academic world. I will try and dig up the article and confirm the info. The author's description of the course made it sound well worth while for anyone who wanted to learn more about "classical" music and have a better appreciation for it. I will never prefer it, but I would like to have a better understanding and appreciation of it just like with Jazz. My family were not musically inclined, and therefore I don't even have a basic understanding of music theory. Fortunately, I have represented a number of musicians over the year, (that is the nature of Austin) and they all end up having to come over to my house and having to teach me about things like beat, tempo, bridge, etc. So I thought something a bit more structured would be great.

Travis

[Travis In Austin]

I saw maybe 30-40 classical reel-to-reel tapes at the local thrift store, looked to be barely played, if ever. Deutsche Gramophone and London were two of the labels. $2 apiece they were.

Are they still there?

Travis

[Wardsweb]

Hey Travis, I asked about a round robin tape swap over on Audiokarma

earlier today and already have 4 guys wanting to join in. Do you want

to roll their tapes in during the next round or try and do something

now?

[Parrot]

Travis, are you okay with lawyer jokes? How about:

"99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name." - Steven Wright

[Travis In Austin]

Hey Travis, I asked about a round robin tape swap over on Audiokarma earlier today and already have 4 guys wanting to join in. Do you want to roll their tapes in during the next round or try and do something now?

I'm for doing it now, it should work out perfect, well I am sure I spoke to fast just now. There are four of them and four of us so I guess there are two ways to do it. 1. Get them rotating their tapes amoung the four of them and when they finish figure out a way to send our four tapes to them and their four tapes to us. Or we can try and blend them in now, instead of Don and Chuck swapping, and you and I swaping, all four of us woud send to them, they would send to us, they would all rotate around.

Whatever Chuck and Don want to to is fine with me. I looked at audiokrama site, they are located in Chicago, Detroit, Seattle, and New England. Let's see if we can get them to do tapes over the weekend, long weekend, and then they would be able to rotate, in next week.

Someone please gvie me a suggested rotation order, never put a lawyer in charge of logistics.

Travis

[Wardsweb]

Let me get some better intel on these guys and get back to you.

[Coytee]

Coytee,

Don't let that stop you from joining in. If you want a deck I have a Teac X-7 ( 7inch reels only) that is 99% cosmetically including the wood cabinet but the reels just stopped turning on rewind one day and I boxed it up since I have two other decks. It is yours for the shipping charges if you want to get back in. Maybe others on the forum (such as Luther or Travis) could advise you on how to go about repairing the deck. Let me know.

Chuck

Chuck...

Very gracious offer that I'd LOVE to take you up on, however, I've already pushed my luck schlepping these Jubilees into the house. Not sure the wife could stand me pulling her string of patience any more tight.

I do appreciate the offer though []

[Coytee]

Ditto Travis []

[Dmitry]

R to R newb here. How to tell the difference between good quality and bad quality prerecorded tapes. Does the tape speed matter?

[LarryC]

The 7.5 ips prerecorded tapes had a livlier top end, the 3.75 were really dull. I always thought the 7.5'ers had a good, full sound, strong bass, and greater mid-higher range purity compared with LPs (we're talking well pre-digital here -- the early 1960s!). I never fretted that much about the missing topmost tingle. Tape hiss was a definite problem, worse on the 3.75's. In my experience and recollection anyway.

Note that pre-recorded tapes were high-speed duplicates from the master tapes, and lacked the latter's low noise and fullest range as I understand it.

Larry

[Tarheel]

Travis and Luther

I just called home and my wife said their was a package (she said it looked like more records) on the front porch so I guess your tape made it here okay. After the nine inches of rain and all the debris in my yard I sure need a pleasing distraction for the night. Lost power for about two hours. Will be off the pc for the weekend as usual.

Have a great weekend.

Chuck

[Wardsweb]

Travis and Luther

I just called home and my wife said their was a package (she said it

looked like more records) on the front porch so I guess your tape

made it here okay. After the nine inches of rain and all the

debris in my yard I sure need a pleasing distraction for the

night. Lost power for about two hours. Will be off the pc

for the weekend as usual.

<>Have a great weekend.

Chuck>

I see you have already had a listen to the tape I sent (3M 996 Gold). So what are your first impressions?

[Tarheel]

Luther

I was more than pleased with your tape. You did a much better job of packaging than I did and your list was very detailed. The sound quality was first rate especially on the Sara K. selection. That is a very quiet LP. No first groove noise, pops or ticks.

Don was over at my house rebuilding my back porch when the tape arrived so we sat down and listend non stop. I tried to call Friday night but you must of been out and the phone switched over to a fax line.

Travis' tape will probably get to Don today so after he has enjoyed his time with it we will make the exchange. I think a week and a half turn around is possible.

BTW I did not include a list with my tape so you will need to print it from my earlier post. With the tropical storm Ernesto things were just very hectic here. Two and a half days of yard work and getting on the roof and blowing off pine boughs and cones really made it a true labor day. That 32 ft. heavy duty ladder is getting to be too much for me to move around.

Thanks for the excellent work on the tape and for sharing it with me.

Chuck

[Wardsweb]

Luther

I was more than pleased with your tape. You did

a much better job of packaging than I did and your list was very

detailed. The sound quality was first rate especially on the Sara

K. selection. That is a very quiet LP. No first groove

noise, pops or ticks.

Don was over at my house rebuilding my back porch

when the tape arrived so we sat down and listend non stop. I

tried to call Friday night but you must of been out and the phone

switched over to a fax line.

Travis' tape will probably get to Don today so after

he has enjoyed his time with it we will make the exchange. I

think a week and a half turn around is possible.

BTW I did not include a list with my tape so you

will need to print it from my earlier post. With the tropical

storm Ernesto things were just very hectic here. Two and a half

days of yard work and getting on the roof and blowing off pine boughs

and cones really made it a true labor day. That 32 ft. heavy duty

ladder is getting to be too much for me to move around.

Thanks for the excellent work on the tape and for sharing it with me.

Chuck

I'm glad you like the tape. and yes the B&W vinyl is

dead quiet. It is my demo album for showing off my system. As for

Friday, I was out of town at a B&B for my wedding anniversary.

Sorry I missed your call. I'm in no hurry for my tape to make the

rounds, so it gets back when it gets back. Taping is fun, but listening

is where the real joy is.

[Travis In Austin]

No tape here yet I am bummed, I am sure it will be here by the end of the week, with media mail you never know how fast something is going to arrive. Don, let me know when mine gets to you.

Travis