Press Play > Dedicated to All Things Reel-to-Reel

This episode, and the next one, of the Press Play > podcast is all about MCI tape recorders. I put the word out on the Facebook groups that I wanted to talk MCI tape machines and studio owners Thomas Yearsley and Graham Nystrom replied they would be happy to hook up. 

Both Graham and Thomas are great speakers and passionate about their MCIs so, with so much material, only two episodes could do the subject  justice.  

This episode sees me in conversation with Thomas, owner of Thunderbird Analogue Studios in Oceanside, California about his music, studios and, of course, his MCI machines.

https://www.facebook.com/ThunderbirdAnalog/
https://www.instagram.com/thunderbirdanalog/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbH2U51xP1M

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In this episode we introduce the fourth new reel-to-reel machine to arrive on the market. Thorens show their confidence in the resurgence of reel-to-reel by the launch of the TM1600 player. Gunter  Kürten, CEO of Thorens, talks about why he wanted the Thorens name on a reel-to-reel , who the machine is aimed at, why it costs what it does and, the question most asked, why a player only.

https://www.thorens.com/en/thorens-news-infos/231-high-end-2019-thorens-tm-1600-%E2%80%93-high-end-tape-machine.html

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Andrew Morton runs the website Parlogram Auctions. A site specialising in the sale of rare and collectable Beatles memorabilia.  An Englishman living in Austria, Andrew has an encyclopaedic knowledge of anything Beatles and has made a personal collection of all the studio albums of The Beatles that were released on open-reel tape. In this episode we discuss not only those tape-based albums, but also the band's use of tape in the studio as a creative tool.

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In conversation with Stuart Blacklock on buying an entry-level reel-to-reel machine. Stuart has been a guest on Press Play before, and it's with good reason we welcome him back. He is a man with a wealth of reel-to-reel experience and, as you’ll hear, a tape machine collection to match. We discuss machines to consider buying when first getting into the reel-to-reel format: What's affordable. What to look out for. Pros and cons. What it will cost. Also in this podcast is exciting news of a webinar Iain Betson of Reel Resilience will be running in late January 2021 on how to line-up your open-reel recorder. 

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Kostas Metaxas of Metaxas & Sins: This episode is part 2 of our two-part chat with Kostas Metaxas of Metaxas & Sins. We’ll hear about the TRX recorder, move onto discuss the new limited-edition product Papillon 15 and then about his beautiful pens. We will also hear, straight from the designers mouth, the answer to the question so many ask when they see the these new recorders: How much are they?

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Kostas Metaxas of Metaxas & Sins: Despite the resurgence of the tape format, few people, or companies, have created a new tape-recorder. Kostas has not just done this once, but twice. First with the TRX recorder, positioned as a replacement for Nagra and Stellavox field recorders, and later with the Papillion 15, a studio based, or high-end audiophile, product. In part 1 of this two-part podcast Kostas takes us through his early years in hi-end hi-fi and music recording, to the story of how the TRX, and recently the Papillon, came about.

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Tape heads: It all stops with a head when the audio is recorded on to the tape and starts with it on replay. Fortunately magnetic heads for audio recording are still manufactured by at least three companies across the World. Press Play > talks to two of them. In part 2, of this two-part podcast, we talk to Federica Galantino and Andrea Babuto, of Photovox Technology of Italy https://www.photovoxtech.it/. We talk head re-lapping, toll machines on subways and why cassette deck owners should be worried.

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Tape heads: It all stops with a head when the audio is recorded on to the tape and starts with it on replay. Fortunately magnetic heads for audio recording are still manufactured by at least three companies across the World. Press Play > talks to two of them. In part 1, of this two-part podcast, to Peter Van Rompay, of AM Beligium http://www.ambelgium.be/en and in part 2, to Federica Galantino and Andrea Babuto, of Photovox Technology of Italy https://www.photovoxtech.it/. We talk head re-lapping, butterfly heads and toll machines on subways and roads. 

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This episode of Press Play> very much deals with the visual, which may seems strange considering open-reel is a sound format, but pretty much since the visual media started, tape machines have made an appearance. Asthetically they have just got it – those big reels turning, the meters moving, the lights flashing.  The guest interview this episode is a person who addresses the visual image of the tape recorder: John Farrar runs Righteous Reels based in Dalton, Pennsylvania https://www.righteousreels.com/ where he produces a range of, well, simply awesome aluminium reels for tape machines. You can find the links to the Youtube videos mentioned in the podcast on the reelresilience blog https://www.reelresilience.co.uk/post/righteous-reels

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It may seem crazy, but Steve Fensome took a working, and hard to find, Studer A810 MPU board and dismantled it. But it was all in the name of tape machine progress, because, as a result, he is now producing new MPU boards for the A810 and A812 models. https://studer-mpu-boards.com/ Listen to our conversation as he tells us why, and how, he did it and about an Aladdins cave of tape machines he found in Manchester, England. 

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