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MkII tapes

2002-11-15 by MAinPsych@aol.com

Just an idea...

Something occured to me as I was looking at Ken M.'s pics of the MkII tape-changing process that might preserve that first station of sounds. Rather than cut the tape being changed at the location where you were instructed, couldn't the tapes be moved forward, lined up with station 2's initial transient marks lined up over the heads, and the cut measured and made at the back of the rear roller? Then with the tapes lined back up to station 1 (with the tape being replaced left loose, e.g., not taken up on the front roller) the new tape attached to the old (in its entirety) could be pulled through. This might add a little extra time to the process, but would preserve all six stations for possible mounting on a 400 frame. Martin/Ken/Bob/Jerry/other MkII owners, what do you think? It's late, and I'm tired, but I hope the general idea came through.

Frank Samagaio
M400 #908

Re: [Mellotronists] MkII tapes

2002-11-15 by kenmerb@aol.com

In a message dated 11/15/02 1:07:10 AM Eastern Standard Time, MAinPsych@... writes:

Show quoted textHide quoted text

Something occured to me as I was looking at Ken M.'s pics of the MkII tape-changing process that might preserve that first station of sounds. Rather than cut the tape being changed at the location where you were instructed, couldn't the tapes be moved forward, lined up with station 2's initial transient marks lined up over the heads, and the cut measured and made at the back of the rear roller? Then with the tapes lined back up to station 1 (with the tape being replaced left loose, e.g., not taken up on the front roller) the new tape attached to the old (in its entirety) could be pulled through. This might add a little extra time to the process, but would preserve all six stations for possible mounting on a 400 frame. Martin/Ken/Bob/Jerry/other MkII owners, what do you think? It's late, and I'm tired, but I hope the general idea came through.

Frank,

I'm not 100% sure about the method you mention here, but for me, after it was all said and done, the only real advantage to saving the old tapes was that it kept things neat and orderly. While working on this, tapes on the reel are better than tapes lying all over the place.

The reason I say this is because after I changed the tapes I realized I probably wouldn't use them. First of all, to get the tapes off the MKII, you really "manhandle" them - pulling and tugging them to unroll the old tapes from the rear drum, sometimes stretching them a little. Then your fingers and hands are all over the recorded side, which isn't good for the sound. Only the first bank has the "sound start" marks, so you'd have to somehow mark the sound starts on the other 5 banks, and you wouldn't easily know where to cut them either, because the bank start marks are only on the index tape. And I probably demagged some of those tapes with my *accidently magnetized* screwdriver getting them out. Finally, this is the old tape stock - knowing that the good EMI tape stock is available, I'd now spring for a new set. All this didn't occur to me *before* I saved the tapes. For me, it's just not feasible for me to reuse them.
Too much work, questionable results. Possible, yes, feasible, no.

Regarding the loss of the bank 1 tapes - when I started, I didn't care about those because I had the same sounds in another M400 tape frame. I would have gotten creative if I wanted to save them.

But, it's good to think about these things. I was trying to come up with a way where you didn't have to cut the tapes at all, but I went with Martin's method because it seemed like the best way.

Ken M.

Re: [Mellotronists] MkII tapes

2002-11-19 by J.K.Beresford

Hi Frank,
Yeah using the standard method of replacing tapes that are
already in situ does tend to bugger them up! If you really want to
preserve them first mark on the station start positions on each
tape with a china-graph pencil (cycle to each station and mark
above the heads) then the best way is to remove each tape
completely in tact onto an empty reel. That means lacing the fresh
tapes through the turnbuckles from above with something like
martins "special patent-pocking device" which I'm sure you've
seen. Bit of a faff really.
John

To: Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com
From: MAinPsych@...
Date sent: Fri, 15 Nov 2002 01:05:39 EST
Subject: [Mellotronists] MkII tapes

Just an idea...

Something occured to me as I was looking at Ken M.'s pics
of the MkII tape-changing process that might preserve
that first station of sounds. Rather than cut the tape
being changed at the location where you were instructed,
couldn't the tapes be moved forward, lined up with station
2's initial transient marks lined up over the heads, and the
cut measured and made at the back of the rear roller?
Then with the tapes lined back up to station 1 (with the
tape being replaced left loose, e.g., not taken up on the
front roller) the new tape attached to the old (in its
entirety) could be pulled through. This might add a little
extra time to the process, but would preserve all six
stations for possible mounting on a 400 frame.
Martin/Ken/Bob/Jerry/other MkII owners, what do you
think? It's late, and I'm tired, but I hope the general
idea came through.

Frank Samagaio
M400 #908
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