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I once had a tape of Abbie Hoffman. Instead of deleting the explitives, a student editor had put duct tape over each f-bomb on the oxide side. Worst was a 2 hr cassette on dying batteries. The tape began to slow and the levels dropped. By the end, the internal noise of the$ 9.99 transport sounded like the engine room of a battleship under which a v-e-r-r-y lugubrious voice of a formerly high-pitched midget rumbled along in the background, gradually being swamped by even more machine noise. Making an approximate inversion of the speed droop followed by lots of outboard eq and guesswork got it to reasonable level of comprehension. Then, Algorithmix to the rescue, sort of. Explaining the hours to the client was an added bonus. Steve Smolian -----Original Message----- From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Donald Tait Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2012 3:34 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] OT: When you just have to get it done. A tape recorder in a refrigerator is pretty hard to equal. This wasn't necessarily an invention, but it was still improvisation on a brilliant and funny scale. I was an announcer and producer at WFMT in Chicago from 1972 to 2007. WFMT won many awards for the exceptional quality of its broadcast sound. More than a little of which was due to the fact that the engineering staff, especially the chief engineer, Al Antlitz, built much of the equipment themselves to higher standards than what was commercially available at the time. But then.... One afternoon during the 1970s several of us were standing outside the main control room chatting. The adjacent window had a set of standard thin metal venetian blinds. Without thinking about it I reached up and began to fiddle with the blinds. Al Antlitz, who was in the group, said urgently "DON'T TOUCH THAT!!!" It was out of character for him (he's very gentle). I was startled. "Why?" Al said "because that's the aerial for the tuner we use to monitor the air signal!" I looked and sure enough, there was a thin wire from nowhere taped to one of the venetian blinds. When it came to equipment for our broadcasts, of course, it was a completely different story; it had to be the best, and was. Don Tait -----Original Message----- From: Shai Drori <[log in to unmask]> To: ARSCLIST <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wed, Aug 15, 2012 1:37 pm Subject: [ARSCLIST] OT: When you just have to get it done. Okay everyone. It's the end of August and I need a good laugh. The last thread about wd40 got wondering what was the weirdest contraption you had to invent to get a transfer done in a hurry? Or get it transfered at all? Don't be shy, give us the details. Personally I wonder if Richard can top his own placing an A77 in the fridge. Let the stories begin. Shai