025 > Conversation at a Party
A socially distanced party on a Friday night in 2021. Guests include a 4 track reel of music (c. 1969) and a Stellaphone ST458 (c. 1963).

025 > Conversation at a Party

Track 1:

The ‘Tony Pritchett Project’ is sparking off lots of dialogues involving  people and Tony’s work.

Recently, I had a nice chat with Keith and Dave.

Track 2:

Thank you Keith and Dave for helping me interface my PC with an analogue tape machine!

Keith restored and sold me the Stellaphone.

Dave (who also worked on the restoration), sold me a cable which allows the Stellphone to output to PC and vice versa.

// Tony’s career seemed to involve interfacing challenges – like getting a tiny Tektronix to chat to a Cray when making the Ch4 logo, or getting a BL120 Microfilm Recorder to speak to the Atlas.

It is possible to go from PC to Stellaphone (phono) and from Stellaphone (phono) to PC thanks to Dave. The Mic socket also works, so thanks Keith.

Track 3:

Tony created used his friend Hugh Ras Riddle’s sisters Phillips reel to reel recorder to create the foley for Flexipede, so I thought it would be fun to create some of the audio for the ebook using ¼ inch tape.

Neither Ras nor Tony could remember the model name, so I searched for any old domestic Phillips model, c. 1960s. I thought I’d find one easily but I was wrong. There’s a fair few on eBay, but I couldn’t find any in good working order.

Dr. Victoria Marshall helped me do a shout-out at a recent RAL lecture. People kindly got in touch but Covid put a stop to me borrowing equipment.

But then I found Keith’s Ebay Store. Keith sold me a 1963 Stellaphone and put me in touch with Dave who sold me the necessary lead and jack. Thank you Keith and Dave!

One of 11 reels of 1/4" tape in the archive.

Track 4:

Right, before I kick all you interfacing hippies out, I just want to show you this…

One of the things I’ve enjoyed recently is listening to the traces of tracks left on this second hand tapes that I bought to use as recording material.

Strange noises and mystery voices from the past. I love it!

Cheers!

Kate

Close Menu