Mystery tape recorders

[toshiba tony]

I'm trying to rewind back the years and I've run out of Ram. Who made the tape recorders that were multitrack. It was a name more widely used with domestic appliances. They didn't have a conventional deck and were multitrack. They incorporated an FM radio, somebody like Braun rings a bell. Many thanks anyone.

[Radio Wrangler]

Schaub Lorenz?

David

[Ted Kendall]

Yes - a batch of 5001s turned up in this country around 1968. 126 tracks, 5" wide tape, hub drive and surprisingly good quality. Threads about them have turned up from time to time.

[DMcMahon]

One of many online clips of the 5001.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...tail&FORM=VIRE

David

[toshiba tony]

Thanks all, this damned dementia. And how are you David, I remember talking to you before. I'm from Huddersfield and worked for Kenneth Levells in the 70's. Long gone. You OK?

[knobtwiddler]

Amstrad made a home all-in-one stereo (record deck, tape and tuner) in the 80s that had a 4-track recorder section. I think it was their best product. For a struggling musician, even some of the Japanese brands such as Fostex and Yamaha were pricey, so the Amstrad unit enabled impoverished musicians to make demos. The story goes that they bought a job-lot of 4-track heads and had to dream up a product to use them. I couldn't really care for the firm, bar the multitrack stereo.

[TIMTAPE]

I was put off the scent by the term multitrack so the 5001 didn't come to mind. The 5001 wasn't really a "multitracker". It just recorded unrelated, unsynchronised tracks onto one tape.

[toshiba tony]

Hello Timtape, yes, I see your point, ordinarily I wouldn't call it a multitrack machine. But what a piece of gear it must have been. Are they rare?

[DMcMahon]

I think in the UK Tony they are relatively rare or at least are not common.

They certainly are a fascinating piece of hardware, not sure if there are any other similar makes, look to be good quality as well.

David

[Trevor]

I have a friend who's dad had on of these Schaub Lorenz units ! fascinating we even had a look at it's mechanism sound was not bad at all
Trev

[TIMTAPE]

Originally Posted by toshiba tony

Hello Timtape, yes, I see your point, ordinarily I wouldn't call it a multitrack machine. But what a piece of gear it must have been. Are they rare?

Hi Tony, people more from your side of the pond would I'm sure be in a better position to judge that. Over here in the most isolated capital city in the world, I can at least say that I saw and serviced one example a few years ago. Quite a beast.

At the time, I was hoping the large tape might have contained a storehouse of off air recordings of historic Australian FM radio broadcasts, but in mono of course. I should have guessed, the 5001 had probably spent most of its working life in Germany or Austria and so the many hours of voices and music were not quite what I had expected or hoped for. I believe the local Perth WA owner of that 5001 still has it though.

[ben]

Originally Posted by knobtwiddler

Amstrad made a home all-in-one stereo (record deck, tape and tuner) in the 80s that had a 4-track recorder section. .

Studio 100. I still have two stashed away!

[Welsh Anorak]

I remember one of the Lorenz machines turned up as a prize on (I think) Sale of the Century or possibly The Golden Shot, but well after their sell-by date. As a young child and tape recorder enthusiast I was amazed - HOW many tracks?
Naturally the punning voice over told the lucky winner they could 'make tracks home' with it. Plus ça change...

[brenellic2000]

126 tracks of 22 mins (at 12cm/sec) ; the head jumped to another at the end of each track. Lorenz sales as a 'library' of music was thwarted by Germany's strict copyright codes. At £130 in 1965, it was too expensive.

[brenellic2000]

... I should have added that from the user's viewpoint, the biggest handicap was the inability to swap tapes; the 'drum' being integral to the deck. Still, it offered around 40 album's worth of music, enough for most households.

[Ted Kendall]

Given that there were more tape recorders per head of population in West Germany than anywhere else in Europe at the time, I think it was the non-standard nature of the 5001 which scuppered it rather than copyright concerns - after all, it's as easy to dub music on a quarter inch machine as on one of these behemoths, and, come to think of it, even easier on cassette. Granted, the Philips/DCI format war was raging in 1965, but had been settled by 1968, when the surplus stock appeared over here. The 5001 was a bit like the 8 track cartridge, ingenious in conception but awkward to use in practice. If you actually tried to record Beethoven's Ninth on one of these, it would have three or four infuriating gaps whilst the tape rewound for the next 21-minute segment.

[toshiba tony]

During my life I've seen some odd things, but this!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want one.

[toshiba tony]

Message for Ted, so these were not a endless loop then? Yes, rewind would be a pain. I need to research more on these, no doubt there will be material on these machines on line, it was a big help on this site to ID one. Thanks

[brenellic2000]

Agreed Ted, clearly anyone since the 1940s, armed with a basic Soundmirror could infringe copyright by recording to tape. The concern over the 5001 was reported in a contemporary journal and I recall it relates more to the audio/music industries' concerns that by offering a 'music centre' with direct recording to tape that it would encourage copyright infringement - hence audio shops were reluctant to handle it.

In more recent years, governments have considered imposing 'copyright duty' on blank tapes/CDs for the same purpose. They charge businesses public broadcasting licence fees to listen to music/radio if a customer is present..!

At least the 5001 only took 25 secs to rewind!

[Ted Kendall]

Quite right, Tony, it wasn't an endless loop, but a 5" wide roll of BASF tape. I forget what the rewind time was, but it wasn't terribly fast, given the risk of damaging the tape edge.