Assmann Universa: The Forgotten Magnetic Disc Recorder

[@lecormoran0]

No matter what, Hainbach is always here to surprise us

[@skipper6528]

How did i miss this 😮 Vinyl and Magnetic Tape My two favourite things

[@binface9]

If anyone was wondering what German at 2:03 means in English: "Until onami in Pisa, Angela hide toffee in our hygiene - mid-point is inclusive." That's according to the subtitles on KZbin, at least.

[@wylnd]

"I'm allowed to hand you a final statement concerning the matter. Greetings, I"

[@SyncdAlien]

binface9 LOL! 😂😂😂😂😂

[@peterfalconer]

Amiga Format!!! Oh, the memories! The toy piano sounds phenomenal here. Really magical.

[@prokesuk]

Looks like something techmoan would review. Sometimes he has stuff on that I wish someone would use in a manner like this.

[@ConwayBob]

I love Techmoan's videos. He not only shows us many a piece of interesting old gear, but in some cases how to restore functionality if it's not quite 100% functional. I have not yet come across something on his channel that I think I would want to acquire, repair, and use; but I think it's only a matter of time before that will happen. There are still many older videos on his channel that I have not yet seen, and so I think it is time to dig into those and see if something useful turns up.

[@kgbinfo]

Maybe we should petition for a Techmoan / Hainbach collab...

[@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER]

that sounds amazing.

[@MetaHoudini]

My boy Hainbach on the frontier of finding musical applications for rare, outdated tech. Btw, I visited the store you recommended in Colorado Springs, OEM parts, and bought an old audio interface for half price. It works perfectly and I have been using it to record for the first time. Thank you for everything you do, love you dude!

[@orel1730]

I love you hainbach this vintage sound is a pleasure

[@JoggingHouse]

This might just be the coolest device in existence.

[@Bishka100]

On the subject of modding old equipment like this, as a compromise between wanting to keep it original and extending its usability. You could add a brake in/out sockets on the back so that all the mods can be built into a separate unit. (Though the high voltages of valve equipment could complicate somethings) For example you could add line in and line out with level controls, compressor bypass switch, and varispeed motor control via the brake out box, ...Just a thought.

[@StephenBaird]

Somehow "Wolfgang Assmann" only made it funnier.

[@ExcessiveSpareTime]

Well, he was. It's a testament to the classical world's selective hearing that his image is being used to sell chocolates.

[@snails9505]

Best German porn name ever?

[@sski]

I got a feel at 9:52 to the commentary part. Between the audio and the video it was very apocalyptic and beautiful at the same time. Outstanding. Gotta love this technology. The music speaks end of days and beyond, replayed.

[@SamiJumppanen]

I saw three of these in the 90's with several disks (btw not vinyl, it's sandwiched, something white inside as a rigid support layer), one of them was fully functional. Recorded my voice and sampled on Amiga 500. It was slightly different model, but the same features. The remote had volume control, but I don't remember if it was for rec or playback. Finally I find information about these! Been trying to search during the years with no luck.

[@ob-x]

Kid Koala uses one of these for scratching. There's even a track named after it on the Deltron 3030 album.

[@MrStognabologna]

I knew it was familiar thank you!

[@hpointe6400]

Beautiful. I would listen to this all day long. Thanks.

[@bluesmanshoes]

"Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Ich."

[@Phlow]

Grandios 😂

[@stockicide]

I didn't know there were any audio formats that Techmoan hadn't covered yet. Cool stuff!

[@Hainbach]

Yeah, I always check his channel first - huge fan!

[@SyncdAlien]

Wow Hainbach! Where has this technology been all our life? 😂😂😂 I had no idea such a thing even existed.

[@degradedecho8397]

The music at the end was among my favourite of yours! Gratitude for the wonderful samples!

[@jeanbonnefoy1377]

My dad had almost the same in the late 60s he used as a dictaphone in his office. I say 'almost' because its magnetic discs were supple and of a smaller diameter. If my memory is good, it was a Telefunken brand machine. And.I used it to record radio programmes and my first demos with flute, harmonica, voice and a small electric organ!

[@gregaluise5727]

Wow! Kind of like a flattened version of the magnetic cylinder recordings that the phone companies also used for recorded announcements. Love the old switched phone networks of the 70s and prior! Not to mention all of the wonderful Wow and Flutter that is reminiscent of old telephone company recordings as well!

[@caleykelly]

Very interesting blip in the history of recording tech. Thanks for sharing man!

[@mudsh4rk]

I've casually thought about practical ways to build something like this (with a second play head to make a scratchable "tape" delay) for like 17 years and had no idea it actually existed. Back when I worked at a record shop in the lmid/late 2000s I saw a few 70s consumer turntables that actually used a magnetic ring inside the platter with a sync tone and a conventional playback head to detect the platter speed and automatically stabilize it. No idea if it worked well at all, but I always felt like there was potential there to modify one into a sort of dealy unit by adding a record head and routing the play head to a line output.

[@lukeburris9178]

I love this song the Juno over this just sounds so beautifully soulful

[@edgeeffect]

It's funny, when you play the old recording from the nursing home... after a life of Stockhausen, The Zodiac scene, Faust, Kraftwerk, Einsturzende Neubauten, etc. etc. I hear a low-fi recording of a voice speaking your language... and that's immediately electronic music to me... It works really well with the toy piano... it's like the tone of the piano and the lo-fi of the Universa resonate really well together. It'd be possible (at least theoretically) to make new discs... If you know someone who has a record lathe, they could cut the (I assume) very wide groove... And I'm sure there must be a nerd somewhere who could improvise up a spin-coater to spin a layer of oxide onto them... maybe... perhaps...... in theory at least.

[@goldenstarmusic1689]

loving the haunting soundscapes that this can produce!

[@RobFlaxMusic]

Okay, so the ending piece is absolutely stunning, too.

[@npartridge12]

Thanks for the fascinating video. And I agree it does look like something the excellent Techmoan would review. Never come across these thins before but as a fellow musician I love your creative use of the device. It really adds a beautifully warped sound to your lovely old Bechstein (my favourite piano maker - such warm sounding instruments), but you give it a real other world sound recorded through this machine.

[@georgeredpath5394]

Thank you for always expanding my knowledge on esoteric equipment :)

[@aeonhorizonmusic8130]

Meanwhile searching for one..... Awesome video again! :-)

[@Shimmery.mp3]

I just recently found a swedish Agavox 2 abandoned in a basement. It’s an old magnetic disc dictaphone much like this one. It records on smaller, softer plastic discs. Works quite well but something is really distorting the input. It’s got a line in tho and a 3/4 speed dail. Will hook it up to my modular and share some stuff :)

[@datashat]

Holy shit man, that very Amiga Format disk was where I got my first copy of ProTracker, that I first started to make music with in 1993!

[@discophone_6214]

Where on earth you find all this fantastic stuff! Absolutely stunning work.

[@cold_fashioned]

Wow - with the michelsonne - that was intense. Horror movie vibes with the 2nd Melody you played !

[@Footbags]

0:05-0:14 has already earned my thumbs up. Now I will watch the rest.

[@kurtkabica]

Nice find. sounds great.. 🔊🔊. Love. Magnetic media’s

[@futurescapesz]

When you think you’ve seen it all, just watch Hainbach’s videos and realize that you haven’t

[@jamesgrimwood1285]

It's got that overdriven warbling that shortwave radio has. Reminds me of those Russian numbers stations. Or a Boards of Canada track...

[@fsfs555]

Very interesting. I just got two Universa 80s, which look like they're probably from the 1970s or early '80s, based on general aesthetics and their color which I've come to think of as "regulation German orange" that's so common on things from that era. They have discs, but one may be warped from poor storage.

[@kgbstudio]

Dude I love you channel., I discovered you a couple weeks ago. Very nice and original approach to ambient and noise soundscape.. I would love to see some videos with those mechanic little "pianos" . Keep up the excellent content! greetings from greece

[@doktorhopfenmachers5717]

Ich finde die Möglichkeit damit Retroaufnahmen zu simulieren so graoßartig, hoffendlich ergatter ich noch ein günstiges Gerät und wenigstens eine Scheibe bevor sie selten werden...

[@adrianstoness3903]

wow nice find

[@RWL2012]

Thanks for sharing this - I didn't know such a thing existed! It does make sense though that disc records can be recorded to like this, considering that the cylinder records could :)

[@thevellocet]

That piano sounds beautiful

[@Hainbach]

Yeah, it was a lucky find in shop selling mostly new pianos. The owner wanted to get rid of it.

[@ThomasBaxter]

5:15 sounds so beautiful!

[@SoundMediaVibes]

Wonder what's next, love these old treasures! :)

[@arbautimusic]

I love everything about this episode. I got an Edison Voicewriter somewhere.

[@lunargarden]

"...I don't see many other magnetic disk recorders out there..." Confirmed, 2 minutes in the video and I was already on ebay and google to find one 😅

[@ALoafOfBubbles]

you are a legend and a half

[@shoestringmovies6530]

This is so cool, now I want one

[@Drumheadrob]

Love this!

[@NihilQuest]

With this name it doesn't even have to sound amazing to be cool, but it does. Instant time machine. But anyway, I was happy to see Amiga disc. Will we ever see one of these machines doing something musical on your channel?

[@Hainbach]

That would be so much fun! Sadly I have no Amiga anymore. But I was browsing through used Amigas today.

[@V3xxe]

I love the sound of the toy piano through this. Play some minor chord progressions or something and that would be the perfect intro for some DSBM.

[@antmerritt]

Awesome! Love the Michelson recording. How wonderful was that to find for you?! 😁👍👊

[@TRIPPLEJAY00]

Oh wow I think I love this format having vinyl and cassette tape kind of baby in one. Feel left out. I think you should talk to Techmoan about this. I think this is up his street.

[@Hainbach]

Don't have his contact. Maybe if you point him to this it could be a fun collaboration

[@TRIPPLEJAY00]

@@Hainbach I shall do very that. Be very interesting.

[@amorislokerse]

Oh my gosh! 6:50 is a great sound for hiphop/trap beat

[@Ambalek]

I had that Amiga Format cover disk! I’d like to hear some Hainbach OctaMED compositions recorded to magnetic vinyl, slowed down, then recorded with some epic reverb

[@Hainbach]

I was just browsing at Amigas today...no space in here anymore!

[@kuglepen64]

On this glorious day we are all assmen.

[@chalawa]

is it possible to buy Assmann astromag discs still?

[@clayofman-levisiewert8381]

How long is the recording time on the disc? Have you considered taking a magnet to parts of it to give repeated texture to it? In that vein of thought you could magnet wipe the center of the disk to decay the sound out/in to start and end the segment. Another random idea I had was that if you ever get a chance to slightly modify the machine you could intermediately provide power to the recording head via some input (button, jack, switch, whatever) and record multiple things over or replacing each other. Great stuff as always!

[@MahlenMorris]

Resisting the urge to make this play at "Best Speed"? Such will power.

[@SoundsFromSound]

Such a cool piece of gear!!

[@olekschwarzmatt]

klingt so gut!!

[@bitegoatie]

Do you get less distortion depending on placement of the microphone? It seems at speaking-voice input levels you get relatively little distortion while close placement to the piano gives much more rasp. If this is so, you could get a range of effects relatively easily, just by moving the microphone. I had never heard of this thing, though I knew the company. This is another fun find among objects destined for dumps. Thanks for sharing it.

[@INDUSTRIAL_WOLF]

I have a Mail-A-Voice magnetic disc recorder, it's almost the same thing, but from the USA.

[@nmnmnm9509]

I really like your works my favorite artists (in this style) are Raison d'etre ,fajerman ( l guess you don't know him ) and you.

[@slowblack3947]

Very cool device, the name though.....

[@andrzejkatkov8597]

Perfect gear for producing dungeon synth!

[@dextrodemon]

sounds a bit like that effect that was popular on vocals around 2000ish, like white town's your woman or that one by portishead, glorybox i think

[@Bishka100]

The effect has been around for a long. long time... I first herd it on Put Your Shoes On Lucy by the Five Smith Brothers :-)

[@markob808]

Grandmaster Hainbach :)

[@draggonhedd]

I wonder if you can get sheets of magnetic film and make your own discs. Or make a holder out of a sheet of plastic to hold the discs from a 5.25 or 8" floppy disk.

[@PastelComGini]

I wonder how many secretaries lost their jobs trying to move the head and accidentally dropping the magnet erasing thing and losing it all.

[@thefpvyawthority8106]

Sounded almost Reznorish at the end there. Beautiful.

[@PaulChabot]

WOwwee... It sounds so good with music... would love to hear a drum loop through it lol

[@acreil]

Does the recording portion not have a bias oscillator? That might explain the distortion.

[@expandingknowledge8269]

HAINBACH, where do you get all these toys? Very interesting tech !!!

[@gooneybird808]

You got that straight

[@recyclop4058]

That's a really nice sounding thing. How about doing (or trying to do) an IR file of it?

[@noahcwb]

I wonder if it would work to record to tape with the tape deck and then paste that onto a traditional vinyl record in strips and play it back.

[@willhanson3837]

Dude Awesome !

[@usualatoms4868]

How would it sound if you just held a magnetic tape reader head statically on the disc? I guess the "tape" on the disc goes inwards in a spiral like the track on a vinyl. So if you hold the reader head in place would you get some sort of loop?

[@Hainbach]

That might be possible!

[@usualatoms4868]

@@Hainbach Please let us know if it yields interesting results.

[@PolaBurrr]

cool !!

[@jozefbania]

Nostalgic distortions of now.

[@lemonhscott7667]

That’s pretty impressive. I wonder if you could turn one of these into a tape echo... but through a vinyl disc, so I suppose it’d be a vinyl echo.

[@jamesbennettmusic]

Makes the toy piano sound like an ice cream van!

[@ZXRulezzz]

6:08 sounds like BoC's "in the annexe"

[@Viltan]

The michelsonne part reminds me of (the artist) 1900. But just as it is gives it a nice harmonic sound.

[@ryanwolframson2649]

Hallo Hainbach, mega mal wieder!!!! Eine Frage, worin besteht genau der Unterschied zwischen einem Assmann Universa und dem 640er Model? Man kann im Netz echt wenig dazu finden :( ...ich hoffe auf deine Hilfe, denn ich habe die Chance ein 640er in gutem Zustand zu erwerben :D ...Grüße und riesen Dank im Voraus

[@ryanwolframson2649]

....ich meine ein Universa 640, nicht das Dimafon Reprodukta 640 :-)

[@Hainbach]

www.radiomuseum.org/r/assmann_universa_640.html

[@Hainbach]

Also kann das gleiche

[@ArturTadevosyan]

schönes gerät! Assmann rules!

[@buyukberber]

Thanks! Next, we want the wire recorders like the ones Bartok used!

[@Hainbach]

Oh I wish I had one

[@buyukberber]

HAINBACH I’ll let you know if I come across one! Cheers

[@butcharmstrong9645]

the recording had such a plaintive sound that it could very well been in the movie "1984"" to accent and heighten the despair the people might have felt

[@duon44]

That recording you have could be used for some weird Lo-Fi HipHop track :p they're always putting random 1930s movie quotes in there and stuff, feel like this would fit just as well

[@RobFlaxMusic]

3:35 Make a "destroying 'tape' loop" where you rub a magnet on *only some* of the disc? No idea if that works or not...

[@ALoafOfBubbles]

How do you have the piano mic’d in this ? It sounds amazing

[@Hainbach]

Gefell 670 with M70 capsules

[@williamolsen20]

I wonder if you could make a delay unit out of it?

[@SamiJumppanen]

No. It has one head for rec/play. Well. Of course if you could add another head with (sub)millimeter tip (I recall the groove could be 0.5 to 1 mm)

[@multiro_r.leaves]

Если б знали вы, как мне дороги подмосковные вечера!

[@Th3LordZalor]

Coooool 😍

[@TheCleansingx]

THERE IS ONE ON EBAY! RUN PEOPLE RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!!!

[@SynthorexiabyYoungPadawan]

Insane!

[@MrStarbit]

Hmmm I'm curious I wonder if you could spray a normal vynl record in ferromagnetic paint will it work?

[@Hainbach]

It might scrape off? No idea really