Adjusting Hiss on Otari Mx5050BQii

[Jzoha18]

Hello, after rigging up those cables and starting recording i have noticed that channel 1 and 4 on this deck is slightly more hissy than channel 2 and 3 with channel 1 being the most hissy. I am aware this deck was biased for the tape i used and calibrated but since the controls to adjust this are right on the deck i would like some advice on what i would have to bias or calibrate to adjust and lower the hiss on this decks first channel and even out the noise across all 4 channels?

 

[Chilljam]

What tape are you using?

Unless it's something physical (like dirty tape heads or worn heads), excessive hiss is a byproduct of either your repro/record levels being out or your record bias.

You'll need a calibration tape (MRL sell these for about US$140 new) and calibrate the machine as per instructions in the manual.

You should get a multimeter that accurate up to 1kHz at the minimum (for basic calibration, you really only need this to check that your VU meters are accurate ie. 0dB @ 1kHz on the meters corresponds to 1.23V).

Otari MX5050 should have in-built 1kHz and 10kHz tone generators (at least my ones do) so once you have the MRL tape and a multimeter, are can do the whole calibration yourself.