Making a test tape

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James K

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Hi,
I am currently lacking test tape for my Tascam MS16 (or rather, it's gone sticky) and they seem incredibly expensive to buy (and a very boring purchase :/ ). So, I was wondering if this would be possible:
-Borrow a test tape and align the machine to that
-Use a test tone generator to record a new test tape on the machine
-Align to that tape in the future.

I presumed that after aligning it to the actual test tape the machine would be perfectly calibrated (or at least calibrated to a high enough standard) and so a reference tape could be produced using it.

Would this be possible or is there some problem I have not foreseen?

Thanks
James
 
I just had a look at the prices and a 1" MRL tape is £534! An alternative would be great.
 
James K said:
Hi,
I am currently lacking test tape for my Tascam MS16 (or rather, it's gone sticky)
Click to expand...

Bake it...use it before it goes sticky again.
You need a food dehydrator or good quality convection oven with fan. A regular oven gets too many hot spots.

Check this out: Tape Baking
 
James K said:
Hi,
I am currently lacking test tape for my Tascam MS16 (or rather, it's gone sticky) and they seem incredibly expensive to buy (and a very boring purchase :/ ). So, I was wondering if this would be possible:
-Borrow a test tape and align the machine to that
-Use a test tone generator to record a new test tape on the machine
-Align to that tape in the future.

I presumed that after aligning it to the actual test tape the machine would be perfectly calibrated (or at least calibrated to a high enough standard) and so a reference tape could be produced using it.

Would this be possible or is there some problem I have not foreseen?

Thanks
James
Click to expand...


Yes, your thinking is correct. If you have just done a full calibration with a known good calibration tape then you can make your own on that machine if you can generate the proper tones at the proper levels. It' only going to be good for your machine however. In fact it's a good idea to make a reference tape after a calibration so you can trend how your heads are wearing over time and have a true baseline of where that particular machine is at the time the tape was made.

And as miroslav said you could bake the calibration tape you have with an inexpensive food dehydrator. After the tape has gone through the baking process, turn the dehydrator off and let the tape cool to room temperature over a 24-hour period. After that you have a few days or weeks to use it for calibration. This is the one I bought here in the states years ago and it works beautifully.

Snackmaster Express Food Dehydrator

White Snackmaster Express Food Dehydrator and Jerky Maker - Walmart.com

Look for this one or something comparable in the UK. Well worth the investment to have one of these around. For 1-inch tape you'll need to cut the plastic grill out of one of the levels and use the outer ring as a spacer.

Or as JP mentioned you can get a less expensive short cal tape. I have one for 1/4" and it works just fine.
 
Just don't be surprised to see differences in the low frequencies. MRL test tapes are full width tapes, while the tape you make will just record on the tracks, not the gaps. In the case of 1/4" tapes, the two tapes (nominally recorded at the same level) will playback differently and the effect increases with decreasing frequency. This is known as "fringing" and is due to the fact the playback head picks up some of the adjacent, off-track magnetization of a full width tape, and more so with decreasing frequency. This is discussed in section 5.1.1 on page 11 of the MRL "Choosing and Using" guide:

http://home.comcast.net/~mrltapes/choo&u.pdf

For 1/2" and wider tapes, they normally fringe correct by reducing the recording level with frequency according to the values in Table 6.

MRL cautions that for very wide tracks (1/2" 2-track and the like) you should not use the usual, fringe-corrected MRL and should have them make you a non-corrected tape, since the fringe effects are so small for those wide tracks.

Cheers,

Otto
 
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