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93-498: The Nakagin Capsule Tower Building was a mixed-use residential and office tower in the upscale Ginza district of Tokyo , Japan designed by architect Kisho Kurokawa . Completed in two years from 1970 to 1972, the building was a rare remaining example of Japanese Metabolism alongside the older Kyoto International Conference Center , an architectural movement emblematic of Japan's postwar cultural resurgence. It

186-595: A holiday house . "Capsule House-K" was owned by Kurokawa's studio until it went bankrupt, and subsequently was purchased by his son; it was made available for short-term rental for groups of up to seven people through Airbnb starting in May 2022. In 1976, four years after the Nakagin Capsule Tower was completed, a 10-storey showroom for Sony Corporation was completed near Shinsaibashi in Chūō-ku, Osaka , using

279-463: A binary submultiple of 30 inches per second. Reel-to-reel preceded the development of the compact cassette with tape 0.15 inches (3.8 mm) wide moving at 1 + 7 ⁄ 8 inches per second (4.8 cm/s). By writing the same audio signal across more tape, reel-to-reel systems give much greater fidelity at the cost of much larger tapes. In spite of the relative inconvenience and generally more expensive media, reel-to-reel systems developed in

372-459: A coat of Kenitex glossy spray after processing. The offsite factory that assembled the capsules also built intermodal containers and the welding jig for the capsules was modified from the container assembly line. Major structural elements were fireproofed with a coat of sprayed asbestos 45 mm (1.8 in) thick, while the exterior panels were coated with the same substance to 30 mm (1.2 in) thick. The original target demographic

465-534: A cost: when demolition was first being considered in 2006, it was estimated that renovation would require approximately ¥6.2  million per capsule. The original concept was that individual capsules would be repaired or replaced every 25 years; but the capsules deteriorated since the repairs were never done. 80% of the capsule owners had to approve demolition, which was first achieved on April 15, 2007. A majority of capsule owners, citing squalid, cramped conditions as well as concerns over asbestos , voted to demolish

558-445: A decade or less on the shelf. The deterioration resulted in a softening of the backing material, making it gooey and sticky which quickly clogged-up tape guides and heads of the reproducer. This phenomenon is known as sticky-shed syndrome and can be temporarily reversed by baking the tape at a low temperature for several hours to dry it. The restored tape may then be played normally for several days or weeks, but will eventually return to

651-400: A deteriorated state again. Print-through , the phenomenon of adjacent layers of tape wound on a reel picking up weak copies of the magnetic signal from each other. Print-through on analog tape causes unintended pre- and post-echoes on playback and is generally cannot be removed once it has occurred. In professional half-track use, post-echo is considered less problematic than pre-echo, as

744-427: A famous photo spot, some cats sleep on signs, where people can put their own cats onto these signs. The location where cats are is different depending on the date. Other stations near Ginza: Ginza Station, Yurakucho Station, Hibiya Station are connected underground. Public elementary and junior high schools are operated by Chuo City Board of Education. Zoned elementary schools include the following: All of Ginza

837-429: A few exceptions. There were three bridge decks (6F, 9F, and 12F), each connecting the two towers with an external balcony. The cores were rigid-frame, made of a steel frame and reinforced concrete. From the basement to the second floor, ordinary concrete was used; above those levels, lightweight concrete was used. Shuttering consisted of large panels the height of a single storey of the tower. In order to make early use of

930-445: A local electronics company, Ampex , to enable Mullin to develop a commercial production model of the tape recorder. Using Mullin's tape recorders, and with Mullin as his chief engineer, Crosby became the first American performer to master commercial recordings on tape and the first to regularly pre-record his radio programs on the medium. Ampex and Mullin subsequently developed commercial stereo and multitrack audio recorders , based on

1023-410: A motorized capstan , a rotating metal shaft or spindle, and a larger rubber idler roller, called a pinch wheel or pinch roller . This ensures tape speed remained constant as it moved across the recording head regardless of the amount of tape on either reel. Simultaneously, a motor turned the takeup reel to collect and spool the tape as it left the recording head. A very slight amount of drag

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1116-474: A much lower angle across the width of the tape by the head spinning in the near-horizontal plane, instead of vertically. Even though a recording on tape may have been made at studio quality, tape speed is the limiting factor, much like bit rate limits digital recording. Decreasing the speed of analog audio tape causes a uniform decrease in the linearity of the frequency response, increased background noise (hiss), more noticeable dropouts where there are flaws in

1209-406: A perceptible dissolve from one sound to the next; periodic segments can induce rhythmic or pulsing effects. The use of reels to supply and collect the tape makes it easy for editors to manually move the tape back and forth across the heads to find the exact point they wish to edit. Tape to be spliced is clamped in a splicing block attached to the deck near the heads to hold the tape accurately while

1302-408: A select number of new releases in the format until 1984. Sales were very low and specialized during the 1980s. Audiophile reel tapes were made under license by Barclay-Crocker between 1977 and 1986. Licensors included Philips , Deutsche Grammophon , Argo , Vanguard , Musical Heritage Society , and L'Oiseau Lyre . Barclay-Crocker tapes were all Dolby encoded and some titles were also available in

1395-409: A similar modular design from Kurokawa with stainless steel-clad capsule restroom modules hung from the central tower. Sony Tower (Osaka) was demolished in 2006. Ginza Ginza was a part of the old Kyobashi ward of Tokyo City , which, together with Nihonbashi and Kanda , formed the core of Shitamachi , the original downtown center of Edo (Tokyo). Ginza was built upon a former swamp that

1488-603: A stereo were also originally available. The Metabolist movement was launched in 1960 by a group of architects, designers, and critics including Kurokawa, Kiyonori Kikutake , Masato Otaka, Fumihiko Maki , Noboru Kawazoe  [ ja ] , Kenji Ekuan , and Kiyoshi Awazu , with the publication of Metabolism: the Proposals for New Urbanism at the World Design Conference in Tokyo. The group advocated for

1581-414: A tape machine was installed and calibrated, there was no need for any attendant engineering, other than to spool or replace the tape being used on it. Daily maintenance consisted of cleaning and occasionally demagnetizing the heads and guides. Tape editing is performed simply by cutting the tape at the required point and rejoining it to another section of tape using adhesive tape , or sometimes glue ; it

1674-441: A three-head system that uses one head for record, another for playback, and a third for erasing (demagnetizing) the tape. Some may even have multiple record and/or playback heads, for separate tracks or opposite directions of record and/or playback. Two basic systems were developed to drive the tape across the recording head: spool drive and capstan-drive . Most tape recorders move the tape by pinching and pulling it between

1767-519: A three-motor system that uses a separate motor for each reel, and a third motor solely to drive the capstan. Such systems may have a motor shaft directly attached to the capstan, to minimize mechanical variations of tape speed caused by indirect linkages; such systems are called direct drive . Very early or inexpensive tape recorders moved the tape simply by rotating the tape takeup reel. This simplified design requires only one motor. This arrangement results in variable tape speed. As tape accumulates on

1860-441: A very high-quality audiophile product, through "The Tape Project", as well as several other independent studios and record labels. Since 2007, The Tape Project has released their own albums, as well as previously-released albums under license from other labels, on open-reel tape. The German label Analogue Audio Association has also re-released albums on open-reel tape to the high-end audiophile market. Reel-to-reel tape recording

1953-407: Is a unique form of distortion that many artists find satisfying. Though with modern technology, these forms of distortion can be simulated digitally, it is not uncommon for some artists to record directly onto digital equipment and then re-record the tracks to analog reel tape or vice versa. The great practical advantage of tape for studios was twofold: it allowed a performance to be recorded without

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2046-530: Is also home to many kimono stores, including Ginza Motoji , Echigo-ya, and Erizen. Many people choose to wear their kimono to visit Ginza, and window shop. Flagship electronic retail stores like the Sony showroom (which closed in 2017 and new building would open in 2022) and the first Apple Store outside the United States are also here (Ginza 2 chome). The electronics company Ricoh is headquartered in

2139-443: Is called a splice . The adhesive tape used in splicing has to be very thin to avoid impeding the tape's motion, and the adhesive is carefully formulated to avoid leaving a sticky residue on the tape or deck. Butt splices (cut at exactly 90 degrees to the tape travel) are used for fast edits from one sound to another, though preferably, the splice is made at a much lower angle across the tape so that any transitional noise introduced by

2232-408: Is done with electro-magnetism, electronic audio circuitry, and electro-mechanical drive systems. Magnetic-tape tape recorders record sound by magnetizing particles of ferromagnetic material , typically iron oxide (rust), coated on thin ribbons of plastic tape (or, originally, fragile paper tape). The tape coating is magnetized by dragging it over the surface of a small recording head (typically

2325-414: Is held on the feed reel, to keep tension on the tape, keeping it straight and preventing it from becoming tangled in the machine. A mechanical clutch , brake , or another motor, was used to provide the drag. On most machines, a motor is used to rewind the tape back onto the feed reel after playback. More elaborate systems, especially those for professional use, are equipped with multiple motors, such as

2418-464: Is the crystallization of a far-reaching cultural ideal. Its existence also stands as a powerful reminder of paths not taken, of the possibility of worlds shaped by different sets of values." In 2010, the hot water to the building was shut off . In 2014 Masato Abe, a capsule owner, former resident and founder of the "Save Nakagin Tower" project stated that the project attempted to gain donations from around

2511-454: Is the theater for kabuki , one of Japanese traditional playing, and locates on between Ginza and Tsukiji. The building was opened in 1889 and has been reconstructed several times because of war and fire. The present building was built in 2013. Sukiyabashi Jiro ( すきやばし次郎 , Sukiyabashi Jirō ) is a sushi restaurant in Ginza which is owned and operated by sushi master Jiro Ono . It was

2604-413: Is zoned to Ginza Junior High School ( 中央区立銀座中学校 ). Reel-to-reel audio tape recording Reel-to-reel audio tape recording , also called open-reel recording , is magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording tape is spooled between reels . To prepare for use, the supply reel (or feed reel ) containing the tape is placed on a spindle or hub. The end of the tape is manually pulled from

2697-456: The BBC 's VERA , the tape speed was extremely high, over 200 in/s (510 cm/s), to adequately capture the large amount of image information. The need for a high linear tape speed was made unnecessary with the introduction of the professional Quadruplex system in 1956 by Ampex, which segmented the fields of a television image by recording (and reproducing) several tracks at a high-speed across

2790-507: The Wakō building with the now-iconic Hattori Clock Tower. The building and the clock tower were originally built by Kintarō Hattori, the founder of Seiko . Its recent history has seen it as a prominent outpost of Western luxury shops. Ginza is a popular destination on weekends, when the main north–south artery is closed to traffic since the 1960s, under governor Ryokichi Minobe . Many leading fashion houses' flagship stores are located here, in

2883-401: The dbx format. The majority of the catalog contained classical recordings, with a few jazz and movie soundtrack albums. Barclay-Crocker tapes were duplicated on modified Ampex 440 machines at four times the playback speed, unlike popular reel tapes which were duplicated at 16 times the playback speed. Pre-recorded reel-to-reel tapes are also available once again, albeit somewhat expensively as

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2976-523: The full-size cassette , developed by RCA in 1958 for home use, and the compact cassette developed by Philips in 1962, originally for dictation. The earliest machines produced distortion during the recording process which German engineers significantly reduced during the Nazi Germany era by applying a DC bias signal to the tape. In 1939, one machine was found to make consistently better recordings than other ostensibly identical models, and when it

3069-644: The 1980s. There has recently been a revival of reel-to-reel, with quite a few companies restoring vintage units and some manufacturing new tape. In 2018, the first new reel-to-reel tape player in over 20 years was released. The first prerecorded reel-to-reel tapes were introduced in the United States in 1949; the catalog contained fewer than ten titles with no popular artists. In 1952, EMI started selling pre-recorded tapes in Great Britain. The tapes were two-sided and mono (2 tracks) and were duplicated in real time on modified EMI BTR2 recorders. RCA Victor joined

3162-471: The 23 preserved capsules have new destinations: Shochiku has since put two capsules on permanent display and as of 2024, five capsules will be placed at the coast in Kanagawa Prefecture , south of Tokyo. Kurokawa completed "Capsule House-K" in 1973, near the resort town of Karuizawa, Nagano , using four capsules the same size as those from the Nakagin Capsule Tower as specialized rooms for

3255-431: The 30-minute time limitation of a phonograph disc, and it permitted a recorded performance to be edited or erased and re-recorded again and again on the same piece of media without any waste. For the first time, audio could be manipulated as a physical entity, and the recording process was greatly economized by eliminating the requirement for a highly trained disc-cutting engineer to be present at every recording session. Once

3348-522: The Masters in Avranches , France. Reel-to-reel tape was used in early tape drives for data storage on mainframe computers and in video tape recorders . Magnetic tape was also used to record data signals from analytical instruments , beginning with the hydrogen bomb testing of the early 1950s. The reel-to-reel format was used in the first magnetic recording systems, wire recording and then in

3441-511: The Ricoh Building in Ginza. The neighborhood is a major shopping district. It is home to Wako department store, which is located in a building dating from 1894. The building has a clock tower . There are many department stores in the area, including Hankyu , Seibu , and Matsuya , in which there are many shops: grocery stores, restaurants, women and men clothes, sportswear, and jewellers etc. There are also art galleries . Kabuki-za

3534-485: The area flourished as a symbol of " civilization and enlightenment " thanks to the presence of newspapers and magazine companies, which helped spread the latest trends of the day. The area was also known for its window displays, an example of modern marketing techniques. Everyone visited so the custom of "killing time in Ginza" developed strongly between the two world wars. Most of these European-style buildings disappeared, but some older buildings still remain, most famously

3627-487: The area with the highest concentration of Western shops in Tokyo. It is one of two locations in Tokyo considered by Chevalier and Mazzalovo to be the best locations for a luxury goods store. Prominent high-end retailers include the American company Carolina Herrera New York , French companies Chanel , Dior , Louis Vuitton and Saint Laurent , Italian company Gucci and Austrian brands Swarovski and Riedel . Ginza

3720-471: The better the reproduction quality. Higher tape speeds spread the signal longitudinally over more tape area, reducing the effects of dropouts that can be audible from the medium, and noticeably improve high-frequency response. Slower tape speeds conserve tape and are useful in applications where sound quality is not critical. Speed units of inches per second or in/s are also abbreviated IPS. 3 + 3 ⁄ 4  in/s and 7 + 1 ⁄ 2  in/s are

3813-471: The building and replace it with a much larger, more modern tower. In the interest of preserving his design, Kurokawa proposed taking advantage of the flexible design by "unplugging" the existing boxes and replacing them with updated units. The plan was supported by the major architectural associations of Japan, including the Japan Institute of Architects ; but the residents countered with concerns over

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3906-559: The building housed 20 tenants. An attempt to sell it to a new owner fell through. The demolition of the tower began on April 12, 2022. Demolition of the Nakagin Capsule Tower Building began on April 12, 2022. Since the building was regarded as a masterpiece of Metabolist architecture , a project team led by Gluon had launched a 3D digital archiving project to preserve the entire building in 3D data in order to preserve its architectural value. In this project,

3999-508: The building's earthquake resistance and its inefficient use of valuable property adjacent to the high-value Ginza . Kurokawa died in 2007, and for a time a developer for renovation had yet to be found, partly because of the late-2000s recession . Opposing slated demolition, Nicolai Ouroussoff , architecture critic for The New York Times , described Nakagin Capsule Tower in 2009 as "gorgeous architecture; like all great buildings, it

4092-510: The capsules that were to be attached that day were delivered overnight. Nobuo Abe was a senior manager, managing one of the design divisions on the construction of the Nakagin Capsule Tower. As completed, the building was intended to serve mainly visiting businessmen, primarily as a hotel, but offering some studio apartments for short-term stays. The maximum cost of a capsule was US$ 14,600 (equivalent to $ 106,300 in 2023) in 1972. The capsules could be individually removed or replaced, but at

4185-455: The capsules were designed with mass production in mind, no additional capsules were produced after the initial construction and none of the original capsules were ever replaced. The capsules were fitted with utilities and interior fittings before being shipped to the building site, where they were attached to the concrete towers. Each capsule was attached independently to one of the two towers by only four high-tension bolts and cantilevered from

4278-543: The composite result to another. These innovations appeared on pop recordings shortly after multi-tracking recorders were introduced, although, Les Paul had been using tape echo and speed-manipulation effects on his single-track recordings from the 1940s and '50s. For home use, simpler reel-to-reel recorders were available, and a number of track formats and tape speeds were standardized to permit interoperability and prerecorded music. Reel-to-reel tape editing also gained cult status when many used this technique on hit singles in

4371-484: The cumbersome threading of open-reel tape. The introduction of the Dolby noise-reduction system narrowed the performance gap between cassettes and reel-to-reel, and by 1976 prerecorded reel-to-reel offerings had almost completely disappeared, even from record stores and audio equipment shops. Columbia House advertisements in 1978 showed that only one-third of new titles were available on reel-to-reel; they continued to offer

4464-438: The cut is spread across a few milliseconds of the recording. The low-angle splice also helps to glide the tape more smoothly through the machine and push any loose dirt or debris to the side of the tape path, instead of accumulating in the splice joint. A side-effect of cutting the tape at an angle is that on stereo tapes the edit occurs on one channel a split-second before the other. Long, angled splices can also be used to create

4557-538: The development of megastructures which largely were not realized due to changes in the 1970s resulting from energy crises and environmental considerations. Kurokawa began exploring modular capsule architecture with the design of the Takara Beautilion at Expo '70 in Osaka, which used a framework of steel tubes to support stainless steel-clad cubic capsules displaying beauty products from Takara Holdings . At

4650-558: The earliest tape recorders , including the pioneering German-British Blattnerphone (1928) machines which used steel tape , and the German Magnetophon machines of the 1930s. Originally, this format had no name, since all forms of magnetic tape recorders used it. The name arose only with the need to distinguish it from the several kinds of tape cartridges or cassettes such as the endless loop cartridge developed for radio station commercials and spot announcements in 1954,

4743-455: The early 1940s remained popular in audiophile settings into the 1980s and have re-established a specialist niche in the 21st century. Studer , Stellavox , Tascam , and Denon produced reel-to-reel tape recorders into the 1990s, but as of 2017 , only Mechlabor continues to manufacture analog reel-to-reel recorders. As of 2020 , there were two companies manufacturing magnetic recording tape: ATR Services of York, Pennsylvania , and Recording

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4836-566: The echo is largely masked by the signal itself, and therefore tapes stored for long periods are kept tails-out , where the tape must be first wound backward onto a feed spool before playback. Electronic noise reduction techniques were also developed to increase the signal-to-noise ratio and dynamic range of analog sound recordings. Dolby noise reduction includes a suite of standards (designated A, B, C, S and SR) for both professional and consumer recording. The Dolby systems use frequency-dependent compression and expansion ( companding ) during

4929-573: The edit is made. The Editall was a long-in-production splicing block, named for its inventor Joe Tall, a tape editor at CBS. The performance of tape recording is greatly affected by the width of the tracks and the speed of the tape. The wider and faster the better, but of course this uses more tape. These factors lead directly to improved frequency response , signal-to-noise ratio (SNR or S/N), and high-frequency distortion figures. Tape can accommodate multiple parallel tracks, allowing not just stereo recordings, but multitrack recordings too. This gives

5022-608: The entire building was scanned using a combination of laser scan data that accurately measures distances in millimeters and more than 20,000 photographs taken by cameras and drones. Augmented reality of the Nakagin Capsule Tower Building was also unveiled. The Nakagin Capsule Tower Building Preservation and Regeneration Project preserved 23 capsules including A1302, which was saved by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art . Sixteen of

5115-490: The first practical videotape recorders in the early 1950s to pre-record Crosby's TV shows. Inexpensive reel-to-reel tape recorders were widely used for voice recording in the home and in schools, along with dedicated models expressly made for business dictation. When the Philips compact cassette was introduced in 1963 it gradually took over and cassettes eventually displaced reel-to-reel recorders for consumer use. However,

5208-772: The first sushi restaurant in the world to receive three stars from the Michelin Guide , although it was removed from the Michelin Guide in November 2019 because it does not accept reservations from the general public. Each Saturday and Sunday, from 12:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m., the main street through Ginza is closed off to road traffic, allowing people to walk freely. This is called Hokōsha Tengoku ( 歩行者天国 ) or Hokoten for short, literally meaning "pedestrian heaven". There are some people who do street performance such as magic and playing instruments. As

5301-592: The frequency linearity of the tape, the SNR, and optimum AC bias level. Backing material type and thickness affect the tensile strength and elasticity of the tape, which affect wow-and-flutter and tape stretch; stretched tape will have a pitch error, possibly fluctuating. Backing material also affects quality aspect, not related to audio quality. Typically, acetate is used for cheaper tape, and Mylar for more expensive tape. Acetate tends to break under conditions that Mylar would survive, though possibly stretch. The quality of

5394-521: The late 1970s, there was also the German Telefunken-made High ;Com NR system, a broadband compander that produced a gain in dynamics of roughly 25 dB and outperformed Dolby B but was not widely adopted. High Com was included in more sophisticated cassette recorders, mostly alongside the various Dolby systems. Dolby B eventually became the most popular system for Compact Cassette noise reduction and Dolby SR

5487-481: The late 1980s when digital audio recording techniques began to allow the use of other types of media (such as Digital Audio Tape (DAT) cassettes and hard disks ). Even today, some artists of all genres prefer analog tape, claiming it is more musical or natural sounding than digital processes, despite its inaccuracies. Due to harmonic distortion , bass can thicken up, creating a fuller-sounding mix. High-end frequencies can be slightly compressed . Tape saturation

5580-432: The machine's mechanical alignment affect the quality of the recording. The regulation of tape tension affects contact between the tape and the heads and has a significant impact on the recording and reproduction of high frequencies. Due to the cliff effect , all of these performance factors map more directly to quality in analog recordings than in digital. The track width is one of two major machine factors controlling SNR,

5673-409: The magnetic tape, and shifting of the (Gaussian) background noise spectrum toward lower frequencies. A recording on magnetic audio tape is accessed sequentially. Not only is jumping from spot to spot to edit time-consuming, but editing is also destructive—unless the recording was duplicated before edit, normally taking the same amount of time to copy, in order to preserve 75-90 percent of the quality of

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5766-409: The motorized takeup reel, the spool of tape gradually increased in diameter, resulting in it pulling the tape across the recording head increasingly faster. In certain circumstances, it could result in playback at speeds different from the recording speed, resulting in distorted sound, particularly if the tape was played back on a normal, fixed-speed tape recorder. In general, the faster the speed,

5859-442: The narrow tracks and slow recording speeds used in cassettes compromised fidelity and so Ampex produced pre-recorded reel-to-reel tapes for consumers of popular and classical music from the mid-1950s to the mid-'70s, as did Columbia House from 1960 to 1984. Following the example set by Bing Crosby, large reel-to-reel tape recorders rapidly became the main recording format used by audiophiles and professional recording studios until

5952-532: The next two years, he worked to develop the machines for commercial use, hoping to interest the Hollywood film studios in using magnetic tape for movie soundtrack recording. Mullin gave a demonstration of his recorders at MGM Studios in Hollywood in 1947, which led to a meeting with Bing Crosby , who immediately saw the potential of Mullin's recorders to pre-record his radio shows. Crosby invested $ 50,000 in

6045-408: The original. Editing is done either with a razor blade—by physically cutting and splicing the tape on a metal splicing block, in a manner similar to motion picture film editing—or electronically by dubbing segments onto an edit tape. The former method preserves the full quality of the recording but not the intact original; the latter incurred the same quality loss involved in dubbing a complete copy of

6138-502: The other being tape speed. S/N ratio varies directly with track width, due to the Gaussian nature of tape noise; doubling the track width doubles the SNR. With good electronics and comparable heads, 8-track cartridges should have half the signal-to-noise ratio of quarter-track 1 ⁄ 4 " tape at the same speed, 3 + 3 ⁄ 4  ips. Tape formulation affects the retention of the magnetic signal, especially high frequencies,

6231-443: The oxide's binder is also important, for it was common with old tape for the oxide and backing to separate. In the 1980s, several manufacturers produced certain tape formulations blending polyurethane and polyester as backing material which tended to absorb humidity over many years in storage and partially deteriorate. This problem would only be discovered after an archived tape was opened and required to be played again, after possibly

6324-525: The precast concrete elements and by employing prefabricated cages. The architect said that this building reflected that asymmetry is part of the Japanese tradition. Each capsule measured 2.5 m × 2.5 m × 4.0 m (8.2 ft × 8.2 ft × 13.1 ft) with a circular window 1.3 m (4.3 ft) in diameter at one end; the capsule functioned as a small individual living or office space, with an in-unit bathroom. Although

6417-452: The producer of the final edit much greater flexibility, allowing a performance to be remixed long after the performance was originally recorded. This innovation was a great driving force behind the explosion of popular music in the late 1950s and 1960s. It was discovered that special effects were possible, such as phasing and flanging , delays and echo by re-directing the signal through one or more additional tape machines, while recording

6510-429: The recording and playback, respectively. Initially, Dolby was offered via a stand-alone box that would go between a recorder and amplifier. Later recorders often included Dolby. DBX is another noise reduction system that uses a more aggressive companding technique to improve both dynamic range and noise level. However, unlike many Dolby systems, DBX recordings do not sound acceptable when played on non-DBX equipment. In

6603-706: The reel, threaded through mechanical guides and over a tape head assembly, and attached by friction to the hub of the second, initially empty takeup reel . Reel-to-reel systems use tape that is 1 ⁄ 4 ,  1 ⁄ 2 , 1, or 2 inches (6.35, 12.70, 25.40, or 50.80 mm) wide, which normally moves at 3 + 3 ⁄ 4 ,  7 + 1 ⁄ 2 , 15 or 30 inches per second (9.525, 19.05, 38.10 or 76.20 cm/s). Domestic consumer machines almost always used 1 ⁄ 4 inch (6.35 mm) or narrower tape and many offered slower speeds such as 1 + 7 ⁄ 8 inches per second (4.762 cm/s). All standard tape speeds are derived as

6696-494: The reel-to-reel business in 1954. In 1955, EMI released 2-track stereosonic tapes, although the catalog took longer to be published. Since these EMI tapes were much more expensive than a vinyl LP record, sales were poor; still, EMI released over 300 stereosonic titles. Then they introduced their Twin Packs , which contained the equivalent of two LP albums but played at 3.75 ips . The heyday of prerecorded reel-to-reel tapes

6789-521: The same exposition, Kurokawa also designed a capsule house, suspended from the space frame roof of the Symbol Zone. Impressed by the Beautilion, Torizo Watanabe retained Kurokawa to design a similar permanent building for his real estate company, Nakagin, to serve business owners and employees as a second home for occasional overnight stays in central Tokyo. Construction occurred both onsite in

6882-533: The shaft, so that a single capsule could be removed easily without affecting the others. Plumbing for each capsule is connected through a flexible umbilical, approximately 1 m (3 ft 3 in) long. The original design concept proposed to combine specialized capsules into a larger living space, but it is not clear if this was implemented. The capsules were all-welded lightweight steel-truss boxes clad in galvanized, rib-reinforced steel panels which had been coated with rust-preventative paint and finished with

6975-433: The size of a sugar cube) which contains an electro-magnetic coil. In record mode, the coil becomes an electro-magnet , generating a magnetic field varying with electric current supplied by a low-power amplifier attached to an audio source such as a microphone . As the tape moves over the recording head, the head's magnetic field varies with the sound thus varying the magnetism on the passing particles of metal oxide on

7068-418: The source tape but preserved the original. Tape speed is not the only factor affecting the quality of the recording. Other factors affecting quality include track width, oxide formulation, and backing material and thickness. The design and quality of the recorder are also important factors. The machine's speed stability ( wow-and-flutter ), head gap size, head quality, and general head design and technology. and

7161-479: The speeds that were used for (the vast majority of) consumer market releases of commercial recordings on reel-to-reel tape. 3 + 3 ⁄ 4 in/s is also the speed used in 8-track cartridges. 1 + 7 ⁄ 8 in/s is also the speed used in Compact cassettes . In some early prototype linear video tape recording systems developed in the early 1950s from companies such as Bing Crosby Enterprises , RCA , and

7254-431: The staircase, precast concrete was used in the floor plates and the elevator shafts. Because the construction schedule used a repeating pattern of two days of steel-frame work, followed by two days of precast-concrete work, the staircase was completely operational by the time the framework was finished. On-site construction of the elevators was shortened by incorporating the 3-D frames, the rails, and anchor indicator boxes in

7347-517: The street from the Shinbashi bridge to the Kyōbashi bridge in the southwestern part of Chūō with two- and three-story Georgian brick buildings was completed. These "bricktown" buildings were initially offered for sale and later were leased, but the high rent prevented many of them from being permanently occupied. Moreover, the construction was not adapted to the climate, and the bold design contrasted

7440-405: The system originally invented by Ross Snyder of Ampex Corporation for their high-speed scientific instrument data recorders. Les Paul had been given one of the first Ampex Model 200A tape decks by Crosby in 1948, and ten years later ordered one of the first Ampex eight-track Sel Sync machines for multitracking. Ampex engineers, who included Ray Dolby on their staff at the time, went on to develop

7533-534: The tape. In playback mode, the recording head becomes a playback head and senses the magnetism of the metallic particles on the tape as the tape was pulled across the head. The head's electromagnet coil translates the varying magnetism into electrical signals which were sent to another amplifier circuit that can power a speaker or headphones , making the recorded sound audible. More elaborate systems, especially those for professional use, have often been equipped with multiple, separate but adjacent heads, such as

7626-466: The traditional Japanese notion of home construction. The new Ginza was not popular with visiting foreigners, who were looking for a more Edo-styled city. Isabella Bird visited in 1878 and in 1880 implied that Ginza was less like an Oriental city than like the outskirts of Chicago or Melbourne. Philip Terry, the English writer of tour guides, likened it to Broadway, not in a positive sense. Nevertheless,

7719-419: The upscale Ginza district of Tokyo , and off-site. On-site work included the two towers with their energy-supply and piping systems and equipment, while the capsule parts were fabricated and assembled at a factory 450 km (280 mi) from Tokyo. Five to eight capsules were attached per day, and the capsule attachment process took thirty days to complete. Due to on-site storage and traffic limitations, only

7812-500: The waiting list was long. In 2022, demolition of the building was initiated. Attempts to raise funds to save it and campaigns to preserve it as a historic landmark were unsuccessful. The tower was scheduled to be disassembled starting April 12, 2022, with component units repurposed. The building was composed of two interconnected concrete towers, eleven and thirteen floors tall, which housed 140 self-contained prefabricated capsules in total; most floors had eight capsules per tower, with

7905-785: The way to the foreign concession in Tsukiji. Soon after the fire, redevelopment schemes were prepared by Colin Alexander McVean a chief surveyor of the Public Works under direction of Yamao Yozo , but execution designs were provided by the Irish-born engineer Thomas Waters ; the Bureau of Construction of the Ministry of Finance was in charge of construction. In the following year, a Western-style shopping promenade on

7998-433: The width of the tape per field of video by way of a vertically spinning headwheel with four separate video heads mounted on its edge (a technique called transverse scanning ), allowing for the linear tape speed to be much slower. Eventually, transverse scanning was accompanied by the later (and less-expensive) technology of helical scanning , which could record one whole field of video per helically-recorded track, recorded at

8091-503: The world to purchase all of the capsules and preserve the building. In 2018, a real estate company wanted to redevelop the tower and purchased the land and a few capsules, but failed during the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2021, a number of outlets reported that the management company of the building had voted to sell the complex to the original landowner, reigniting speculation over potential demolition and redevelopment. As of November 2021,

8184-404: Was bachelor Tōkyō salarymen . The compact pieds-à-terre included a wall of appliances and cabinets built into one side, including a kitchen stove, a refrigerator, a television set, and a reel-to-reel tape deck . A bathroom unit, about the size of an aircraft lavatory , was set into an opposite corner. A large circular window over the bed dominated the far end of the room. Optional extras such as

8277-533: Was filled in during the 16th century. The name Ginza comes after the establishment of a silver-coin mint established there in 1612, during the Edo period . After a devastating fire in 1872 burned down most of the area, the Meiji government designated the Ginza area as a "model of modernization." The government planned the construction of fireproof brick buildings and larger, better streets connecting Shimbashi Station all

8370-610: Was safely away in another city. American audio engineer Jack Mullin was a member of the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War II . His unit was assigned to investigate German radio and electronics activities, and in the course of his duties, a British Army counterpart mentioned the Magnetophons being used by the allied radio station in Bad Nauheim near Frankfurt . He acquired two Magnetophon recorders and 50 reels of I.G. Farben recording tape and shipped them home. Over

8463-448: Was taken apart a minor flaw was noticed. Instead of DC, it was introducing an AC bias signal to the tape, and this was quickly adapted to new models using a high-frequency AC bias that has remained a part of audio tape recording to this day. The quality was so greatly improved that recordings surpassed the quality of most radio transmitters, and such recordings were used by Adolf Hitler to make broadcasts that appeared to be live while he

8556-428: Was the mid-1960s, but after the introduction of less complicated cassette tapes and 8-track tapes , the number of albums released on prerecorded reel-to-reel tape dropped dramatically despite their superior sound quality. By the late 1960s, their retail prices were considerably higher than competing formats, and musical genres were limited to ones most likely to appeal to well-heeled audiophiles willing to contend with

8649-459: Was the world's first example of capsule architecture ostensibly built for permanent and practical use. The building, however, fell into disrepair. Around thirty of the 140 capsules were still in use as apartments by October 2012, while others were used for storage or office space, or simply abandoned and allowed to deteriorate. As recently as August 2017 capsules could still be rented (relatively inexpensively, considering its Ginza locale), although

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