How's my demag technique?

sweetbeats

sweetbeats

Reel deep thoughts...
Please watch this 8.5Mb video. In it I demonstrate some of my demagging techniques for your critique.

as you'll see in the video, I'm wondering:
  • if I'm advancing too quickly
  • if I'm supposed to slowly wobble the tip as I advance
  • how I'm supposed to move from tape path component to component (slowly sweep across them all, or slowly loop from one to the next)
  • and anything else you can see.
 
From my experience, you don't need to start quite so far away - 2 or 3 feet is fine. I tend to close in a bit faster, and I wave the wand back and forth across the plane of the tape travel. You do need to demag any and all metal tape transport parts. I will back the wand off after each part I am demagging... not all the way back, but say 8 to 10 inches and then back in to the next component. Once I complete the process I pull away and THEN turn off the wand. I don't think the 'wobbling' helps or hurts to be honest.


AK
 
The link is working...

I just checked.

Anybody else having trouble downloading or viewing the video?
 
More questions...

AK, thanks for your post.

  • So how long do you keep the tip of the probe near each component of the tape path?
  • Do you touch the probe to the component (I'm using a Han-D-Mag with the probe covered...I know if it is a demag unit with exposed probes you never want to touch them to anything...)?
  • Do you move the tip of the probe around when it is at a component to cover the the whole part (i.e. do you move at around the whole face of a head for instance)?
 
Yeah don't let the bare probe touch - no worries with Handi-mag. I make sure I cover the entire surface of the head, basically following along each channel path. You likely will feel a vibration. I generally keep the unit close to the head for 10-15 seconds... bear in mind I have never actually timed myself. I would say when demagging the 4-track Otari - which had some strange noises on Track 4 - I probably spent 30-45 seconds on each head. You might try moving in with the Handi-mag and thoroughly covering one head then pulling away and shutting the unit off, then repeating for each head. I am looking through my notes etc to see if there is a better set of instructions for demagnetizing.



AK
 
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