Telex Copyette 1-2-3 tape duplication help (crackling sounds)

**blankettruth** · 11-28-2009

HELLO! I run a cassette tape label called Lost Sound Tapes and I duplicate all of my cassettes at home. I've had a Telex Copyette for 2-ish years now and had absolutely no problems with it until last week. I've duplicated about 1500 tapes on this machine.

I have a new tape to dupe and the copies being produced are now crackly and scratchy sounding. They sound as if the master was from an old record, not a bad sound it's just not what the master sounds like! Most people probably wouldn't even notice as it is a faint sound, but it's driving me up the wall when I listen back. I even tried duplicating from a master I've used with no problem in the past and it has the same results. I've also tried duplicating onto different cassettes. The ones I've been using lately are the 731 series tapes from National Audio Company.

So I purchased a cheapo head demagetizer from ebay and ran that over the heads (it has a rubber tip on it to protect). Also, I got one of those head cleaner cassettes from radio shack but realized it probably wouldn't work right on such a high speed machine (16x playback). So I just put the cleaning fluid on a q-tip and swabbed all of the heads/capstans + let them dry.

Still I'm having the same problems and I have 6 different cassettes to dub 100 copies of! Yikes! Maybe the heads need to be replaced finally? I bought the duplicator used and the previous owner did use it some, so I dunno. Maybe y'all have had a problem like this in the past? Any help in the right direction would be very very much appreciated.

**Tim Gillett** · 11-29-2009

I serviced these Telex copiers for many years.

Can you upload a sample and place a link to it here? Much easier to identify the problem with an actual audio sample to go by.

Cheers Tim

**blankettruth** · 11-29-2009

Okay, I will upload a sample. Thanks for your help! I'll post it on here tomorrow.

**blankettruth** · 11-30-2009

Original cassette dub
http://www.lostsoundtapes.com/files/madeline1.mp3

New cassette dub with some crackling
http://www.lostsoundtapes.com/files/madeline2.mp3

Let me know if I should just get over this or if there's something I can do.

**Tim Gillett** · 11-30-2009

Jon, the main difference I can hear between the two samples is an occasional subdued clicking or ticking sound on the second one.

I once saw a ticking problem with certain Maxell cassettes used in a Telex copier which turned out to be caused by static electricity buildup as the tape wound through. The solution was to change to a different brand of tape.

But for this one I'm not sure. Could be motor brush noise, static electricity, some sort of external interference getting into the signal etc.

I do notice the recording is quite muffled and lacking in highs. This means the ticking sound will be more prominent as there are no other "highs" in the music recording to mask it. High speed copiers used to get a beating and unless serviced regularly could get to sounding muffled.

Cheers Tim

**jedblue** · 11-30-2009

It's noticible enough to be annoying and to want to do something about I think Jon.

I've got an old Telex Copier IV that's still operable. I don't use it much but I'll dig it out and put something through and see if there's any evidence of what we can hear on madeline2. When I got that old machine ($20 off eBay) it was as muffled and wonkitated as all heck but after some fairly agressive head cleaning, demagging and internal pot twiddling (in a manner that'd make Tim cringe I suspect), it doesn't do too bad a job now. Tim's point about static build up is interesting. I've never experienced that that I've noticed before. What length cassettes are you using?

Also, I take it you mean that the 'original cassette dub / madeline1' is one made on the machine before it developed the static problem?

Geoff

**blankettruth** · 12-03-2009

Yeah, the clicking and ticking is the problem I'm trying to fix. I'll admit that these tapes are not the very highest quality of tapes so the highs probably won't be very apparent.

So you guys think it sounds like a static issue?

The weird thing is that I've dubbed a few different tapes lately and some albums do it, some do not. They have all been from masters on the same kind of tape though and dubbed on the same tape deck.

Madeline 1 was indeed made on the machine before it developed any sort of problem.

**dshadasas** · 12-03-2009

I once saw a ticking problem with certain Maxell cassettes used in a Telex copier which turned out to be caused by static electricity buildup as the tape wound through. The solution was to change to a different brand of tape.

**Tim Gillett** · 12-03-2009

Originally Posted by dshadasas

I once saw a ticking problem with certain Maxell cassettes used in a Telex copier which turned out to be caused by static electricity buildup as the tape wound through. The solution was to change to a different brand of tape.

Hey this sounds interesting. I've never heard of that problem before...

**blankettruth** · 12-03-2009

The weird part is that the tapes I'm having a problem with and the tapes that are working fine are all the same brand and series.

Here's a better example (maybe) than the Madeline one.

This is another tape that is giving me fits... It definitely has more present popping and crackling.

Audio sample from a duplicated tape:
http://www.lostsoundtapes.com/files/andrewmello1.mp3

Source file:
http://www.lostsoundtapes.com/files/andrewmello2.mp3