Recent content by Uli_the_Grasso

Can you describe what an Akai M8 looks like and features? I have never heard of this machine.

Some people use a Tascam deck, I do not use a Revox machine but a Wintel PC, an Akai stereo 4-track 7-1/2-ips machine and a Telefunken T9 which weights 130 pounds (without case - the case adds another 80 pounds) and offers 30 ips tape speed.

Dear Cjacek, For the playback head is not involved, even tape decks with only two heads can do the simul-sync operation. For example, late (1988-1998) Tascam or Fostex multitrack machines, even the 24-trackers, had only two heads. Uli

Why not use a spring scale on a lever? Frankly, when servicing a standard tape machine I not even measure tape tension at all. I hear for the reproduction of trebles and modulation noise, feel the tension with my finger and watch tape transport. One time with a full spool and another time with...

Dear Tom, if the machine was not used, it is still calibrated. It is head wear and a de-adjusted tape path which change electrical parameters. The worst problem often is a worn tape path. Some servicing might be necessary. Unless the tape runs evenly and smoothly, without producing much shed...

If it is really a 2-track machine, it should have a decent S/N ratio. The A77 does not have interlocked transport buttons, therefore the tape can become damaged if you do not press stop between fast and play/rec transport. Furthermore it lacks a pause button, and some users report audible...

>Popular music is mostly rage, lust and despair -- nothing higher than any animal could feel. If it just was that! But music is dead.

Most iron oxide tapes do not differ much but stay within a 1dB margin. But when you have a crome oxide or a sterling iron tape, you will hear the difference at once, because the bias set on your machine will be totally off.

Record a signal to ch 7 and turn around the tape and listen! Try both playback modes, i.e. sync and repro!

I guess that LEM is European. Most mixers that I serviced were much easier to open than that Tascam. Tascam cut a corner or two, indeed, but in the seventies there was no competition. Tascam was a newcomer and had no competitors in the market of feature-loaden 8-4-2 mixers for 3000 bucks...

I serviced an old LEM solid-state power mixer. No op-amps. No protection circuitry and relays in the power amplifier. Electronics could be accessed in running state in 10 seconds. Not perfect but simple. The Teac 80-8 which I serviced used RC4558 op-amps which are not bad, much better than...

The M-3500 uses 22 KOhms coal film resistors for the series resistors of the busses. (http://www.cellardweller.com/mods.html) "Replacing all the crappy TL072's with NE5532's... I did that to my old M3700 myself..." (http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/m/11633/0) Bullshit! Tascam did...

Folks, you are talking nonsense. Tascam used operational amplifier chips already in the seventies. The problem is that at this time no dedicated audio op-amp type was available. 709? 741? NE5532 came in 1978 and initially was very expensive. Therefore, many vintage Tascam mixers are noisy RF...

Have you thoroughly looked for dirt? Do you have a sound head demagnetizing tool?

I know them Akais. They have a first-class tape transport and fine sound heads but sometimes lazy electronics, that is that the record amplifier clips still before tape saturation is reached in the trebles. Does your Akai have a built-in mixer? Else, you can mix in the air. It is astonishing...