In the middle of my first analog drum session...

[pappy999]

I am on a break in my first analog drums session with my tsr-8. After about 2 hours of recording approx. 15 mins of material (multiple rewinds and plays) tape hiss was mor audible. I guess this is from the heads getting dirty with all the tape running over it, right? I cleaned the heads real quick. We will see how the rest of the session goes.

[_DK]

This doesn't sound right. What kind of tape are you using?

[SteveM]

Originally Posted by pappy999

I am on a break in my first analog drums session with my tsr-8. After about 2 hours of recording approx. 15 mins of material (multiple rewinds and plays) tape hiss was mor audible. I guess this is from the heads getting dirty with all the tape running over it, right? I cleaned the heads real quick. We will see how the rest of the session goes.

If you're using noise reduction there shouldn't be any tape hiss. If you're not then you should still be able to do multiple takes without much variance, if any at all.

[pappy999]

I tried a few takes without noise reduction. I like having the bdx off better. The sound is more full to my ears. I am using rmg 991 tape.

[Beck]

You mean RMGI 911?

More hiss will be audible as you add tracks, since each track has its own background hiss.

Degaussing your heads and tape path will reduce hiss.

I’ve always used noise gates since I can remember. Not for each track, but on program or stereo buss during mixdown. If the hiss is masked by the drums once they get going, all you have to be concerned about is the hiss before the music starts. With a good gate the music will jump out of dead silence. However, with my current studio I happily use dbx (TSR-8) with no problems, so my gates are for cumulative circuit hiss from the board, effects, synths and such. The TSR-8 has excellent dbx NR... better than most. If its not sounding right it probably needs calibration.

IMO, one of the best stereo gates out there is the vintage Behringer (made in Germany) SNR202 Denoiser. It’s between my stereo buss and mixdown deck. Forget about the newer Chinese made denoisers though. They’re not the same thing and the new Behringer is not the same company.