Forgotten Format: The Sabamobil
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 มิ.ย. 2017
- The Sabamobil is one of the rarer tape formats from the 60s. The cartridges may look strange but they hide a simple secret inside.
Click 'Show All' to read the FAQs
Potential FAQs
Q) What speed does the tape run at
A) 3.75 ips
Q) How much audio can a tape hold.
A) My tape contained a total of approx 90 mins of mono audio when tracks A,B,C & D were added together.
Real FAQs
Q: What's the name of the track at 07:50
A) Kurt Henkels: Junger Mann aus gutem Hause
• Video
Q) What's the name of the song at 08:03?
A) Peppermint twist. • Video
The version on the Sabamobil is a soundalike group.
Q) Does it have an auto-stop mechanism?
A) Well if it does, it isn't working on mine - the motor continues to spin at the end of a side and slips on the rubber wheel until the mechanism is manually switched off.
Q) Why didn't I pan the audio to the left and right on the reel to reel so I could play the separate tracks.
A) I needed to record the tape on a PCM recorder to include those recordings in this video - so dubbing two tracks at once was great because it takes half the time.
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ThatSFXGuy - • Six Million Dollar man... - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
I'm now convinced there is an unlimited number of ways to put two reels and a length of tape in a plastic housing
custardo it's essentially how credit cards work. The strip on the back is like a length of tape.
I agree my good man
It doesn't even have to be two reels according to the inventor of the 8 Track!
custardo
Scotch adhesive tape is just that but adhesive
And with some iron filings you can turn Scotch adhesive tape into magnetic recording tape. It's on an episode of Secret Life of Machines.
In all honesty, this has to be one of the best TH-cam channels I have seen. The presentation is spot-on, there's no real sneering and the facts are well researched. I have learned about loads of things I never knew existed thanks to this. And now, the intro and end 'credits' have book-ended the videos nicely. I don't know whether you (Mat, I'll use your name although I don't know you) work outside of producing TH-cam content, but if you do then kudos for the skills and effort and time invested. Obviously the puppets are a great bonus. For myself, thanks very much so far and looking forward to the next ones. Cheers.
Many thanks for the positive words...it's encouraging to receive feedback like this.
@@Techmoan I agree with the sentiment. You love technology, you understand the context of the technology, and you do clever presentations. Well done.
What do you mean no sneering? Are there a lot of sneerers out there ln youtube?
When I was about 5 years old my Grandma remarried and moved to Australia. Every couple of months she'd send my brother and me a cassette with her and our step Grandpa reading stories to us. They were so much better than a written letter or a phone call and we listened to them over and over! They were a much later format than the one you talk about here (just the standard 80s/90s type), but thanks for reminding me anyway! =)
You might think it's unlikely someone would use this in their car, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if someone did install this or any other old piece of car tech in their vehicle, especially if it's a vintage vehicle of the same period.
François Caron and the fact that it's an early "pull out" anti-theft audio system makes it quite the novelty too, yes.
François Caron Yes, that's actually much more likely. People like to be more genuine and unique and pretty surprising (show offs) with stuff like that. Not that techmoan is a show off lol
Jon Donnelly I think Saba makes a Bluetooth adapter for these
Ça serait logique uniquement dans une ancienne auto allemande.
I have a 1990 Ford Festiva with an 8-track in it. I buy old crappy tapes and figure out the lengths, then redub them with other music and make my own sticker labels. I'm probably the only person with every Nirvana album on 8-track. If I want to listen to mp3s, I plug my phone into a cassette adaptor, place that in the 8-track cassette adaptor and put that in the machine. Lol
I'm genuinely thrilled everytime I see you've posted a new video!
"Autoreverse : the Hard way" is proably my favourite.
julosx yes 👍 Auto-reverse-the Hard Way, w/Kubrick montage was pure genius.
I see tape, I click like.
When I first read the title I thought it said "Forgotten Format: The Salami"
Didn't have a very long run either, equipment would start to grease up and playback was pretty wobbly :P
Cats can have a little of it as a treat.
We had a PC vendor airing an ad here in the early 00s where someone put a salami into a PC's disc drive...
So........ there's that.
The amount of research you put into these episodes is staggering.
That's the cutest bulb I've ever seen, how could they do it so small that many years ago?! 😮
They're made the exact same way as regular sized bulbs, but with a much smaller machine.
Tiny gnomes with tiny, tiny hands.
300DBenz modern technology in a nutshell
it was the 1960s, not the 1600s.
freibier gnomes I heard somewhere it was the elfs?
if I had a car from that era, i would totally listen to stuff on a player like this.
Bigbacon
Until you get sticker shocked. This system would cost over one thousand USD today, adjusted for inflation.
$136 in 1965 = $1067 in 2017. $14 = $110. Holy shit.
Today you also pay huge amounts for teh latest cutting edge technology. eg 10k for a big OLED 4k tv. BUt in a few years time , it will have reduced to a fraction of that. A CD writer used to be 1k. Now you can hardly give them away.
I guess that is why it wasn't a big commercial success like the 8 track and cassette.
People were not that poor in 1965. Also the price was not much above the production costs.
Always the most excited when I see a new techmoan upload :)
Drop everything! New techmoan video!
Judas1911 Bubsy on Sega/Snes was very underrated games. But Bubsy 3D was really bad
Bubsy also made an appearance on the 64-bit Atari Jaguar.
I have subscribed to almost 30 channels but this one is the only one I asked for notification of new video.
V E R TX watch it at work lol
Gaïus Baltar same to me
The second is a sound-a-like group doing the exact same arrangement of Peppermint Twist that was a hit for Caterina Valenta and her brother Silvio Francesco, which was released on DECCA. The sound-a-like version was on the budget label Fono-Ring.
There really is a "type" of music you get in West Germany in the era of formats like this and the Tefifon isn't there!
But those little One Fifty Special tape boxes are fabulous, absolutely adore that artwork. I would be so tempted to copy some 21st century post-rock or something onto one!
7:55 Imagine cruising the streets, blasting this choone out at full volume!
i just really love seeing these forgotten technologies man! thank you for sharing your knowledge with us :)
I really like your content. Especially on bizarre and vintage audio and video hardware. Especially the tefifon if that’s how you spell it.
It’s cool that your showing this equipment because I wouldn’t know about it otherwise. I value this content very much
I can see myself with one of these rolling down Königstraße in my 190 bumpin the Oompa musik.
Cheezy Dee I think you might have been driving a Laada lol
To have this installed in a classic car seems like a fun idea, would be a great conversation starter at car shows.
I could design a 3D printable cartridge to be used with those reels if I had access to one.
Cost around 150-200€ in germany
If my auntie had a moustache she'd be my uncle.
Do it
But could you design a 3D printable Sabamobile player, which you would obviously need ?
O.O
That reel to reel you have is enchanting .... taskes me back to when I used to work with 35mm film as a projectionist
I have been into audio for 50 years, 25+ on air in radio, and you still amaze me with the stuff you find. Thank you. I love these videos.
What an absolute fantastic channel! presentation spot on and down to earth! Great to see both old and new tech and stuff you never knew existed. My son (9) watches and loves it, especially if he gets to see the puppets at the end which keeps him in fits of laughter! Great job, keep'em coming!
I have 3 ¾ ips reels that size of my Dad reading the newspaper from 1951 and talking to the farm - on a Revere recorder. Hundreds of dollars back then for such a machine.
Another German Invention you show i never seen in my 38 Year long Life in Germany. :)
See there's your problem, you're too young. ;)
Hmm. You bring the aural conceptions of the past to us today, as crisp and clean as intened. Thank you so much for preserving these media forms, big fan.
Boy, I sure do love me some "Dancin' Party"!
Direct Drive magnetic tape machine in 1964....
eat your heart out Revox :-P
Wak Job a Techmoan retro tape video & Revox mentioned= made my day🚀🎧🎯
New Techmoan video involving old formats, especially tape... all of my YES
I do like these "forgotten tape format" videos. This was quite an elegant machine really but it's amazing how quickly tapes developed from the 60's onwards. This was apparently from the mid-60's, which is after both the 8-track and compact cassette launched. Was this thing capable of anything near hi-fi sound?
It only played in mono.
It could still be capable of high audio quality, just on one channel. I think stereo sound wasn't that widespread at the time, a lot of cheaper reel-to-reel machines were either strictly mono, or capable of playing and recording mono tapes. I think later, more advanced Sabamobil machines would have been stereo, if the format had lived to see it.
The cheapest machines had one mono track per side. Most machines had 4 tracks, ie two mono tracks per side. Fancier machines would have separate outputs for each track, so you could play them as stereo (like the revox). I used to collect these machines, and the sound quality on even normal domestic units was pretty damn good.
Well - theoretically, since the tape used is conventional reel-to-reel tape, it could sound just as good as a reel to reel player - I don't know the slightest thing about reel-to-reel, but I remember Techmoan saying in the past that for a while after the compact cassette came out, reel-to-reel was still the hi-fi standard.
Sorry about that. I had no idea there were so many other attempts at cornering the market with all these other types of weird and wonderful systems that had disappeared into obscurity. It’s great the way you, not only able give a history of all these largely forgotten items from the past, but also manage to find working, (mostly), examples of the machines in question, and give a proper demonstration. Although I love music and can certainly appreciate a good sound system, I am certainly no technophile, but I’ve found myself more and more fascinated with the subject with each viewing of your videos. Thanks.
Another fantastic video. I love this sort of video, it makes me really appreciate the relative ease I've had in my life finding music to listen to at home. From tape cassettes, to CDs, mp3 downloads and streaming - it hasn't always been so easy or cheap to play the music you want, when you want. Lovely bit of forgotten tech.
I have watching a lot of your videos here lately. I really like them because they are so informative.
Once again my friend, once again... thanks to you and this particular video , I remember now the brand of my mum old radio, she had a SABA. It was a tube, wooden frame and I remember the deep and rich sound it had. oh the memories...
Thanks again my friend !!!
Thank you for your efforts put into this. I always wondered why would someone somewhere give this a thump down? This is a clever review that deserves nothing but appreciation!
"ONE FIVE" could also be related to the tape thickness - 1.5 mil :)
The simple design of the device (not the cartidges) looks really amazing today.
I just spent longer than the run time of this video trying to get rid of the ads. Worth it.
I love that it was cheaper to send a tape than call!
Saba! wow it brings back memories, we had a Saba TV in my early years! Ultracolor T5668 , the wood panel is gorgeous!
09:57 - If I had a German car from the period (preferably Porsche 356) I'd definitely use The Sabamobil. There's a reason why period correct car audio fetches really high prices in the collector market.
Shelby's 356 in Ford vs Ferrari totally needs one
My God... You have a RT-909!? With large-hub adapters?!? I am SO envious...!
That German adaptation of "The Peppermint Twist" sounds so removed from the original, it's almost like they're two different songs!
And to end this commentary, I would like to note how I have one of those Scotch audio letter tapes... but it came in a plastic, snap-lid case. Have yet to hear whatever is on it--if anything--but will be doing so on my Ampex 2176 w/auto-reverse.
Across the Atlantic and I still always enjoy your videos
Your channel is sooo interesting! I watch ur videos for some time now. Thank you for sharing all your experience and for showing how technology evolved!
9:11 It was 'fashionable' to have all your teeth removed back then. My grandad had all his removed when he was a relatively young man. The way he explained it to me was that it was basically hubris in the denture industry. I guess advances in materials and techniques made them believe that dentures were actually superior to real teeth, or at least good enough that real teeth were no longer worth the hassle and upkeep.
He said he went to the dentist with a toothache, and the dentist talked him into having them all removed on the spot.
I had one on my first car back in 1967. I used to take it out and use it for outdoor parties (!). I still have it with the original casette recordings.
Out of all the places, Kurt Henkels just had to be on a techmoan video.
That composer gets around a lot.
I have never heard of this. Fascinating as always, friend. Thank you so much for these videos!
I actually do like your B-Roll that plays behind the list of supporters at the end.
14 bucks was pretty steep for an album in the 60s.
Helium Road especially when the average wage at the lower end would have been $1-$1.50 an hour. So you’re looking at say 10-14 hours of work depending on taxes to purchase one. Not cheap by any count lol
I love this channel, I could melt my brain watching this
I really enjoy watching these videos about rare recording formats.
I thought i had seen it all, but this format is completely new to me ;)
Thanks, Techmoan, for always posting interesting videos :D
Thanks for the videos Techmoan. They're so relaxing.
I love these videos, Mat. Keep up the good work!
Please post the conversation, the guy who removed his teeth...
That would be awesome! I have old 8mm movies of other people's families that I've bought at flea markets and estate sales. Kinda the same thing, except visual and not audio.
I plan to do something about this in a month or so. I want to collate a few odd recordings off various formats I've collected into one video.
I'm thrilled for that.
I wonder if he used any Cinco products :D
That's great! Thank you for the response and the great videos...!
when i was being taught west african hand percussion in france, more particularly the djembe hand drum, the 'saba' was one of the many particular rhythms taught for it. amazing groove. great times! ... "doum, t'latata, doum t'laa, ta ta! (more or less)" ...wunderschun..
I think probably this is the perfect car radio for an Oldtimer. So it is really likely that someone still use it.
Its interesting that TELEFUNKEN was mentioned in one of the cuttings. They were responsible for the figure of "8" mains connectors we use today (as an alternative to the bigger and more robust IEC connectors, still seen in most kettles).
When I was young my mum would record reel to reel tapes and send them to here brother in Australia. She was an instrumentalist, so she also recorded her own playing. To do this we often used the small 3" reels you show in this video.
Don't ya just love it when the Techmoan intro sound comes on with that spinny colour thing.
Nothing beats getting home from work to see a new video from both Techmoan and 8-bit Guy!
You always surprise me with new old tech.
Great work my friend.
Being from Germany (and way too young to have witnessed this technology first hand) its as interesting as awkward to hear this music with 60s Germans trying out their English - "one tuh sree" - as we are known for :). Thank you Techmoan for your time machine. It's a pleasure.
You know, I honestly can't fathom how someone _couldn't_ find this kind of thing interesting, or cool. I think it's absolutely _fascinating_, learning about how people in decades gone by listened to their music, and how universal the love for music is, even back through time.
Have you ever seen the movie "The Final Programme" the protagonist has a small reel to reel in his car to play music :D
Always love it when you do the retro stuff!
And the sound is quite good too!
You are so passionate and your videos are so informative ! This is the good neighborhood of TH-cam
Cool system, never heard of it. :)
Uploaded right as I was about to sleep, damn it!
Maybe if you didn't cry while touching yourself then this wouldn't happen.
My family has a box of these 3" reels that were sent to and from my uncle who served in Vietnam around 1965-66. Several of them from Scotch actually came in a sturdy plastic oblong box, probably to hold up for international mailing, with a window where you could insert different cards when you mailed it back and forth. I spent a few days transferring them all to digital a few years back.
Wow the picture you showed at 6:12 is just like my old Phillips tape recorder I have somewhere in the garage. You've inspired me to see if it still works! Thank you for a great video, "as always..."
I sit and I wait for these, sometimes months at a time..Forgotten Format is my favorite format of Techmoan video.
really liking your reel to reel, looks very good!
Love your videos! keep em coming!
Those tiny bulbs were ADORABLE.
A fascinating press cutting at 4:55. My Father bought a Grundig "International DC System" cassette recorder back in 1967. He commented on how much cheaper it was than the Philips ones. I still think the shop staff saw him coming.
I remember having an old open reel recorder as a kid. It took the same small tapes but would only last 5 minutes a side. Enough for one song. Fine and all but what made kinda cool, different, old school, stupid, all those things is that i had over 150 of those little boxes that held each real, each with 1 song on each side, recorded off the radio. So long ago so many memories.
Veey interesting format there! The player looks so cute and the music on your particular tape was awesome.
That Dutch advert is awesome haha
Great vid again .. You always find something "new"
Techmoan; I'm delighted to see you post a video on something Saba did! You may want to check out some of their other things, they had fully mechanical radios with automatic station seeking and remote controls, way back in the early 1960's! Anyways, thanks for sharing all of this stuff with everyone, it's so cool to see fellow people enjoy this kind of stuff! Cheers~
I've got another Saba device to show at some point.
Very much looking forward to it, they certainly had some eccentric stuff!
Your videos are so great, Thanks a ton!
I never even heard of this before. Thank you for sharing this wonderful find!
Love it! Keep digging out these amazing devices Mr Moan.....
its a rather ingenious design when you get right down to it. i like it.
What a fun look at this old-school tape player.
Never saw this before, the audio-world keeps me amazed :). Nice find! Also, great vid!
great video as always fella!! love it!!
Your 20th century toys are the best! ... another great find, I love all the analogue tape tech! thank you again!
wow you put alot of work into this video, thanks good stuff as always
Always excellent explanations. Thank you.
That's an amazing device, never seen one before. It's good because it is really well thought out, aimed at a low cost market and yet has all the right features. That mechanism is minimal and exactly correct, something the Japanese also did very well. I think one of the big things users didn't want to do, is have to thread tapes up, this unit addresses that. Great utilisation of the technologly available at the time. Recording own tapes, what a brilliant technique.
This machine is quite awesome. It was using all kinds of open standards at that time. It was a thing that brought something new while compatible with the old standards
so cool ! And the tiny radio on right - no FM ! Thats was the times :) Love it
I have the Telefunken Bazzaro that was installed in early 60's euro cars in much the same way. No tape though. Its a great picnic radio tho and is trimmed in teak!
You are such a wonderful resource for unusual av formats. Much like LGR's Oddware series. I like it a lot.
It's so beautiful how the little light takes a second to fully light up.
This is so fascinating! Why hasn't you tube recommended you earlier?
Man, thats some groovy tunes. Feel the warmth.