One of the first master tape copies I ever bought was Bert Kaempfert’s A Swingin’ Safari from Horch House, which I blogged about way back in December 2015. “The album was known in America by the title of the second track, ‘That Happy Feeling’ – which is precisely what it delivers,” I wrote. The other … More New titles from Horch House – and a special offer on shipping (but be quick!)
This is a tale of how a relatively simply upgrade to Neville Roberts’ Studer A810 turned into a major problem, and how it led him to find a company that specialises in Studer MPU boards – solving all his issues! Over to Neville… While scanning interesting pages on eBay recently (as we do!), I happened to … More Those Studer battery blues: Neville Roberts saves his beloved deck with a chip, a board and little help from his friends
Smart Audio Recording Lab is a custom-designed recording studio that also operates as a tape label, releasing its own recordings as master tape copies. It’s run by father and son team Mikhail Mamonov and Artem Suntsov, who designed and built the studio from scratch in 2018. These guys are clearly passionate about what they do, … More A virtual visit to Smart Audio Recording Lab in Kirov, Russia
A bit of a side-ramble here, triggered by an article in The New Scientist magazine that caught my attention. The headline was ‘Large Hadron Collider sticks with reels of tape for vast storage needs’ and I thought, woah, hang on a minute, are they seriously suggesting that the immense volumes of data generated by one … More Magnetic tape: the format of choice for world-leading scientists!
Just released (30th July) is an exciting limited deluxe edition double tape recording from Canadian label 2xHD: legendary jazz pianist Bill Evans’ Some Other Time: The Lost Session From The Black Forest. Fans of jazz will no doubt know Evans through his association with Miles Davis, notably on the iconic album Kind of Blue (me … More New limited deluxe edition double tape from 2xHD: Bill Evans’ ‘Some Other Time: The Lost Session From The Black Forest’
Count Basie is one of hundreds of artists thought to have lost much of his archive material in the 2008 Universal Studios fire. A 2019 New York Times Magazine exposé (‘The Day the Music Burned’) asserted that the fire destroyed between 118,000 and 175,000 audio master tapes belonging to Universal Music Group. Fortunately, his 1970 album High Voltage was released on MPS, the German … More High times with the Count Basie Orchestra’s ‘High Voltage’ from Horch House
Back in the pre-pandemic days (remember those?) it was mooted in various places (e.g. Stereonet, What’s Best Forum) that French company Analog Audio Design was working on a design for a new tape deck. Such announcements are always hugely exciting news – but then the world went a bit AWOL and, I’ll be honest, my … More Analog Audio Design launches a brand new tape deck
Back in January 2020 (that’s BC – before Covid) I discovered the Hungarian band Djabe and was hugely excited to learn that they were (a) working with ex-Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett, and (b) releasing albums on tape (if you missed that blog, it’s here: Discovering Djabe). Since then I’ve become a confirmed fan so here … More Djabe & Steve Hackett: The Journey Continues Tour on tape
Greg Beron at United Home Audio has launched “an all out assault on tape playback” with his brand new UHA SuperDeck. “This is the ‘ne plus ultra’ of high-fidelity playback, built from the very best of every single piece and part, cost no object,” he says. Selected highlights from the list of ingredients include: An outboard … More Could this be the best tape deck money can buy? The all new ‘SuperDeck’ from United Home Audio
Back in March we discovered US-based Kevin Root’s RX Reels, high quality tape reels made from upcycled aviation grade carbon fibre that look great and easily out-perform the usual plastic types. Ken Kessler recently checked them out for soundstagehifi.com. “When you remove them from the box, you sense the flatness, the precision, and—lo and behold!—in … More “Among the mechanically best I’ve ever seen”: Ken Kessler gives RX Reels a spin
Dave Denyer: The Reel-to-Reel Rambler 