"Serge Auckland" wrote in message
...

"Iain Churches" wrote in message
i.fi...

The tape machines were Philips Pro 50s

I liked those. We had several in mixdown and copying
facilities.


Ampex AG440s, both using Scotch 206.

Did you likethe AG440? Compared with Studer they
were pretty flaky IMO. When I moved to RCA we
had an Ampex multitrack. On a big (expensive) session,
we used to insist that a maintenance engineer with hot
soldering iron and a box of spare cards, sat besides the
machine for the whole session.

Happy days....

Indeed. Flying by the seat of one's pants!
It was fun!.

I also preferred the Philips to the Ampex machines. I don't think there
was much difference in performance, but the Philips were nicer to work on.

And much more reliable:-)

A few years later I went to work for Ampex, at the time that the ATR100
came out. That was pretty impressive as a transport, excellent tape
handling.

When I was still a teenager; I was the proud owner
of an Ampex 351 in a broadcast console. My elder
brother was a freelance producer and been working
on a series of records at a studio which was having a
clear-out. I got the Ampex for a fiver, with a remote,
a huge box of spares and about a dozen NAB reels of
tape.

Iain