Quick Alignment tape question

[Blue Jinn]

I want to start doing my own alignment because just because. That said, I naturally don't want to buy any more MRL tapes then I need to.

For 1/4" I have four decks: Teac A-3300SX, MX5050, 22-4 and Fostex 80. The Fostex is factory set to 320nW/m, but I'm OK with dialing that back to the 250 nW/m and conversely bringing the 22-4 up to 250 to have a standard standard.

Is there a particular reason I can't use the same tape for all three using either 21J205 (NAB/IEC2) or 21J203 (IEC) and stick to a consistent O/L and EQ? And if so, which one?

(Then I figured I could use the 22-4 and a synthesizer to create a tone reference to align the A-3300, I'm OK w/ "close enough" on that machine.)

 

[thinbrownline]

Hello Blue Jinn

The best value in my opinion are the 2-speed with chromatic sweep tapes. And don't feel constrained by what they list - they will make you a custom 2-speed tape with any permutation you want (or they certainly used to anyway).

But why don't you just email Jay McKnight at MRL tapes and ask him the same question? You will get a well-reasoned and informative response.

Regards


David Ollard
Thin Brown Line
Multitrack Analog to Digital Transfers

 

[Beck]

There's a convoluted way to use one tape for both IEC and NAB, but it's a royal PITA and even I won't do it. Much better IMO to get the NAB tape for the first three decks listed @ 250 nWb/m and the IEC tape for the Fostex 80 at 320 nWb/m. You'll be glad you did in the long run. The tapes with individual tones are best for those decks.

 

[Blue Jinn]

I looked over the MRL site which has a bewildering amount of good information and I reviewed the publication re: eq. Is there a particular reason I need to use NAB eq w/ the 2 and 4 tracks, and IEC with the 8 track? Also, I don't have a whole lot of 457 to use with the Fostex, Is there a particular reason not to align it to 250 vice 320 nW/m? (Also, I'm assuming if I had 250 tape I'd just offset the levels accordingly)

The Teac deck is the 7 1/2 ips not the the 15 ips 2 track, so I'm really talking about a tape for the Otari, the 22-4 and the Fostex. Also, I haven't looked at the Otari SM yet, but the Otari is selectable between NAB and IEC EQ.

Quick followup: I just picked up a Fostex A-8. It is factory cal'd to 250nW/m with IEC EQ, (as opposed to the 80 which is 320) Came with an Ampex alignment tape, which is from 1989, so I'm assuming it's sticky (the 456 it came with sure is, it stuck to my hands unwinding it....)