All I want for Christmas is my MSR back

[Seeker of Rock]

My tech tells me that a couple of the Dolby amp cards were bad on my MSR-16. They were also marked with an X in marker, so someone knew about it, likely the guy a bought it from on ebay, a sound engineer in San Francisco area that ebays by the name of "nob turner", Gary M. by name (forget the last name but have it written somewhere). Buyer beware of this guy.

Anyway, the tech ordered capacitors or transistors (sorry for my lack of electronic knowledge) or both, and believes these are a likely culprit and they can be replaced, thus repairing the faulty cards or signal path through them. If this doesn't work, and after pondering getting another deck and selling this without NR fully functioning or (gulp) purchasing an Alesis HD24, I think I will learn to deal with it via grouping the "good" cards into the front 10 channels and the three bad ones on chs 12-16, recording onto the "good" Dolby channels and bouncing tracks. Or maybe explore not using NR at all. I haven't recorded a lot on the MSR since I got it, but what recording I've done without the NR buttons engaged surprisingly didn't seem too noisy. My tech says another option is to buy an outboard 2 channel NR unit and only use NR during mixdown to two tracks.

Any thoughts or similar experiences you might offer?
Unfortunately I won't get this back until after the new year, and my fingers are crossed that all will be well after the tech does his magic and NR will be fully functional on all channels again. Even if not, I can't part with the machine. I dig the sound too much.

Oh yeah, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza, Happy Holidays, Happy Festivus to everyone!

 

[EDAN]

Unlike my old 388, my TSR-8 requires you press the NR button every time you turn it on if you want to use it. Needless to say more often than not I simply forget and thus end up recording with no NR at all. There is a little hiss, but overall I've never re-recorded a good take or song simply because I forgot to engage the NR. It's a balance, you do lose a little when recording using the NR, it helps with the noise but also muddies things up a little, at least that's what these ears tell me. Sounds become thicker, rounder etc. Usually a little EQ can compensate and in the end I would say it's worth it, but it's not the end all.

Now, I read something very interesting somewhere were a trick the old timers used to do on pro recordings was record with NR (early Dolby) then playback and record to the master with Dolby turned off because it gives you more presence, punch and sparkle .. also a lot more hiss. I've tried this and on some instruments this technique works well within a mix. The down side is most home machines have the NR on several tracks at once, so maybe the drums really shine when you disengage Dolby on playback but the guitars sound thin over trebly and hurt the ears. Anyway, all the best with your MSR, hope she comes back better than new!

 

[Beck]

The Dolby trick (record with/play w/out) was also used on certain tracks for bright, airy background vocals like you hear with Abba and the Carpenters, among others. Listen to the Carpenters “Close to You.” That was Dolby A, but I’m sure B or C would work just as well. It would be a good use for an old TEAC AN-80 or something.

As for regular tracking I would definitely get the NR on the MSR fixed whatever it takes. If you ever notice some altering of the sound with Dolby or DBX with the MSR/TSR, then things have drifted. The DBX on the TSR is especially tight and transparent from the factory. Same with Dolby C on the Fostex E-16. Electronics can drift over time, so there are sure to be quite a few decks out there with misaligned NR if they’ve never been serviced.

 

[A Reel Person]

I'd just hope for you to get it fixed, once and for all.

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