Fostex Model 20 Issues

D

drew9783

New member
Hey everyone, new guy here. I just bought a Fostex Model 20 reel to reel machine that I'm hoping to add to my home studio for mastering. I've got a bunch of used and new 7 inch reels to record on so I'm stoked to start using it. However I'm having some small issues. Firstly, whenever I play back a prerecorded tape using the repro head, I get a nice balanced sound from both the left and right channels. However when I record my own audio to tape, the right channel comes in fine and the left channel seems to be much quieter. I've been sure to check the input levels and get them as equal as possible on both channels, so I'm not sure why this is happening. In addition to that, any time that I record with the machine for longer than a few minutes and try to play back, the playback head gets muffled, although this is probably just the nature of the older tape I'm using right now. Any suggestions? I really like this machine and I think it would add a lot to my recordings. It works great but even cleaning off the heads doesn't seem to solve the issue.

I also want to add that I've successfully made a recording of one song where both channels sound fine, so I'm guessing something is up with the record head?
 
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Have you looked at the heads to see how worn they are?

Are you getting sticky tape residue?

Has the machine been calibrated?
 
Forget that used tape. I made a mess out of my model 20 trying to use some used tape that I should have just thrown in the trash. Now days I don't trust any tape over about ten years old or if I don't know the tapes history. Just one reel of old tape gave me a 8 or 10 hour cleaning job. I even had to remove the pinch roller to get all the goop off of it. If cleaning isn't helping it sounds like you might be due for a trip to the tech. Good luck with your new machine.
 
Did you demag? Also, there are calibration pots for rec levels etc. They're all on the bottom inside the unit so check out the manual for how to get at them. I haven't personally done this (I have the model 80), but I've read a lot about it and it seems like when people weren't getting the rec level at a good volume on a certain track it was because of that. I can't imagine it being different on that machine. Who knows though. Worth a look into at least.
 
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