1950 GE Play-Talk Turntable Tape Recorder

[inbredagogo]

That is wild, I've never seen that type of recorder before.

[chrishibbs201012]

replace the caps and the buzz will go away.

[pinballKing012]

Works well !!!



[thereelmaster]

it has a bad filter capasitor that is why it is buzzing

[GreatNorthWeb]

the most awesome part of the whole video is listening to the 50 year old recordings of some unknown children. that could have been my mom singing when she was a kid.

[FlametopFred]

I need to collect 37 of those and make a DJ-Mellotron combo

[Figlitiblitification]

What a weird thing

[ccryan75]

That's actually quite a clever idea!

[ccryan75]

So If I I'm getting this right, the center plate with the grooves only acts as a "guide" for the player arm and keeps the arm stable and "on track". The actual recording and playback is on the larger magnetic "disk tape" which lies beneath the "groove plate"

[peahix]

@ccryan75 yes, that's right.

[amberola1b]

You even have a brother named Robert ....how eeeeeerrrriiiieeeee

[amberola1b]

Damn, you sound just like Ray Romano from Everybody Loves Raymond

[cd637299]

Interesting! I have a question.....what was the recorder used on the "Honeymooners" episode where Ralph made a record (disc) to apologize to Alice, who moved out (because he insulted her mother)? I don't think it was the Play-Talk.

[stormyhawn]

@cd637299 The recorder seen in that "Honeymooners" episode was a home disc cutting lathe; probably a Wilcox-Gay or a Presto. Such machines were popular in the early 1940s and were replaced by wire recording, and then tape. They would record for a maximum of about three minutes on 78 rpm acetate records. Home disc recorders were already obsolete by 1955, but it is in keeping with the character of Ed Norton that he still had one and never upgraded to tape!

[cd637299]

@stormyhawn - :) Thanks...also in keeping with Norton that he'd send the wrong disc....!! Now to listen to "Swanee River..."

[TheStyler1986]

I have a pair of these if anyone is interested.

[amberola1b]

@TheStyler1986 did you sell them yet?

[victrolux]

I HAD that toy recorder as a kid!! I used to make recordings on it all the time. I ESPECIALLY enjoyed when the recording arm would get to the inner groove of the disc & would loop and loop and loop. I’d make experimental multi-layered recordings adding more & more sound each loop and listening to the first sounds get muddier and muddier with each passing loop. Quite frankly, this toy is probably the reason I became a media maker, animator and sound artist… still am 50 years later! I want one!

[Desmaad]

I'm amazed magnetic audio disks never became a mainstream format. That warble in the recording you hear after you try to record the tote-a-tune I suspect is the sound getting modulated by the instrument sound.

[ScottieNiven]

Very early reprenstion of a harddrive!!

[harktheherald]

o man i remember seeing one of those at the flea market when i was a little kid... awesome!

[GEcdrB2]

About 60 years ago I got to play with one of these at a neighbor's house! The sound quality was quite good for the time (compared with the results from home disk recorders). It cane with a small bar magnet to erase the disk between recordings.

I've looked for one ever since. I did find one of the "Mail-A-Voice" machines but have no disks for it.

[that1940sguy]

@GEcdrB2

try using the old magnetic 8-inch home computer floppy disks from the late 1970's/early 80s (or if it can use discs this small, the easier-to-find mid-to-late-1980's smaller 5-1/4 inch floppy discs)

[victrolux]

@GEcdrB2 Just wanted to let you know that I, too, have searched for one of these "Play-Talk" recorders for years too! Sometimes I thought I had dreamt of the thing! See my comment to this video above.

[coondogtheman1234]

that is very cool. you should try recording music on it.

[Keijz74]

Nice Alien maker.

[policescannernut]

is it AC or DC Bias?

[riqzster]

@policescannernut Excellent question! Well, erasing with a permanent magnet would indicate DC bias but that's no guarantee. I doubt this machine would be sophisticated enough to utilize a bias oscillator but I've never owned one. That hum on playback is quite annoying. Probably magnetic induction from the motor.

[danielgosson]

Amazing. How much sound can you record onto one disk? If that pre recorded disk is original it has held its recording well. I wonder if a 30 or 32 line video signal recorded onto this would be recognisable on my mechanical televisor? I have 2 on my channel.

[kevin12567]

Laurie Anderson does stuff like this, but with tape on a bow running over a tape head on a violin.

[audiotrax2000]

That is so clever - never saw anything like that before. But you know, if I was a little kid I would find that kinda creepy....sounds like voices from the other side......

[wilkes85]

That is awesome!! I never seen anything like this before. I wonder why a format like this never took off.

[SmokyPondFarm]

Nice device. The basic technology is identical to the Brush BK-501 Mail-A-Voice first sold in 1948.

[windoes98se]

i was once going to try to build some thing simmalarto this cool device

[stravinskyrocks]

How does the Tote-A-Tune produce its tones? I hear a lot of side bands, sounds like FM.

[MimeyNaomi]

aMAzing.

[28019ab]

this is basically how a floppy disc works.

have you tried getting some old 5 1/4" floppies, removing the disk, and testing them out on this? could be interesting.

[kevin12567]

I think you'd probably get a sound similar to a dial-up modem when it connects online if you tried playing a floppy disk on it.

[CassetteMaster]

That is BEYOND neat! WHERE DID YOU GET THAT?!??! That is a very neat concept of record-tape combination! I had heard on the Net about that type of thing, and now I get to see a machine like it operate! I wonder if this is AC or DC bias...

[alexriesenbeck]

"and this is me" "and me" "this is me".. haha i Love it. would die to use one for a day. nice upload!

[retrothing]

The Tote-a-Tune sounds like you're playing a fire alarm. And I'm not just saying that because of the incendiary color choice of the cabinet.

[LlyswenFranks]

OMG!!! THE PLAY TALK!!! THE PLAY TALK!!! It Lives!!!!!!YAY Thanks Robert and Pea :) I can't believe you finally got it to work -

[theogore]

It's a transmission from the past!

Brilliant!