Portastudio 07 question

[captainbeej]

Hey all...i'm new here so don't' kill me if this has been asked a millions times or something. i recently got a portastudio 07 off ebay and it seems to work fine except for one thing. for some reason when i record anything through track 4, the levels end up playing significantly lower than what originally registered. like, if i put a guitar through there, the levels seem normal, but if i record and hit play, it's a lot lower. only on track 4...any ideas? thanks!

 

[A Reel Person]

Welcome,...

You have to make sure the head is clean and spotless, first. A stubborn bit of oxide could take a track response down practically to nothing. Cleaning would cover 97% of occurrences of this type of problem. You may have to give a bit of lite pressure on the head in the direction of tape-travel when cleaning it with 91% alcohol & a swab.

Check if it has a "dbx On/Off/Sync" switch, and that it's on and not set on sync. The "Sync" setting turns off dbx NR on track 4, significantly changing the record/playback characteristics. Some Tascam Porta's mute Track 4 from the Main Mix section completely when switched to "Sync".

Beyond that, an alignment problem could cause this problem, but I'd not go there before covering the basics.