sweetbeats
Reel deep thoughts...
So I have a machine that calls for a -5dB 315Hz reference tone for calibrating playback level. We are talking about Akai MG series, so proprietary tape stock and cassette format etc...cal tapes are OOOOOBER rare, okay?
Thanks to j.harv for spotting a set of Akai cal tapes on eBay for the MG series machines. The trick is the full set of cal tapes for those machines is a set of 5 tapes. The set I bought has 3 of the 5 tapes. One of the missing tapes isn't that big a deal...the wow & flutter test tape for the slow transport speed. The other tape that's missing is...
[drum roll]
...the 315Hz playback level tape. The closest tape in the bunch is a -5dB 1KHz tape. So I could certainly use that to calibrate the playback level, but I think it's safe to presume the machine's response curve is such that the reference tone reproduced at 315Hz is either louder or quieter than 1KHz.
In order to use the 1KHz tape and get as close to the level set by the 315Hz tape that is missing, I was thinking of (when I actually get around to getting one of my two MG1212 units working) recording 315Hz at -5dB across all tracks, and then doing the same with 1KHz, and then comparing the playback levels between the two tones on each track, and then finding the average difference...I'd then use the result as a ballpark amount to offset (either louder or quieter as appropriate) the reference playback level from the 1KHz tape.
I'm thinking that would get me close enough. What do you all think? Am I out of my gourd?
Thanks to j.harv for spotting a set of Akai cal tapes on eBay for the MG series machines. The trick is the full set of cal tapes for those machines is a set of 5 tapes. The set I bought has 3 of the 5 tapes. One of the missing tapes isn't that big a deal...the wow & flutter test tape for the slow transport speed. The other tape that's missing is...
[drum roll]
...the 315Hz playback level tape. The closest tape in the bunch is a -5dB 1KHz tape. So I could certainly use that to calibrate the playback level, but I think it's safe to presume the machine's response curve is such that the reference tone reproduced at 315Hz is either louder or quieter than 1KHz.
In order to use the 1KHz tape and get as close to the level set by the 315Hz tape that is missing, I was thinking of (when I actually get around to getting one of my two MG1212 units working) recording 315Hz at -5dB across all tracks, and then doing the same with 1KHz, and then comparing the playback levels between the two tones on each track, and then finding the average difference...I'd then use the result as a ballpark amount to offset (either louder or quieter as appropriate) the reference playback level from the 1KHz tape.
I'm thinking that would get me close enough. What do you all think? Am I out of my gourd?