HELP! Tascam 388 dropout emergency!

N

notbillcosby

Member
Oh no! I've used my Tascam 388 religiously for years and now, out of nowhere, the night before my band is recording, Track 1 (and occasionally tracks 2 and 3 earlier, but now just track 1...) drops out here and there. I was recording some drum tracks, just trying to get sounds, and noticed that was cutting in and out strangely. Thought maybe i was overloading it with low end and it was responding poorly or something, but that didn't seem to be the case. It was just sorta random from what I could tell. When I recorded a test tone to all 8 tracks, Track 1 was very obviously being effected, but it seemed to drop out in a rhythm. It would drop out for 1, 2, 3 counts and then not drop out for 4, and repeat. I'm assuming it has something to do with the way the tape is pulling across the head which would sorta explain the repeating pattern and make me think it's something physical and not electrical, but looking at it I can't see anything obvious. I've switched reels of tape, cleaned and demagged the heads again, and can't seem to fix it. I last used the machine, with the same exact type of tape, about a week and a half ago with no noticable issues, but I don't think I was recording anythign on track 1. A month or so ago i tracked a band live and definitely used track one with zero problems.

What the heck is going on?? Why does this have to happen right now?! Guess we're going digital tomorrow unless someone's got a good answer for me. I hope you do! We're a surf band, recording to a computer is bordering on blasphemy...
 
Upon taking a real close look at the tape running across the heads, it does seem to have a little side to side (or up and down, i spose) wiggle to it in sort of a rhythmic way that I wonder about. Could that be causing it? It's extremely minor and i had to get way in there to notice it happening, but it seems to be. Is this normal or is it the problem causer?
 
And part three... I used some rubber cleaner on the rubber bits and it seemed to help immensely. There's still a little shakiness on track 1 but nowhere near what it was, and the tape doesn't seem to be rocking as obviously as it was a few minutes ago. Gonna give that rubber a bit more of a scrub and see if it helps further...
 
After a thorough cleaning it seems to be much better, but track 1 is still a little wobbly. I feel like I probably need it to be calibrated or something; something must've happened or changed that I somehow didn't know about.

Can anyone suggest a good tech in the Des Moines, IA, Omaha, NE, or Kansas City, MO area?
 
A bit of drop outs and/or frequency loss is perfectly normal on the edge tracks for narrow track machines like the 388 or any kind of Fostex. A common workaround is to use the edge tracks for something that'll be picked out by other mics, like the bass drum - or for something that isn't required to have a perfectly stable sound.

The slight "wiggling" of the tape can have a saying, and so can calibration - so yeah, a tech can probably fix the worst part of it but he can't make the edge tracks as good as 2-7.
I'll suggest you use another take-up reel, the one you have might be slightly damaged.

And yeah, recording surf music on a computer is most def blasphemy :cool:
In general terms anything with real drums takes a lot of hard work to sound near decent on a computer IMO.
 
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