Ampex MM-1000

Description

When innovative jazz guitarist, inventor and multi-track recording pioneer Les Paul took possession of an early Ampex Model 200A, he determined that it could be modified by adding additional recording electronics and record and playback heads. He brought the idea to Ampex and together they created the world’s first practical tape-based multi-track recording system.
Ampex built a handful of multi-track machines during the late 1950s that could record as many as eight tracks on one-inch tape, based on Les Paul’s concept. Ross Snyder, Ampex manager of special products invented the Sel-Sync record/replay process allowing newly recorded material to be in sync with the existing recorded tracks.
Although four-track machines were widely considered state-of-the-art until about 1966, the demand for more tracks suddenly exploded when musicians heard about the extensive overdubbing done on four-track machines for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Recording engineers at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios also devised a primitive way to link two Studer J37 four-track machines together, but this unusual setup was used for only one song. In 1967, Ampex responded to demand by stepping up production of their eight-track machines with the production model MM-1000. Like earlier eight-track machines of this era it used one-inch tape.