Extremely loud hum when recording reel to reel tape into DAW help!

braltmann

New member
Hi all,

I'm having an issue when recording sound from an old portable National solid state 401s reel-to-reel tape recorder. I'm a noob so hoping this is some obvious and easy solve!

I can record from the tape into Audacity for several seconds, sometimes a minute or more before a loud bassy warbly hum comes in suddenly making the recording barely audible. Sometimes it's really really loud and bassy, other times it's like an odd warbly underwater sound which takes over the audio on the tape. I can rewind the tape and re-record a section and get a different result every time. It's not the tape itself, because when I listen through the built in speaker on the tape unit it sounds fine.

FYI I'm using an old Behringer U-control device I had lying around which has stereo ins and running from the tape player's 3.5mm external speaker output. The sound is bad but I'm just messing around.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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Any chance you could attach an MP3 clip of the hum? The spectral content will tell me the likely source.

The Berry (UCA202?) will be entirely adequate for tape dubbing but they have a maximum input of around 1volt rms so some attenuation might be required in the feed. A 10k log stereo pot in a tin will serve admirably.

Dave.
 
Hi all,

I'm having an issue when recording sound from an old portable National solid state 401s reel-to-reel tape recorder. I'm a noob so hoping this is some obvious and easy solve!

I can record from the tape into Audacity...


Since that recorder only has an "External Speaker" output...first make sure there is not something bad with that....plug it into some kind of monitor device.
I assume it's still a line level kind of out and not an actual "speaker" connection....IOW...it needs to go to an amp, and then an external speaker.

If it plays fine connected to an external speaker setup...your problem is in Audacity...and looking at that full-tilt, flat-line sound wave image...it looks like some kind of feedback loop issue.
If it was variable, then it might be some signal quality issue.
 
I am suspecting an earth / ground loop. However I think you will find that the speaker output is an amplified output not a line level out. You could try turning the volume control right down on the National so you don't overdrive the behringer?

Alan.
 
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