Fostex Model 80 1/4" 8-track QUESTIONS

K

K.C. Maloney

New member
I just got my hands on an excellent condition Fostex Model 80 1/4" 8-track reel to reel tape machine. I ordered the manual online, but while I wait for it to come in the mail, I was wondering if anybody knows where the tape alignment adjustments are located on this machine. I have worked in studios and have a lot of experience aligning 24 track Studers and Otaris, but I've never used any Fostex machines and I don't see any possible place where alignment adjustments would be located. I'm not asking for a step by step walkthrough or anything, I just want to know where the controls would be located.

Also, a few of the LED lights on the track meters have burnt out. Does anybody know if they can be replaced, and if so, can you recommend any decent (and I stress decent!) repair shops around the Los Angeles area that can handle restoring this great machine to full, perfect working order?
 
I just got a Model 80 today myself, and as a bonus, it has the manual. All the adjustment pots are located behind the metal panel on the bottom of the unit. There are four little plastic rivets holding the panel on, and as near as I could figure, squeezing and pulling them with a pair of pliers is the way to remove them.

I'm having some trouble getting decent recording levels from my machine: everything looks rosy when checking the input levels, but the playback is very quiet. I'm hoping it's just some gunk...
 
Now that I have my manual and know that the Model 80 DOES require head calibration/alignment, I can safely tell you that if your playback levels are lower than they should be, the playback head probably needs alignment.

This can be done with the right MRL tape (tape with various sine wave test tones). All you have to do is playback the tape just like you would any tape. While it plays back, you have to look at your playback meters. For each channel, like you said, there are playback alignment adjustment pots located under a panel on the back of the machine. It's just a matter of turning those nobs until you see your tone playback level hit 0db on your meters. Make sure you adjust the correct knobs; some of the knobs are for very technical stuff that would only screw the machine up if you are not a technician.

Record head alignment is done in a similar fashion, although you must send particular tones from an external device (at -10db) and record these tones on a blank tape; when you play them back, if they don't hit zero db, then you have to adjust them like you would the playback knobs.

Of course, this is just a very general explanation. It's all in the manual, though, so I'm sure you won't have any problems. Having tape heads out of alignment can make your deck sound like crap. I bet a lot of people probably thought that their machine was broken or something. And, I bet if those same people went to get their deck repaired, the repair shop probably lied and agreed that it was broken and charged hundreds of dollars to "fix" the deck when it only needed to be aligned, which takes about 10 minutes. Choose your repair personel wisely, in my experience I have found that most of them are very shady people who will rip you off every chance they get. Having a pro tape machine without a manual is a very frustrating problem. I feel so much better now that i have the operations and technical manual.

The hardest part, probably, is finding the right MRL tape. The model 80 requires an MRL-21J103 playback alignment tape, manufactured by Magnetic Reference Labs. It can also use a Fostex Model 9100A Tape or a BASF 45513/2 Calibration Tape , but both these are no longer made and are very hard to come by, used or new. MRL still produces the required tape, but they charge $90 for it! If you think thats bad, for 2", 24 trk machines, they charge around $700 for the required tape. You can safely say they have a monopoly on their hands.
 
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Well, I gave the machine a very detailed cleaning last night and loaded a brand new reel of 457 and things look much better. I have a cheap Behringer mixer with a test tone that I set at zero db on the meters and then worked through recording on each of the tracks. Everything played back at zero, except track 1 which dropped off slightly, so it probably needs some tweaking. Two odd things I've noticed though:

1. The zero return function of the deck tends to drift. I was recording 60 seconds of the test tone on each track, then zero returning, and recording the next track, but by the end, tracks 1 thru 7 were finished before track 8, when I thought they'd all end at 60 seconds. I think the total length of the test by the end was more like 70 seconds.

2. The lower 4 LEDs on track 5 don't light, which isn't a big deal, but if the levels on track 6 are pushed all the way to +6, the meter actually folds back on itself and leaves the top LED unlit, which makes it look like the signal is at +4 when in fact it may accidentally be much higher. Again not a big deal, but having to second guess the meter is a pain.

Any thoughts? Oh, and any recommendations for a de-mag?

Cheers.
 
Yeah, some of my meter lights are out and I've noticed that with cetain levels of signal, it does some weird things (like the meter foldback you explained). I don't quite understand it all yet, but all I can say is, always have an external device with a reliable meter when monitoring or recording to the 80. Any decent mixer would do, or in my case, I use the meters on my various rack gear. Besides, I'm only using this machine to record certain tracks as analog; I then record that track back into Pro Tools and mix, edit, and apply outboard fx there. The good thing about DAWs is that you don't have to worry about your meter lights going out (well, at least I hope so!).

The zero return function probably isn't that accurate, especially on gear like an 8-track. Even with huge, expensive, 24-track machines, I have never seen a 100% accurate zero return function without the use of SMPTE time code syncing. It always is off by a few seconds. I wouldn't trust that function when doing anything important.

As for your problem on track 1, I would really have to see the problem in person to assess it, but a little alignment knob tweaking is probably in order.

I'm not gonna attempt any alignment on my own machine until I get the MRL tape I order yesterday. MRL said that I should recieve it on Tuesday, so I'll be sure to post my results,

As for a de-magnetizer, I purchased the Teac E-3 Head Demagnetizer at a local audiophile specialty store. It was a little pricey, at $53, but it worked like a charm. Although I didn't even attempt to load tape on my machine until I cleaned and demagnetized the heads, I assume it worked perfectly as I've had no problems with recording or playback as of yet.

What's funny is that my tape machine used to belong to Scott Weiland (of Stone Temple Pilots). My friend who gave this to me, is a good friend of a guy who worked on Scott Weiland's solo album. I knew someone like Scott Weiland would probably never clean, demagnetize, or align his machine, so I didn't want to chance ruining a new blank tape by assuming that the machine was clean and all. Besides, before I cleaned everything, I could visable see magnetic residue on the heads and rollers.

The good thing is that Scott Weiland probably bought the machine brand new, back in the early-mid 90's, which means that I'm only the second owner to use this machine. In addition, he probably had unlimited access to major recording studios at the time to record his material so this machine was probably only used for recording song ideas or home demos. The heads on this machine probably don't have anywhere near the amount of hourly usage compared to a machine that was an amatuer recordist/engineer's main or only means of recording. And from the exceptional sound quality of this particular tape machine, I'm pretty sure that this is true.
 
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Interesting side note!!

Scott Weiland!! Wow!! You might assume a scroungey, strung-out heroine rocker might not keep his machine in spotless condition,... but you never know! He might have a quirky neat-streak!?!?! ...(used clean needles, I bet!) :eek:
 
Lol!

Who knows, but with that kind of shady reputation, I wasn't ABOUT to take any chances.

Although, maybe the heroin made him really ENJOY cleaning and demagnetizing his tape machine and he did it all the time. You never know with these weirdos!

I grew up in Pasadena, CA , the same place where Scott Weiland lived right before he got all famous. I used to see him at the grocery store down the street called Louis Foods. He worked in the butcher department, I believe. When Stone Temple Pilot's first video aired on MTV, my friends and I were all dumbfounded because we totally recognized him from the store; I had just seen him packaging hamburger meat a week or two prior. And now, I have his tape machine! It's a small world.
 
That's a great story, and I think your assumptions about his care and feeding of the machine are probably pretty accurate. Hopefully he was having too much fun to care about the mundane requirements of demagnetizing! I bet there is tons of quality, low use equipment out there that was owned by dudes with big fat advances and no real use for the equipment once they got it.

Thanks for the de-mag recommendation.
 
i'm having problems with my model 80

i have the fostex model 80 reel to reel 8 track (and the 16 channell mixer as well) and i just turned it on today for the first time in a week or soo and the motor wouldnt work. all the lights came on (except for the track selector) but when i pressed the play or rewind or stop buttons, nothing would happen. at first it jumped a little (but for just a second), and now it just won't spin. has anyone heard of this problem? is there anyone who could possibly repair this??
 
Fostex Model 80

Hmm...

I too have a Fostex Model 80 and i have BOTH complete user and service manuals in PDF format :D

I do all of my high quality recordings on this machine and it is great.
Also the heads last a VERY long time in this machine.

why...

Easy, when the tape is set to fast wind there is a guide post which moves the tape away from the heads so that the tape doesn't generate friction on the heads.

This design is where other tape recorders failed ESPECIALY the Ferograph series 7 and Logic 7.

These machines when made new failed badly on the market because many customers were complaining about premature head wear. And also on some machines the rubber idler wheels and pinch rollers didn't last long either.

The only issue i have with my model 80 is that tracks 1 and 2 are not supplying any output, input works fine.

And as far as replacing the led's in the track meters.

I ordered the Led's and soldered them myself
i was lucky that only 4 had gone on tacks 3 5 and 8

so with those replaced all is good.

If anyone needs a copy of the user and service manual i will be happy to email it as an attachment.

The Fostex Model 80 is the BEST choice for any home recording studio :D

User Manual........17 Pages
Service manual....73 Pages

See this thread for details on my setup :D

https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=208306

Hope this info helps

Keith
 
Fostex Model 80 Information

nonamaker.

On the left and right side of the machine there are 2 small guide rollers.

These have automatic stop switches attached to them from inside the machine.

When you lift either one the capstan motor should spin up. Also the tape transport functions will NOT work unless these are lifted up.

If nothing happens when you lift these ie: none of the motors spin up then it could be a problem with the switches or the motors themselves.

Try lifting these small rollers and let me know what happens.

If you want i can photograph and upload images of the wiring for these switches and the wire connections for the motors.

Hope this info helps

Keith
 
krhall said:
Hmm...

I too have a Fostex Model 80 and i have BOTH complete user and service manuals in PDF format :D
...

If anyone needs a copy of the user and service manual i will be happy to email it as an attachment.

The Fostex Model 80 is the BEST choice for any home recording studio :D

User Manual........17 Pages
Service manual....73 Pages

...

Hope this info helps

Keith
Click to expand...


Anybody else have this service manual? I could really use it, thanks!
Nick
 
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Holy shit! Finally some other Model 80 owners!

I got one too, fellas. She's a beauty. Also have an external transport control and punch in pedal. Got lucky and came across a buy with a lot of accessories.

What are the chances one of you fellas would wanna come off a MRL tape?
 
Damn, man, I have one that's been sitting in my garage for over 8 years :) I keep meaning to dust it off. I bought it way back in the 80's. I still have some unopened tapes for it too :)

I also have the original owner's manual. Heck, I probably still have the origina linvoice too :)
 
What do we have here?

What luck!

I just stumbled on the service manual in convenient online pdf form...

(www) ***.filefactory.com/file/6da386/n/Fostex_M80_sm_pdf

enjoy
 
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