Interference when recording

[paltogue]

Hi there,

hope this is not an overly dumb question, but I've been encountering the same problem when recording speech using a DAT recorder, and when digitizing reel-to-reel recordings onto my computer.

First, the DAT problem: on some recordings I've done recently, there has been a lot of hissing, which builds up very quickly and sometimes just dies off straight away. Previous to that, the recordings were as clean as a whistle.

The same problem has recently begun when I've been digitizing reel-to-reels - one day it was fine, giving hiss free wav files, the next there is lots of hissing which often rises very quickly in volume and similarly can drop off suddenly.

Any thoughts about what to do about this, and is it a problem with dirty or magnetized heads?

Thanks,

Pal.

 

[Monkey Allen]

It could be that...what is your recording set up?

 

[paltogue]

DAT setup:

Tascam DAT recorder (DA-P1), Eagle unidirectional electret condenser boundary mic. Mono recording.

REEL-to-REEL setup:

Tandberg (two track series 15) reel-to-reel, connected to 'tuner' points on Sherwood amp (with cheap lead); amp connected from VCR out to Realtek AC97 soundcard (with cheap lead), recording done on Wavepad.

Thanks,

Warren.