Supply the tape…
One of my early childhood memories is listening to my dad’s reel to reel player. He had a Teac A4010 reel to reel player, amplified by a Pioneer amplifier and speakers. He also had an 8 track player and a vinyl player that I enjoyed thoroughly.
It has been nearly thirty years since he listened to his old reel to reel tapes, so tonight we ran it through my recording gear and near-field monitors. Surprisingly, the tapes play with the same dynamics as they did when I was a kid, although the tape head needs to be cleaned.
Reminiscing about the days serving in the Air Force during the Vietnam War, my dad shared some of his memories as The Carpenters echoed through the cabin.
“The Air Force used to have a trailer full of reel to reel tapes. They had two machines set up, one to play and one to record. You just had to supply the tape. All my buddies had reel to reel tape players,” he shared.
Each seven inch tape reel, depending on the tape speed and length, held hours of music. He could fit three hours of music on 1800 feet of tape recorded at 3 3/4 inches per second. Faster tape speeds sounded better, “but I was cheap,” my dad explained. Inside the tape reel box is a track-list, typed on an old Royal typewriter; this particular reel is a mix of Neil Diamond, The Association, B.J. Thomas, The Carpenters, Kenny Rogers, and Mommas and Poppas.
As for cassette tape players, “My buddy, Dan, had a tape recorder that would tape on both sides but would mechanically flip over. It broke down frequently.”
My parents would send cassettes to each other, sometimes sharing music. They carried on dialogues with each other, keeping each other updated. My sister was born while he was in Vietnam, and these cassette tapes made the distance a little easier to bear. “I had some [cassettes] where I would pick songs out,” reminiscing on the early mix-tape that we’ve come to love.
All of this said, music piracy isn’t anything new. We often think of Mp3s as the rise of music piracy, but don’t forget the reel to reel tape player.