The machines that
captured everything.

Revox was the consumer and prosumer brand of Willi Studer's company, established alongside the professional Studer range in 1948. Where Studer machines were priced for national broadcasters and major commercial studios, Revox brought the same engineering philosophy to home recordists, small studios, and educational institutions.

The A77 and B77 became icons of the home recording world — machines that introduced a generation of musicians and engineers to open-reel tape. The build quality and reliability of Revox machines was so far above the competition that they ended up in small radio stations, schools, and working studios worldwide.

Nagra was founded in Lausanne in 1951 by Stefan Kudelski, a Polish-born engineer who had fled Europe after World War II. The name comes from the Polish word for "will record." Kudelski designed the original Nagra I as a portable machine small enough to carry in a briefcase — the first recorder to achieve truly professional audio quality in portable form.

By the 1960s Nagra had become the absolute standard for film production sound recording. Location sound mixers worldwide used Nagra machines on virtually every major film production through the 1970s and 1980s. The combination of exceptional audio quality, rugged Swiss construction, and reliable battery operation made Nagra uniquely suited to field work where failure was not an option.

Ampex was founded in San Carlos, California in 1944 by Alexander Poniatoff. The company's technology had a direct lineage from wartime Germany: after the fall of Nazi Germany, US Army Signal Corps officer Jack Mullin discovered AEG Magnetophon tape recorders — then the most advanced in the world — in a Frankfurt radio studio and brought two machines and 50 reels of tape back to the US. His 1946 demonstrations to American engineers sparked enormous interest. Bing Crosby hired Mullin to record his radio shows, and Ampex subsequently developed the Model 200 — its design informed by the Magnetophon technology Mullin had uncovered. The first Model 200 was delivered to Crosby in 1948, introducing professional tape recording to American broadcasting.

Through the 1950s, 60s and 70s Ampex was the dominant force in American studio recording. Motown, Stax, Atlantic, Columbia — virtually every significant American recording was made on Ampex machines. The 440 series became the workhorse of US studios; the ATR-100 redefined mastering quality.

Otari Corporation was founded in Tokyo in 1961 and grew into the leading Japanese manufacturer of professional tape equipment. While Studer owned the top end of the market, Otari found its place by offering genuinely professional performance at substantially lower prices — opening 24-track recording to a generation of project studios and smaller commercial facilities.

MCI (Media/Communications Industries) was founded in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1967 by Jeep Harned. The company distinguished itself from Studer and Ampex by emphasising modular design — MCI machines were built to be expanded, upgraded, and serviced in the field. Transformerless audio electronics, precise servo-controlled tape motion, and comprehensive remote control made MCI a practical choice for commercial studios.

MCI machines were widely adopted across the United States through the 1970s and early 1980s, particularly in facilities that valued service accessibility and system expandability. The JH-24 became one of the most common 24-track machines in American commercial studios.

Sony Corporation was founded in Tokyo in 1946 as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo. By the late 1970s Sony's professional audio division had developed the PCM-1600 — the first professional 2-channel digital recorder — opening the era of digital mastering and laying the technical foundation for the Compact Disc.

Sony's approach was to use existing videotape infrastructure (U-matic VCRs) as storage for digital audio data, dramatically reducing cost compared to custom digital tape systems. This pragmatic solution became the industry standard for CD mastering throughout the 1980s.

TEAC (Tokyo Electro-Acoustic Company) was founded in 1953 and grew into one of Japan's leading consumer electronics manufacturers. The company changed home recording in 1972 when it released the A-3340 — an affordable 4-track open-reel recorder that put multitrack recording in reach of individual musicians for the first time.

Before TEAC, multitrack recording required a professional studio. After the A-3340, musicians could record overdubs, build arrangements, and experiment with production techniques at home. TEAC's machines seeded a generation of self-produced recordings and established the consumer multitrack market that Tascam later developed into the cassette-based Portastudio.

Fostex was established in 1973 as a division of Foster Electric and became one of the most important suppliers of project studio equipment through the 1980s and 1990s. The company specialised in pushing track counts higher while keeping prices accessible — making 8-track and 16-track recording available to studios and individuals who could not justify the cost of professional open-reel machines.

Tascam was established in 1971 as the professional audio division of TEAC Corporation. Where TEAC targeted consumers, Tascam aimed at working musicians, project studios, and small commercial facilities — users who needed professional features at a price point below the established professional brands.

Tascam's most famous product was the Portastudio cassette multitrack of 1979, which brought 4-track recording to cassette tape. But Tascam also produced a range of serious open-reel machines — the 38 and MSR-16 in particular — that gave project studios genuine multitrack capability on formats far more affordable than two-inch tape.

3M (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing) is primarily known as the world's leading manufacturer of magnetic recording tape — the Scotch brand was a 3M product. But through the 1960s and 1970s, 3M also produced a small range of professional tape recorders featuring their proprietary Isoloop tape path technology.

The Isoloop design — 3M's proprietary tape path development — created a loop of unsupported tape between the supply and takeup sides of the transport, isolating the head block from mechanical disturbances. The result was exceptional speed stability and head-to-tape contact, making 3M machines highly regarded in studios where accuracy was paramount.

Telefunken was founded in 1903 in Berlin as a joint venture between Siemens and AEG, and became one of Germany's most important electronics companies. Through the mid-20th century, Telefunken equipment — both microphones and tape recorders — set the standard for German broadcasting and recording.

The M15 series machines were the tape recorders of choice for German and wider European broadcasting facilities through the 1970s and into the 1980s. Where Studer dominated the Swiss, British, and American markets, Telefunken held equivalent status in Germany — known for mechanical precision and a sound character that European engineers favoured for classical and orchestral recording.