Quadruplex Machine

A tape operator called me in to show him how to run one of these. I had never used this model, but it's like falling off a bicycle...

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• David
• Stringer
• Quadruplex
• inch
• tape
• machine

[InflatablePlane]

Cool! How old is this machine? :O

[imagenorth]

I think the AVR-2 is from the late 1970's. It's funny that I always think of it as a "new" machine because it was one of the last quad machines made...

[masterawesomeish]

'Here's some finesse.....(Spit SLAP)'

[heathirving]

@imagenorth

is that you david?,used to love watching acme school of stuff,great!

should be more shows like that.

[srfurley]

@747400fan There weren't many of them made, so not many to survive and they were very large and heavy, so possibly less likely to come into the hands of collectors. I saw one at the BBC 50th anniversary 'technical' exhibition at Mullard House in London, in 1972; the only place I ever saw one.

Anyone got any video of an IVC 9000?

[restinpeace63]

Legal esse aparelho

[studio3audio]

The station I worked at in the 80's had 2 of these machines for on air. I got very adept at reel changing and was able to load and cue a tape in under 30 seconds. The 10 sec pre-roll was a killer at times though. There's nothing like clearing a head clog with the tip of a fingernail while the tape was live to air. Ahhh, good times!

[nakamichiguy]

That's so cool! I interned at a small PBS station in the late-80s that used a couple of old Ampex quad decks to air those short sponsor spots before programming ('Sesame Street is brought to you locally by Juan's Auto Repair'...that sort of thing). The spots were built on 3/4 and copied to quad, and we'd do the copying in bundles. I was assigned to the quad decks a few times and got very fast at loading tapes! It was a lot of fun, some of that old-school TV magic that's gone now.

[Superedit]

Stability dots - yes!! Boy does this bring back memories. You couldn't kill these beasts.

[747400fan]

Why aren't there any Ampex AVR-1's on here? VR-2000's, VR-1200's, and this AVR-2, and now an RCA "Quad" TR-70C all shown..no AVR-1's yet.

[MGB1977Red]

Threading is just the beginning. Then you have to adjust the heads...there are 4 of them and set the tip penetration. Both steps use the wave-form. Then you have to set the chroma and hue using the vectorscope. The quads used a tube rack to make them run which got pretty warm...I used to heat up lunch on the top panel of the tubes.

[analyzingfunny]

Thanks for showing us this. We need more though. It is very interesting.