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Aristocarts

R

Robert Bass

Me being the cart fanatic that I am, I'm curious about Aristocarts. I've tried searching for info about them with Google and also on YouTube and can't find a thing about them. I understand they are padless carts like the Scotchcarts were. I'd be curious to see any pictures and tech specs. Was this a brand only used in Canada?

Thanks,

R
 
I remember them having pads, and a sold "wheel" on the inside that the tape spool was on. The Audiopak's had the spokes on them. Fidelipac had the locking mechanism, like a cog wheel and a stopper. Spent many an hour winding all 3 varieties on ye ole' tape winder. I miss doing that like I miss having a broken arm.

The only thing I miss about carts is the ability to fling one across the room when something went wrong. Kind of hard, and expensive, to huck a computer across the studio when something goes wrong. And watching the other guy carrying a stack under his chin when the middle cart in the stack slipped out...
 
Yes, Aristocarts had pads. Although they were manufactured in Canada, they did see use in the states. The design attempted to use the plastic cart shell to guide the tape rather than relying on the machine guides. They were rugged but their phase stability was poor. Aristocart did make a good plastic rack for holding (Scotch) carts.
 
CPSteinmetz said:
Yes, Aristocarts had pads. Although they were manufactured in Canada, they did see use in the states. The design attempted to use the plastic cart shell to guide the tape rather than relying on the machine guides. They were rugged but their phase stability was poor.
Click to expand...

Interesting, thanks. Someone I know swears that Aristocarts were better than say the AA-4's from Audiomax / Audiopak. As for me, I love the Scotchcarts the best. They provide better tracking, don't use pads and are easy to reload.

R
 
Weren't Aristocarts made of polycarbonate and designed with round backs in the early versions? Or have I confused them with ProCarts (perhaps the toughest carts ever made?)
 
I think what a lot of people missed back then, was that you could not mix carts or tape types and get any kind of uniform result. In my circle, Fidelipaks were the worst, since the plastic guide pin tended to move around.

If you wanted to see something really exciting in those days, taking a bulk eraser to a Mackenzie cart would do it. I don't remember if it was just habit or if I didn't know (yet) that the record deck had an erase head in it, but I do recall that the cart pretty much exploded into about a hundred pieces when I bulked it.

Fortunately, it had happened before, and the owners were amused that yet another hapless engineer had been initiated.
 
IMHO, Scotchcarts were the best because they allowed the machine to guide the tape rather than attempting to do so with the plastic shell. They also had the built in tensioning system which minimized wow and flutter. Use one with an ITC Delta or a 99B and the performance was *almost* as good as a reel to reel. I never figured out the difference between a Scotchcart (brown) and a Scotchcart II (black) other than their color. Never tried to rewind one but spent many a night rewinding Fidelipac 300s and AAs.

The metal rod in the 300s used to make a good lock pick. Anyone have any other unique uses ??
 
Scotchcarts were originally developed by 3M and used brown plastic shells. When 3M sold that division to ITC, they were renamed to Scotchcart II's and the plastic color was changed from brown to black. Otherwise, they were totally identical in performance.

As I noted earlier they are the easiest carts to reload, and that's primarily because of their design not using most of the shell itself as part of the tape path. The lack of pads is a nice bonus! I do seem to recall hearing that one drawback to Scotchcarts was, they don't up well in high speed splice finders. I've never run into that problem.

R
 
At a station where I worked, the Fidelipac wire could trip the drink machine's coin slot...
 
Seem to remember a few Aristocarts in the mix and rebuilt them too.
Rebuilt millions of the old grey Fidelipaks.
Had a few Scotchcarts only as an experiment.
99% of the carts on-air ended up being the AA4s.
Spent a lot of time testing and standardizing the tape type. Made a big difference in the consistency of the air sound!

I likened winding carts to basket weaving. A kind of therapy for me. ;)
 
Not a fan of the grey Fidelipacs myself. Horrible, horrible carts! :p

R
 
I know at one station I had done refurbs on all the cart decks in both the production and on-air studios. All the carts were in horrible condition. We ordered some cases of Scotchcart II's to get us by until I had Russ Novak rewind every cart I could get my hands on. It was amazing the night and day difference when things are actually aligned for a common tape type.

I seem to recall more problems with the Scotchcarts - especially when flung across the room and landing on the uncarpeted floor.
 
Why on earth are you guys flinging carts across the room? ;D

R
 
CPSteinmetz said:
IMHO, Scotchcarts were the best because they allowed the machine to guide the tape rather than attempting to do so with the plastic shell. They also had the built in tensioning system which minimized wow and flutter. Use one with an ITC Delta or a 99B and the performance was *almost* as good as a reel to reel. I never figured out the difference between a Scotchcart (brown) and a Scotchcart II (black) other than their color. Never tried to rewind one but spent many a night rewinding Fidelipac 300s and AAs.

The metal rod in the 300s used to make a good lock pick. Anyone have any other unique uses ??
Click to expand...

The challenge with Scotchcarts was the tensioning system and carts holding lots of tape. The first generation offered 9.5 and 10.5 minute lengths but any impact, even the most modest, would disengage the tension system causing issues. The longest length of Scotchcart II available was 7.5 minutes.
 
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