As from this month the Tapesponding Blog has a new look. Before I go any further the changes are probably not permanent. From time to time the site needs freshening up and what better than change the header and home page pictures.
The new header showing city buildings and skyscrapers was chosen to suggest how this hobby can enable us to ‘travel the world’ from the comfort of our armchairs. It also reminded me of the old Alfred Hitchcock film ‘Rear Window’ and how one block of a city can represent a microcosm of human life. We all do strange things in the privacy of our homes, and that includes tapesponding!
As the ‘header’ changed to black and white I felt the old home page photograph of a domestic reel to reel recorder in colour was no longer appropriate. Instead we have a new exciting black and white shot of a Nagra Kudelski recorder. I don’t suppose anyone has ever tapesponded with a Nagra before. They were very expensive and designed for professional sound engineers. Nevertheless I like the look of the new page and I hope you do too!
Copyright © 2016. David Anderson. All Rights Reserved.
Tapesponding 
The Nagra machine brings back a happy memory. When I was young (and in the mid 1960s) I was friendly with a BBC engineer, who came to our church to make a recording of a concert given by the choir (Olivet To Calvary). We set up a few microphones and made a “live” recording. He used a Nagra machine that looked a little like the one in your photograph but a model that I suspect is no longer made. I had never seen one like it (and never since either). I have the recording on reel tape, and I have digitized it as well. it’s not brilliant, it has to be said, but a sound souvenir I guess. Your header looks good too – very cosmopolitan.
Cheers
Phil
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The Nagra in the picture is a Nagra 3 introduced in 1958. It was replaced in 1969. It was a mono tape recorder and mainly used by the film industry. There are still a few around and I’ve seen them come up for sale. A testament to their build quality and reliability. I think they are probably of more interest to collectors than professional sound engineers, since the latter are generally using completely different formats nowadays.
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