earpick

I have a big post coming up.. So big and cool, that I feel overwhelmed and keep postponing it. I actually forgot about it almost, to be honest.

But this time I just wanted to say that instead of curing myself of the tape disease, I bought two more tape machines. Yep. Not huge ones though, and at fairly low prices. We have a photo shoot coming up for our Coast Green EP, and we’re going to use vintage electronics as props. Being an audio nerd though, I looked for working units that people wanted to get rid of.

One is a portable German mono Uher 4000 Report L from 1965 that accepts 5″ quarter-inch tapes and records at 4 different speeds. Very well made, and I got a bunch of tape with it. Two of the belts are worn out, but replacements are easy to find. Overall a kickass machine, and as a bonus on tapes I have found recordings of philosophy lectures (SCORE! I can easily see why the student needed a recorder though; the guy is unbelievably monotonous), as well as an audio diary of a little British girl. She doesn’t get too personal, so I think I can use that as samples.

The other deck is a larger consumer stereo AKAI GX-4000D that not only looks cool, but is fully functional. I’ve cleaned and demagnetized it, and it sounds and records perfectly.

I think I should make a small post about tape machine maintenance for all of those people who still have reel-to-reels and want to start using them again, or for someone experiencing nostalgia. Unlike the professional decks though, consumer reel-to-reels had hardly seen any maintenance during their lifetimes if ever, which is a shame because a simple cleaning goes a long way.