YSaC, Vol. 700: Say it ain’t sew.
Ross 4-Track Recorder
Analog 4 Track Recorder that comes with Carrying Case and Plug
In Great condition
Best offer accepted
This could very well be the coolest thing ever. Yes, I know it just looks like some chowderhead posted pictures of a sewing machine with the description of for four track tape recorder. But what if it’s something cooler?
Bear with me here – one early form of data storage worked like a tape recorder, but instead of magnetic tape, it used paper tape, with holes punched in it. Unlike a magnetic tape, you can actually SEE the recorded data as it passes through the machine:
So, what if this is a new analogue storage medium for music? A musical waveform looks like this:
There’s no reason you couldn’t embroider this on a strip of fabric as it passes through the sewing machine audio recorder. You’d have a permanent visual record of the waveform which could then be played back later by some sort of scanner / playback device. Wouldn’t that be awesome?
As long as you have four independent needles, you could record the four tracks promised by the description. There wouldn’t be any worry about magnetization or scratches, although this may be the first recording medium in history prone to fraying. (“Don’t pull that thread…. dammit, there goes “Yellow Submarine”!)
I think that would actually be pretty cool. I’d like to think that’s what’s being advertised here.
Or maybe the poster is just a chowderhead.
Thanks for the inspiration, SF, and happy 700th post, everyone!
Yay 700 posts!
Not much time for snark today. Back to work for Taco.
*Chugs coffee while running off*
I think we’ve been the victims of a drive-by Tacoing.
Sadly, I feel so unfulfilled.
I was wondering how that cheese got in my hair.
*sniff, sniff*
Uggh, limburger.. that’s gonna leave a stain.
Oh the
humanityHuge Manatee!!!With this 4 track recorder, I’ll have the music industry all sewn up!
Yay 700 posts!
Cool idea, Dan! You could embroider whole symphonies onto large pieces of fabric. We could call it “sheet music”. Oh wait….
Happy 700th, folks!
I’m imagining a recording of all the music from Fantasia on this medium…
I bet Waltz of the Flowers would be lovely.
I must be using mine wrong, all I make are totebags and such. Hey, maybe there’s music in the stitches!
* empties out purse, sticks bag over head*
I’m not hearing any music. Some laughter, but no music. And it smells like Altoids in here.
SJ – So you don’t have one of these? – http://www.monstermarketplace.com/Babies/Landing4851a4775.html
No, no I do not. I value what’s left of my fragile sanity.
I can’t think of anyone I hate enough to give their child something like that.
I like the way it says “musical purse with music,” just in case you get confused about what it does.
I imagine after eight or twelve weeks of hearing the “music” over and over and over again, you would begin to lose some of your memory. At that point it would be a blessing.
You may be right about the missing memory, but I’ve had moms tell me that their brains often make an exception for otherwise unbearably irritating music if it is the only thing that calms their child. They may not like it, but that small fact of its calming properties alone is enough to make it just barely tolerable …
Which is the only reason that demonic purple dinosaur hasn’t had his head mounted on a stick. Yet.
Hey, hey now. Barney the Dinosaur is not demonic.
He’s just… slow, I mean, special.
Er.. who’s Barney?
Some people should not be allowed to sell things of their own design.
Or any design, for that matter.
Astro – for support of your comment, click on “Regretsy” from the link list at right. If you have never seen it before, you will learn that you are more right about this than you could have ever dreamed …
Oh, I’ve been.
EVP recorders and 700 posts aside, it was worth reading this just for the pure glee of seeing the word “chowderhead”—not only once, but TWICE! I think the last person to utter that specific word was Moe Howard.
*I definitely prefer my chowderheads served with a side of oyster crackers
Do you prefer Manhattan or New England chowderheads?
New England. I believe Stephen King would appreciate that.
I’m in total agreement. I think we all need t shirts reading “Sparky is a chowderhead.”
Oh, and happy 700th, everybody!
Half a page half a page,
Half a page onward,
All in the daily interwebs
Rode the seven hundred:
‘Forward, the Snark Brigade!
You suck at Craigslist’ They said:
Into the daily interwebs
Snarked the seven hundred.
My apologies to Lord Tennyson.
Don’t apologize in the name of snark, Windrose! Apology is a decidedly un-Snarky thing to do.
And I’m sure Lord Tennyson would be proud to have his work alluded to in such an educated society as we have here created.
The fulminations of well-deserved outrage that a re-animated Sit Arthur Lord Tenniscourt would issue on appreciation of what now passes for modern society would be of singular estimation.
(Picturing a combination of John Cleese, John Goodman and Rowan Atkinson mashed together to get unstoppable will, tall-skinny height, and acerbic wit used like a closet full of rapiers upon the deserving.)
“Witout a gun, how do you defend yurself?”
“Wit.”
“Wit what?”
700! Whoo-hoo!
My best offer for this fabulous recording device is….FREE! I would, however, consider trading it for a minty shell.
…or a green dress…
….but not a real green dress, that’s cruel…
Can I use the recording device to make a slip cover for my new couch? I had it de-snaked but there are some troubling stains I’d like to cover up.
Speaking of… how’s your hemaetoma doing today, SJ?
Not bad, I have quite the little collection blossoming … I wondered over to ICHC this morning even though I know better.
I broke my brick, though.
Sorry to hear that. Maybe you can get a nice wooden stick with a handle as a replacement. It’ll take more precision, but it’s useful in lots of ways.
Ice green? Size 8, 10 or 18?
Size 18-24, with zero to six toes.
Per foot.
Polished, trimmed, and shaved.
Per foot? Is that how we would measure the quality of the recording, rather than kbps? Seconds per foot… I bet we could get some interesting catphysics going on with that.
Yippee! Hubby is a musician and owns a recording studio. I ran out of (affordable) gift ideas long ago. I know that he doesn’t have one of these (I don’t have one) and I bet I can get Sparky to sell it to me at a price I can afford. Plus the child has been wanting to learn to sew. This would make them both happy which would make me happy. It’s just a happy, happy day. Squee!!!!!
I think I may have had too much coffee this morning.
Happy 700th, YSaC!!!
**gets out Party favors, and puts “Birthday” by The Beatles into the sewing machine**
I think it’s more like
Happy Anniversary Babby
Got you on my Ross 4
You’re right! Birthday is only for August 18th! Forgive me, it’s early, and it’s summer.
Helter Skelter would have worked too.
Astro — I know, schools out – mind shuts down.
Mudsy, I can’t believe you made a Little River Band reference. I was positive that only my father and I listened to their music.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve gotta cool change into my chipmunk costume.
Little River Band? I thought that was Tool!
hehe…j/k…
Have fun doing what boys do best! [tinkering]
So you were the chipmunk on my front porch yesterday, Taco? I knew it!
The more I think about this, the more entertaining the prospects are. You could have “Blue Suede Shoes” embroidered onto your blue suede shoes or “Nights In White Satin” on your bed sheets.
The one that I like the best so far is having a bolero embroidered with Ravel’s “Bolero”. If you then began to pull the thread it would cause Ravel to unravel.
I had waaaay too much coffee this morning. Is it obvious?
We clearly think in similar fashion.
After all, what would Dvorak look like sewn? The Clash, or the Sex Pistols as coture?
Consider the “sheet” music Beethoven’s 9th would look like; or 1812 Overture (canons, church bells, brass band, full symphony, and a chorus). My heavens, Wagner’s Nebelung would look like a Bed, Bath & Beyond linen sale!
*nodding and laughing*
The 1812 Overture line at Linens-N-Things was a big seller. Cannon free with purchase. Next season they’re doing a whole line with Holst’s The Planets. It’s out of this world.
Thinking about the Clash. My almost 3 year old has a particular love of “Rock the Casbah”. He could have the coolest bedding in town with that.
I like the John Lennon line.
I want me an Imagine shirt and some Revolution pants!
And a pair of Strawberry Fields for Ever socks! They’re scratch and sniff!
Oh, and of course we mustn’t forget the ever-popular I am the Walrus boxers! Psychedelically comfortable!
For some reason, the Nirvana bedding is always on clearance. You’d think all of that flannel would be soft and comfy, but apparently that aspect is cancelled out by the preexisting layer of grunge on it. That, and the fact that it smells like Courtney Love.
Shouldn’t it smell like teen spirit?
…
CourtneyCourtly love and Starbucks.Where’s my knight in shining armour with my latte?
Speaking of armour, anyone seen Dev lately? I don’t think I’ve seen her for ages.
I was noticing that too – no Dev for ages. Jen sometimes runs across her elswhere. Jen???
I know she’s still online, but work has blocked her blog so can’t check if she’s explained her absence just now. Will check up tonight and report back.
“New World Slip-Phoney” by Dvorak?
“Appalachian Spring-Crest” by Copland?
Personally, what I like about this storage medium is the availability – you can pick up recording materials at any Jo-Ann Fabrics. And, it is really easy to thread the medium through the recording heads. Simplicity – and it comes in so many patterns.
Live and in color! It’s the 700th Club!! With our special guests…um everyone…and the funniest snark I’ve read in days!
OMG!! My exclamation key is outta control again!!
But can it do buttonholes?
Of course it’s a sewing machine and a recording device – it’s a Singer.
Holy crap, it is!
That’s brilliant!
(Ahh! CJ’s exclamation points are spreading!)
They’re contagious!!!!
…!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I totally want to buy this for my mom for Christmas. Now that she is retired, she quilts almost all the time and when she’s not, she’s singing in a chorale group. Now she can do both simultaneously – sew, and practice singing!
My father will hate me. There’s no way I could get him anything equally multitaskingly fun – unless someone invents a chair for napping that is also a crystal set and an electronic poker/sudoku game.
I invented an electronic poker game that’s so slow and boring you fall asleep while playing it. I think he’d love it!
Awesome. Please put me down for purchase. Do I get a discount for shipping to Washington state? 8)
So it’s exactly like real poker then.
Polaroid Singer?
Meet the Singer, Polaroid Singer
Meet the Singer, Polaroid Singer
It’s more than a recorder
It’s almost alive
It’s only 19 dollars and 95!
Sew it up (yeah yeah)
It says “yes!” (yeah yeah)
Cut the cloth/cheese (yeah yeah)
Count it down (yeah, yeah cat math!)
Zip it off!
It was either that or a Benson & Hedges commercial.
So I’m not the only one who remembers all the words and notes to this jingle!!
Wish I could remember calculus like I remember some of the crap in my head.
Meh, remembering it isn’t so hard. Calculus is rather derivative of other forms of math.
I hate math! It’s for pussies!
*meow*
Back before Edison invented the phonograph, a French guy figured out a way to record sound waves by pulling a needle connected to a paper “microphone” past a pane of soot-covered glass; the scratches in the soot contained the sound information. A couple years ago some science-types scanned a hi-res photograph of one of those panes into a computer and reconstructed the original sound:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89douard-L%C3%A9on_Scott_de_Martinville#Rediscovery_of_the_Au_Clair_de_la_Lune_recording
Pretty groovy (pun intended).
That needed to be corey tagged:
[corey] …blah blah… [/corey]
Alert Christo! He’s probably looking for a new fabric “art” project. Embroidering music on cloth could be just the spark he needs.
If you can convince him to wrap the next crop of applicants for American Idol, I’ll buy you a pony.(Or a pony keg, whatever floats yer dinghy.)
I’d prefer the pony. I keep telling my dog (who trumped my cats) that only a few things can trump a dog: namely a pony, horse, or elephant.
*puts on tweed jacket and flips open psychiatrist’s notebook*
And what does the dog talk about during these little discussions?
“Why does the cat get to go everywhere they want? Oooo, take me for a walk, please, please, please, please, please, please…. I’ll be good. I need to see what’s going on in the neighborhood. I keep having this dream, I’m running and chasing a rabbit and a stick is chasing me, what does it mean? Uh oh, I piddled on the rug, I’m sorry, I was just so excited to see you, please don’t be mad… oh I could kiss you, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss. ”
But my dog would be saying:
” Kiss, kiss, kiss… mmm too salty, maybe with ketchup?”
He says, “I’m. A. Lion. Dammit!”
A.Lion!!! Hi, plastic mane! Welcome back. Hope you can stick around a bit.
Hi, A.Lion!!!!
(startcorey) What the OP is selling is actually a fine (some would say “minty”) example of a (Betsy) Ross analog four track recorder. It was designed (as stated in the original brochure) “for the ladies” to give them a user interface that was more familiar to them and (again from the original brochure) “their delicate sensibilities.” These units were quite popular in the late 70s, with bicentennial fever still running high in the good old US of A.* (endcorey)
*Sadly, none of this is true.
Happy 700th Everyone!
Dan – I’m disappointed that, knowing you would be in Massachusetts this week, you did not use the term chowdah-head.
I’m extremely challenged when it comes to sewing machines*. Now I know why; I’m tone deaf**
*true
**not true
Years ago, my father used to work for Singer Corp, building gyroscopes for the space shuttle/NASA. Just wait until I tell him that all this time, it was actually 4-track recorders that he was building. Thank goodness his heart is pretty healthy.
Too bad you didn’t have two of them. Then you’d have an 8-track recorder. How 70s!*
*play Freebird
2 dads?
Why yes, yes, that was what I meant.
My stream of consciousness got ahead of my ass.
Well, you were singing Freebird, and I wanted to be sure. I’m still practicing my listening skills, but I keep getting
Is it a case of the zomb…
..distracted.
And zom
That’s one way to keep a project secure – tell everyone that aerospace and security clearance work is really just run-of-the mill recording equipment, and no one will bother to try and find out anything more about it.
Knowing the ostrimu, I’m going to really, really hope that the waveform is a clip of Hall & Oates’ Say It Isn’t So. I’ll be bitterly disappointed if it’s not.
I was thinking Weezer’s Say It Ain’t So.
It’s just a random graphic off the net… Had I created my own, it would have been Rick Aatley.
(posted from a Starbucks in Lexington, in case you’re curious)
Dan was going to Rickroll us via graphics?
That would have been kind of awesome.
That would have been VERY awesome.
whit nestor.tanks, LimeLolly, please share this among yourselves: Punchity Punch Punch!
G’Night, New England!
Thankee kindly. I’m saving mine up and redeeming it for a Coffee Of The Month membership.
Received and shared!
Meanwhile in the chowderhead household, some poor sap is trying to figure out how to shove thread through a tape recorder..
Sew it again, Sam.
I’d like to teach the world to sew in perfect harmony!
Sorry, don’t have time to reply today; too busy doing last week of classes (at least for the 2012-2013 school year) stuff. Got to take everything off the walls, so maintenance can not paint, like last summer, put anything valuable in the white cabinet, (locking) and dig out swim trunks and pina colada umbrellas. Besides, this alleged analog recorder has probably since been replaced by an iRecorder or something, capable of downloading threads of dialog or something. Ultimately, the important thing is 5 DAYS OF CLASSES TO GO !!!!!!!!……..P.S. C……..J: could we use this sewing/recorder in the band? Record/make band uniforms? Think about it. Oh, good morning Windy.
Sew, sew a song.
Hand-wash only to last your whole life long.
Don’t worry that it’s a poly blend
In last season’s shade of blue.
Just sew, sew a song.
Saturday Crew: Dave, Ferrets, Me, ghostie, and MissMNN! Punchity Punch Punch! Don’t forget your lovely parting gifts.
Good Morning, Free Needle Exchange!