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1 of 1- Blonde56
- Senior Member
Offline - Registered: 13/7/2020
- Posts: 347
Ampex reel to reel tape recorder
I was watching a Bing Documentary and they were talking about the Ampex Tape recorders. I remember when I was around 4 or 5 years old my father came home with a portable reel to reel tape recorder with the orange color tape( that had a nice smell). He was a construction worker and someone gave it to him at one of the jobs. It had a greenish color hard cover and it was upright not a horizontal one. I played with it all the time. Then we had a fire a few years later and everything was taken. I always wanted to find that machine. I looked on eBay but didn't see any that resembled it. I am just curious about it, it seemed like a good one. I can't believe I remembered it after all the years.
- Ian Kerstein
- Super Fan
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- From: Nottingham. United Kingdom.
- Registered: 19/2/2022
- Posts: 521
Re: Ampex reel to reel tape recorder
Reel to Reel tape recorders have always fascinated me, Carmela. Possibly because I've never owned or been able to spend any time operating one. Many decades ago when a young teenager, a friend of mine who was thirty-five years my senior, demonstrated his for me and I remember being astounded at the quality of its sound reproduction. He had just invested in a whole new luxurious sound system (speakers, turntable, cassette player, radio, CD player and amplifier - as did I eight years ago) to replace his old 1950's Dansette unit. He incorporated his old reel to reel tape machine with his new equipment and played a CD of Doris Day and then on reel to reel, the same recording from a different source. Audio tape wise, having been brought up with just cassettes, I was staggered that there was (to my ears), a complete lack of background "hiss" and the sound quality seemed just as full bodied as the compact disc. A reel revelation for me.
I know, I should be shot!
- Graham Pascoe
- Super Fan
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- Registered: 30/11/2010
- Posts: 618
Re: Ampex reel to reel tape recorder
In the late 1940s, two Australian Crosby fans used a tape recorder in a suburban cinema in Melbourne to record the sound track of Pennies from Heaven in the cinema's crying room (Remember crying rooms?). They borrowed a friend's tape recorder and by bringing the mate's baby they were able to claim a place in the room, having been ejected by the manager at their first attempt sans enfant.. They had omitted to tell the baby's mother who, fearing a kidnapping, had called the police. On their return home, the recordists were red-faced as they ex[laned their exploit to those who were less enthusiastic about the talents of Bing Crosby.
- Ian Kerstein
- Super Fan
Offline
- From: Nottingham. United Kingdom.
- Registered: 19/2/2022
- Posts: 521
Re: Ampex reel to reel tape recorder
I must confess, Graham, I do not remember Crying Rooms but your wonderful tale self-explains them. Did this story make the newspapers? Am I along the right lines in thinking there would have been a speaker in the crying toom, relaying the film's soundtrack to which our heroes would have held the tape recorder's microphone to?
Zero out of ten for their baby sitting skills but full marks for their persistence and Bing devotion.
However, I now can't help wondering how on their second attempt, their recording resulted .
Lovely to know Pennies From Heaven was still being theatrically screened around or over a decade after its original release.
Do you possess any spooled reel to reel tape machine recorders, Graham?
- Graham Pascoe
- Super Fan
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- Registered: 30/11/2010
- Posts: 618
Re: Ampex reel to reel tape recorder
Most cinemas in Melbourne, Australia's second-biggest city, didn't have crying rooms; just the more prestigious theatres. The sound-proof room was at the rear of the auditorium. Some parents could take a very young child into the room and watch the movie through a glass wall and sound was piped into the room.
- Graham Pascoe
- Super Fan
Offline
- Registered: 30/11/2010
- Posts: 618
Re: Ampex reel to reel tape recorder
As for tape recorders, I've never owned one but in 1979 a friend and I used one to record a series of 30-minute programs on Bing for broadcast on Bathurst's community radio station. We were able to correct a spoonerism when I said 'Ding married Bixie'. Each week I present a two-hour nostalgic music program on the station and, believe it or not, I always include at least two Crosby recordings. You can listen at your own convenience on 2mce.org.au.