Just curious........Be they in storage or in a production room. I know they are still staples in many a urban stations that feature live mixing. I'm helping setup a production room that can intake audio from various media including vinyl and it got me to wondering.
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Do you still have access to turntables at your station?
- Thread starter Fieldtech1
- Start date
We got a mix booth for the hiphop station, two CDJ1000s flanked by a pair of Technics tables. The kids use them now and again, but infrequently. They normally have CDs and use the CDJs.
At KNOM I've kept three turntables in service. One in the primary air studio because several evening hosts revive things that exist exclusively on vinyl. There is also one in each of two production rooms. One is used occasionally when working on historical features which use snippets from ancient "spoken word" recordings and pieces from some of the old recordings once released by magazines like Reader's Digest. In the third instance the turntable exists only because it's been there for fifteen years and there's no pressing need for the board input it uses or for the space it occupies. Perhaps one day I'll sever the cable and put a mini male on board side and a mini female on the turntable/preamp side, leaving them mated. Then when someone wants to use something off their iPod or similar they'll have a convenient way to do it.
Similarly I keep one Otari reel-to-reel machine in one production room though it's almost never used and the archived tapes it might be used with are fast becoming brittle.
If you already have a turntable but are shy on board inputs consider the plug-in trick described above. You may never need it but you'll be able to use the turntable quickly if ever it might make the impossible possible.
Similarly I keep one Otari reel-to-reel machine in one production room though it's almost never used and the archived tapes it might be used with are fast becoming brittle.
If you already have a turntable but are shy on board inputs consider the plug-in trick described above. You may never need it but you'll be able to use the turntable quickly if ever it might make the impossible possible.
B
bilco
Guest
I have a 1200 out back in storage, mounted on a frame with a preamp ready to be plugged in if needed. I think the last time it was used was about 4 years ago to do a favor for a client. He had a great Korean War vintage Air Fforce Officers Club song album on 33 that our production director cleaned up via our audio processing to record to CD. I still have a copy of that CD in my truck.
My philosophy (which does extend into the studio) is to have one of everything. That way you can convert any format to any format with relative ease.
There's a Technics SP-15 (plus two in storage as backup/spares), a Tascam 122 MK II for cassette dubs, an Otari CTM-10 to grab audio off old carts, a couple of Otari MX5050 BII machines, a Denon Minidisc recorder and a few other interesting machines.
As yet we're still hunting for a good 8-track 1/2" machine, and that's probably as far as we need to go. 1" and larger formats hardly surface these days and if they do we can send it to a recording studio for transcription.
The units don't take up much space in the studio and with the revival of vinyl I can see the turntable getting more use in the near future.
Once the audio is in the computer, it's easy enough to clean it up and send it through to the on-air if need be, or dump to CD etc.
There's a Technics SP-15 (plus two in storage as backup/spares), a Tascam 122 MK II for cassette dubs, an Otari CTM-10 to grab audio off old carts, a couple of Otari MX5050 BII machines, a Denon Minidisc recorder and a few other interesting machines.
As yet we're still hunting for a good 8-track 1/2" machine, and that's probably as far as we need to go. 1" and larger formats hardly surface these days and if they do we can send it to a recording studio for transcription.
The units don't take up much space in the studio and with the revival of vinyl I can see the turntable getting more use in the near future.
Once the audio is in the computer, it's easy enough to clean it up and send it through to the on-air if need be, or dump to CD etc.
Gotta say it's all nice and nostalgic to watch (did my first ever radio show with records and carts--just to say I did it) but the sound quality can be lacking on the air for a lot of vinyl.
If it's going to be played on the air, I prefer to play it once, clean it up in Adobe Audition and then either burn it to a CD or rip it into the automation system.
It makes more sense than wearing out turntables and the records themselves. No cue burn. No skips, dirt or worn grooves. The tools in Adobe allow you to quickly remove most pops and crackle.
If it's going to be played on the air, I prefer to play it once, clean it up in Adobe Audition and then either burn it to a CD or rip it into the automation system.
It makes more sense than wearing out turntables and the records themselves. No cue burn. No skips, dirt or worn grooves. The tools in Adobe allow you to quickly remove most pops and crackle.
K6JHU said:
I would venture to say no... We retired the 1200's when all the mixers went to Serato. One of them was nostalgic and liked to use the 1200 time code record on it, but when he finally got him a good Serato Itch with adjustable tork, it was gone.
WXRT Chicago has 2 Technics 1200's in their 'state of the art' main on-air studio. I hear vinyl played pretty frequently on the station, live, especially on the specialty shows. It sounds just as good as the HD material. I think it is very rare though when they have the need to segue between the two TT's, but it is nice that that option exists for the talent. For many decades, they *always* played vinyl directly to air (eventually going direct to air with CDs), and always had some of the best audio (and processing) for an FM (mainly) rock station.
I also know that classical WFMT Chicago has at least one Technics SP-15 in the main on-air studio. I have also heard them use it many times, and it also sounds just as good as their HD and CD material. Both of these stations also have the two best audio streams I have ever heard.
Through my career of being CE for many stations, along the way, I obtained 3 Technics SP-10's for home use (only use 2, 1 is a backup). Two obsidian bases were also picked up along the way, thanks to WLUP. One day, as the story goes, supposedly WLUP had 6 of these bases (now highly in demand on ebay), brand new in boxes, just sitting around doing nothing, and one day they sold them to Darrin of Big D Broadcast Exchange (www.bigdmc.com). When I called Darrin (who used to head up Harris' used broadcast dept.), out of the clear blue one time, he had 2 of the bases left, and I immediately scarfed them up. If you know how to optimize phono cartridge alignment, it is truly amazing the audio reproduction you can get from a decent turntable setup. I paired my SP-10's with conservatively priced Audioquest tonearms, and rebuilt some professional ATI (model P-1000) TT preamps. I think I may asked to be buried with those SP-10's.
I also know that classical WFMT Chicago has at least one Technics SP-15 in the main on-air studio. I have also heard them use it many times, and it also sounds just as good as their HD and CD material. Both of these stations also have the two best audio streams I have ever heard.
Through my career of being CE for many stations, along the way, I obtained 3 Technics SP-10's for home use (only use 2, 1 is a backup). Two obsidian bases were also picked up along the way, thanks to WLUP. One day, as the story goes, supposedly WLUP had 6 of these bases (now highly in demand on ebay), brand new in boxes, just sitting around doing nothing, and one day they sold them to Darrin of Big D Broadcast Exchange (www.bigdmc.com). When I called Darrin (who used to head up Harris' used broadcast dept.), out of the clear blue one time, he had 2 of the bases left, and I immediately scarfed them up. If you know how to optimize phono cartridge alignment, it is truly amazing the audio reproduction you can get from a decent turntable setup. I paired my SP-10's with conservatively priced Audioquest tonearms, and rebuilt some professional ATI (model P-1000) TT preamps. I think I may asked to be buried with those SP-10's.
This is an interesting post. For those of you still using TTs, which cartridge are you using, Stanton?
Also, I'd like to see the TTs. Are there any pics of these in the studio? Perhaps on the website gallery page?
Thnxs
Also, I'd like to see the TTs. Are there any pics of these in the studio? Perhaps on the website gallery page?
Thnxs
Stanton was good to me... I used to mix in my early radio days. The Ortofone (sic) is what I ended up using on the 1200's before I retired them. It was a nice sounding, tough cartridge. I liked that it replaced the head on the 1200. I felt like it gave me much better alignment.
Ah for one of those Bogen-Presto 16" turntables that weighed about 400 pounds and had a motor that could tear your arm off if you used too much pressure when attempting to slip-cue (anyone remember what THAT is?)! That, with a GE Baton tone arm for conventional vinyl and the super-heavy duty GE arm for the World Library inside-to-out vertical cut production music library.
If you ain't pushing 70 you don't likely have a clue about all that!
If you ain't pushing 70 you don't likely have a clue about all that!
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