Tascam 22-4 Problems

rene-lemieux

rene-lemieux

Member
I've owned this machine for a good 3 years now, and its never given me any issues, but yestrday when I turned it on, it would not record a signal well. It was either too quiet, or just really awful sounding. I don't know whats happening, the last time i turned it on, it seemed to be working fine. The one thing I noticed also is that the tracks that previousley had been recording on the tape i was using seemed very low fidelity as well, very muffled sounding.

Where do you think this issue begins? Could it just be dirty heads?
 
OK, a little more insight:

I just cleaned the machine and demagnetized the heads to the best of my ability, and I am having the same problems.

Also, the outer tracks (1 and 4) seem to be suffering a lot more from sound deterioration than the middle 2 (2 and 3), if that helps.
 
Weird. Sure it's not the mixer?

I'm not sure what could go wonky that would affect all the tracks. Either got to be in the tape path or maybe the power supply?

Are you sure the heads are clean? If you had a tape go sticky, that stuff can really gum up the machine.
 
Im not using a mixer, but going from my pre direct through a patch bay. The weird part is that it was working last time i used it. I cleaned it up real good using 99% isopropyl alch, its clean. Like I said, the middle track record nicely. I'll play with it a little more, see whats up.
 
I'm thinking the tape may be the problem as well. Sounds like typical SSS. Could be something else, but the tape is the first thing to look at.
 
rene-lemieux said:
Whats SSS mean anyway?
Click to expand...

Sticky-Shed Syndrome... it’s a breakdown of a urethane binder that caused problems for several brands and types of tape through most of 1994. There’s all kinds of tape out there from different manufacturers that’s afflicted by it.
 
SSS ha! There's only one way to learn, and thats ask!

The brand and numbers on my box are:

SONY ulh-7-550-BL

I've recorded over this tape many many times, so it's likely that it's deteriorated none the less. However, its sudden loss in quality still stuns me.
 
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