I’m trying to go for ‘studio look’ style.
At the moment I think It’s too cold and boring. I’m going to try and warm it up and place a reflection on the ground plane.
Then (I don’t know how) but try and add a bit more character or personality into the render/composition.
Here’s what I have so far. Thanks in advance for your crits and comments.
Haven’t ever seen a reel to reel modeled before … very cool. You did an excellent job. The motion blur you added was a real nice touch. Maybe these things are going to make a comeback someday 
Very nice modeling. I’d say try to smooth out the background a bit, maybe increase the radius of curve on your backdrop to alleviate the transition from floor to backdrop. the brownish lighting on the bottom contrasts a bit much. just my 2 cents.
Well, I don’t really see any way to improve this. It’s pretty much good to go as is. Modeling and materials are top notch. I would upload this to the finished projects gallery.
I guess if I had to say anything it would be that the scene actually seems to bright to me. The first shot is good but the other two seem like the background is to similar in tone to the light areas of tape machine. It also looks like you have a light coming from or near the camera?
I think all in all, these are really nice renders and I feel out of place giving advice.
@ mexicoxican tweaked the backdrop and yes it looks better
@indy_logic. thanks for the kind words. I’m still playing with the HDRI lighting and I think the brightest part of the map is indeed pointing along the main camera axis
I’m going to try and put in a reflection on the floor. Will have to have a think about how I’m going to do this. With reflective materials or in the compositor?
ok I’ve added a fake reflection and tiny bit of tweaking in the compositor. I’ll try my first cycles animation next
Ah that’s just awesome. It takes me back.
that mirror reflection is gross add some roughness to soften it up.
i like that it is whirring away whilst not being plugged in ;D
either the tape is blank or the needles are stuck. are the Db gauges just a texture? i hope not as some movement of the needles will add to the image. ( well, the ones that are supposed to be playing anyway)
aluminium reels dont look right to me, i only ever have seen plastic reels. thats not to say they dont exist, clearly you have modelled from a reference.
While I agree that the reflection is a bit much, I think the rest of the machine is spot on. Aluminum reels are classic. You would never see a Studer with plastic reals. 
Those where the most expensive tape machines back in the day. People still use 2 inch tape Studer’s to record on now a days.
@ small troll and Indy_Logic- yes the reflection isn’t great. If I understood the compositor better I’m sure I could improve it. For the moment I’ve made it almost mirror like to help visualise the form. The db guages are modelled. I’ve rotated them. Yep the reels are aluminium.
I’m going to move this into the finished projects forum now but might tweak it later.
fantasic detail that even the guages are modeled!, i honestly thought they were going to be just textures! please find out about reflections to fix the floor mirror before you make it a finished project! some roughness or something ( i know too little about cycles to properly advise, sorry)
@indy_logic, thanks for clarifying
@small troll - cheers
the reflections are a problem because I’ve lit the scene with a HDRI map and a shiney floor/background will display the reflection and the HDRI map
I dont know how to extract the reflection pass in Cycles (like I do in Maya). I’m not sure if Cycles supports reflection passes?
My next product design project will have ‘classic’ studio lighting and it will very easy to control the reflections. Like in this great CG Cookie tutorial http://cgcookie.com/blender/2012/03/21/rendering-headphones-blender-cycles/
