Garage band nostalgia using Fostex X-15 |
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These days everybody goes digital, but 20+ years ago tape was all the rage. The masters are still in decent shape too.
In 1983 the X-15 was the first cassette-based four track that was truly portable – it ran on batteries. The size, weight and functionality quickly gained it the ‘musicians note pad’ nickname and its epitaph is that to this day it remains the No 1 best selling four track the World has ever seen.
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Not to brag, but I guess I am, anyway, one of my buddies used to send me 1st generation copies of Grateful Dead shows straight off the soundboard. I still have the tapes.
I didn’t have the heart to get rid of hundreds of hours of laboriously collected and edited tape of my reggae music, going back to rocksteady and ska…I saved it.
Comment by Vince Williams — January 31, 2007 @ 6:24 pm PST
What surprised me is how the cassette masters will still in pretty decent condition. I didn’t really expect tapes to last 22+ years. And what electronics do they make that last that long?
Comment by TDavid — January 31, 2007 @ 6:26 pm PST
Nothing. And if they can just find those missing videotapes from Australia of the first moon landing…
Comment by Vince Williams — January 31, 2007 @ 7:43 pm PST
[…] On Monday’s Hmmcast I talked about my Fostex multitrack recorder that is over 22 years old still working good and here this tablet is a little over two years old and I’m having these hardware problems? Maybe it’s just the AC adapter although it seems to be working fine as of this writing. The Fostex cost $450 in 1984. The tablet cost over $2,500 in 2004. […]
Pingback by Oooo that wire smell, the smell of tablet burning » Make You Go Hmm — February 2, 2007 @ 8:23 am PST
A friend of mine in New Zealand recently died, before his time, and when i went back from the UK for the funeral i went thru my old gear and found guitar demo tapes we did about 20-15yrs ago and dug out my old X-15. It wasnt working straight away, and i had to make a fix (the stuck keys issue) to get it running - but it then ran and ran like the day i got it. and i could replay those tapes back and audio capture them to my laptop for remastering. That old x-15 and me and my mate had some good times jamming, and it came thru for me when it played back those old demos perfectly in DolbyB for recapture. That std warm 4-track sound doing the songs justice. I dont know what equipment these days lasts 25yrs, but they dont make em like they used to. Im hanging onto it cos its a classic.
Comment by Deshter — February 29, 2008 @ 10:21 am PST
I still have my X-15 and recently got it out to record my child’s first words. For 22 years it has been my muisc note pad, demo tape recoder, one man band and playback deck for my pre reorded tapes (the normal speed play is a real bonus in this domain) and now as a father’s tool. What more can you ask from it. I intend to keep it for a loooong time.
Comment by martin — April 5, 2008 @ 4:13 pm PST
I recorded my first “demo” on one of those in highschool! I used to long for the day when you could get the digital quality we do now. The main problem with the old cassette recorders was getting enough volume out of the microphone with clipping and getting distortion.
Dan
Comment by Dan-O — January 27, 2009 @ 10:56 am PST
I just found my old x15. Wanted to show it to my son, and then it appears be defect…
The volume control at the front (for earphones) had stuck, but worse, the only signal coming out is a loud humming (100 Hz) noise, both in earphones and phono-output.
Any ideas anybody?
joe
Comment by joe — February 16, 2009 @ 2:33 pm PST
I loved reading the comments about “X-15″ memories. I have plenty myself from about 20 years ago. My brother and I played music together for years and years using the X-15 we bought used in 1985. In 2004, we got together and pulled out all of the tapes we could find from rehearsals and live performance. We had a blast! I played drumset and my brother played guitar. We had plenty of band mates through the years. We decided to have a “re-mix” party and record everything to hard drive using the good ol’ X-15 and the original masters. I’m sure you guys all know how difficult it was to mic and achieve a decent mix back then from a home studio.
Check out one of the tracks [see my signature link]
Comment by james — March 14, 2009 @ 2:37 pm PST
I actually had the TEAC 144 but had to give it back to the store I bought it from. Then I was talked into the X-15 which was my
first real multitrack. It was pretty cool. If you take the extra time, you could get some real clean sounds although it was cassette.
I did some soundtracks for video and made some ‘real’ money. That was in 1984. It’s 25 years later and I bought one off eBay. It
will be nice to record on it again.
Comment by Lance — October 18, 2009 @ 1:32 am PST