demagnetizing

[ditnoj]

EEEEyyywusup!

Saw an old post talking about demagnetizing heads every day:

Why & How?

D out ITNOJ

[Track Rat]

Why? Tape heads become magnetized in the course of recording/playback over time. This can start to erase signal alredy recorded on tape just by playing it back( it starts taking out high freqs first. you'll notice it starting to sound muddy over time).
Buy yourself a de-magnetizer and follow the instructions EXACTLY or you can permanently damage your machine by permanently magnetizing the heads and tape guides. This is a bad thing.

[This message has been edited by Track Rat (edited 06-14-2000).]

[hixmix]

One more reason for me to switch to digtal.

[magicchord]

In my opinion, you don't have to worry about magnetized heads on any good machine made in the last 20 years.
You can certainly use a demagnetizer on your machine as long as you are careful to turn the machine OFF (I would unplug it, just to be safe) and bring the demagnetizer slowly towards the heads in a circular motion, then move it slowly away.
You don't have to demag every day, just whenever you feel you need to

[hixmix]

Not worry about magnatizing heads? Really?

Please explain.

[This message has been edited by hixmix (edited 06-14-2000).]

[Track Rat]

Yes. Please explain that.

[monty]

I think Dragon has some info about that stuff on the homepage. Whatever you do, don't touch the head with your fingernail or Dragon will personally come to your house and beat the livin' shit out of you.

[Dom Franco]

I DON'T CARE HOW NEW your tape deck is!

You NEED to de-magnetize the heads after 20 hours or so! It's just a fact of life... the heads are an electromagnet and the casing and core will become magnetized, as well as surrounding parts...(Any thing ferous)this will effect your tape and future recordings.

Dom Franco

[nomadnz]

If you want serious results you do it everyday. Chimps from the Amazon train up quite well and they're cheap to run. :Þ
Seriously, do it regularly and make sure you slowly move the demagger away from your machine (at least 3 feet) before you turn it off. Unplugging your machine is not a bad idea either, but definitely make sure it is switched off.

[hixmix]

middleman-

I tried what you said above. There was a flash of light. Then a puff of smoke. POOF!
The hard drive vanished into thin air right before my eyes.

[Middleman]

Ok, this is scary, but my brother had a hardrive with a boot sector virus. This is a very bad thing for a computer to have. The drive would not even boot so he calls around and almost every tech said the drive is gone throw it away and buy a new one. All except one old ex-mainframe type who tells him to take two kitchen refrigerator magnets, put one on top and one on the bottom of the drive. He says to keep the magnets on the outside of the platter and away from the circuit board of the drive. Next he told him to rub them in a circle 3 or 4 times.

It demagnatized the drive killing the boot sector and the drive was good as new. He Fdisks, and re-formats and Vuala! The drive works fine now.

From the voodoo jungles of home recording..........

[Middleman]

Did I mention the chant?

Dooh!

Sorry about that drive.

[hixmix]

good riddance

[kristian]

ok so what is the verdict on HOW to demag.. whats the process. i have an old demag wand and no instructions.

later.kz

[monty]

You stick the wand up your ass while your tongue is touching the head. Back your tongue off slowly while you chant "Dennis Miller is on Monday night football". This will make you sick and want to go digital.

[regebro]

Magnetic Reference Labs are the guys who make the reference tapes EVERYBODY is using. These guys know everything there is worth knowing about tape recorders.

Check out http://home.flash.net/~mrltapes/

On this page there is a PDF document called "Demagnetizing a tape recorder". It tells you how it works, how you can check if you have magnetization, and how to demagnetize.

All you need to know in one go.

[Paulie]

Demagnetizing your heads takes less time and is easier than brushing your teeth. Are you guys that lazy. They say the guy that invented the tooth brush was from Maine, anywhere else it would have been called the teeth brush.

[regebro]

Yes, it's quick. But if you do it wrongly, you'll MAGNETIZE stuff instead of demagnetize them, so I can understand people are wary about demagnetizing.