Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

The record player was a bit of a challenge but lots of fun (especially when I stopped) so I decided to do a tape recorder too. A lot more fiddly with all the bells and whistles! My uncle had one of these, a Spectone model with a Collaro Transcriptor deck and their own valve (tube) electronics. It cost around £80 in 1960, which is over £1,500 today -- only rich uncles could afford them!
I did quite a bit of on-line research (I'm a bit of a nerd) and this is the result. Like the record player, it was made almost entirely with shapes, many converted to curves and manipulated. The tape spools and control-knob panel are separate files linked with the Place Tool. Any questions? Right: on with the show!

 

TapeRecorder-001T.jpg

Posted

I'm not really "familiar" with the Kasper Corporation. Did they go out of business? 🤪 Nice work!

2024 MacBook Pro M4 Max, 48GB, 1TB SSD, Sequoia OS, Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher v1 & v2, Adobe CS6 Extended, LightRoom v6, Blender, InkScape, Dell 30" Monitor, Canon PRO-100 Printer, i1 Spectrophotometer, i1Publish, Wacom Intuos 4 PTK-640 graphics tablet

Posted
4 minutes ago, Ldina said:

I'm not really "familiar" with the Kasper Corporation. Did they go out of business? 🤪 Nice work!

No, we're still going strong, Ldina. Well maybe 'strong' is a bit too ... strong! Thanks for the compliment.

Posted

When you say that the spools and control knob panel are different files linked with place what kind of files are they? Can you explain more on how you did that?

I really like your illustration, BTW.

Posted

Superb work as usual, Steve, although if I’m were being ultra-picky I would say that I’ve never seen a tape wound so perfectly as to form a flat brown circle with no arced lines revealing the edge of the tape! I also don’t recall seeing translucent reels (which isn’t to say that they don’t/didn’t exist, but the plastic ones that I remember were made of clear plastic rather than cloudy plastic).

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.5.1 (iPad 7th gen)

Posted
3 hours ago, KarinC said:

When you say that the spools and control knob panel are different files linked with place what kind of files are they? Can you explain more on how you did that?

I really like your illustration, BTW.

First of all, thank you, KarinC!
I find it convenient when there are lots of fiddly bits and pieces in a job to make some things separately as afdesign files. It's a simple matter then to use the Place tool to add them into the main afdesign file, usually when everything else is finished. If you're not familiar with placing linked or embedded files, I think looking it up in Help will explain it better than I can (I do ramble on and digress!). This is the knobs panel. It's big because the actual tape recorder afdesign file is A3, for when I'm tempted to print it. The two spools are each in their own file.

image.thumb.jpeg.9011ae5223311bebded077644f450802.jpeg

Posted
58 minutes ago, Alfred said:

Superb work as usual, Steve, although if I’m were being ultra-picky I would say that I’ve never seen a tape wound so perfectly as to form a flat brown circle with no arced lines revealing the edge of the tape! I also don’t recall seeing translucent reels (which isn’t to say that they don’t/didn’t exist, but the plastic ones that I remember were made of clear plastic rather than cloudy plastic).

And thank you too, Alfred.
But you're quite right on both counts. The only time I've seen one is when it was brand-new straight out of the box -- they didn't stay that way for long. Now if I'd made the reels transparent, you wouldn't see them! Let's call it artistic licence ☺️. My tape reels -- I've still got a few, though my machine is more modest than the one above -- are a bit scuffed and scratched and quite visible, in fact.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.