Fostex A2---Analog Newbie

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PHILANDDON

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Hey all,

I finally did. Went out and bought an analog deck on ebay. This one's the Fostex A2. It was advertised as half-inch, but it came with two quarter-inch reels and an empty reel so I guess it's quarter inch deck. No matter, quater inch should be more than enough fidelity for me for a two track machine. It powers up fine and looks good. Now....

WHAT DO I DO?

How do I put the tape on? On which side (left or right side of the recorder, i.e. when facing the recorder), do I put the reel of tape on? How do I thread the tape? I'm sorry these are moron questions, I know. Anyone know where I can get a manual to the A2. I looked at Fostex's website but no luck.

Thanks.
 
Cool. Yeah, the A2's 1/4", heh heh.

1) You place the full reel on the left side, with the tape winding CCW off the left side of the reel. Threading from Left-to-Right:

2) You loop the tape UNDER the LEFT tension roller.

3) Up and OVER the Left Idler roller.

4) UNDER the headstack and tape guides. The head rfi cover-thingy should be RETRACTED.

5) The tape then goes BETWEEN the capstan and pinchwheel.

6) Up and OVER the Right idler roller.

7) UNDER the RIGHT tension roller.

8) The tape then travels UP and winds onto the takeup reel in CCW rotation, onto the RIGHT side of the reel.

Also see:
https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=94596&highlight=388+tape

NOTE: that the FIRST picture on this thread is threaded WRONG. The diagram is correct, and the pictures at the BOTTOM are CORRECT.
 
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Someone's knocking at the door. Someone's ringing the bell.

Do me a favor, open the door & let 'em in!
Phil and Don?
Let'em in!
;)
 
Hey everyone, especially Dave, thanks for the tips on threading my recorder. I did it..it worked!!

Sounds very good. Better than digital. Bigger, louder, smoother. But you already know that. A couple of quick questions:

When I put a mic into my preamp everything sounded fine. But my DI'd acoustic guitar sounded REALLY buzzy. Could be my pickup, but it's been fine in the past.

Where should I be metering? Occasional red? Or does it depend what I'm going for....here it's folk/country singing w/guitar. Where should the input knobs (same thing as gain knobs?) be? In the middle, or turned all the way down cause I'm coming in via a preamp, or wherever sounds good?

Finally, here's the biggy. The catch reel (is that what you call it), seems to be rubbing against the body of the recorder and makes a bit of a racket when recording and during playback. What do you think? Maybe's its bent? Get a new plastic reel? The rubbing sound is not audible when rewinding or fastforwarding.

Finally again :) , where can I buy a couple of nice reels of new tape for this baby. I don't know what size the reels are (the tape is quater inch). It's a Fostex A2 if that helps.

THANKS!!
 
I just wanted to add one question. The Fostex A2 doesn't seem to have a headphone amp, so I'm monitoring through my digital recorder. Is the digital recorder hearing the post-tape sound, or is it just hearing the sound coming out of the Fostex circuitry? The reason I ask is it occurred to me that with this set up I could punch in and out with relative ease. I'm guessing though that I need to rewind and hit play to hear the sound that's on the tape.
 
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PHILANDDON said:
I just wanted to add one question. The Fostex A2 doesn't seem to have a headphone amp, so I'm monitoring through my digital recorder. Is the the digital recorder hearing what the post tape sound is it just hearing the sound coming out of the Fostex circuitry. the reason why I ask, is it occurred to me that with this set up I could punch in and out with relative ease. I'm guessing though that I need to rewind and hear play to hear the sound that's on the tape.
Click to expand...

Unless the A2 is very different from the A8 (and they LOOK almost identical), it's a two-head design, which means that there's just an erase head and a record/replay head.
That means you're just hearing the original signal through the amp cards, and not the recording. A 3-head deck like the Tascam 32, Revox B77 and the Fostex E2 can be used to monitor off tape (but it will be delayed from the original. You can use that effect to do echo)

The A2 uses 7" spools, by the way.
 
Heh.

I use a mixer for most things, and I don't have any direct experience with standalone preamp boxes,... but...

The mic would require a fair amount of preamplification,... but the DI (line) of the guitar would need less. If the guitar signal is buzzing when it reaches the A2's inputs, then that would indicate the preamplification level of the guitar/line is too high in the preamp stage. Try turning the preamp gain down to minimum. An instrument like electric guitar is nearly at nominal line level, as is, and would not need a lot of preamplification.

So that's a lot of words about a simple subject! Heh. ;)
 
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