Just got a TASCAM 388! Weird Tape Noise - Please Help!

[Chris8301]

Hi Everybody,

This is my first time posting on the forum... I recently got my hands on a Tascam 388 and wanted to give a try recording solely with my ears (get away from tracking with my eyes) for a bit!

I have a couple basic 'tape questions' I was hoping I could pose to all you experts out there...

Firstly, I recently took some mixes I did in Logic and tried to do a stereo tape dump into the Tascam, and back into my DAW to try and warm up the mixes... When I listened back to what was captured on the tape, I heard a distinct weird wobble type sound (I'm going to attach a small sound clip example) of what could probably be a million things, I was hoping you pros might know right off the bat.

View attachment Weird Tape Sound.mp3


Bonus Questions I've been wondering:
1. Should I even bother erasing and recording over used tape?
2. How many times is TOO many times trying to record over a botched take?
3. Will repeated attempts at overdubbing lessen the fidelity or wear out the tape?

 

[jpmorris]

Not hearing any obvious wobble - that usually refers to the pitch varying. If it's happening I don't know the recorded material well enough to know. Recording a sinewave is better for that kind of thing.

What I can hear sounds like dropout, i.e. the signal fades out occasionally. Edge tracks (1 and 8) are more prone to that happening, but it can be caused by other things as well, including dirt on the heads and bad tape, or the tape wandering up and down on a narrowtrack machine like this.

What kind of tape did you use?

With the bonus questions:
1. Is it your own tape? If it's random stuff off ebay that's very much a minefield.
2. I can end up doing a dozen or more attempts, depending on what it is and how badly I'm doing at it.
3. If you get into the hundreds or thousands of replays, yes. The act of playing the recording back disturbs the field slightly, so you can end up dulling the recording over time. And yes, if you play the same piece of tape enough, it will eventually wear out the recording surface. But you'll have to be doing that intensively for months on end.

 

[Chris8301]

Not hearing any obvious wobble - that usually refers to the pitch varying.

What kind of tape did you use?

I'm going to upload a digital reference of another part, and the tape 'issue' that seems to feel like a rhythmic volume drop. I put the L and R channel into inputs 1 & 2.

The tape was vintage, used, and erased by me using a reel to reel demagnetizer. I had swabbed the heads and demagnetized them before dumping out of my DAW onto Tape.

See if these two samples give you better reference. I really appreciate you taking the time to listen and help me trouble shoot this.

I was hearing the same thing on brand new tape, i was attempting to record drums and I recorded over the same part of tape maybe 30 times in a couple hours and I started to hear some funky stuff in the quality of what was being recorded.

Here's the digtal reference: View attachment Digital Reference.mp3

Here's that same clip on the tape machine: View attachment Tape Issue.mp3

It's easier to hear on sustained parts because of the rhythmic cycle of the issue.