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Yup. The DMP-3 is solid and can't be beat at that price. My only small complaint with mine is that the VU meter lamps aren't working. I'm not sure exactly why. I pulled the case open to see how hard it might be to replace them, but they looked OK. In fact, when I put it back together, one...

That's a piece of it. There is the sonic quality of tracking to tape and a quality of mixing thru a console and then of mixing to tape. Then there is a qualitative difference in the music making process associated with tape versus computer that ranges from the types of brain activity of just...

In addition to my tape machines, I do have a Yamaha AW1600 standalone recorder. It mainly sees use as a portable machine, since it is relatively small, portable and complete if I bring along mikes and headphones. It actually sounds good in a different way and is very handy. I'm careful to...

Tell you what, I'll do a new photo or two of the M-23 2-track. I got some new bulbs, so all the lights work. This time, I"ll also do one with the machine in record mode, with all the bright red lights going. It's rather nice to look at... sounds pretty good, too. Sorry about the MS16...

Obviously, there is a sonic goodness and a way the parts seem to hold together with tape. For a musician, the process advantages (no screen, no plugins, no microediting and copying, etc., etc.) foster a focus on music and performance. I also find it more intuitive and more inspiring, and that...

Do you have extensive experience with the RNP in a setting where you can actually make this kind of evaluation and comparison? I would like to but haven't. However, given my discussions with Mark McQ regarding the RNP and his goals for it and the hi-fi nature of most of his gear, I'd be...

I got 0.490V and 0.691V, respectively. But that was using 1.23V as +4 dBu. Probably the 0.489V answer is correct if you use 1.228V. Cheers, Otto

My bad. I meant to say "Three's Company." Now you gotta admit, that's a hard rap on a fallen archangel! Cheers, Otto

Not so pretty right now! Studio floor is littered with small piles of knobs, pots, jacks, connectors, LEDs, resistors, fuses, switches, bits of cable, unused power supplies, batteries, etc. It will be better once things get put up and away. Cheers, Otto

That's pretty harsh! I never thought of Satan as being that lame. Overly proud, maybe, but lame enough to do Gilligan's Island? Ouch. Cheers, Otto

Funny the effect these discussions can have. Last night I decided to start cleaning up the studio. I started with all the little cups, cans and boxes of spare hardware, cable, connectors and other components plus little circuit cards, etc. About three hours of work got the mikes and...

I still need to get east one of these days. I have a friend who has the early version of one of these (some people call it "A", because later ones were "B" or "C"), and he will let me take it off his hands, provided I show up to collect it. Cheers, Otto

Pretty much always the key question with any machine. The value of the machine is not much different from the value of the heads in most cases (except for old Ampex machines with vacuum tube electronics). Cheers, Otto

Great thread, folks! Here are a few things over the years that have helped me stay (or get back) on track, at least most of the time: 1) Playing live a lot early on and always wanting to be able to play stuff myself, straight through. 2) Noticing that my favorite recordings of my music were...

My belated thanks for the tip! A quick update: I got some fine sandpaper and scuffed the surface of the tach roller today and now it tracks rewind perfectly again. I used very light pressure, rubbing across the surface from the bottom edge to the top edge of the roller (parallel to the axis...

Yup. I had an M-56 8-track, an M-79 4-track and M-79 2-track for about ten years. They are about the best machines ever from an audio perspective. A bit hard on tape, due to their unconventional, Isoloop transport (which also happens to be a part of why they sound good). There are still a...

You can use one, but it's not needed and won't really improve things. Just use the console input gains. Again, 12 dB of gain (-10 dBV to +4dBu) is not going to make a difference in the relative levels of the noise components. The noise level will still be dictated by the tape hiss, and you...

Having to amplify by 12 dB or so should not be a problem. The limiting factor, by far, will be the S/N of the tape playback signal, not the input noise of your console channels. That is, the signal level of the tape hiss will be much larger than the input noise level of the console channel or...

In a word, yes. I'm only using two machines these days, the Otari 8-track and the 3M M-23 2-track. For me, it's mainly a matter of how easily I get the basic sound I want when I track and mix to tape. I have a little Yamaha digital standalone which is just as clever and convenient as can be...

All other things being equal, which they often aren't, you'll have about 3 dB less S/N. You will also have a bit more crosstalk, because the gaps between tracks are much smaller on 1/2" 8-track versus 4-tracks. There may also be other differences that come with the format change, since...