Adam Savage Is Obsessed With This Tape Recorder

hey everybody Adam Savage in my cave with another piece of technology love a few months ago I covered the Masterpiece that is the nagra 4S reel to reel stereo field recorder um it is the king daddy mommy it is the it really is like the god of of real to real field recorders it's an amazing piece of Kit I'm so happy to have one in my collection um and when I say my collection I do think of myself as a technology collector among other types of collections costumes yes spacesuits yes suits of armor Etc but I really do love collecting pieces of technology I think are spikes on a graph like really really remarkable pieces and this is one of those and it's also it's also just a bit of a fandom because this is the the tape recorder from the opening sequence of the show mind Hunter starring Jonathan Groff about the first FBI profilers uh this is it is frequently thought to be a Sony tc510-2 reel to reel and the answer it is is it is and it isn't because the one in the film the one in mind is actually a tone Sony tc5550-2 which is the Japanese version of the same reel to reel that was actually in production in Japan for far longer than the tc510-2 was available in the US I think this was sold until the late 90s I have to give a shout out right now in this video to uh Matt Taylor from tecmone his video from four years ago chronicling this recorder and naming all the pieces of kit that are also in that opening sequence is what finally galvanized me to finally go looking and luckily on uh on eBay this Japanese one was up for sale it's in fantastic condition you'll see in the close-ups uh and I've also assembled all the other all the other pieces so I've been waiting to take all these boxes apart so in addition into the recorder I want to I want to just get all this out there is a Sony microphone base which I was able to find in fact these run about 40 bucks on eBay I still need to clean this up but I will these run about 40 on eBay I managed to find this one for 40 bucks with a one point stereo electric condenser microphone this has two uh two uh quarter inch outs this this is actually a nice a nice microphone I was able to get it for free for this uh and then the actual microphone that is in the show visible in the show is not that one it is a superscope ec5 cardioid again I would not have known this but for Matt Taylor at tecmone um who lovingly recreated the entire opening sequence of Mind hunter in order to uh in order to talk about this this piece he also uncovered some wonderful things about it that I had already known from the RPF and I'm going to talk about those so uh we're gonna put this on here there we go good and then this microphone this is the yeah this is the correct mic it's actually a really good looking microphone this uh ec5 cardioid that sits there and that is the correct microphone and uh I even went and found some viewer uh metal reels but I have a truth to tell you which is that the uh oh oh need some need some winding up you don't want to let these things unwind they can be a pain in the butt to wind back up so this is Forest Bar oh there's actually music on this oh um in the show they look like you were uh uh uh spools but they are not and the reason I know this is because uh my acquaintance pal fellow prop maker Ken palko of Kenny's custom props actually did the detailing for this recorder for the show mind Hunter and he Chronicles it in a thread on the RPF so oh right right I managed to obtain this with the power supply which is great I didn't necessarily want the D cell battery I mean look I'm going to go looking for the D cell battery pack for this uh but if I had to have a choice I would have rather had the plug-in Transformer and that's what this one came with uh it was rep it was represented by the seller as very clean and that is accurate it is very clean and I can lock that in there and then turn it on let's see here oh lights Aziz light uh man I mean so when you look at the close-ups of this piece here in my shop actually let me just feels like the microphone should be there the whole time when you look at this really close up you might notice that even as clean as this is it does not look necessarily as clean as the one from the show and that is because David Fincher was so particular about the Perfection he wanted out of the visual of this tape recorder that Ken Palco actually built between 40 and 60 percent of the upper part of the tape recorder from scratch in order to make parts that had no visible scratches uh no blemishes whatsoever the Sony logo was actually removed um and the reels themselves were custom cut and apparently according to Kenny's custom props Fincher specked a four millimeter radius on this cut with a walnut shell medical grade bead blast finish I just if I ever meet Fincher I really want to ask him about this particular fact because I love that specificity so much of course they removed the Sony logo uh because it's television uh Kenny's sorry uh on Tech moan uh uh Matt Taylor had trouble finding the TDK leader and it's actually because it doesn't exist there was another brand name visible on the leader and I think it was Sony as they were threading and apparently that wasn't cool so they digitally replaced the logo type on the leader and when you're watching those opening credits and a finger is moving that TDK repeating pattern TDK leader it is literally it's it doesn't exist it is just a figment of someone's imagination um this has been this machine has been checked I don't have a take-up reel right now so I can't play I can't play through it I only have one real is that really true oh no I might be able to hold on just I'll be right back okay I do have a take-up reel no we get to uh try this out these are made these reels this was made by a custom real company who's uh name I forget at this very second but I will try and find them and put them in the description all seems to be working I don't hear anything let's try fast forwarding oh I guess there's not music on there is that really the case I really don't know how to oh wait wait wait line mic Source tape it's backwards [Music] I [Music] foreign [Music] is it copyrighted if you're playing it backwards that's an interesting question uh here let's rewind this uh wait okay that's fast forward oh all right I don't want to force anything here for all the obvious reasons um and I will get better at using this and actually use it to record something because that is it's do it is a piece of technology that wants to be used I'm glad to add such a beautiful piece from a great show I really really like mindhunter I have my issues with FBI profiling in and of itself but that is totally separate matter the show is great I specifically love anatore and a torf yeah uh the uh uh the partner of uh Pedro Pascal from The Last of Us who uh yes she's in the early part of the season no spoilers I'm so sorry and a tour of it's amazing um mine hunter is a great show that opening scene is some of the most beautiful technology love I've seen in a show it almost feels like a digital sequence it's a classic Fincher and I love the specificity with which he dictated how it was to get shot and how it was to get cleaned up it's just it's a beautiful sequence and I just love adding this tape recorder to my my collection and I will do some cleaning up and uh spot repair and refinement of this and I promise that the next time I use it I'll know a little bit more about using it thank you guys for joining me for this uh show and tell and I will lock you guys uh next time cheers Adam out hey guys Adam Savage from tested here if you've ever seen the six inch ruler in inches and centimeters on my forearm and wanted one of your own but you didn't want it to be permanent well today's your lucky day you can now buy temporary tattoos of my measuring stick by measuring forearm had tested dashstore.com comes like this goes on in about 30 seconds with a little water the instructions are on the back it comes off with rubbing alcohol and hopefully it warms you up to the idea of permanently attaching a measuring device to your body because I use mine every single day

Channel: Adam Savage’s Tested

Views: 246,946

Keywords: tested, vintage Sony TC-510-2, adam savage tested, adam savage tape recorder, vintage tape recorder, mindhunter, mindhunter prop, adam savage prop, adam savage mindhunter, reel to reel tape recorder, reel to reel tape player, reel to reel tape machine, mindhunter opening credits, mindhunter opening scenes explained

Id: SNc8y7d7Tic

Length: 13min 5sec (785 seconds)

Published: Mon May 15 2023