Calibration for 80-8

man-bot

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Just wanted to see if there was any point in calibrating what I can on my 80-8 without having an MRL tape...

I have a proper true RMS voltmeter (an escort-2010) and I have an oscillator on my Soundcraft Series 2, I just haven't shelled out for the MRL tape yet.

I was goign to do some aligning of the meters on my board this weekend and though I may be able to do at least something with the 80-8...

Any answers greatly appreciated!
 
Just wanted to see if there was any point in calibrating what I can on my 80-8 without having an MRL tape...

I have a proper true RMS voltmeter (an escort-2010) and I have an oscillator on my Soundcraft Series 2, I just haven't shelled out for the MRL tape yet.

I was goign to do some aligning of the meters on my board this weekend and though I may be able to do at least something with the 80-8...

Any answers greatly appreciated!

Don't mess with it without a proper calibration tape.
 
You can calibrate the input levels and the meters without the tape and typically Teac has those as the first couple steps anyway.
 
Same sad story for me too.

That's about as far as I have gotten with my 80-8 as well. :(

I'd like to find a good calibration tape too but they are just so expensive and used ones are usually questionable in terms of how honest the seller is about care, and whether or not it is sticky.

I was able to calibrate the inputs using signals generated in Protools. I also got a new reel of RMG SM911 to use instead of the Ampex 456 that I found had fallen victim to the sticky shed mess. I could never figure out if I had set the bias right for it or not.

I've sort of given up on my poor 80-8 at least for now while I am at college for this semester. I got frustrated when trying to rig it up with the matching DBX noise reduction unit that came with no cable...


I wish I could use it for more serious recordings too. :(:o
 
You can calibrate the input levels and the meters without the tape and typically Teac has those as the first couple steps anyway.

Other than calibrating the meter, doing anything else without a test tape is rather pointless. You need to do the input side all over again once the play & record/sync heads and associated electronics are lined up right.

As I recall, you need an extender card for the electronics to get to all the trimmers. The meters on the 80-8 are frequency weighted and are useless for accurate calibration because of it. The venerable MB-20 meter bridge doesn't have this problem - BTW.
 
Well I'll have to wait until I pick up the calibration tape then.

My meters are fairly accurate right now (they line up @ 0dbu on the 80-8 when I send a 1k tone measuring 0dbu from my board). My board meters are a little off between the busses... but they are pretty close.

The input levels and bias seem to be pretty close (around +3) as I don't get that tape fuzz until the meters are pinned using 911... so makes sense to me there.

My biggest issue is that the first channel has no top end, either on the sync or monitor head. Now the monitor head does have a gap on track 1 so that is understandable but the sync head is fine... I'm sure it has to do with the EQ calibration on the channel but I don't want to go messing with it if I really need the tape.

It'll just have to wait for now!

I am loving the 80-8 so far though... tracking drums has never sounded so good with my crap kit (using recorderman set up). They just sound bigger than when I was all digital... gits seem to mesh nicer as well.
 
Well I'll have to wait until I pick up the calibration tape then.

My meters are fairly accurate right now (they line up @ 0dbu on the 80-8 when I send a 1k tone measuring 0dbu from my board). My board meters are a little off between the busses... but they are pretty close.

The input levels and bias seem to be pretty close (around +3) as I don't get that tape fuzz until the meters are pinned using 911... so makes sense to me there.

My biggest issue is that the first channel has no top end, either on the sync or monitor head. Now the monitor head does have a gap on track 1 so that is understandable but the sync head is fine... I'm sure it has to do with the EQ calibration on the channel but I don't want to go messing with it if I really need the tape.

It'll just have to wait for now!

Re: 80-8 meters - they are only accurate @ 1Khz
Re: Channel 1 - the lack of top end could be the heads themselves or a simple electronics alignment @ either the play or record electronics. Maybe even both. A kludge way of checking now would be to record a 10khz on track 8 and then turn the tape over to see how it plays on track 1. If the play is bad, the problem is somewhere in the playback side. If it's good, you know the record chain is the likely culprit.
 
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My track 1 and track 8 on my 80-8 are lacking in presence a bit too.

When I first got my 80-8 last year I was told that the tracks that record to the edges of the tape don't run as steadily across the heads and that it is normal for there to be a little less highs on those tracks because of it? I was told that bass guitar, and kick drums are popular choices for those edge tracks?

Maybe your unit is lacking more than "just a little highs" though.

Hearing about another person trying to get an 80-8 running well again makes me miss my analog setup :( I hope you get it running man! ;)
 
My track 1 and track 8 on my 80-8 are lacking in presence a bit too.

When I first got my 80-8 last year I was told that the tracks that record to the edges of the tape don't run as steadily across the heads and that it is normal for there to be a little less highs on those tracks because of it? I was told that bass guitar, and kick drums are popular choices for those edge tracks?

Maybe your unit is lacking more than "just a little highs" though.

Hearing about another person trying to get an 80-8 running well again makes me miss my analog setup :( I hope you get it running man! ;)

All of the outside tracks on any multi-track start out with the same performance as all the others but because of their physical location, the edges wear faster and thus lose performance.
 
So the performance loss comes with head-wear, and not just the physical location? I guess you learn something new everyday! Just shows how much of a noob I still am at analog.

Does it only happen with un-even headwear? Does the frequency response come back with a head relap?
 
You want to cal the input level first and then the meters...do it the other way around and any changes to the input level calibration will effect the meters.
 
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