Jackpot! Recording Studio adventures

and the MCI JH-16 tape deck, 1997

Here’s a flashback to 1997 when we opened Jackpot! Recording Studio. My dad (Richard Crane) took this photo of Elliott Smith and I rolling the recently acquired MCH JH-16 tape deck (2”) into our old control room. it was wide, and didn’t fit through the door. My dad had the idea to pull the trim and door frame sides off, cut away some drywall underneath, and then roll it through. It worked! This tape deck may still be in Portland somewhere, but every time someone tells me they bought it I say, “Do not ask me for help repairing it!” It was one of the first 16-track decks MCI made (silver deckplate) and the tape handling “logic” was all done via a matrix of relays, which meant it frequently was not “logical” on handling tape. The deck would know there was tape present via a light sensor that responded to regular light, so if one left a shop light on near it while repairing it’d likely go nuts and snap/break the tape. No.2’s No Memory has a song that had to be rebuilt in mastering because of a tape snap. There was also no tape counter. Imagine that. “Which chorus is this? Should I punch in?” It DID sound amazing, but when I moved over to the very reliable Otari MX-80 decks my stress level plummeted. We now have 2 MX-80s - 16 and 24-track - ready to use, plus a ¼” Otari MTR-10 for mix downs. But that just means 90% of clients use Pro Tools instead. -Larry Crane

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