Ever lose an already-recorded track after cleaning/demagging?

[WhinyLittleRunt]

I thought this was odd -

I recorded a miked, acoustic guitar track to track 3 of my Tascam 38. Dubbed in some Rhodes, fake drums, bass etc... everything was playing back fine. I was noticing the repro head was only working with certain tracks, but the sync with all. so just on a whim I decided to de-mag the heads again and clean them up. After I was done I put the reel back on, turned on the machine and my recorded track 3 was gone ?! I tested signal to the machine to make sure I didn't kill a head and it seemed fine (activity on the VU) - how could I have lost a track on tape? The meter doesn't even blink for track 3 but the rest are there.

 

[nate_dennis]

have you tried another reel on that same machine? A reel that you KNOW has somethign on that track? Cause if you don't have it on that reel either, then it's a problem with the playback head (I would think.)



(I'm no pro, just guessing.)

 

[RRuskin]

I thought this was odd -

I recorded a miked, acoustic guitar track to track 3 of my Tascam 38. Dubbed in some Rhodes, fake drums, bass etc... everything was playing back fine. I was noticing the repro head was only working with certain tracks, but the sync with all. so just on a whim I decided to de-mag the heads again and clean them up. After I was done I put the reel back on, turned on the machine and my recorded track 3 was gone ?! I tested signal to the machine to make sure I didn't kill a head and it seemed fine (activity on the VU) - how could I have lost a track on tape? The meter doesn't even blink for track 3 but the rest are there.

This won't help your missing track problem but the repro head on the 38 as well as all 3-head TASCAM multi-tracks beginning with the 80-8, is meant to be used primarily for alignment purposes. Once the machines are calibrated, all playbacks are to be done on the sync head. In fact, the sync and repro heads are the same.

 

[The Ghost of FM]

It doesn't sound like a head problem at all. It sounds more like a bad connection on the channel 3 card which might be fixed by jiggling or re-seating the card or if that fails, then possibly a bad relay as when you switch between sync and repro, a series of relays are employed to switch the signal path. Relays and oxidized connectors between circuit boards are a fairly common problem.

So this means opening up the bottom cover of the 38 to get to the channel cards and you'll need to have the deck laying on its back to do that. Your manual, if you have it, will help you to identify the offending card and/or relay.

Cheers!

 

[grimtraveller]

Never had anything like that in analog....but on a digital standalone, 2 or 3 times it's happened that a recorded track has disappeared. What's even more weird is that not only did it once work, I backed it up to disc and reloaded it and it worked. Then a week later, it was gone !
I think it was the tooth fairy as my kids had blown her cover !

 

[thinbrownline]

Try mounting your tape upside down, so that the supply reel goes to the takeup side and vice versa. Now see if track 6 still has your recording (albeit in reverse).

Regards


David

 

[WhinyLittleRunt]

It's interesting though that the VU meter works for track 3... I haven;t gotten around to messing with it yet or even sending audio to track 3 and seeing if it works....

In fact, the sync and repro heads are the same.

I realize this; I just fliped back and fourth hoping my track would reappear!