portastudio 424 hum

I

iivanov88

New member
I posted this in another thread a while ago, but this has been really agitating me. I bought a used portastudio 424 and the tape hums at playback. it does not hum when there is nothing on the tape, but as soon as the actual recorded audio starts, it starts to hum. this happens regardless if there is a signal going through, when gain is all the way down and I record it, it still records the hum, so I can't erase the tape. someone mentioned that it may be a grounding problem and/or poor electricity in my house, but wouldn't it affect the sound everywhere, not just at playback? because when I don't record and have a mic going through and monitor it, there is no hum. is there something wrong with the head? I have tried several outlets in my house and the problem is still there. I have played a recorded tape on another tape player and the hum is there. I have a bunch of mixtapes from like ten years ago and the hum is on them too. I can upload some files to demonstrate the hum. I have maxell ms-60 tape.
 
so tapes recorded on a different deck played back on the 424 hum, and tapes recorded on the 424 played back on a different deck don't hum? Did I get that right?

Does the hum occur regardless of the output? Is the hum there in the headphones, line out jacks, monitor out jacks, and the direct out jacks?
 
sweetbeats said:
so tapes recorded on a different deck played back on the 424 hum, and tapes recorded on the 424 played back on a different deck don't hum? Did I get that right?

Does the hum occur regardless of the output? Is the hum there in the headphones, line out jacks, monitor out jacks, and the direct out jacks?
Click to expand...

tapes recorded on different deck hum when played back on the 424 (they don't on a different deck)

tapes recorded on the 424 hum when played back on a different deck

regardless of output
 
424 hum

I had a strange sound from my 424 on playback which sounded like arecord skipping intermittenly. I sent it in to Tascam and they found nothing wrong. Turns out it was from my wireless phone hookup in my studio. I have a radio shak gizmo which flashes a light and rings a loud bell when the phone rings.

It turned out to be the problem. It drove me nuts but I finally located the culprit. Could be something weird like that, because mine did it at playback as well. But it also did it when recording.
 
clevodrummer said:
I had a strange sound from my 424 on playback which sounded like arecord skipping intermittenly. I sent it in to Tascam and they found nothing wrong. Turns out it was from my wireless phone hookup in my studio. I have a radio shak gizmo which flashes a light and rings a loud bell when the phone rings.

It turned out to be the problem. It drove me nuts but I finally located the culprit. Could be something weird like that, because mine did it at playback as well. But it also did it when recording.
Click to expand...

yeah mind does it when recording too. so you had nothing when simply monitoring? seems like there is some sort of a direct connection with the actual tape mechanism and some interference in the house because it doesn't affect the machine as a whole.
 
My friend,...

at the risk of being redundant, I'll just skip from the top and say that IMO might indicate a faulty or underpowered P/S module (inadequate current rating),... plus the possibility of some other line noise from an external souce, (as I caught someone may have said above).

PLS Forgive me for cutting to the chase and posting before I've read the entire thread! I'll catch up on posts in a minute! That's outright bad e'tiquette,... ain't it!?!?! Heh.:eek::rolleyes:
 
I have long since moved to another place and I'm still getting the same problem here. I forgot to mention that the adaptor that came with it is not a tascam adaptor, so I think that may be it.
 
I would try to find a tascam adaptor - it is more than possible that an improper ac adaptor could cause hum.

AK
 
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