DJ Deck Of Choice To Die?

It is rumoured that a classic workhorse of the music DJ is to stop being manufactured in February 2010. The Technics SL1200 series of vinyl turntables first saw the light of day in 1972 as a Hi-Fi turntable with an improved MK2 model released in 1978 and soon became the DJ’s dependable favourite. It is widely considered to be one of the durable and reliable turntables ever produced. The British Science Museum even has one amongst it exhibits of technology items that have shaped our world.

Much beloved of Hip Hop DJ’s due to the direct drive motor (rather than the belt drive of most Hi-Fi turntables) which easily leant themselves to the 80′s scratching phenomena. Highly accurate pitch controls made them an ideal tool for mixing too.

But demand has been falling as digital decks have become more sophisticated and as vast libraries of sound can now be stored on small memory cards, hard drives and laptop computers.

It is thought the SL-1200 and SL-1210 models will stop production in the new year. Their durability is almost their weakness as there are probably enough working models in circulation to satisfy its increasingly minority niche position with demand no doubt easily satisfied by the second user market.

If the rumours are true it will truly be the end of an era for many.

Photo by johanlundahl under this creative commons license

koji sueyoshi : cassette tape business card

via designboom.com

The humble analogue cassette continues its rise as a cultural design icon even when its functional use has declined.

A Lasting Walkman Memory

The cassette Walkman is 30 years old. I must admit the young me was less than impressed when she first saw the concept (I remember thinking ‘I doubt many people will want one of those’) but got to listen to one in a record store that also sold audio goods and the sound through headphones was, for the time just amazing.

Good First Choice

In reality I only ever owned two cassette Walkmans. The first was a veritable  Rolls Royce: The Aiwa TP-S30 (pictured). It was for me a multi function device because it could record as well as play back so I got to record some college lectures (in binaural stereo too), use as a dictation machine and for a brief period even turned its hand to discretely recording a few live rock concerts (bootlegging, moi?).

Preserved In Sound

I also have quite a few recording of now long passed extended family members and friends. Believe me these are a much better long term record that photographs.Through these recordings they all live on.

Cracking Up

It was built to last but eventually the metal casing cracked and the top section where the operation buttons sat disintegrated completely (this section was actually metal effect plastic) and the lid to the battery compartment also cracked to the extent that it could then only be powered from the mains (hardly portable).Despite these failings the cassette play/record mechanism itself could have easily kept working. The Aiwa must easily have put in 10 years of faithful service.

I eventually replaced it with a Toshiba which was cheap, plastic, sounded awful in comparison and soon broke.

So fond memories of what for a generation today would seem an absurdly antiquated technology but they were the mp3 players of their day and part of the evolution of portable audio devices.

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Vinyl Heaven Happy Birthday

more about “ How to make a 7 inch single“, posted with vodpod

The vinyl record is 60 years old.Peak sales where in 1979 at around 80 million. Recently annual sales of 200,000 were the norm but the revival of the 7″ single has increased that to around 1 million sales per year as vinyl undergoes a niche revival. The BBC follow the involved process of pressing a vinyl record with Bob Bailey of The Vinyl Factory.

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A compact AAC+ encoded version is available here.

(*AAC+ audio files require this Plugin(Win) or a compatible player such as Songbird (Win,Mac,Linux), VLC(Win,Mac,Linux)or Winamp(Win) however Quicktime and i-Tunes will play file at half the audio bandwidth and in mono only)

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Photo by beardenb under this creative commons license

Tape Archive: Diz Watson Live 1985

Diz Watson’s Jambalaya live session 1985

A smaller sized but equally high quality AAC+ encoded* version is available here

(*AAC+ audio files require this Plugin(Win) or a compatible player such as Songbird (Win,Mac,Linux), VLC(Win,Mac,Linux)or Winamp(Win) however Quicktime and i-Tunes will play file at half the audio bandwidth and in mono only)

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Tape Archive: News January 24th 1985

News for January 24th 1985

An AAC+ encoded version is here