I've been trying to record for about a year. I get A LOT of tape noise and am looking for ways to reduce it. I have mid-line Vestax four tracker and record everything direct via a few SM57s, a Zoom 1010 and a few other guitar pedals. I know the pedals are noisy, but it's tape noise I'm trying to contend with. What about de-magnatizing my heads if needed? An external pre-amp? Some sort of phantom power thingy to increase the signal going into the machine? I know it's never going to sound great (or even really good), but I would like to know what my options are as I learn how to do this stuff. Thanks a lot and keep on rockin'!!!!