Re: [ARSCLIST] Gates transcription turntable

[Cary Ginell <SoundThink@xxxxxxx>]

In a message dated 8/9/2005 5:01:49 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

Ah.....Gates. We had a couple of their cartridge players in one station  I
worked
at in the 70s. Useless  things.

dl



At one time in the late '70s I had two 16" Gates turntables and 3  Viking
cartridge players (playback only) that I rescued from the storage bin at  KGIL in
Los Angeles. I had to build "cabinets" for the turntables, using old
discarded hollow doors with legs screwed into the corners. Rickety as all  get-out
but it did the trick. When I moved into my current house there was no  room for
them (and the missus thought they were ugly - she was right!) so when
resistors started falling on the floor, I gave them away. The Vikings were
apparently not meant to be mounted in a studio with a microphone in it because  every
time they were engaged they made a loud "ker-chunk" sound when starting  and
another loud noise when cueing up. Must have been just for remote usage or  to
be operated by an engineer. I don't miss recording commercials on 4-track
cartridges at all - how many hours have I spent watching for stop splices to go
by!

Memory: the wacky KGIL morning man Dick Whittington had us thread up tape
loops on a pair of vertically mounted Ampex 350s which he used as a gerry-rigged
 tape delay when airing phone calls (I don't which were more loopy, the
machines  or the callers...). One machine was set to record and the other was set
to play  back, about 5 seconds later.

Sometimes the "good ol' days" weren't that good. Radio equipment is miles
better than it was 25-30 years ago, though programming is inversely
proportionately worse.

Cary  Ginell
Origin Jazz  Library
www.originjazz.com