RE: RE: OT - He's just fine, right?

["Peter Zacaroli" <dslist(at)westdigital.co.uk>]

Brilliant.  Thanks for making me laugh.

 

 

---

From: owner-ds(at)Softimage.COM [mailto:owner-ds(at)Softimage.COM] On Behalf Of Tim Bolt
Sent: 29 July 2005 10:45
To: DS(at)Softimage.COM
Subject: RE: RE: OT - He's just fine, right?

 

OK that does it.

I can’t compete in the “I flew quad machines around on my little finger” competition as I first started on ¾” and a control track Sony BVE 500 ACE, but my primary school had bucket toilets.

Does that count?

 

Have a good weekend

 

Tim

 

---

From: owner-ds(at)Softimage.COM [mailto:owner-ds(at)Softimage.COM] On Behalf Of Chasteen, Howard
Sent: 28 July 2005 22:50
To: DS(at)Softimage.COM
Subject: RE: RE: OT - He's just fine, right?

 

Yah!

 

I posted a link a few versions back to a picture of the Smith/Ampex Quad mechanical editing block:

 

Editing film and audio tapes were the accepted norm, and if the VR-1000 recording was to be useful, it to had to lend itself to being edited as well. And indeed it did. It could be spliced in much the same way that audio tape was. It required more care, since you were editing both audio and video, and for the splice to play smoothly on-air (no roll, or breakup on the screen), the splice had to be made at a very precise spot on the tape.
 

Smith Splicer and accessories

To make the technically "perfect" splice, you first "developed" the tape. This was done so that, with the aid of a microscope, you could see where to make the cut. The "developer" is a solution containing fine metal particles that are attracted by the magnetized areas of the video tape. You then used the guillotine knife to cut the tape. Fin

 

---

From: owner-ds(at)Softimage.COM [mailto:owner-ds(at)Softimage.COM] On Behalf Of Dunn, Shannon G [CC]
Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2005 3:16 PM
To: DS(at)Softimage.COM
Subject: RE: RE: OT - He's just fine, right?

We had the RCA equivalents.  Three of them to be exact..and all lined up against a long wall.  So one day, since we didn’t have any good pot to smoke or liquor to imbibe, and being quite bored…we put the feed reel on machine 1 and strung the tape through all three machines to the takeup reel on machine 3…counted down…3..2..1..pressed PLAY simultaneously on all three machines….and voila!  Stable picture playback on all three machines.  That’s how much slop they had in them.

 If you wanted to edit on the original machines, you sprinkled metal flakes on the tape and cut a diagonal line on the control pulse(which would become apparent by lining up the flakes due to magnetism).  If you missed the control pulse and cut in the wrong place, then the tape splice you made would cause the machine to hiccup and lose synch when it passed through the head.    Ah…the good old days….