Superscope Tape Recorder - 1970’s Tape Deck! - Awesome Studio Tool and Inspiring Demo Machine! - Kil

This one is a beauty! Super clean and perfectly functioning 1970’s Superscope by Marantz tape recorder! Sounds awesome on acoustic guitar and drums with the onboard condenser mic, and sounds awesome on synths running directly in! There’s lines in and out for running back and forth between your digital recording setup, you can make prints of existing tracks that already were recorded by sending them out to this machine and then back in again! It’s an awesome studio tool with loads of possibilities.

I love hearing a nice demo and alternative versions of songs, I always find some little sparkle or moment in a raw demo that had a certain vibrancy that didn’t make it on the studio version. This is how people made demos back in the day, and this machine was a super sophisticated and respectable unit. The onboard mic and the sound quality is great! Put it on the coffee table, pick up your guitar, sing your songs, and with the right take you’ll get something that’s hard to beat the vibe of when you record it “for real.” I personally learned a lot about balancing the guitar and vocal level just by using tape machines like this one, it really helped me zone in on getting those levels under control in my performance of them. Limitations can definitely create a new creative process, they can make you focus on just the performance in a way that makes you grow as a musician and producer. This thing sounds awesome as a studio tool, and it’s an amazing and inspiring piece to work with for making sketches of songs!

Back in the day these were used by everyone. Teachers, doctors, musicians, lawyers, theater people, the same way we have voice memos they would have to get it down on actual tape. The tape sounds really good though! I think it adds a beautiful color and life to the sound, natural harmonics and exciting random artifacts all add to the tape experience. It’s a great way to record, I think there’s something about it that has some true grit to it.

This one is in awesome condition, comes with the original power cord and the battery terminal is totally corrosion free. Great unit!