Cleaning etc.

[F_cksia]

Hey
I bought this old but good-working Tascam 244 Portastudio and the manual said for about 100 times that I have to clean it very well, every day and demagnetize it and whatever. Is it really that important? and can I use just toiletpaper or something, i don't feel like to do too much effort for it, but i really want to keep my recordings as best as possible. For all tascam-users; how do you clean your machine/ tips?
thanks
fucksia

[Blue Bear Sound]

"I want the best recording possible, but can I clean my unit with toilet paper..."

Hmmm... where do start? Yikes!

Bruce

[F_cksia]

okay i agree that didn't sound very logical, it was just sarcasm.
Anyway you didn't answer anything. Could you please write something usefull down? Thanks.

[Blue Bear Sound]

Both cleaning and demag is required... cleaning is advisable about every 50 hours or so... demagnetzing is not as problematic, once a month should be more than enough....

No you can't use toilet paper -- get yourself some premoistened cleaning pads (from a studio supplier) and some swabs... use only 90% (or better) isopropyl alcohol... rubbing alcohol is NOT good enough... it contains too much water which will damage the head ('cos it won't evaporate quickly enough, and also 'cos it will leave a residue...)

You need to carefully clean all surfaces of the tape path, including all pinch rollers, and heads... by the way, you shouldn't use alcohol on the pinch rollers - there is a special rubber cleaner for that - alcohol will dry out the roller and cause cracking..........

Bruce

[F_cksia]

Ok thanx
and could you please also explain a bit about demagnetizing or something, I haven't got a clue what that's about.

[Blue Bear Sound]

The process of passing the metal tape particles over the heads during record/play induces a small amount of magnetism to the heads, affecting the heads' ability to reproduce high-frequency signals. A demagnetizer is a device that removes any residual head magnetism.

There is a manual device that work for reel-to-reel and other analog recorders, but for convenience, and since you are cassette-based, the cassette-oriented units will work just fine - they're about $30-$40 dollars at any audio store... these ones require the least effort to use...

Bruce