Hey All,
Been awhile. So I’ve been out of the recording game for a good bit. Went from recording on multiple hand held cassette recorders to boom boxes, vcrs, upgrading to cassette 4-track to 1/2” tape to 1” tape before the kids and career came along. I sold everything but my trusty Marantz PMD740, in which, I’d say now in hindsight, I experienced the height of my creativity in recording and have my fondest memories.
Now the kids have shown interest in playing and recording music. “Oh really?!?” I said. “Let me show you something super cool!”.
I get out the old Marantz, eager to show off the color-changing VU’s and spinning tape, my huge 70’s Pioneer headphones. Only to find, it barely works. The kids sat patiently while I swapped cords, mics, cleaned heads, wiggled knobs...until they lost interest and moved on ?.
It seems it has multiple issues. I’m leaning toward buying another unit rather than trying to fix it (btw, I’m also building a simple Mac-based setup). But, I figured I’d describe the symptoms and see if anyone recognized a realistic / simple fix.
Here’s what it’s doing:
Channels 1 and 2 mic pre have horrible buzzing on top of normal mic pre gain and sound quality.
*Buzz is not 60hz hum. I had that, too but it was due to the 4 track sitting on top of my power amp. Distinct difference. This buzz is more like a sawtooth.
Channel 3 mic pre has super low mic pre output. Barely audible. No buzz.
Channel 4 mic pre works fine. (The VU is frozen though)
All 4 channels line-in seem fine, normal gain and no buzz.
Playback seems a tad muddled, but that could be me not being used to cassette with dbx.
Transport working great.
I popped the lid and accessed the circuit board, finding nothing that looked out of the ordinary. No burned spots, signs of leaky caps, loose ribbon cables. I disconnected and reconnected all of them just in case there was some corrosion.
That’s all I got. Anyone have amy troubleshooting tips? Shop manual? Anyone here work on these things?
I suppose I could creatively route through channel 4 mic pre, line ins, external pre to still make recording happen, but I really wanted it to just work so the kids could learn to operate it on their own. I also wanted to use the mixer section to control live sound so they could “jam”.
Super bummed. Any help or advice appreciated. Should I just not bother with this can of worms and buy something already refurbed? I want to start them on cassette. Why? I don’t know. Like science class, they make you start the hard and long way so you understand how it works. Maybe that’s why. Or maybe I just miss 4-tracking on my old Marantz...
Been awhile. So I’ve been out of the recording game for a good bit. Went from recording on multiple hand held cassette recorders to boom boxes, vcrs, upgrading to cassette 4-track to 1/2” tape to 1” tape before the kids and career came along. I sold everything but my trusty Marantz PMD740, in which, I’d say now in hindsight, I experienced the height of my creativity in recording and have my fondest memories.
Now the kids have shown interest in playing and recording music. “Oh really?!?” I said. “Let me show you something super cool!”.
I get out the old Marantz, eager to show off the color-changing VU’s and spinning tape, my huge 70’s Pioneer headphones. Only to find, it barely works. The kids sat patiently while I swapped cords, mics, cleaned heads, wiggled knobs...until they lost interest and moved on ?.
It seems it has multiple issues. I’m leaning toward buying another unit rather than trying to fix it (btw, I’m also building a simple Mac-based setup). But, I figured I’d describe the symptoms and see if anyone recognized a realistic / simple fix.
Here’s what it’s doing:
Channels 1 and 2 mic pre have horrible buzzing on top of normal mic pre gain and sound quality.
*Buzz is not 60hz hum. I had that, too but it was due to the 4 track sitting on top of my power amp. Distinct difference. This buzz is more like a sawtooth.
Channel 3 mic pre has super low mic pre output. Barely audible. No buzz.
Channel 4 mic pre works fine. (The VU is frozen though)
All 4 channels line-in seem fine, normal gain and no buzz.
Playback seems a tad muddled, but that could be me not being used to cassette with dbx.
Transport working great.
I popped the lid and accessed the circuit board, finding nothing that looked out of the ordinary. No burned spots, signs of leaky caps, loose ribbon cables. I disconnected and reconnected all of them just in case there was some corrosion.
That’s all I got. Anyone have amy troubleshooting tips? Shop manual? Anyone here work on these things?
I suppose I could creatively route through channel 4 mic pre, line ins, external pre to still make recording happen, but I really wanted it to just work so the kids could learn to operate it on their own. I also wanted to use the mixer section to control live sound so they could “jam”.
Super bummed. Any help or advice appreciated. Should I just not bother with this can of worms and buy something already refurbed? I want to start them on cassette. Why? I don’t know. Like science class, they make you start the hard and long way so you understand how it works. Maybe that’s why. Or maybe I just miss 4-tracking on my old Marantz...
