Any Reel guys interested in a tape swap?

[mhardy6647]

Umm... there's a tape sitting in my family room ready to be mailed to Brampton, ONT in the morning!

This calls for some quick thinking!

FWIW, I am happy to send you my comp. tape (although I guess it may play a l'il fast for you!). It played at what sounded like a reasonable speed on my RT-909, so the TASCAM and the Pioneer are probably either both right or both wrong.

 

[boxoboom]

I think Rick is pulling the plug a bit too soon. Let me send the tape off to Dr Audio Rick .. if it is slow on his deck then I would say that YUP its slow. My RT707 has variable speeds up to 6% and I couldn't get it to sound right. However (check your PM) as I said I thought those A77's had a motor speed control board in them. It could be just a small adjustment to get it back up and running at the proper speed. All you would need is an alignment tape which is not all that hard to make and ship to you ..

Just hate to see someone drop thats all ..

 

[Mr Slabi]

ok. I'l wait till the Doc gets mine and see what happens.
If the speed control is indeed an easy adjustment then I should... (read, should ) be able to knock it off. Remember I'm a nub at this stuff.

Mark. Go ahead and send me your tape. Hopefully my other machine (Akai 4000DS) does not have any speed error, and it will indeed let me know how bad my Revox is. I'd record another tape on the Akai but left side does not record for some reason.

I guess I did jump the gun a bit quick, but after a bad day at the shop I was just ready to throw my arms up.

Thanks guys...I hope it's an easy fix and I don't hold up the play to much!

 

[mhardy6647]

All righty, then. The tape rides tomorrow!

The "no left record" on your AKAI may be a dirty record switch. I've run into this problem a lot on cassette and (gasp) 8-track decks. It's a well documented byproduct of old age. I don't know if it's also an "Achilles' heel" for (mechanical) R2R's, but I wouldn't be surprised.

 

[dr*audio]

I think Rick is pulling the plug a bit too soon. Let me send the tape off to Dr Audio Rick .. if it is slow on his deck then I would say that YUP its slow. My RT707 has variable speeds up to 6% and I couldn't get it to sound right. However (check your PM) as I said I thought those A77's had a motor speed control board in them. It could be just a small adjustment to get it back up and running at the proper speed. All you would need is an alignment tape which is not all that hard to make and ship to you ..

Just hate to see someone drop thats all ..

Steve,
Your tape plays fine on my A-6010. The speed sounds correct to me, and I have the Dixie Dregs cut on CD so I know what it should sound like. BTW, your heads are aligned perfectly. I aligned my decks to an Ampex alignment tape and your tape sounds perfect.
Anyway, you can send the tape on to me if you wish, but I think if it sounds slow on your deck it probably is. This leads me to an interesting thought. Maybe in round 2 we could send out a cal tape to each participant in turn, before recording our tapes. Since I have the alignment tape and the equipment to check the speed of my decks (a frequency counter) I could make a tape with 2 test tones on it: 10KHz to use to adjust your azimuth, and 400Hz to use to check the speed. I would include a CD with the 400 Hz tone recorded on it, and you could compare the tone on the CD to the tone on the tape, and adjust the speed by ear for 0 beat. That way you don't need a frequency counter. what do you all think?

 

[mhardy6647]

That's the way the recording studios used to do it, when they sent out tapes to mastering labs!

 

[Mr Slabi]

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[boxoboom]

Yes I think so to. I have 4 decks and they all played it slow .. but just not to break the chain I am sending it on. I have buried in amongst my stuff ... a calibration tape. I got it when I bought my RT2044 .. it has 10k and a 1k test tones on it. I also have a function generator and a scope ( 20mhz dual trace). I can also make a tape if I can't find my original tape. My original has both quarter track and half track tones on it.

I have yet to locate my old service manual for the old A77 that I had.. Seems to me they had a motor speed control on them .. I know I had two boards as mine had come from a radio station that I worked at. I thought one was for 15 & 7ips and the other for 7 & 3.75ips. Seemed to me that it had a pot on it for fine tuning .. but I can't remember all that clearly and I haven't found the manual. It may have gone the way of the deck. But I don't think so .. I don't throw much away ! It would be nice to help Mr Slabi get his deck in good working order. :thmbsp:

Steve

 

[mushy]

I got a tape from Harry today but don't know what i'm listing to as it didn't have play list.After reading some of you guys replies me thinks me needs to learn a lot more.Hopefully you will tell me what i have done wrong when you get my tape.
Jim

 

[mushy]

PS i forgot to put my routing slip in my tape.I did put a note and playlist and ask for help as i haven't done this in 25 or so years.
Jim

 

[HarryB]

I also forgot the playlist as well. I realised this after I had already mailed it. It was laying on my desk at home.
Sorry for any confusion. I will send a play list with the tape in round 2.

The tape is a mix of Rock music.

Enjoy it. I will try to do better next time.

Harry

 

[Dynacophil]

Yes I think so to. I have 4 decks and they all played it slow .. but just not to break the chain I am sending it on. I have buried in amongst my stuff ... a calibration tape. I got it when I bought my RT2044 .. it has 10k and a 1k test tones on it. I also have a function generator and a scope ( 20mhz dual trace). I can also make a tape if I can't find my original tape. My original has both quarter track and half track tones on it.

I have yet to locate my old service manual for the old A77 that I had.. Seems to me they had a motor speed control on them .. I know I had two boards as mine had come from a radio station that I worked at. I thought one was for 15 & 7ips and the other for 7 & 3.75ips. Seemed to me that it had a pot on it for fine tuning .. but I can't remember all that clearly and I haven't found the manual. It may have gone the way of the deck. But I don't think so .. I don't throw much away ! It would be nice to help Mr Slabi get his deck in good working order. :thmbsp:

Steve

only have a german Servicemanual for A77....
if you want...?
Helge

 

[boxoboom]

only have a german Servicemanual for A77....
if you want...?
Helge

Thanks Helge,

Even tho my Family lineage comes from Germany .. I do not speak nor can I read one lick of german, Hence it would do me no good. Thanks for the offer, I have not been successful in locating mine .. I may have gave it to the person I gave the decks to some 10 odd years ago.

Mr Slabi told me he had a service manual.

 

[Mr Slabi]

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[HarryB]

Hi Everyone,

I just heard from John,

I told him that his tape may have been bad. I just emailed him and told him that I would send his tape back and he can send me another tape. This may delay my sending out a tape .

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up.


Harry

 

[Mr Slabi]

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[dr*audio]

The speed adjustment is on Page 28 of the PDF, which is page 26 of the printed manual.

 

[Mr Slabi]

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[boxoboom]

U R right Warren. P21 is the adjustment that I remember . Rick I can fire you off a tape if you want, of a 1k tone, 10k tone and a 440 (A) tone for reference. But you will have to have either a scope or a freq counter to check it.

I did find my nab tape .. unfortunately it is only done at 15ips. 0 vu @ 1k, 10k then a sweep from 15k to 20k . I cannot hear that high anymore .. I know my RT 2044 will produce it with out fail. Especially with the half track heads.

I was thinking .. if I made an alignment tape, those who wanted could use it to align your decks .. when I send it off once you are done with it send it on to the next guy and so on just like you would with a listening tape. I have the ability to do either half track or quarter track spacing. The tape would be on a 7' Reel. for any and all decks .. at 7.5 ips.

Let me know

I have to mention it is just a wonderful night .. I came home to no electricity do to our early lake effect storm here in W Michigan .. so I went downtown for a cocktail or two. By the time I arrived here back at the house. Power had been restored, It is still snowing :thmbsp: big beautiful wet flakes ... and I have a good glow about me thanks to an adult beverage or three !

Steve

 

[Mr Slabi]

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