‘Hello,
Right from the HMV wind-up gramophone with collection of old, scratched 78's I inherited as a boy, to the pristine high bit depth and sample rate digital files of today, at some point in time, all sound storage mediums have held a place in my heart!
My earliest memories of records was the smell of old cooking valves and capacitors of my Dad's Dansette Senior; the smell of shellac and the obvious heft of a 78 disc, slapping down onto the platter as it's released from the auto-changer; heavy tone arm drops and undulates as it tracks the lead in; surface hiss and crackle. A prelude before the inevitable sound of someone singing with a peg on their nose or an orchestra, squeezed into a box, franticly playing an often non artistically shortened version of a tune, condensed, so as to fit the medium! This was my first experience with music listening for pleasure. Sure we had a wireless set, but that was mostly on, humming and loosing frequency in the background. Unlike the radio, this was an occasion: to make a selection from my Father's walnut veneered record cabinet the Dansette sat upon, and play it!
I also remember being very keen to visit my uncle Jack, his house, seemingly, being full of musical instruments and hi-fi, not to mention his record collection! Unlike my Dad (who was a little old fashioned), uncle jack had a state-of-the-art stereo–which would still hold it's own today–and the speakers that seemed to be as tall as I was! Jack was an extremest; it was apparent in most of what he did, and when it came to music, he adored it and he liked to play it really loud.
Jack, along with my own father, were two people who very much influenced me as a boy/young man. I observed the way they cherished their music collections and playback equipment. I could feel it too: this intrinsic value in sound medium and the means of performance!
As an adolescent, I was pretty handy, and there were plenty of cheap electronic components and parts from existing sound equipment around, so I spent most of my free time hobbling/modifying amps, radios, record players, etc... It was around this time that I managed to buy a pre-owned ‘mini reel to reel’ I can't remember exactly where I acquired it–may have been a local sale–but what I do remember, vividly, is how excited I was with my new possession! Now, I don't want to knock current times, but back in the day, there wasn't so much stuff about; things weren't so easy to come by, but I hope that some of you reading this will know that feeling you get for this super special thing you've been dreaming of owning. Even after you get it, you go to bed and you can't sleep because you're still thinking about touching this thing! Well, that was how I felt about this mini reel to reel.
I must confess, throughout my life I have often become very enthusiastic about newly acquired things; “very expensive toys,” my friend used to call them, but the particular thing that sticks in my mind about the mini reel to reel was the machines potential. I knew before I bought it that somehow I was going to be able to make records with it: it was going to change my life!
After a few weeks recording anything and everything, the shine wore off enough for me to risk screwdrivers and soldering irons, etc...and I modified it so I could over-dub my voice with vocal harmonies: 'sound-on-sound' Now, I don't want to make this sound as though things panned out exactly as imagined because they didn't, but looking back, I was a musician and I was composing a little at that time, so I guess my love affair with multitrack tape recording probably did start from that point, and I've gone on to own/use many different tape recorders—2 track; 4 track; 8 track; 16 track, etc...
For more than 20 years now, I have worked in the digital domain—my last 3 albums were made entirely ‘in-the-box’ The concepts, techniques and a lot of the technology are the same or very similar, and although some people may not agree with this, the results are similar! By that, I mean: what you can achieve, accordingly, with the tools you have now. Obviously, If you want to emulate a sound from a bygone era, you will probably have to use the tools of the day, but back when tape was state of the art, it was fraught with problems, and the techniques of recording revolved around the limitations of the medium. These days, working in the digital sphere, there's less uncertainty of the end result being greatly affected by mechanics—but then it probably takes more effort to make things sound pleasing!
And that's the point: It would be a lie if I were to tell you that back in the late 80's when I was working with tape multitrack recorders, that I wasn't dreaming of a time when I could afford a fully digital studio; I could record unlimited tracks, non-destructively; no more noise reduction, not to mention the cost of maintaining very expensive equipment, but the romantic in me is singing sweetly in my ear; “didn't tape sound warm; you could overdrive it and it sounded great; tape was more forgiving; it was actually easier to get mixes glommed together!”
Most of the music I listen to these days is either FM radio (indoors and in my car) or digital files on my desktop, mobile phone or car HDD system. I do still have a huge CD collection, but tbh, they don't get played that often. I have cassette tapes that I play occasionally when working out, and they sound great. A couple of weeks ago, my Mum and I listened to a few 78's on the very gramophone described above, and although they sounded a little scratchy, they actually sounded so much smoother than the equivalent recordings on a certain video sharing platform; better than I remembered them sounding! It was a very memorable afternoon.
I used to own an 8track! I would've been about 13 at the time, and because it was out of an older friend's Buick, I ran it off of a car battery in my bedroom! I only had a few carts, but–complete with huge clunks when it changed track, not to mention the arbitrary fades and cuts between the programs–I still have very fond memories of it. I also have such good memories of my first portable cassette recorder!
When I first started working, and was financially better placed to do so, I started buying hi-fi—I had a part time, and then full time job in hi-fi retail. Along with many different setups of amps, turntables, speakers, etc...I remember a hi-fi open reel tape recorder. I can't recall the make (or what happened to it for that matter), but it sounded so good...if I could have one of those again...
So, do I still have the same affection for some of the formats I've mentioned? I suppose that when we look back, we forget the inconveniences and limitations of some older formats. We forget the scratches, warping and surface noise, the hiss of tape, cassettes getting chewed up–not to mention having to clean equipment–and how quickly those media wore out and became unplayable! These days, we have the luxury of choosing to recreate these memories: buying old equipment; buying old records and tapes. Back in the day, this was the state of the art: we didn't really have a choice, but I bet I'm not the only one who dreamed of having my entire music collection shoe-horned into a handheld device that I would be able to take everywhere and play anything I wanted, anytime;) Sci-fi of the time often tantalised us with these sorts of future predictions!
When I can, I still make listening to music an occasion, and physical media (with all their foibles) make this essential to the experience. Of course, one has to be realistic: space/money may not allow us to hang onto every recording/bit of kit we've owned throughout our whole lives, but in the same breath, we don't know how we will feel down the road, so we should be cautious about throwing our...xyz...collection into a skip as soon as the next format looms on the horizon—"Media implant, anyone?" "You only have to think of a tune, and you've already heard it!"
As much as ‘tape’ has such an emotional pull from the past for me–it's creative application; it's history; the sound it achieves–for way too many reasons to list, I don't believe I will be using it to multitrack any day soon; however, in an ideal world, I would own a half inch two track open reel machine and a vast stack of tape reels containing every analogue recording I've ever heard—I could happily spend many hours watching the hypnotic reels spinning in ghostly silence whilst listening to my favourite music!
RG
