Vintage Tape Recorders: A Pictorial History of Professional Tape Recorders, Long-Forgotten Studios, and Assorted Gear

"Vintage Tape Recorders" tells the story--through original advertisements, company promotional material, and photographs --of America's early professional tape recorders on which hundreds of thousands of recordings were made over the years, as well as commercials, jingles, and on-location projects. Intended as an underground history of old tape machines, the book also features forgotten recording studios and their old gear and unusual recorders. In this over-sized book of 8.5 x 11 inches and 213 pages, you will find tube amps, old microphones, tubes, vibrators, old pro-model tape recorders, mixing boards, and other studio equipment that was once a big part of the audio business from the 1940s to the 1980s. Even old disc cutters and wire recorders are included. Looking for information on vintage equipment? You can find it here--some of it with the original spec sheets and company promotional items that give all the background needed to assess what the recorders were all about. The companies' original dealer materials are large enough for readers to see what made these machines so grand. The recorders include Ampex, Belerant, Scully, Presto, and many others that were used from 1948, when tape machines first started appearing in recording studios, through the 1980s. The book primarily focuses on the 1950s and '60s, when hits came out of dusty little studios in far-out places from Muscle Shoals to Memphis to New Orleans. Here you can find the kind of equipment that was used. The book also features a detailed and personal introduction and a timeline by author and independent record producer Randy McNutt. The book ends with a section called the Magnetic War, a pictorial story of the battle that once raged between the wire recorder and the tape recorder. If you enjoy recording, you will want to browse through the many wonderful advertisements and promotional photos that have been lovingly assembled for this book. Whether your fascination lies with one, two, three, four, eight, sixteen, twenty-four tracks, you can find most of them in "Vintage Tape Recorders." Published by HHP Books, where vinyl is king, mono is hip, and analog will forever reign. The book is one in HHP's Vinyl Collector Series that keeps alive America's stories history of music and recording. Others in the series are "Too Hot to Handle," the vintage recording studio book, and "Spinning the Groove," a book filled with the lore and legends of America's old record business.