3M M23 - 3M’s first machine style

1966-1971

All Discrete, Transformer in/out

Rubber Tire Capstan drive

1,2,4,8 track formats 

3M M56 - First 16trk recorder

1969-1972ish

All Discrete, Transformer in/out

Belt capstan w/ braking circuit

8,16 track formats

M64 - smaller track version of M56

1970 - ?

Fully Discrete, Transformer In/out

Belt capstan w/ braking circuit

1,2,4 track formats

3M Folklore

There was a pretty famous story about a storage unit of 3M parts lost in the southern region of the USA.

With the help of Randy Blevins, I discovered a stock pile of original 3M parts that remained from the 3M factory. These parts first went to a company called Electro Technology, the first authorized 3M service center after Mincom decided to not support the 3M machines. A great tech named Bart Gass then purchased the remainder and continued working. When Bart fell ill, a 3M tech in Athens, Ga named Otho Wilburn purchased them. As Otho also became ill, he lost them to a company storing his belongings and I bought the remaining stock. Randy Blevins and I brought 10 3M tape machines, and 20 plus boxes of parts back to Nashville. After only a year and a half, I have helped 3M owners all over the world resurrect their machines. I also returned Mitch Easter’s 3M M23 two track and Lyrec 24trk which were in the storage unit. Also an audiotronics Grandson console that belonged to Otto Fagen was returned.

Those items were sent in for repair, and never thought to be seen again.

I’m still looking for Nashville Record Productions’ Sontec Mastering EQ that is in the suburbs of Atlanta somewhere.

With the help of Brian Kehew (Recording the Beatles), I have purchased Corky Tanassy’s collection of 3M Parts. His collection contained parts and pieces from Electro Technology and Westlake Audio, both major 3M players at the time. 13 full boxes.

M23 to M79!

3M M79 - last analog recorder

made by 3M.

1972 - ?

IC Record and Repro amp, with options of Transformer in/out or Transformerless.

Servo capstan drive w/ belt

1,2,4,8,16,24 track formats

Second Parts Lot Purchase

From GLENN R. PHOENIX via 3M79.com

(content slightly edited)

In response to Kevin K’s question about the unit he came across that pre-
dates the M79; that would be the M23 that was manufactured from around
1966 thru about 1971. It was offered in 1/4” mono and stereo,1/2” 4track
and 1” 8track. It had a separate signal cage for each track that could also
be configured for the special”Dynatrack” version that used two tracks for
each signal channel to create one Super Wide Dynamic Range System. It
sounded great but suffered from channel reduction,which in the face of the
noise reduction system being introduced by Ray Dolby, was a fatal flaw.
There were only about 20 or 30 machines sold with the “Dyna-track” cards
some of which pre-dated the M23 and came out of the St. Paul plant rather
than the Camarillo Ca. plant where I worked from 1966 to 1972.

I was the project engineer for the M79 along with Clive Ross who did
the signal card and capstan servo design,and John Bristow who did much
of the mechanical package drawing detail including offering up the infamous
“M79 Blue panels”. I was overall system jocky including pushing for 24trk
capability when local sls mngt was a bit asleep at the wheel. I had been
in field service before Jack Mullin asked me to join the engineering team
and knew first hand from working with people like Wally Heider and Bruce Botnick that more tracks was more desirable and marketable,
especially if you believed in Dolbly”A”. There was supposed to be enough
space in the bottom of the machine below the signal cage to fit 24 Dolby
cat.22cards but this never got completed.
I see another post by Val Garay. For those who don’t know, Val is one
of the industries standout engineers who recorded much of Linda Ronstadt and James Taylors early hits. The M79 was also used by Jim
Messina to record Aerosmith’s “Walk this Way”. Neil
Young’s early albums,Jackson Browne, Men at Work and the Boston album by John Boylan. Of course Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall,Victory and Thriller albums were
recorded or mixed on the M79's. The list goes on.
Much of Neil Diamond’s early hits were recorded on the M79's predecessor the M56 16trk or previously mentioned M23 1” 8trk which
was done by the team of Dale Manquen, Don Kahn and of course
recording pioneer Jack T. Mullen (1913-1999?). The M23 had a
pretty good acceptance in the film industry; Universal had quit a few
as I recall. Early on in my Westlake Audio days we placed a lot of M79s
around the world, often with our monitor systems and studio packages
including consoles from Auditronics, API and Harisson. We did a complete
studio for The Moody Blues in London (3M M79&API) and a multi-room
facility for Lagab in Mexico city (M79/Auditronics). I made my first trip
to Japan in 1974 to install several M79s. We opened our Nashville and
Montreux Switzerland offices around the same time. Although Tom Hidley championed the European marketing we were not successful at
selling very many 3Ms. By then Willy Studer had a pretty good hold on the market there. Nashville was a tough sell as well except for a few
machines at RCA which had bought some for L.A and New York as well.
MCI and Ampex were the staple in Nashville along with Scully. We did
place some M79s down in Macon, Georgia for the Allman Brothers studio
we did and at Bill Evan’s Studio-in the-Country in Bogalousa, Louisiana
just outside of New Orleans. One Local sale that we did I have fond
memories of at Ray Charles’ studio. Ray mentioned to me that he particularly liked the layout of the remote on the M79 as he could just
run his fingers down the track selector buttons and feel the ones selected(depressed) for record and sense the status of the machine by
the heat from the light bulbs in each button including the transport controls. Less fond are my memories of service to Ike Turners studio
where he let it be known that no one left his studio without their equipment working (or words to that effect). We had one of those Iso-Loop
tracking problems as I recall.
All in all it was a lucky day when I spotted the help wanted add that
3M had run in “The Valley Green Sheet”. I jumped at the thought of
working for the company that made my favorite possession; a Wolsensak tape recorder. I was only there for a few days when I found
out that the Wolensaks’ weren’t made in Camarillo but in Chicago, my
birth city. But even though I’d spend the first years working on instru
mentation tape recorders used for the security agencies and research
facilities, I soon met Jack Mullin and my opportunity to pursue my true
passion was presented. Thank you Jack, 3M and Bing (Bing Crosby
Electronic Enterprises was purchased by 3M and became The Mincom
Division that I went to work at in 1966).
Well I see I’ve over stayed my welcome. I’m not in the recorder
service business any longer, but if any one has a question I’d be happy
to answer it if I can.
That’s 40!
Glenn Phoenix President, Westlake Audio