Appreciate all the replies. I am a little bummed about the condition of the heads as the owner oversold its condition. But im going to try to get it running soon and will see if a maxwell reel i got works while i wait for fresh tape. Will be off work round 3 and will post it set up and what im getting!
Need some help setting up a 4 Track Reel to Reel to a Tascam Mixer
- Thread starter Jzoha18
- Start date
Appreciate all the replies. I am a little bummed about the condition of the heads as the owner oversold its condition. But im going to try to get it running soon and will see if a maxwell reel i got works while i wait for fresh tape. Will be off work round 3 and will post it set up and what im getting!
garww
New member
You can do some baseline runs before you finish cleaning the tape path
Can you elaborate on what you mean baselines
sweetbeats
Reel deep thoughts...
Why are you bummed? You have no reason to think there's a problem with the heads. Clean it thoroughly *before* trying fresh tape.
garww
New member
Well, keep in mind that I am only objecting to the idea of "serious" recording. I'm a beggar, and beggars can only be so choosy according to their wallet and understanding of what good heads are. The machine i use for 2-track wouldn't be good enough for broadcast. Here, I can avoid sonic trouble : )
I'm not getting the dirty heads on your machine, unless the kids were playing with it. I think the layer still evident after cleaning shows that its old, old dirt
sweetbeats
Reel deep thoughts...
That looks like tape shed, maybe some old, and some new, but the tape path looks to be promising IMO once the shed is cleaned off. That's my unprofessional opinion based on the picture. YMMV, "some restrictions apply", usual disclaimers. I'm just saying let's get it cleaned up before we worry there's a bigger problem.
That picture was prior to cleaning just so you know. It looks better now and i wasnt under the allusion that a first generation fostex 4 track 1/4" machine was going to be sonically incredible or anything. Im curious if it is more pleasing then my tascam 424mkiii that is in near mint condition but still just a super refined cassette 4 track with dbx and thus limited compared to reel to reel setups. Ive heard they are better and ive heard they are near identical. I plan on a 8 track machine with wider tape in the future if this machine doesn't satisfy. But i still need to get my feet wet with this before any of that! But the reason i chose this deck was because a few albums from an artist i met and dig tracked his albums on the A8 which is this machine with 4 additional tracks. And after mastering his stuff sounded great!
Heres a track of it that inspired the purchase
YouTube
garww
New member
Well, I think we went though this recently with a Fostex DeMarco connection;
https://homerecording.com/bbs/gener...-compression-393961/?highlight=fostex+demarco
If I'm not mistaken
https://homerecording.com/bbs/gener...-compression-393961/?highlight=fostex+demarco
If I'm not mistaken
Alright i tested it. The maxell was a master but was very fresh. The clean heads and non shedding tape caused the majority of noise to go away and recordings are being reproduced now that sound clear. Now i have to figure out the mixer for a simple overdubbing multitrack work flow. Any advice for my mixer?
garww
New member
Well, record some freq sweeps at two of your choice level settings and take a quick gander in your DAW with the Frequency Analyzer in plot node.
JRF has a page on tape heads - worn heads half way down;
JRF Magnetic Sciences: Tape Heads-An Introduction
Got me on the 208. My 6-channel 106 does the 4-track and 2-track together easy enough
JRF has a page on tape heads - worn heads half way down;
JRF Magnetic Sciences: Tape Heads-An Introduction
Got me on the 208. My 6-channel 106 does the 4-track and 2-track together easy enough
sweetbeats
Reel deep thoughts...
So can you give me a specific scenario and I can walk you through how to have the mixer setup?
Like you have tracks 1 and 2 recorded and you want to overdub onto track 3 or something like that?
I can record track 1 but when i go to make an overdub they play out of sync for some reason. I should be able to record all 4 Tracks from channel one with panning adjustments?
sweetbeats
Reel deep thoughts...
Yes, by assigning mixer channel 1 to the different program groups (using the assign buttons and pan control), you can route one mixer channel to any or all tape tracks.
Your issue with audio being out of sync is because when you are overdubbing, the pre-recorded tracks need to be played back from the middle head (that's the record head, but it can also reproduce tracks in sync mode). I suspect what is happening is you are reproducing the track you want to play along with and overdubbing the reproduce head (the third head). Do you have the manual for the A4?
Your issue with audio being out of sync is because when you are overdubbing, the pre-recorded tracks need to be played back from the middle head (that's the record head, but it can also reproduce tracks in sync mode). I suspect what is happening is you are reproducing the track you want to play along with and overdubbing the reproduce head (the third head). Do you have the manual for the A4?
Does the machine have a 'sync' mode? That is where you monitor from the record head (trk 1 say) and lay down track 2. If you don't have this facility, track building will be a pain. 30years ago my son had the same problem (recording guitar to a cassette) but we solved it (a bit!) when I acquired a hi fi sound VCR. Thus he could dump 2 track onto that then play along with those and record more onto cassette. Hi fi VCR gave virtually no quality reduction.
Much later he dumped over to a computer running a M-A 2496.
Ah! I see you are MUCH faster on the QWERTY than this old valve jockey Beats!
Dave.
sweetbeats
Reel deep thoughts...
Lol!
Thumbs on an iPhone, Dave.
Read the manual.
Jzoha18 make sure the TAPE MON switch is in the unlatched (up) position when overdubbing. Does that help?
Thumbs on an iPhone, Dave.
Read the manual.
Jzoha18 make sure the TAPE MON switch is in the unlatched (up) position when overdubbing. Does that help?
garww
New member
Ya, it sounded like play head back with your initial post. You took a pic of the head block, so we know you know the heads positions 1, 2, 3 : )
If there is a sync function, play just gets passed to the position 2 head - I guess ?? your cassette is 2-head ??
My MONO Telefunken from 1960 lets me sync, so get up to date, bud : )
Yes i have the manual and it has a button for sync and reproduction
It does. The only other thing im noticing is that my levels for play back have to be at 7-8+ on the faders for any reasonable plsyback volume. Is this an issue with just using mixer with small active monitors? Im predicting mixing down being tricky with most faders being up. Let me be clear i don't think this is a defect because the playback is clear. A video from my phone through the line in jack was very full vs the sm57 into the mic in. I guess its time to hook up a direct box or my ART Tube Mic Pre to beef up the recordings? I still might be using something wrong on the mixer that i will read through again today. Really appreciate all this help