New here, help with Otari MX5050 mkIII 8-track

[lithgow]

Hi, I recently picked up an otari 8 track recorder and am trying to wrap my head around how to use this thing. I am extremely new to this and have never used a reel to reel machine before. I borrowed an old mixing board, a studiomaster 16-4-2 and attempted to test out recording some stuff on it. I hooked the board up to the deck with the direct outs from the board and set up some mics on a drum set. The problem I'm having is: when I was listening to the input through the otari, it sounded fine and the level meters were registering up around the peak level, I thought this should be ok. When I listened back to what I recorded however, it was barely registering on the level meters and was really quiet and kind of overblown sounding. Does anybody have any advice on how to get started with this? Sorry if this makes no sense. Thanks!

 

[Massive Master]

You need to have the deck serviced and properly aligned and calibrated before you do anything else, IMO...

 

[jamesperrett]

The first thing to do is to check that the heads are clean. You'll need some isopropyl alcohol and some cotton buds (Q-tips) to do this. Even if the heads look clean, a very thin film of dirt can cause the sort of problems that you are having. The other thing to check is that you've threaded the tape correctly and that the right side of the tape is in contact with the heads. Otaris often have a diagram on the deck to show how to thread the tape.

James.