Actually I can provide some context. This tape was provided for free when you bought a Sony reel-to-reel tape recorder. My father had this exact tape and it came with his tape recorder. It was meant to show off the features of the deck when you bought it. He bought the deck in Japan and brought it back with him when he was in the Navy. In fact I came to UA-cam hoping to find THIS EXACT recording. THANK you for finding and preserving this.
Thank you very much for this amazing trip down the memory lane! This tape came with the SONY TC-200 my dad had bought in the UK in 1966. As a 7-year old I have listened to it probably hundreds of times and memorized every wavelet, even while not even understanding English at the time. You have definitely made my day and your effort is very much appreciated.
I got my first stereo tape recorder in 1962 (Voice of Music). They all came with demo tapes. Prior to that year, they made 2-track recorders. I think the 4-track recorders started around that time. With the 2-track, they had about 20 minutes of music on one side only. The tape had to be rewound after use--similar to the VHS videotapes. The albums contained only the best songs of the same record album because the tape wasn't long enough. When 4-track came out, the tapes matched the records--side 1 & side 2. A prerecorded stereo tape was about twice the cost of a stereo record. A mono record was a dollar less than the stereo version. A good quality stereo tape recorder was around $800. Cheap ones were $200. A console furniture cabinet with an AM/FM radio, stereo record player, amplifier, and speakers was around $250. The minimum wage for working was $1.00 per hour to give you a perspective. So, if you wanted REALLY good quality sound, you sprung for a stereo tape.
Love to hear this tape after I heard it for the last time over 57 years ago, my father bought a 4 track sony reel to reel taperecorder and I still remember this tape well, my favorite sound was the port of Yokohama my father has died 46 years ago and this tape brings him back for the tape length, thank you for this recording!!!
This was wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing. Somebody said in another comment that UA-cam can deteriorate the quality of the audio, so I and other people would appreciate you to upload a lossless file. George
SONY used to pack these with their machines (I think they had a mono version as well). They used to give these tapes away from their showrooms, and you could write to the company and ask for one and they'd send it to you. I got one with my SONY TC-530 stereo rebuild from E-Bay many years ago! MEGA Recorder - SONY TC 530 Stereo Reel to Reel Tape Recorder
Back then, Sony didn't release records in the US, but would distribute CBS's (Columbia) recordings in Japan under the "CBS/Sony" label (started in 68). www.discogs.com/label/33078-CBSSony Interesting they would use King Records for these. That company's still around to this day. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Records_%28Japan%29 Japan OTOH has it's own Columbia Records label that isn't related to the US one at all, and retains the original "Magic Notes" logo to this very day. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nippon_Columbia
I'm not entirely sure HOW they did it back then, but the old vintage tape recorders had remarkable stereo separation. I think they were designed to be more authentic binaural machines with dual amplifiers and pre amps sharing a common power supply. The Wollensak tape recorders of the time (i.e. 1288, 5750) had amazing stereo separation, even better than SONY, which was nothing to sneeze at!. But most of the units from the 1960s had this incredible stereo separation (as did the vinyl recordings). Then in the 1970s, things started to get more "homogenized" and the exciting separation was greatly reduced. I wonder what happened?
***** I completely agree. When STEREO first came on the scene, it was meant to be exciting and show off two separate channels of information that when played together "showed off" your stereo system. Now days there is very little if any difference between what is heard in the two speakers of most stereo programs and music.
databits I suspect that some of the great stereo effect is because they were really going for Binaural. My SONY TC530 labels the headphone output as binaural. As I understand it, binaural sound has a separate amplifier and speaker for each channel, so there is no blending in the middle - or something along those lines, making the stereo very discrete. I think over time, and maybe from the need to share components(?) to lower costs, that separation got reduced.
Really late reply. But no, all stereo has a separate amplifier and speaker for each channel. The real reason is the way old recordings were mic'ed and mixed. They used just two mics, one for each channel, at a fixed location in the studio, similar to the way human ears work. Modern recordings use one mic for each instrument/vocalist, which are then mixed down to two tracks to simulate true stereo. So you lose things like room reflections and timing differences between each channel that you get with the two mic method.
I believe the tracks were 1 & 3 for playing the tape forward so there's a separation between 2 & 4, which 4 is 1 reverse and 3 is 2 reversed. Side 1 (Left) 1 Side 2 (Right) 2 Side 1 (Right) 3 Side 2 (Left) 4 This would be the track layout if you were looking at a stereo head. The tracks from each side are completely separated by the other side in reverse.
Psylicium Thank you! Enjoyed sharing it. In fact, I took a walk the other day and listened to the entire thing on my iPhone from youtube. It was quite interesting in headphones!
Yes I had this tape. It came with my Sony recorder which I think was a TC-200. This was in 1965. I learned to multi-record by bouncing tracks and all that sort of thing, and it led to a career in record production. I don't have the tape anymore, I probably recorded over it, tape was expensive on my budget. But all the tapes I do have that I made on that Sony are surprisingly high quality and free of hiss or distortion.
Wonderful video, I was searching for this tape for a long time already. My dad bought a Sony TC-530 in the late sixties and this demo tape was delivered with the recorder. Unfortunatly the tape has been partially erased years ago and I tried already to find one. With your video I will try to remake the tape. But would it be possible to have you original mastered CD (converted to FLAC or other lossless format). I am afraid that the youtube conversion can deteriorate the audio quality. Mike
Wow, what an amazing recording! Truly is what it says to be, a high fidelity stereo demonstration tape. I'm very surprised how well mastered and recorded it is, I've never heard such an early recording with as much fidelity as this one. Sounds very much like a modern recording in terms of quality except for some negligible noise. Has lots of dynamic range and frequency response, it was able to shake my headphones with bass. Thanks for sharing this, would be nice to have a lossless .wav uploaded because there is a lot of compression artifacts on the audio from the UA-cam encoding. Would certainly want to try and find an even earlier recording with this much quality just out of curiosity. :D
+SonicYM2612 "Lossless WAV" aka FLAC. I wonder if the vinyl heads will complain that the conversion to digital ruined it (of course UA-cam added some lossyness). Reel to reel is actually much closer to pure analog than scratchy vinyl.
Well FLAC is a compressed lossless audio format which would have the same quality with smaller size, but it's not technically the same format as wav, and wav can have lossy compression which is why I said lossless wav. But yeah, converting the analog audio to digital won't affect the sound in a noticeable way as long as it was done properly with the appropriate settings, but some people like to argue that as if converting to digital made the sound lose something, which is of course impossible if converted properly. UA-cam compression is really noticeable, a little bit for audio but much worse on the video.
What wonderful memories this has brought back! My Dad bought a Sony TC-500A reel-to-reel taperecorder back in the 60's, and this demo tape came with it. I remember listening to it over and over, being enraptured by the way things sounded in stereo. Thanks so much for making this available.
First heard this as a 12 year old in 1965 when my older brother's friend brought over his brand new Sony reel to reel recorder,, complete with this same demo tape. It was my introduction into the 'rich world of stereophonic sound'. Till then, I only knew monaural. A few years later, I got my own stereo reel to reel (a Toshiba 810S, which I still have) and I hunted down a copy of the Sony tape (also, which I still have), managing to get one from the Melbourne, Australia, Sony distributor. Unfortunately, the car race sequence at the beginning of the copy had already been deleted. Nonetheless, I played the tape many, many times over, virtually memorizing it all. It sounded so optimistically futuristic. Playing your uploaded copy now through my hi fi system, it sounds even better than back then. Great clarity. Thank you. By the way, that's a great speaking voice you have. You should be in broadcasting!
I have a copy of the complete tape. I picked it up from a Public Radio Record Sale some five or six years ago and I was able to get it because I am the guy that does all of the sorting. Another find that I have is the Sony Quadradial Demo tape and its quality is excellent. It has a killer version of El Cumbanchero on it done by the Sony Big Band split into four separate parts. It was packed with all of the Sony Quad decks along with sample reels of Sony’s SLH-180 low noise high output tape. The tape was recorded on a Sony TC-854 tape deck at 7.5 ips. I’m currently looking for one of those heavyweights for my system. If I can’t find one I’ll settle for a Sony TC-850 of the same era. Either one is a couple steps up from my Sony TC-630 and would allow me the use of ten and a half inch reels. I have a Pioneer RT-1020 L, but it is starting to show its age and I am slightly worried that it will have some sort of major breakdown that’ll cost me more than I would want to spend at this stage.
These tapes came with the tapecorders to allow you to experience their full capabilities from the moment you unboxed them. we have the 1970 version that my parents got with their TC-252 model
Ohh my Goodness!!! I have lived through the memories of my younger days following this amazing demonstration tape which was part and parcel with a real to real Sony tape recorder!! My father had bought it in Malta from a shop in Valletta called Nani!! These were the sole importers of Sony in Malta. We used to play this track over and over again hearing the sound of sterio!! Thank you for reviving my younger years together with the memories shared with my Dad at that time!! With tears in my eyes, I have lived the moments once again!!! 😢
Excellent 👍Fantastic job 👏 So much old memories 😊 I was a child when my father got his Sony Stereo TC540 early 70s. Happy to hear this again after 50 years
Glad to find this! I have one - forever ruined by my having recorded over the right track when I was a child. Now I finally get to hear the other track. This tape came with our 4-Track machine of that vintage. I still have it.
The early PVC vinyl records had pretty good stereo separation, however they also had a -30 to -40 dB noise floor which even a wal*mart special cassette player can best. Reel to reel could do 60 dB of signal to noise ratio on a 4 track home recorder. Even with 1980s 16-bit CD audio, most modern music only uses the top 4 bits or so. Just like color with photography, stereo sound makes it sound more like today, rather than 'all these people are dead now' type of time period.
You can find the .flac here: www.filedropper.com/itssonystereodemonstrationtape and click on download the file, no need to register. If the link has to be removed, so be it, but I'd find that strange for a demo recording that's over fifty years old and on UA-cam anyway.
My comment is not unique… my dad, too gave me his Sony reel to reel in 1971 and this demo was included. Like others, must have listened to it a hundred times!
i was looking for this recording so much time and there is no way to find until you upload it. so much memories comes with it. it is sad and glad at the same time...
I still have my Sony TC-600 reel-to-reel tape recorder that I acquired back in 2002, and it still works, except this demonstration tape was never included with the TC-600. When I record this thing, I would play them back with my Sony TC-600 in the future. My Sony TC-600 is a beast.
I also have is tape and love it! I Have another Sony Demonstration tape which is not as good. No sound effects, just three instrumental songs : Dance Of The Hours, South American Joe and Polyushka Polye
Very delicate highs just after 17:23 (left channel, use headphones). Those would usually be masked with vinyl noise. I hear background hum, maybe from the deck, not the tape, plus some tape pop glitches, but it couldn't be flawless after so many years.
Thank you very much for sharing this demonstration.. I had it once and it was demaged long years ago.. Really I miss listening to it!!! Thank you again.
Yes, databits, "Demonstraion Tapes" used to come with new tape decks. It was something to test the equipment at home before you put any of your personal tapes on the machine. I got a Standard "Copact Cassette" recorder/player in 1973 and it came with a very cool Demo tape that I used to get to know the machine for quite a while before getting new tapes and making my own recordings.
Anyone else hear 2 coughs at 6:17? Do you think that would have been someone at the original Sharps and Flats recording, or was there a hot mic later in the Sony announcer's recording booth?
Amazing sound quality, low noise and distortion, wide range. Reels were great but too much cost to record and too much trouble to thread and access plus high cost of a decent machine.
hi that's right it came with the 2 head decks the lady i got it of at the carboot told me i went to 3 head decks later because i could hear the recording with the play back head save a lot of time
Nice to listen, thank you. I had a JVC 1224 reel to reel that came with a similar demonstration tape though mostly music as I recall. I'd love to find a copy of that! One of the songs was "Dance of the Volga Boatmen" I believe. I'll keep looking. The deck I that replaced the 1224 was a Teac 1230, the non-autoreverse version of yours. Thanks again for your efforts.
The Tokyo Cuban Boys who play "Cielito Lindo" were the greatest latin bigband of all time in Japan but they disbanded in 1980 right after their first and last Cuban concert tour.
I'm glad to see this here, so thanks for posting it. I got a Sony TC-800 in 1969, aged 15, and it came with a demonstration tape somewhat similar to this, but not the same. I would be really glad if I could find this exact tape on UA-cam, and I've looked every now and then, but I can only find a version that unfortunately is played far too slowly, so that all the music is a minor 3rd too low in pitch (and correspondingly slower); and also most of the opening fanfare (as heard here) is also cut off. Do you (the person who posted this video) have the tape I'm referring to? It has 3 of the pieces of music here, but without a voice over them announcing the titles, but also some different ones. Here is a list of what was on the demonstration tape I got, and you will see that three songs are in common, but two are not found here - and the tape on this page also includes material not on my original tape. Sony Demonstration Tape (Sony TC-800) - Opening fanfare and announcement with echo effect 1. American Patrol: ? (probably the Glenn Miller big band arrangement or similar, but definitely not that performance) 2. Dark Eyes: Satoru Oda and his group 3. Londonderry Air: ? 4. The Pearl Fishers: The Sharps & Flats (probably Nobuo Hara's group) 5. Cielito Lindo: The Tokyo Cuban Boys (I'm not totally sure if that list has 3. and 4. in the right order, but the titles are correct.) If you (or anyone, for that matter) has this, I'd be really glad to see it posted to UA-cam. I still have memories evoked by this music to this day - and, silly as it may seem, every note of that opening fanfare is etched deep in my memories - I could write out a score of it, in fact.
Amazing and sounds just as good as I remember 48 years ago listening to my older brothers Sony machine. I've been looking for this for some time and thank you so much for doing.Would still like to find and purchase original Sony tape, maybe another will show on E-bay.Am wondering if there is a way to copy this to cd so I could play on my old equipment and see if it still sounds as I recall. Thanks again and enjoying this through headphones as I post this.
Actually I can provide some context.
This tape was provided for free when you bought a Sony reel-to-reel tape recorder. My father had this exact tape and it came with his tape recorder. It was meant to show off the features of the deck when you bought it. He bought the deck in Japan and brought it back with him when he was in the Navy. In fact I came to UA-cam hoping to find THIS EXACT recording.
THANK you for finding and preserving this.
Thank you very much for this amazing trip down the memory lane!
This tape came with the SONY TC-200 my dad had bought in the UK in 1966.
As a 7-year old I have listened to it probably hundreds of times and memorized every wavelet, even while not even understanding English at the time.
You have definitely made my day and your effort is very much appreciated.
Michael Yaroslavtsev Glad you enjoyed it, Michael.
Similar story with me and I also very much appreciate hearing the audio again. I'm quite touched by it.
What a wonderful piece of historical stereo technology! Thank you for posting this!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I got my first stereo tape recorder in 1962 (Voice of Music). They all came with demo tapes. Prior to that year, they made 2-track recorders. I think the 4-track recorders started around that time. With the 2-track, they had about 20 minutes of music on one side only. The tape had to be rewound after use--similar to the VHS videotapes. The albums contained only the best songs of the same record album because the tape wasn't long enough. When 4-track came out, the tapes matched the records--side 1 & side 2. A prerecorded stereo tape was about twice the cost of a stereo record. A mono record was a dollar less than the stereo version. A good quality stereo tape recorder was around $800. Cheap ones were $200. A console furniture cabinet with an AM/FM radio, stereo record player, amplifier, and speakers was around $250. The minimum wage for working was $1.00 per hour to give you a perspective. So, if you wanted REALLY good quality sound, you sprung for a stereo tape.
True quality, dedication and skill, result in a truly remarkable recording.
Very Special Thanks Very Much for sharing.
Awesome!!! Love hearing these demo tapes from an era I missed.
Love to hear this tape after I heard it for the last time over 57 years ago, my father bought a 4 track sony reel to reel taperecorder and I still remember this tape well, my favorite sound was the port of Yokohama my father has died 46 years ago and this tape brings him back for the tape length, thank you for this recording!!!
This was wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing. Somebody said in another comment that UA-cam can deteriorate the quality of the audio, so I and other people would appreciate you to upload a lossless file.
George
SONY used to pack these with their machines (I think they had a mono version as well). They used to give these tapes away from their showrooms, and you could write to the company and ask for one and they'd send it to you. I got one with my SONY TC-530 stereo rebuild from E-Bay many years ago! MEGA Recorder - SONY TC 530 Stereo Reel to Reel Tape Recorder
***** That's great information, thanks for sharing that!
Q
2:19 China Films (H.K.) Co., Kam Hoi Film Company and Kuo Hwa Motion Picture Co., Ltd., anyone?
Tam's Film Company
Back then, Sony didn't release records in the US, but would distribute CBS's (Columbia) recordings in Japan under the "CBS/Sony" label (started in 68).
www.discogs.com/label/33078-CBSSony
Interesting they would use King Records for these. That company's still around to this day.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Records_%28Japan%29
Japan OTOH has it's own Columbia Records label that isn't related to the US one at all, and retains the original "Magic Notes" logo to this very day.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nippon_Columbia
This is really good. The separation is incredible,especially on headphones!
I'm not entirely sure HOW they did it back then, but the old vintage tape recorders had remarkable stereo separation. I think they were designed to be more authentic binaural machines with dual amplifiers and pre amps sharing a common power supply. The Wollensak tape recorders of the time (i.e. 1288, 5750) had amazing stereo separation, even better than SONY, which was nothing to sneeze at!. But most of the units from the 1960s had this incredible stereo separation (as did the vinyl recordings). Then in the 1970s, things started to get more "homogenized" and the exciting separation was greatly reduced. I wonder what happened?
***** I completely agree. When STEREO first came on the scene, it was meant to be exciting and show off two separate channels of information that when played together "showed off" your stereo system. Now days there is very little if any difference between what is heard in the two speakers of most stereo programs and music.
databits I suspect that some of the great stereo effect is because they were really going for Binaural. My SONY TC530 labels the headphone output as binaural. As I understand it, binaural sound has a separate amplifier and speaker for each channel, so there is no blending in the middle - or something along those lines, making the stereo very discrete. I think over time, and maybe from the need to share components(?) to lower costs, that separation got reduced.
clydesight My Sony TC-600 has the same thing that says "Binaural Monitor" which is a headphone jack so you can wear your headphones.
Really late reply. But no, all stereo has a separate amplifier and speaker for each channel. The real reason is the way old recordings were mic'ed and mixed. They used just two mics, one for each channel, at a fixed location in the studio, similar to the way human ears work. Modern recordings use one mic for each instrument/vocalist, which are then mixed down to two tracks to simulate true stereo. So you lose things like room reflections and timing differences between each channel that you get with the two mic method.
I believe the tracks were 1 & 3 for playing the tape forward so there's a separation between 2 & 4, which 4 is 1 reverse and 3 is 2 reversed.
Side 1 (Left) 1
Side 2 (Right) 2
Side 1 (Right) 3
Side 2 (Left) 4
This would be the track layout if you were looking at a stereo head. The tracks from each side are completely separated by the other side in reverse.
This demo tape come with my tc530. 4track stereo single side recorded.
I have the same tape which sounds so good
AMAZING sound quality for such an old recording :)
Psylicium Thank you! Enjoyed sharing it. In fact, I took a walk the other day and listened to the entire thing on my iPhone from youtube. It was quite interesting in headphones!
Great recording! I’m thinking the left-panned “violin” sound on “Dark Eyes” (7:35) was played on an Ondioline or some variant thereof.
Yes I had this tape. It came with my Sony recorder which I think was a TC-200. This was in 1965. I learned to multi-record by bouncing tracks and all that sort of thing, and it led to a career in record production. I don't have the tape anymore, I probably recorded over it, tape was expensive on my budget. But all the tapes I do have that I made on that Sony are surprisingly high quality and free of hiss or distortion.
Sounds as good as my 1963 reel of Christmas music done by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Wonderful video, I was searching for this tape for a long time already. My dad bought a Sony TC-530 in the late sixties and this demo tape was delivered with the recorder.
Unfortunatly the tape has been partially erased years ago and I tried already to find one. With your video I will try to remake the tape. But would it be possible to have you original mastered CD (converted to FLAC or other lossless format). I am afraid that the youtube conversion can deteriorate the audio quality.
Mike
Hi man! Could i have this .wav file ? AMAZING !!!!! Thanks
Try listentoyoutube dot com !
Wow, what an amazing recording! Truly is what it says to be, a high fidelity stereo demonstration tape. I'm very surprised how well mastered and recorded it is, I've never heard such an early recording with as much fidelity as this one. Sounds very much like a modern recording in terms of quality except for some negligible noise. Has lots of dynamic range and frequency response, it was able to shake my headphones with bass. Thanks for sharing this, would be nice to have a lossless .wav uploaded because there is a lot of compression artifacts on the audio from the UA-cam encoding. Would certainly want to try and find an even earlier recording with this much quality just out of curiosity. :D
+SonicYM2612 "Lossless WAV" aka FLAC. I wonder if the vinyl heads will complain that the conversion to digital ruined it (of course UA-cam added some lossyness). Reel to reel is actually much closer to pure analog than scratchy vinyl.
Well FLAC is a compressed lossless audio format which would have the same quality with smaller size, but it's not technically the same format as wav, and wav can have lossy compression which is why I said lossless wav. But yeah, converting the analog audio to digital won't affect the sound in a noticeable way as long as it was done properly with the appropriate settings, but some people like to argue that as if converting to digital made the sound lose something, which is of course impossible if converted properly. UA-cam compression is really noticeable, a little bit for audio but much worse on the video.
What wonderful memories this has brought back! My Dad bought a Sony TC-500A reel-to-reel taperecorder back in the 60's, and this demo tape came with it. I remember listening to it over and over, being enraptured by the way things sounded in stereo. Thanks so much for making this available.
+Howard Sheppard - thanks for sharing your memories!
For many years I've been looking for this '' TAPE '' ...
Congratulations, editing is great!
Thanks for the post.
First heard this as a 12 year old in 1965 when my older brother's friend brought over his brand new Sony reel to reel recorder,, complete with this same demo tape. It was my introduction into the 'rich world of stereophonic sound'. Till then, I only knew monaural. A few years later, I got my own stereo reel to reel (a Toshiba 810S, which I still have) and I hunted down a copy of the Sony tape (also, which I still have), managing to get one from the Melbourne, Australia, Sony distributor. Unfortunately, the car race sequence at the beginning of the copy had already been deleted. Nonetheless, I played the tape many, many times over, virtually memorizing it all. It sounded so optimistically futuristic. Playing your uploaded copy now through my hi fi system, it sounds even better than back then. Great clarity. Thank you.
By the way, that's a great speaking voice you have. You should be in broadcasting!
I have a copy of the complete tape. I picked it up from a Public Radio Record Sale some five or six years ago and I was able to get it because I am the guy that does all of the sorting. Another find that I have is the Sony Quadradial Demo tape and its quality is excellent. It has a killer version of El Cumbanchero on it done by the Sony Big Band split into four separate parts. It was packed with all of the Sony Quad decks along with sample reels of Sony’s SLH-180 low noise high output tape. The tape was recorded on a Sony TC-854 tape deck at 7.5 ips. I’m currently looking for one of those heavyweights for my system. If I can’t find one I’ll settle for a Sony TC-850 of the same era. Either one is a couple steps up from my Sony TC-630 and would allow me the use of ten and a half inch reels. I have a Pioneer RT-1020 L, but it is starting to show its age and I am slightly worried that it will have some sort of major breakdown that’ll cost me more than I would want to spend at this stage.
These tapes came with the tapecorders to allow you to experience their full capabilities from the moment you unboxed them. we have the 1970 version that my parents got with their TC-252 model
Ohh my Goodness!!! I have lived through the memories of my younger days following this amazing demonstration tape which was part and parcel with a real to real Sony tape recorder!! My father had bought it in Malta from a shop in Valletta called Nani!! These were the sole importers of Sony in Malta. We used to play this track over and over again hearing the sound of sterio!!
Thank you for reviving my younger years together with the memories shared with my Dad at that time!! With tears in my eyes, I have lived the moments once again!!! 😢
Excellent 👍Fantastic job 👏
So much old memories 😊
I was a child when my father got his Sony Stereo TC540 early 70s.
Happy to hear this again after 50 years
Glad to find this! I have one - forever ruined by my having recorded over the right track when I was a child. Now I finally get to hear the other track. This tape came with our 4-Track machine of that vintage. I still have it.
Great editing, when Big Band muzik 1st came into the front room and you thought you were in the Alexander Palace
The early PVC vinyl records had pretty good stereo separation, however they also had a -30 to -40 dB noise floor which even a wal*mart special cassette player can best. Reel to reel could do 60 dB of signal to noise ratio on a 4 track home recorder. Even with 1980s 16-bit CD audio, most modern music only uses the top 4 bits or so. Just like color with photography, stereo sound makes it sound more like today, rather than 'all these people are dead now' type of time period.
Thanks to Heaven and thanks to you very much much much. I have been desperately finding this 1964 demo tape. I had the tape in 1965 but I lost it.
You can find the .flac here:
www.filedropper.com/itssonystereodemonstrationtape
and click on download the file, no need to register.
If the link has to be removed, so be it, but I'd find that strange for a demo recording that's over fifty years old and on UA-cam anyway.
My comment is not unique… my dad, too gave me his Sony reel to reel in 1971 and this demo was included. Like others, must have listened to it a hundred times!
I wonder have you recorded it as 128 mp3 those days? A low noise became a total mess.
i was looking for this recording so much time and there is no way to find until you upload it. so much memories comes with it. it is sad and glad at the same time...
Classical music in a quite stereo hearing ! Good job guys!
I still have my Sony TC-600 reel-to-reel tape recorder that I acquired back in 2002, and it still works, except this demonstration tape was never included with the TC-600. When I record this thing, I would play them back with my Sony TC-600 in the future. My Sony TC-600 is a beast.
I also have is tape and love it! I Have another Sony Demonstration tape which is not as good. No sound effects, just three instrumental songs : Dance Of The Hours, South American Joe and Polyushka Polye
3:34
R.I.P Nobuo Hara
1926-2021
Very delicate highs just after 17:23 (left channel, use headphones). Those would usually be masked with vinyl noise. I hear background hum, maybe from the deck, not the tape, plus some tape pop glitches, but it couldn't be flawless after so many years.
+Geo T - The hum is actually coming from the tape. I heard that during the dub as well. Not sure how the hum got into the recording.
thanks. it brings back childhood memories
It's amazing that it is so clear after 50 years. I didn't notice any print-through.
Clay
FloridaClay Thanks for watching, Clay.
Tape is awesome and can last a very long time if stored well. Even today important computer data is stored on tapes.
i liked that u kept putting stuff up on screen btw,, muchly appriciated
+strictlysega - you're welcome
This recording sounds like it was done just a couple years ago! Is that a 44.1 KHz sample rate I hear? On a remastered '64 recording?
Thank you very much for sharing this demonstration.. I had it once and it was demaged long years ago.. Really I miss listening to it!!!
Thank you again.
Came with my Sony TC 200 recorder. I still remember every sound and every song!
Yes, databits, "Demonstraion Tapes" used to come with new tape decks. It was something to test the equipment at home before you put any of your personal tapes on the machine. I got a Standard "Copact Cassette" recorder/player in 1973 and it came with a very cool Demo tape that I used to get to know the machine for quite a while before getting new tapes and making my own recordings.
impressive. i will have to think about getting a stereo system.
Does anybody out there have the complete stereo recording of Cielito Lindo by the Tokyo Cuban Boys without the interruption at the beginning?
Excellent! Thank you so much for sharing this.
I967 You're very welcome. Thanks for listening to it!
Anyone else hear 2 coughs at 6:17? Do you think that would have been someone at the original Sharps and Flats recording, or was there a hot mic later in the Sony announcer's recording booth?
Amazing sound quality, low noise and distortion, wide range. Reels were great but too much cost to record and too much trouble to thread and access plus high cost of a decent machine.
How cool!... I had one!
+Efrain Rivera - Great!
name one thing made today that would last half this long...... (a fellow 1964'er :)
hi that's right it came with the 2 head decks the lady i got it of at the carboot told me i went to 3 head decks later because i could hear the recording with the play back head
save a lot of time
A lot of thanks for sharing a great tape it's simply amazing. My best regards for you, dear friend
This Sounds amazing!
Thank you Mike.
Nice to listen, thank you. I had a JVC 1224 reel to reel that came with a similar demonstration tape though mostly music as I recall. I'd love to find a copy of that! One of the songs was "Dance of the Volga Boatmen" I believe. I'll keep looking. The deck I that replaced the 1224 was a Teac 1230, the non-autoreverse version of yours. Thanks again for your efforts.
+Tom Betz - you're very welcome, best wishes on your search!
Man that just sounds great! Love "Dark Eyes" by Satoru Oda.
The Tokyo Cuban Boys who play "Cielito Lindo" were the greatest latin bigband of all time in Japan but they disbanded in 1980 right after their first and last Cuban concert tour.
ynjlky7121 Thanks for watching!
I'm glad to see this here, so thanks for posting it. I got a Sony TC-800 in 1969, aged 15, and it came with a demonstration tape somewhat similar to this, but not the same. I would be really glad if I could find this exact tape on UA-cam, and I've looked every now and then, but I can only find a version that unfortunately is played far too slowly, so that all the music is a minor 3rd too low in pitch (and correspondingly slower); and also most of the opening fanfare (as heard here) is also cut off.
Do you (the person who posted this video) have the tape I'm referring to? It has 3 of the pieces of music here, but without a voice over them announcing the titles, but also some different ones.
Here is a list of what was on the demonstration tape I got, and you will see that three songs are in common, but two are not found here - and the tape on this page also includes material not on my original tape.
Sony Demonstration Tape (Sony TC-800)
- Opening fanfare and announcement with echo effect
1. American Patrol: ? (probably the Glenn Miller big band arrangement or similar, but definitely not that performance)
2. Dark Eyes: Satoru Oda and his group
3. Londonderry Air: ?
4. The Pearl Fishers: The Sharps & Flats (probably Nobuo Hara's group)
5. Cielito Lindo: The Tokyo Cuban Boys
(I'm not totally sure if that list has 3. and 4. in the right order, but the titles are correct.)
If you (or anyone, for that matter) has this, I'd be really glad to see it posted to UA-cam. I still have memories evoked by this music to this day - and, silly as it may seem, every note of that opening fanfare is etched deep in my memories - I could write out a score of it, in fact.
This video contains the only Sony demo tape I've come across. Hopefully someone will respond to your request!
Fantastic. True 'stereophonic' sound.
Amazing and sounds just as good as I remember 48 years ago listening to my older brothers Sony machine. I've been looking for this for some time and thank you so much for doing.Would still like to find and purchase original Sony tape, maybe another will show on E-bay.Am wondering if there is a way to copy this to cd so I could play on my old equipment and see if it still sounds as I recall. Thanks again and enjoying this through headphones as I post this.
Ronald Latella Thanks for the comments Ron. It's a nice reel to listen to while taking a walk.
Wonderful !