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British Tape Recorders or BTR machines were
reel-to-reel tape recorders initially made by
EMI
EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...
in England after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. They were the first
magnetic tape recorders to be manufactured in Britain, and their design imitated that of the tape recorders used by the Germans during the war. Because these multi-track recorders were painted EMI green, they then became known as the "Green Machines".
The first model made was named the BTR1. The BTR1 machines were first created in 1947, but superseded by the BTR2
mono
Mono may refer to:
Common meanings
* Infectious mononucleosis, "the kissing disease"
* Monaural, monophonic sound reproduction, often shortened to mono
* Mono-, a numerical prefix representing anything single
Music Performers
* Mono (Japanese b ...
machine in 1952. The BTR2 was made in greater quantity, being used not only at
EMI studios
Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music co ...
but at the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
. Many studios later purchased ex-BBC units, so quite a few were found in non-EMI London studios. The BTR3 recorder was initially intended to support 2 or 4 tracks, but the only machines produced were the stereo (2-track) machines, the
4-track version having been rejected at the prototype stage. Only a few of these BTR3s were built, and the only known use of them is at the
Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music c ...
during the 1960s, where they were used for all stereo recording and disc mastering.
A BTR3 tape recorder, previously used at
Abbey Road
''Abbey Road'' is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It is the last album the group started recording, although ''Let It Be'' was the last album completed before the band's break-up in April 1970. It was mostly re ...
, was found by former
Radio Glen Technical Manager Henry Walmsley, and members of
Surge Radio, the student-run radio station of the
University of Southampton
, mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour
, type = Public research university
, established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...
, at one of the University's Halls of Residence (Glen Eyre Halls) in February 2017. It had been in use at the station—where it was known as 'The Beatle'—until around 2001.
The TR90 was a smaller, more portable unit. It was available in a
stereo
Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...
version, and was used professionally on EMI Remote recordings, as well as at
Hayes, EMI's manufacturing complex.
The
Otari company made a BTR-5 model recording machine, the initials standing for Broadcast Tape Recorder.
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Mono and twin-track BTR reel-to-reel recording machines were used in the making of the first two
Beatles albums. Mono and stereo BTR machines were used to mix down the 4 and 8 track masters of later albums recorded on
Telefunken
Telefunken was a German radio and television apparatus company, founded in Berlin in 1903, as a joint venture of Siemens & Halske and the ''Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft'' (AEG) ('General electricity company').
The name "Telefunken" app ...
,
Studer
Studer is a designer and manufacturer of professional audio equipment for recording studios and broadcasters. The company was founded in Zürich, Switzerland, in 1948 by Willi Studer. It initially became known in the 1950s for its professiona ...
and
3M multi-track machines.
References
Tape recording
Audio storage