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100 Years

Posted by on in EventsLeave a comment

If my Grandfather were alive today he would be 100 years old today. I miss him. He was an amazing man. A tinkerer and maker. A wizard with electronics and always creating amazing little gadgets.

When I was little he made me a toy police car made out of old tin cans and bits of tape machines. It was amazing and I played with it for years.

So today I remember my wonderful Grandpa and think of all the good time we had together. Oh, and you might wonder what the picture is? Well, it was his pencil tin, where he kept technical drawing pencils and a set of compasses and the like. It reminds me of him.

Danse Society, KTP and Obscurity

Posted by on in MusicLeave a comment

I was listening to the Danse Society today. Their greatest hits or something like that. I only bought the CD for 1 track which I really liked and was unable to find anywhere as a single track download.

This got me thinking about other obscure music I’ve been hunting of late. I recently got back into Kissing the Pink, who’s later albums are very hard to get hold of except on vinyl, and whilst I do like vinyl I don’t find it practical on a day to day basis.

Every time I hunt down something obscure that I’ve remembered and decide that I really must get again I think that this will be the last bit of obscurity I need to locate, but in fact it turns out that it reminds me of another 2 or 3 tracks or albums that I’d love to hear again that don’t seem to be available anywhere on this planet.

I’m sure I’m not the only one though, and I guess it keeps things interesting.

Sorry if this doesn’t make sense, it is late and I think I’m rambling. I’ll stop now.

Old tech

Posted by on in Creative ProcessLeave a comment

This is what I’ve been using to retrieve my old songs from often crumbling cassettes. Sadly it too is somewhat past it’s best and I’m not sure how much longer it will last.

I’m considering getting an old cassette 8 track. Probably not immediately, but in a while I think.

Some more about old multitracks

If you’re interested in old multitrack stuff then here’s a few more posts on the subject.

Look what I found

Posted by on in StuffLeave a comment

I haven’t seen one of these in ages, but in unearthing loads of old cassettes you can find some real treasures. This is a TDK Metal tape with an aluminum body. A great find, and I think they were pretty expensive when they first came out.

I wonder what else I’ll discover?

Finding my first cassette recorder

When I was about 11 or maybe 12 I really desperately wanted a tape recorder, and for Christmas I got one. It was a fergusson and it looked like this. I found it again at a very weird museum a few weeks ago. It took me right back. I used to use it for recording…

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Four Track Futures

Posted by on in Creative ProcessLeave a comment

Since I started going back over my old tapes and retrieving them I’ve been thinking about the process of recording to tape, or if not to tape in a linear way and not wholly sequenced.

I liked that way of doing things in the past. There was more room for error and because of that more room for inspired accidents. I miss that. You just don’t get that so much with sequencing.

So I am giving serious consideration to tape again. I might even consider getting a tape 8 track at some point!

  • Tascam Cassette Multitrack
    Tascam Cassette Multitrack
  • Teac Blue Reel to Reel Cassette
    Teac Blue Reel to Reel Cassette
  • TDK Metal Cassette
    TDK Metal Cassette
  • Teac Black Reel to Reel Cassette
    Teac Black Reel to Reel Cassette

You won’t see one of these I’ll bet

Posted by on in Stuff, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I checked the tapedeck site to see if they had one of these in the list of cassettes and they don’t, so I sent them some photos.

I have 3 of these Teac cassettes and I can remember that when I bought them that they were pretty hard to get hold of back then. Now, well I doubt that there would be many of them around any more.

I’ve only got one of the blue ones and the other two are black and not in as good condition.

Beautiful though isn’t it?

Teac reel to reel cassette

I love tape, so I love this …

I’m a fan of Deerful’s music so it was good news when she announced a cassette release. It’s a really nice EP too and very well put togeher.

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Old fashioned Cassette Recorder (biscuit tin)

I had one of these years ago. In fact, I had a number of these. But one that was very like this one. I think it was the Ferguson that was almost identical to this. It was excellent. Ok, not excellent, but really good for its time. I used it to record all sorts of…

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