Talk:Tape recorder

Fixed head vs. rotary head recorders

I can't find anywhere in Wikipedia where there is a distinction between rotating head recorders and fixed head recorders. Am I missing it? -Willmcw 07:38, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)

There is a lot more about the rotating head technology at helical scan. Graham 22:28, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Thanks, that's exactaly what I was looking for. Cheers -Willmcw 02:42, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Missing history

The article skips from Alexander Graham Bell's paper tape recorder to wire recorders, and that's a huge technological leap. It also could use a bit more detail about the development of the BASF/AEG tape recorder, the first such machine that is comparable to present-day tape recorders. A few bits of information, partly from memory, that need to be researched and referenced:

• The tape base was cellulose acetate plastic. It was thin and flexible, but also somewhat brittle. The technology was already in use as a base for motion picture film, except in a thicker version. Due to this fragility issue, the material was abandoned by the mid-1960s after DuPont developed Mylar in the 1950s.
• The tape recorder's immediate predecessor, the wire recorder, had relatively low fidelity reproduction, comparable to telephone. Even the earliest AEG recorders had astoundingly good sound, which, on AM radios of the day, was virtually indistinguishable from a live broadcast.
• Adolf Hitler made considerable use of the new technology, recording public addresses which were played back later over radio broadcasts. This reportedly confounded the Allies, as they could pick up these broadcasts and, knowing the locations of various broadcast transmitters, got the impression that Hitler was appearing in different locations in Germany such that he would have to travel at extreme speed to do so. The riddle wasn't solved until after the World War II, when the tape recording technology became available to the western Allies.
• There's no mention of the development of the use of an AC bias signal in recording. Development of high fidelity recording on tape would have been absolutely impossible without it. (AC biasing was discovered by William L. Carson and T. W. Carpenter under the sponsorship of the U.S. Navy, and they received U.S. Patent 1,640,881 for their invention in 1927.) Prior to that, wire recorders used DC biasing and, later, AC biasing, but due to the characteristics of the recording medium, it was not possible to produce high fidelity recordings, and print-through was a big problem.
• Some of the earliest commercial audio tape recorders were produced by Ampex Corporation in the United States in 1948. The earlier German AEG Magnetophon machines were not made available to the mass market.
• Entertainer Bing Crosby became an early investor in Ampex when an associate of his at Bing Crosby Enterprises witnessed a demonstration of a Magnetophon tape recorder in 1947. Ampex tape recorders ended up being used by the thousands in the broadcast, audio recording and movie industries, and ownership in Ampex increased Crosby's personal wealth considerably.

One source for historical information is Magnetic Recording, by Charles E. Lowman (McGraw-Hill, 1972. ISBN 0-07-038845-8), although he makes no mention of the BASF/AEG connection, possibly due to embarrassment over the technology having been expropriated from its German inventors as spoils of war. (Lowman was Manager, Instrumentation Technical Writing for the Ampex Corporation and Senior Instructor, Ampex Training Department, at the time he wrote the book.)—Quicksilver^{T @} 23:41, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

The History and Commercialization sections now cover a lot of this. There is additional coverage in AC bias. ~Kvng (talk) 03:15, 15 April 2023 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Reading Culture

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 18 January 2022 and 11 May 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Fenmoh (article contribs).

bing crosby's motivation to invest...

... was also, anecdotally but the story is pretty reliable, because he didn't have to do his show twice- once for each coast- & this gave him more time to play golf. he later played a similar role in getting VTR off the ground, also with ampex.

duncanrmi (talk) 13:26, 2 June 2023 (UTC)