Any carts today?

[Savage]

317, if it's in decent shape and is either operable, repairable with reasonable effort or a good parts donor, I'll pay for shipping plus buy you a 6-pack of brewskies for your trouble.

Yes, 8-tracks and broadcast carts are mechanically different, plus the broadcast version do not use foil patches for sensing. Once upon a time (1970) I had an aftermarket Automatic Radio car player which would handle either 8-tracks or their predecessors from the mid-60s, 4-track car stereo. The latter actually were mechanically identical to broadcast carts, so the A-R had a pinch roller which would swing into position if you selected "4 TRK PLAY." I would occasionally record stuff at the station by dubbing it on the prodo room cart deck at twice normal speed, since both 8- and 4-track car stereo moved at 3.75 ips instead of 7.5.

Of course the program was only in mono and you heard the 1 kHz cue stop tone just before the music started, but it was a way to get current hits for free in the car. That was another thing about the 8-track system: the tapes were expensive.

 

[Charlie]

For those of you who miss having cart machines in the studio - Please help yourself to my Sonifex or ITC machines: http://www.charliedavy.co.uk/software.php#CartPlayer Wow and flutter is, errr, un-measurable ;D

 

[radiorob2.0]

For those of you who miss having cart machines in the studio - Please help yourself to my Sonifex or ITC machines: http://www.charliedavy.co.uk/software.php#CartPlayer Wow and flutter is, errr, un-measurable ;D

Thanks for the link. Question, does the ITC 99B skin offer ELSA? ;D

 

[WNTIRadio]

Listening to the History of Howard Stern on Sirius this week and remembering all the little noises that used to be in a radio studio. From the faint whirring of the cart motors, the "CLICK" of the reel to reel every time Howard plays a clip of an interview and the sound of carts being put into the machines. Of course, there's also the familiar "ker-chunk" of the solenoid on the cart deck itself.

It's amazing how much quieter a radio studio is today than 15 years ago.

 

[Charlie]

Thanks for the link. Question, does the ITC 99B skin offer ELSA? ;D

Haha, it's possible - in the same way that carts always take the same amount of time to re-cue in my program ;D and I think we'll have big trouble if I ever put a Tomcat skin in due to them running at 15ips

 

[Tom Wells]

I actually WAS wondering if the software offered the half-muted start clunk sound effect...I'd want it.

 

[nmoore6676]

Listening to the History of Howard Stern on Sirius this week and remembering all the little noises that used to be in a radio studio. From the faint whirring of the cart motors, the "CLICK" of the reel to reel every time Howard plays a clip of an interview and the sound of carts being put into the machines. Of course, there's also the familiar "ker-chunk" of the solenoid on the cart deck itself.

It's amazing how much quieter a radio studio is today than 15 years ago.

For a rumbling good time you can't beat the Gates "Spotmaster" tape machine.

http://www.oldradio.com/archives/hardware/101.htm

Actually a lot of the old stuff was designed to be used with a board op in a separate control room and the DJ / Announcer in the adjoining fish bowl booth. I can recall as a kid that one local station had a particularly loud relay for the tally/muting system that ker-chunked loudly every time the DJ keyed the mike in the control room.

 

[Charlie]

I actually WAS wondering if the software offered the half-muted start clunk sound effect...I'd want it.

It does now... Insert, eject and fast-cue sounds included Just tick the checkbox to enable them.
CartPlayer v1.2

 

[RFGuy]

Could you possibly add the sound of a Fidelipak grey cart with the feed bar out of it's hole? That is a unique sound that makes the spot sound like a bad 16mm movie with sprokett holes missing. and the mechanical noise in the control room is magnificent!

 

[nmoore6676]

Could you possibly add the sound of a Fidelipak grey cart with the feed bar out of it's hole? That is a unique sound that makes the spot sound like a bad 16mm movie with sprokett holes missing. and the mechanical noise in the control room is magnificent!

My cable carrier has manged to reproduce the unique warbling effect of a 16mm film off guide sprockets coming out of the spots back to the FOX News channel. It lasts maybe ten seconds and is there if they have bumper music coming back or just someone talking. Check with them, maybe they will share their secret, it is MediaCom in Ottumwa, Iowa.

 

[SFM-Ptgal]

I actually WAS wondering if the software offered the half-muted start clunk sound effect...I'd want it.

It does now... Insert, eject and fast-cue sounds included Just tick the checkbox to enable them.
CartPlayer v1.2

U've created a magnificent toy. Let me be picky The ITCs shouldn't have mechanical noises besides the cart insertion itself, the real ITC Delta3 doesn't have FForward, optional auto-segue when the spot reaches the 0:00:00. I've configured my hardware ones to do that And when does deck 4 gets back to life, need some spares?

 

[Charlie]

You're right, there are a couple of errors in the cart logic/features - I'll add a "sequence play" option in a day or so. I'll try and remove the fast-cue fx from the Delta3, but the way the software works is the Sonifex's is where all the code is and the other 2 machines call the relevant routines when their button is pushed - so, in short, all the Cue buttons point to the same bit of code. This saves having triple the amount of code for essentially the same 3 operations.

But aside from these minor tweaks, I doubt anything else will be done to it - as you say, purely a toy unless I make a row of 6 ITCs and see if Z100 want to return to the good'ol days ?!

 

[Charlie]

I've fixed Cart 4 on the ITC '99 page - plus, slots 1-2-3 will now sequence by clicking the circle under each slot, eg: clicking the circle under slot 2 will trigger slot 3 and so on. Somebody e-mailed me and asked if I'd use a real image rather than a drawing of a cart machine panel: if somebody wishes to send me a good resolution image I will http://www.charliedavy.co.uk/software.php#CartPlayer

 

[Savage]

Charlie, will the Sonifex also get cart-to-cart sequencing?

 

[Charlie]

They do - click the "headphone socket" on the left to toggle ;D

 

[bossbill]

The early broadcast cart machines used a deck manufactured by Viking of Minneapolis. The Viking decks were used for background music in restaurants and other applications. They came in two varieties 1) with the familiar lever which was used to "****" the pinch roller after the cart was in position, and 2) without a lever but with a mechanical assembly which cocked the pinch roller as the cart was inserted.

Original Spotmasters evolved from the Viking deck, ruggedizing and modifying some of the parts in time. Tapecaster also used the essense of the Viking deck.

While many companies came up with variations and new designs, ITC was the leader for many years with their solid deck, motor and solenoid.

In maybe 1993 or 1994, after Tapecaster had been sold to Auditronics, then spun off, then gone down, I flew to Memphis and purchased the remnants of the company. I sold parts for several years (still have numerous new parts). Tapecaster made the mistake of trying to "re-invent the wheel" about 20 years too late with a new direct-drive model, inferior to what had been available on the market, and at a time when digital computer automation was taking hold.

 

[Savage]

There was also another secondary brand of cart machine called TELCO which used the Viking transport. I only encountered two of these machines over the years - a record-play unit in the production studio of WGMF Watkins Glen, NY, which IIRC was tube-type - and a solid state play deck in an aux studio at another station (can't recall where, but I think it was in the South somewhere.)

Does anyone remember these? They appeared to be almost a copy of Tapecasters, but with garden-variety pushbuttons instead of the familiar Molex switches.

 

[radioeagle1]

At WWSU 106.9 FM out of Fairborn, OH, (a college radio station) we still used carts up till last year. That is when our last cart machine died. All we really used them for was for running old stuff in our production studio. No noticed the cart machine was missing when it finally died. We run everything off computers and CD's now.

 

[snarfdude]

If you are interested contact me; not looking to make a killing but would like a fair price.

They are worthless. Is that fair enough for you?

depends on where you are looking........

I'd like a 3 cue tone card for my ITC 3D record amp.....just can't spend a lot....wife would have my hide..LOL!

 

[snarfdude]

After many years carting music library and carting spots to air, I have 4 ITC 3D's and 2 gates mono criterions play decks (anyone have a record amp sitting around?) in my home studio and one audicord record deck I bought out of florida years ago. 3 of the 4 ITC's are stereo, 1 mono, and a ITC SP record that's mono. They all work well overall. I use them on my internet stream and my weekly podcast show usually for drops, and SFX....in fact the background loop I use on my podcast/LPFM show is far more practical to put it on cart then anything you could digitally.

I see both sides of the automation debate, but I believe both have their advantages and it really depends on your individial needs. I like them for nostalgia mainly now. The machines were being tossed, so easy enough to give them a home.