Teac 80-8 [Project](Newbie)

[ecc83]

Ok, you will press on with the tape machine but I think your very first purchase should be a reel of suitable tape? I for one would be VERY frustrated if I could not do test recordings!

Mixer: I have an A&H Zed 10 and have no complaints at all but, think what your future recording/mixing MO is going to be? Obviously any mixer has to have at least 8 mic inputs (assuming you will do 8 live tracks at times) but you also need to monitor 8 replay channels and mix them. That is a lot of capability in one mixer and it might be best to consider an 8 mic mixer plus a line level only mixer? Or, you could route replay channels back to a mixer via a patch bay?

Dave.

 

[skywaveTDR]

Part of the problem may be the way you are feeding the 80-8 input. They belong on the Buss outs or Aux out which is the same connection in parallel. The Direct out may be causing a feedback loop in certain modes.
As long as the mixer is working then there is no need to replace it. The same goes for the tape. If you can record a sine wave signal on the tape and switch to Monitor and see if the tape level wavers a lot- more than 2 dB. Edge tracks are the least reliable but to buy a new tape such as SM911 and find out the same condition occurs will be a disappointment. Usually if tape has edge damage from picking it up compressing the flanges and bending over the tape edges that tape will show the damage. I pick up reels using the hub and outer edge of the flange. That way the edges if in a badly wound condition will not get bent over.
The relays in this old machine can also a problem but then first correct the deck input to the right output on the mixer.

 

[CSP]

Before you decide to sell the recorder GET RID of the Ampex 456 tape. Although it was the industry standard in the 1970's, it has turned out to be an absolute disaster (hundreds of thousands of master tapes have been lost because of this tape and a similar one by Scotch).

Just be carefull, Ampex changed its name to something like Quantagy after the 456 disaster, so be weary of this brand also. So long ago that I have forgotten the actual name.

In my studio, we were very lucky in that we only ever used EMI tape and after 45+ years the tapes are still in pristine condition and the material recorded on them is if recorded only yesterday.

The fact that you say that you have to constantly clean the machine and oxide is shedding, is exactly what happens with 456 tape and Scotch tapes (Scotch 406 tape could possibly be OK from memory).

Try to get yourself some EMI or Basif tape as neither of these had the shedding problem, clean the tape heads, guides, pinch-roller, etc two or three times to be sure they are all completely clean and then try a recording using the new tape.

You could find that your recording problem has been solved, however if tracks 1 & 8 are still playing up a bit, I would take the machine to someone who knows how to do it correctly and have the heads completely re-aligned. Remember that the outside heads seem to wear out first, so it could also pay to possibly have the heads re-lapped.

A old trick was to always record the bass and kick drum on the two outside tracks, as because of their low frequency they are the instruments least effected by alignment type problems. Remember there are two factors in alignment namely Azimuth and Zenith and both need to be perfect. Where Azimuth refers to the measure of the angle between the tape heads and the physical tape itself, the ideal being a perfectly perpendicular 90º and Zenith is the alignment of the head in the same plane as the tape.

I have found a very good video demonstrating these two functions and it could well be worth watching:

https://www.torridheatstudios.com/videos/Tape Head Alignment Terms.avi

You may have to cut/paste the above URL as it wouldn't hyper-link

Hope that all of the above helps a bit.

David

 

[jpmorris]

Before you decide to sell the recorder GET RID of the Ampex 456 tape. Although it was the industry standard in the 1970's, it has turned out to be an absolute disaster (hundreds of thousands of master tapes have been lost because of this tape and a similar one by Scotch).
Just be carefull, Ampex changed its name to something like Quantagy after the 456 disaster, so be weary of this brand also. So long ago that I have forgotten the actual name.

Depends on the date, really. They have a problem from about 1975-1994. Ampex tape dated 1995 or later should be OK, Quantegy tape should be good too since they changed their name around 2000. The problem chiefly affects 406/407 and 456/457. Ampex 499 and GP9 aren't susceptible. Vintage 406 prior to 1975 should be OK as well.

For existing sticky-shed stock it is possible to recover the contents by baking it in a controlled manner and transferring the audio to a new tape or digitizing it. But that's not something you'd want to do for a new recording.

 

[jamesperrett]

Depends on the date, really. They have a problem from about 1975-1994. Ampex tape dated 1995 or later should be OK, Quantegy tape should be good too since they changed their name around 2000. The problem chiefly affects 406/407 and 456/457. Ampex 499 and GP9 aren't susceptible. Vintage 406 prior to 1975 should be OK as well.

I've found that ALL Ampex tapes are starting to shed - it simply isn't worth risking it when there is perfectly good RTM tape available new. That Ampex tape is going to be the source of many of the OP's problems. Ampex claimed to have fixed the shedding problem in the mid 80's yet newer tapes are now shedding so I wouldn't trust them to have ever fixed the problem.