akai – Preservation Sound

Ultimate Home Recording Machines of the 80’s

chris — Mon, 23 Dec 2013 10:45:06 +0000

Today: just a few of the ‘Uber’ home-recording machines available to musicians in the 1980s. To this list I would also add the Audio Technica RMX64 and the AMR System 1, both which we have already covered recently at PS dot Com. If anyone is using these things to make music nowadays, drop us a line and tell us about it!

Above: the Akai MG1212 integrated 12-track recorder/mixer; all analog with automated punch in/out and VCA mute. I have a coupla memories of these things. When I was a kid East Coast Music mall had a used one that they were trying to sell for years. It sat at the front of the shop and it looked to me like a fkkn NASA computer. Years later, my college band The Cam Neely was invited to Boston to work with some Berklee students who needed to record some bands for… I have no idea frankly. And oh shit I have the ‘CD’ right here: the engineer’s name was Skip Hoefsmit. He recorded us on one of these machines, and I have to say, the recording sounds good considering i think we did two songs in about 6 hours and the only ‘production’ was that dude doubletracked our vocals. Hey Skip, still hustlin’? Drop us a line…

Above: the Sansui WS-X1 of 1990. OK so this thing is fkkn nuts. You get six discrete tracks on a cassette tape, built in digital reverb unit, and stereo mixdown deck, all in one unit. Some dude has a wordpress site solely devoted to this thing, and goddamn I want one of these!

Ah Tascam 234. Someday you will be mine. I actually found one of these at a tag sale in Norwalk last year, $60 I think??? but it was totally dead. Despite all claims made by the seller. Luckily I keep a cassette tape and a pair of headphones in my car at all times (WOW that is so embarrassing) for these sorta occasions, so i was able to scope it and didn’t get snookered. Fkkn asshole DID manage to sell me some dead 10″ guitar speakers for $5 each though. Alright here’s an idea guys: when yr shit breaks, either fix it, have it fixed, or take it to the town recycling center. DON’T STORE IT IN THE BASEMENT AND THEN STICK SOMEONE ELSE WITH IT 5 YRS LATER. For fukks sake, why do people keep broken crap around? We’re inundated with enough WORKING crap. Jesus.

Obscure Synths+Keys of the early 80s, part XIV

chris — Sun, 08 Dec 2013 11:24:43 +0000

Today: just some offbeat keys+synths that caught my eye; i’ve never come across any of these in the shops+stages+studios of my corporeal reality so I think perhaps uncommon items? Srry, it’s early. About to head to the LAST FLEA MKT OF THE YR. Bittersweet times. Aie, I recall salad-days when April was young and barkers descended on New Milford plain to hawk goods of dubious origin. Like the sun, the tide, and the pork-belly market, that time will rise again I suppose. Below: the Akai AX-80 synth c. 1985, the Crumar Rhody ‘electronic piano’ of 1980, the fascinating Casio 8000 modular…casio…system of ’84, the 1980 ARP Solus (also above), and the 360 Systems ‘Digital Keyboard’ of 1984.

Home Recording Is Killing Low-End Pro Studios (1989)

chris — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:08:58 +0000

“Home Studios are one of the fastest-growing segments of the music equipment industry. The availability of (fill in the blank) is killing the low-end professional studio scene. After all, why should musicians pay $1,000 to record on someone else’s four-or-eight track system when they can purchase their own system for the same price?”

Download a 2-pp article from CIRCUS magazine, 1989, on the subject of Home Studio Recorders. Author is one R. J. Grula. (via The More Things Change ETC dept.)

DOWNLOAD: Circus_4trk_1989_0001