Trolling eBay today in the wake of ‘tropical storm’ irene… came across this very serious-looking gentleman at-work with a pretty serious film-sound (dubbing? editing) setup crica 1955. Most of the equipment in this picture is on sale right now on eBay; follow this link.
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2 replies on “Magnecord Tape Machine from Film Sound Studio circa 1955”
I bought one of these units at Primitive Guitars in Burbank, CA a couple of years ago. The one that I found was a mobile unit but basically the same form factor (mic pre and transport controls in one unit, the mono tape machine is separate). The tape machine was a goner, so my good friend and genius tech Bryce Gonzales (http://www.bryceelectric.com/) did some extensive modifications, removing anything that had to do with the transport and making it into a stand alone mic pre. It’s pretty amazing sounding, and has an incredible amount of gain. Driving it into distortion is key, but it will stay clean if you need it to. It’s the only thing that I’ve used on vocals that can make them sound like the Sonics.
Bryce managed to install a di input, pad, phase reversal and a voltage select switch. It’s one of my favorite pieces of gear.
Chris: This is definitely later than 1955. The Heathkit power supply in the lower part of the rack is about ca. 1969 or so.
Magnecords were never used for film work, as they didn’t have any kind of sync system, although I have seen them in some older studios for non-sync work (copying FX and music tracks, etc).
S. Smith