A Selected History of Magnetic Recording by Friedrich Engel and Peter Hammar; Additional Editing by Richard L
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The Jack Mullin/Bill Palmer Tape Restoration Project*
THETHE JACKJACK MULLIN/BILLMULLIN/BILL PPALMERALMER TTAPEAPE RESTORARESTORATIONTION PROJECPROJECTT** Richard L. Hess Glendale, California, USA hat do you do when you are entrusted him with some of the original to do: rise to the technical and logistical presented with three large German tapes that John T. (Jack) Mullin challenge. Wcartons of flangeless reels of and William A. (Bill) Palmer, a San The tapes arrived in three cardboard 50+-year-old tape? There is no meta- Francisco filmmaker, had used for a cartons that looked quite old. Inside was data,1 no list of contents, no tape speed, variety of purposes right after World an amazing array of packaging. As is no A or B wind information, no EQ War II. often the case in a restoration project, we curves—only tape. Where do you These tapes represent the earliest days had the old recordings and a modern begin? of magnetic recording in the United tape reproducer,3 but no knowledge of I recently found myself in this posi- States, including performances, either the original equipment used to tion. It all started innocently enough. As outtakes, and between-take banter by make the tapes or knowledge of the a member of the AES Los Angeles Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore, Peggy Lee, recording conventions common in the Section Committee, I had undertaken Burl Ives, and Claudette Colbert. late 1940s. Some of the initial chal- the organization of a program at one of Perhaps the gem of this collection is a lenges that presented themselves were: the Section’s monthly meetings. Also as portion of Bing Crosby’s 1947 • The tapes were on AEG (Allgemeine- a member of the AES Technical Christmas Eve show. -
Ampex Collection Addenda ARS.0109
http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt4v19s146 No online items Guide to the Ampex Collection Addenda ARS.0109 Finding aid prepared by Franz Kunst Archive of Recorded Sound Braun Music Center 541 Lasuen Mall Stanford University Stanford, California, 94305-3076 650-723-9312 [email protected] © 2011 The Board of Trustees of Stanford University. All rights reserved. Guide to the Ampex Collection ARS.0109 1 Addenda ARS.0109 Descriptive Summary Title: Ampex Collection Addenda Dates: 1944-1998 Collection number: ARS.0109 Repository: Archive of Recorded Sound Collection size: 1 box: 1 folder ; 17 open reel tapes (three 5" reels ; nine 7" reels ; four 10.5" reels ; one 12" reel) Abstract: Various smaller collections related to the Ampex Corporation, the development of magnetic recording on tape, and stereophonic sound. Access Open for research; material must be requested at least two business days in advance of intended use. Contact the Archive for assistance. Publication Rights Property rights reside with repository. Publication and reproduction rights reside with the creators or their heirs. To obtain permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Head Librarian of the Archive of Recorded Sound. Preferred Citation Ampex Collection Addenda, ARS-0109. Courtesy of the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif. Sponsor This finding aid was produced with generous financial support from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. Related Collections Stanford University Special Collections holds the Ampex Corporation Records, M1230. The Archive of Recorded Sound holds the Richard Hess Mullin-Palmer Tape Restoration Project Collection, ARS.0035. Scope and Contents This is a group of small collections, assembled from various donors, related to the history of the Ampex Corporation and its role in the development of sound recording on tape and stereophonic sound. -
UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations
UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Investigation of bit patterned media, thermal flying height control sliders and heat assisted magnetic recording in hard disk drives Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3nd3d29b Author Zheng, Hao Publication Date 2011 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Investigation of Bit Patterned Media, Thermal Flying Height Control Sliders and Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording in Hard Disk Drives A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering Sciences (Mechanical Engineering) by Hao Zheng Committee in charge: Professor Frank E. Talke, Chair Professor David J. Benson Professor Eric Fullerton Professor Philip E. Gill Professor Hidenori Murakami 2011 Copyright Hao Zheng, 2011 All rights reserved. This dissertation of Hao Zheng is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Chair University of California, San Diego 2011 iii to my parents Yanping Duan and Guangyuan Zheng iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page ............................................................................................................... iii Dedication .................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... -
History of the Early Days of Ampex Corporation
PAPER History of The Early Days of Ampex Corporation As recalled by JOHN LESLIE and ROSS SNYDER Alexander M. Poniatoff founded Ampex in 1944, primarily to manufacture small motors and generators for military applications. When WWII ended, the military contracts dropped off, and Alex had to search for a new line of business to continue his company’s existence. He and his small group of engineers heard a demonstration of a Magnetophon, a German magnetic tape recorder used by Hitler during WWII. The demonstration quickly convinced Alex to redirect his company and soon it was designing and manufacturing professional-quality magnetic tape recorders. Bing Crosby was a great help in Ampex’s early years. The company grew quickly and, within a short time, dominated the magnetic tape recorder market in radio, television, the record industry, and industrial and military markets for instrumentation recorders . Alex was born in Russia in 1892. His father was well-to- 0 INTRODUCTION do, and sent Alex to Germany for an education in engineering. After college, he returned to Russia only to see his country It has been amazing how many people today are asking become engaged in a civil war. Alex escaped to China, where questions about Ampex and the Company’s contribution to the he went to work for the Shanghai Power Company. He music recording industry, the radio and television broadcast immigrated to the United States in 1927 where he worked for industry and the stereophonic home entertainment field. There General Electric, Pacific Gas & Electric, and the Dalmo Victor is no question that Ampex was a major factor in each of these Corporation in San Carlos, California. -
Psaudio Copper
Issue 133 MARCH 29TH, 2021 Copper has a new look! So does the rest of the PS Audio website, the result of countless hours of hard work. There's more functionality and easier access to articles, and additional developments will come. There will be some temporary glitches and some tweaks required – like high-end audio systems, magazines sometimes need tweaking too – but overall, we're excited to provide a better and more enjoyable reading experience. I now hand over the column to our esteemed Larry Schenbeck: Dear Copper Colleagues and Readers, Frank has graciously asked if I’d like to share a word or two about my intention to stop writing Too Much Tchaikovsky. So: thanks to everyone who read and enjoyed it – I wrote it for you. If you added comments occasionally, you made my day. I also wrote the column so I could keep learning, especially about emerging creatives and performers in classical music. Getting the chance to stumble upon something new and nourishing had sustained me in the academic world – it certainly wasn’t the money! – and I was grateful to continue that in Copper. So why stop? Because, as they say, there is a season. It has become considerably harder for me to stumble upon truly fresh sounds and then write freshly thereon. Here I am tempted to quote Douglas Adams or Satchel Paige, who both knew how to deliver an exit line. But I’ll just say (since Frank has promised to leave the light on), goodbye for now. The door is open, Larry, and we can’t thank you enough for your wonderful contributions. -
FATSO EL7X Manual
FATSO EL7x USERS MANUAL FULL ANALOG TAPE SIMULATOR & OPTIMIZER WITH KNEE COMPRESSOR Technology for the Artist empiricallabs.com 1 WARRANTY AND FACTORY SERVICE This Empirical Labs Inc. product is covered by a limited warranty covering full parts and labor for 3 years from the purchase date. The warranty is only effective if the owner has returned his or her warranty card. See warranty card for further details. TABLE OF CONTENTS Should problems arise, contact the factory at [email protected] or use the “Contact “ button on our website. If it becomes necessary, pack the unit up well*, enclose a note explaining the problem and return to Warranty and Factory Service 2 Empirical Labs for repair. Include your name, address, phone, and the date of purchase. Send the unit with freight prepaid to the address below. Table of Contents 3 Empirical Labs Inc. (Attn Service) Features & Specs 4 41 N. Beverwyck Rd. Lake Hiawatha, NJ 07034 What is the FATSO? 5 *Please pack the unit in original carton if possible. Otherwise, pack with bubble pack and/or foam in a thick corrugated box. Shipping people are absolutely brutal to large packages and you must take every precaution to prevent damage to the edges of the front panel. We are not liable for products damaged during shipping. Using for the First Time 5 www.EmpiricalLabs.com Example Settings 6-7, 10 OTHER EMPIRICAL LABS PRODUCTS Recall Sheet 8-9 • Distressor EL8 - Classic Knee Compressor. Used on thousands of major records! Section Details 11 • Distressor EL8X - The original Distressor on Steroids. Image Link and Brit Mod • Lil FrEQ – An EQ with 8 Sections of unparalleled tonal contouring & De-essing. -
The Rewritable Minidisc System
The Rewritable MiniDisc System Tadao Yoshida Advanced Development Laboratories Sony Corporation, Tokyo, Japan Reprinted from the Proceedings of the IEEE,USA vol. 82 no. 10 pp. 1492-1500, OCT 1994. Invited Paper The MiniDisc system was designed with the obvious objective of replacing the conventional Compact Cassette tape recorder system. The MiniDisc format defines two types of optical discs. One is a recordable magneto-optical disc for user recording and another is a conventional read-only disc for music-software publishing. Audio data compression is used to achieve 74 min of playing time on a 64-mm disc. By means of a built-in buffer memory called Shock Resistant Memory, MiniDisc can be used for outdoor portable applications with great ease. Furthermore, MiniDisc was evolved into the MD Data system and with a data capacity of 140 Mbytes and a very compact size, the MD Data system is expected to become one of the standards for removable data storage systems. I. Introduction In 1992 the MiniDisc system was introduced in the consumer audio market as a new digital audio playback and recording system (Fig. 1). The introduction time was just ten years after the introduction of the Compact Disc (CD). As is known, CD has effectively replaced the vinyl LP records in the audio disc market. CD technology is based on 16-bit quantization and 44.1-kHz sampled digital audio recording. The CD sound quality was fairly improved compared to any consumer analog recording equipment. Before starting the CD business, many engineers engaged in the development of the CD solely for its improvement in sound quality, but after the introduction of the CD player into the market, we found out that the consumer became aware of the quick random-access characteristic of Fig. -
Magneto-Optical Recording Systems
10.3 MiniDisc 10.3.1 Introduction and Features of the MiniDisc System The MiniDisc (MD) system, developed by Sony, offers both digital sound and random access features. In addition to these features, the following three types of MiniDiscs have been developed for various applications: Section 10.3 MiniDisc 401 Figure 10.19 Probability of each error length. i Error length (byte) 1. Playback-only MiniDisc for prerecorded music; 2. Recordable MiniDisc allowing up to 74 minutes of recording time; and 3. Hybrid MiniDisc, a combination with premastered and recordable areas. The intrinsic recording technology supporting the recordable MiniDisc is the magnetic field direct overwrite method, applied to a consumer product for the first time in the world. The distinctive features of the MiniDisc are 1. Overwrite function: 2. Maximum 74 min. recording time on a disk only 64mm in diameter, achieved using data compression and high-density recording; 3. Quick random access supported by address information in the wobbled groove; and 4. Disk protection with the cartridge and shutter. Read process Verify process Write process Media production Figure 10.20 Defect management strategies. 402 Chapter 10 Magneto-Optical Recording Systems Moreover, durability and reliability for the recordable MiniDisc have already been proven with data storage media for computer peripherals, such as the magneto optical disk. Figure 10.21 shows the various MD systems. 10.3.2 System Concept and Specifications The specifications of the compact disc (CD) were first proposed in 1982, and are described in the so-called “Red Book.” Since then, the technological developments for both data and recording applications have been specified in the “Yellow Book” and “Orange Book,” respectively. -
Historical Development of Magnetic Recording and Tape Recorder 3 Masanori Kimizuka
Historical Development of Magnetic Recording and Tape Recorder 3 Masanori Kimizuka ■ Abstract The history of sound recording started with the "Phonograph," the machine invented by Thomas Edison in the USA in 1877. Following that invention, Oberlin Smith, an American engineer, announced his idea for magnetic recording in 1888. Ten years later, Valdemar Poulsen, a Danish telephone engineer, invented the world's frst magnetic recorder, called the "Telegraphone," in 1898. The Telegraphone used thin metal wire as the recording material. Though wire recorders like the Telegraphone did not become popular, research on magnetic recording continued all over the world, and a new type of recorder that used tape coated with magnetic powder instead of metal wire as the recording material was invented in the 1920's. The real archetype of the modern tape recorder, the "Magnetophone," which was developed in Germany in the mid-1930's, was based on this recorder.After World War II, the USA conducted extensive research on the technology of the requisitioned Magnetophone and subsequently developed a modern professional tape recorder. Since the functionality of this tape recorder was superior to that of the conventional disc recorder, several broadcast stations immediately introduced new machines to their radio broadcasting operations. The tape recorder was soon introduced to the consumer market also, which led to a very rapid increase in the number of machines produced. In Japan, Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, which eventually changed its name to Sony, started investigating magnetic recording technology after the end of the war and soon developed their original magnetic tape and recorder. In 1950 they released the frst Japanese tape recorder. -
Video and the Origins of Electronic Photography Revised
Video and the Origins of Electronic Photography Peter Sachs Collopy Published in translation as “La vidéo et les origines de la photographie électronique,” Transbordeur: Photographie histoire société 3 (2019): 26–35. Over the last two decades, electronic media have usurped their photochemical predecessors. Most of what we now call photography is produced by light striking a charge-coupled device rather than silver halide crystals. Electronic imaging technology has largely replaced both still and moving image film. We’ve come to associate this technological revolution with digital media, programmable machines capable of reducing many forms of information—including the light captured by electronic sensors—into a single binary representation. “The general digitization of channels and information,” argues Friedrich Kittler, “erases the differences among individual media.… Inside the computers themselves everything becomes a number: quantity without image, sound, or voice.… A total media link on a digital base will erase the very concept of medium.”1 Digitization was not, though, the moment at which photography began to share a medium with sound and quantification. Our current association of the digital with progress can distract us from the historical fact that the most sophisticated electronic technologies have often been analog ones, processing information as continuous variations in voltage or current and recording it as continuous variations in magnetic fields. The discourse of the digital can also obscure continuities between electronic media, preventing us from seeing how much analog and digital modes of representing information have in common. Rather than thinking of the recent decline of film as a process of digitization, we might just as productively see it as a culmination of the rise of electronic photography, a phenomenon that has introduced into our visual experience not only the digital but also the analog. -
Digital Audio Tapes: Their Preservation and Conversion 1 Smithsonian Institution Archives Summer 2010
Digital Audio Tapes: Their Preservation and Conversion 1 Smithsonian Institution Archives Summer 2010 Digital Audio Tapes: Their Preservation and Conversion Susan Eldridge, Digital Services Intern Overview Digital Audio Tapes (DATs) are 4mm (or 3.81mm) magnetic tape cassettes that store audio information in a digital manner. DATS are visually similar to compact audio cassettes, though approximately half the size, use thinner tapes, and can only be recorded on one side. Developed by Sony in 1987, DATs were quite popular in recording studios and were one of the first digital recording systems to become employed in archives in the late 1980s and 1990s due to their lossless encoding. Commercial use of DATs, on the other hand, never achieved the same success as the machines were expensive and commercial recordings were not available on DAT. Depending on the tape and machine used, DATs allow four different sampling modes: 32 kHz at 12 bits quantization, and 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz, and 48 kHz at 16 bits.1 All support two-channel stereo recording. Some of the later DATs (before being discontinued) could extend the bit-depth to 24 and up to 98 kHz, however, these tapes were likely rarely playable on other models.2 DATs can run between 15 and 180 minutes in length, one again depending on the tape and quality of the sampling. Unlike some other digital media, DATs do not use lossy data compression, which is important in the lossless transferring of a digital source to a DAT. Sony ultimately discontinued the production of DAT machines in 2005.3 Composition A digital magnetic tape is composed of two primary layers: the base film and magnetic layer. -
Magnetic Recording: Analog Tape
Magnetic Recording: Analog Tape Until recently, there was one dominant way of recording sounds so that they could be reproduced at a later time or in a different location: analog magnetic recording (of course, there were mechanical methods like phonograph records, but they could not be recorded easily). In fact, magnetic recording techniques are still the most common way of recording signals, but the encoding method is digital. Magnetic recording relies on the imposition of a magnetic field, derived from an electrical signal, on a magnetically susceptible medium that becomes magnetized. The magnetic medium employed in analog recording is magnetic tape: a thin plastic ribbon with randomly oriented microscopic magnetic particles glued to the surface. The record head magnetic field alters the magnetic polarization (not the physical orientation) of the tiny particles so that they align their magnetic domains with the imposed field: the stronger the imposed field, the more particles align their orientations with the field, until all of the particles are magnetized. The retained pattern of magnetization stores the representation of the signal. When the magnetized medium is moved past a read head, an electrical signal is produced by induction. Unfortunately, the process is inherently very non-linear, so the resulting playback signal is different from the original signal. Much of the circuitry employed in an analog tape recorder is necessary to undo the distortion introduced by the non-linear physics of the system. Figure 1: In a record head, magnetic flux flows through low-reluctance pathway in the tape’s magnetic coating layer. Magnetic tape Magnetic tape used for audio recording consists of a plastic ribbon onto which a layer of magnetic material is glued.