Yamaha 4 track MT100 recording issues

pretsnor

New member
Hello there,

I am troubleshooting a problem I have with a recently purchased used Yamaha MT100 4 track cassette recorder. After a thorough cleaning (also of the heads), I tried recording some guitar lines. I can hear the guitar that I recorded very faintly, but it is overpowered by a noise/hum. It is not a uniform, consistent hum, but it shift around a bit in intensity and pitch.

Any ideas what might cause this? And how to solve it :)?

Cheers,

Pretsnor
 
Not offhand, but to help narrow it down - does it do that on all four tracks or just one of them?
Posting a link to a recording of the sound might help too, though it's possible you might have to have made 5 posts on the forum before it will let you include a link.
 
Thanks for your input. I will check other channels as well. The problem was there on other channels, but after cleaning I only checked channel 1.

I think a sound clip is a good idea. Let's contribute to some other topics to get to the 5 posts.

One thing to consider is that I found out that the power supply is not the original power supply (although I was told it was...), and gives only half the A this product needs (0,5 A instead of 1 A). Do you think this could be the reason for this recording noise?
 
No, but I wonder about polarity of the supply. When possible could you put up a pic of the power jack on the unit and some pics of the power supply?
 
The PSU could well be the cause of much of your problems!

Now..PLEASE tell me you have a digital multi meter?! Now pop out to RadShak or similar and buy a 12 Ohm 10 watt power resistor. Finagle the resistor into to power plug and check the PSU's voltage delivery. N.B. Resistor will get bloody hot! You really need 2 pairs of hands to do this or, buy a power co ax socket and solder the R to that.

So loaded, if that PSU does not deliver AT LEAST 12 volts it is not good enough and the electronics will be 'riding' on ripple and motor hash.

If all this seems a bit 'techincal' and a lot of bother? Well, YOU chose to mess with legacy kit! Now you have to learn about the things some of us grew up with. And, you think THIS is a bother? See the efforts Sweetbeats is pouring into his mixer project!

Oh, and 12V at an amp is about the second most common PSU about (after 5V@1A) but don't buy the very cheapest you can find, in fact going up to 2 amps is a good idea.

Dave.
 
Thanks for your input people!

I checked other channels and they all have the same problem.

Here's a sound clip: click

And here are pics of the power supply and plug: click

ecc83, your comment is indeed a bit technical for and I do realize that I chose to work with old stuff. But I enjoy the troubleshooting and I learn a lot from people like you on this forum. I do not have a multi meter at hand here, but I will be sure to check out a new PSU (although a good one I have seen online costs as much as I paid for this machine....!).

I do have two other issues apart from my recording issue. I will share them here just in case someone has an idea:

1) Sometimes, my machine stops listening to the tape transport controls (stop, play, fast forward, rewind) completely. The only solution so far is to turn it off and on again. Also a power issue perhaps?

2) For my musical project I want to record on tape loops (within cassettes). The problem is that my 4 track stops playing my loop after +- 5 seconds, and I narrowed the problem down to the left tape reel. When playing a normal tape, this one follows the right tape reel and there is no problem. However, my loops do not have the power to move the left tape reel, my machine then notices that, and stops playing. If I slowly turn the left reel bij hand while the loop is playing, it continues without a problem :). Is there any way to overrule this stopping behaviour?

Thanks again for your help and I hope we can get a bit further on these issues now!
 
The very first thing you should do is look at the back of the MT100 at identify the power supply it needs: how many volts, how many amps.

The find a power supply that will deliver the requirements.

Then you can start trouble-shooting other issues (if they still exist)
 
Hi there, sorry for my late response. I was finishing my MSc thesis. Now I am back to making music, and the first thing I did was purchase a proper power supply for my 4 track. It fixed my recording noise problem! Very happy about that.

However, my loop problem is still there. Any ideas about this?

2) For my musical project I want to record on tape loops (within cassettes). The problem is that my 4 track stops playing my loop after +- 5 seconds, and I narrowed the problem down to the left tape reel. When playing a normal tape, this one follows the right tape reel and there is no problem. However, my loops do not have the power to move the left tape reel, my machine then notices that, and stops playing. If I slowly turn the left reel bij hand while the loop is playing, it continues without a problem :). Is there any way to overrule this stopping behaviour?

Thanks again for your help and I hope we can get a bit further on these issues now!
 
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