Degaussing/demagnatizing

D

dirk_demon

New member
Hi!

I posted this in the newbies section, but mr. Texroadkill advised me to put it over here... maybe I'll get better results here.

I have a 2nd hand TASCAM 424 mkII, and it came with a cassette-tape like degaussing-device. NOT a head cleaner, but a degaussing-device. I was wondering if any of you guys/gals would know if this is a good alternative for the handheld degaussing-thing, shaped like a soldering gun.

When I put the cassette in I press play and let it roll for a couple of seconds. When it's rolling a little red light (LED) is on. There is nothing rolling in the cassette, I mean there is no tape in it. When you press play the heads of the TASCAM will press a spring, connected to a circuit board in the cassette. There is a little battery in the cassette, I think it's for the LED.

I was wondering if any of you have experience with this kind of thing, good or bad. Like all daddies I want the best for my little baby! As a matter of fact, I think I hear her crying now! I'm gone!

Thanks already!
Dirk Demon
 
In my analog days, I was a fanatic about degaussing heads, tape guides, and anything ferrous that the tape might come near enough to to be influenced by the stray fields. I had a couple of different handheld degaussers- one with a teeny little probe for the cassette machines, and a much larger unit (the Annis Handi-Mag) for the big open-reel machines. Clean, degauss, align for the day's tape: that was just the morning ritual. We never pulled tape without first getting the machines clean and ready.

I don't care for the cassette-style degaussers like you have- I don't think that they actually do very much because of their weak magnetic field, and I have never seen one that does the guides as well. In my experience, the guides could easily be as big a problem as the heads!

There are a bunch of FAQs on the web on cassette transport cleaning and demagging. Speaking strictly for myself, I'd prefer to manually clean all the interesting parts, and then manually demag- only in that way could I tell that it'd been done right.

But having said that- *any* demagging is arguably better than none at all! So keep the battery fresh in your little cassette demagger (it provides the energy to run the AC demag coil, it doesn't just turn on the LED), and use it often. Your mileage may vary: but there is no question that for analog recording clean, demagged heads and tape guides will produce better results than crufty ones...

Just found this. http://www.maginst.com/Annis Products.html The "Notes on Demagnetizing" that come with the Annis are required reading for all analog recording engineers...
 
Thanks Skippy!

I always clean/demag before each recording session, I'm neat picky with my TASCAM. I think the demag-tape does some work, but it could be better so I'll get a bigger, handheld-one. This was just the confirmation I needed!

Dirk Demon
 
Just to play devil's advocate:

I asked the same question in the SOS forum a while back. Here's the reply I received from Hugh Robjohns, SOS Technical Editor:

"Since tape heads rely on magnetism to 'read' the audio signal, and sicne they can be partically magnetised by the passing of magnetic material, de-gaussing is something that may be required occasionally. A word of warning though, if you use a degausser int he wrong way you will end up magnetising the machine rather than de-magnetising it, and make the situation far worse!
However, unless you suspect a problem (excessive hiss, or very poor high frequency response for example) I wouldn't get too worried about it. TDK used to make a nice automated degausser but I doubt it is still available.


If I were you I'd just get on and enjoy making music.

Hugh"


This was sort of the reply I wanted having found it impossible to find a proper degausser. For the moment I'm doing without. If I see one though I'll probably buy it.
 
Sure- you definitely can get along without demagging the heads and guides. And if you really screw up the procedure, you absolutely can make it worse. To my way of thinking, that's no reason to avoid learning to do it right: it is far from rocket science, and it is a very useful discipline to incorporate into your working style.

You don't *have* to realign and rebias the tape machine for the current batch of tape, either- but if you intend to extract the maximum performance from the machine, you do that too. If you have a 2" machine and paying clients, you do it *religiously*.

Cleaning and demagging is just one of a number of steps you can take to elevate the output of an amateur home studio towards more professional results. If your studio is just a songwriter's scratchpad, then who possibly cares? By all means, just get on with making music if that's the case! But if you intend to do more with the recording- perhaps producing a short-run demo, or something of that nature- it's wise to learn to do this, and to do it well. And if you are taking someone else's money with the agreement that you will produce work that they can then distribute, you do it every morning before the power switch goes on...
 
Absolutely. No argument. High end gear needs taking care of properly. I think Mr. Robjohns reply took into account the fact that I was using a Tascam 424. If I was recording to 2" tape the response would have been different I think.

That said if I can find a proper degausser I'm going to buy one and use it, even on my lowly Tascam.
 
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