[R8] Is this noise normal?

[lordroger]

Hello,

I bought a Fostex R8 some months ago, which I was able to fix thanks to your help.

Now I've had some time to play with it and I see (well, I hear) the output is really noisy. I've recorded it with a M-Audio Delta 1010LT PCI card and mixed down all the 8 channels into stereo when:


R8 is stopped:

R8 is playing "the air" with no tape loaded:

R8 is playing a blank part of an old tape:

All of them are recorded at the same volume.

When stopped there is no noise, that's good, but when playing with no tape loaded, the hum is really disgusting and specially over the bass response.

I don't know where the problem lies... maybe it's because the R8 is not grounded? Or it is due to the PCI card of the computer? I also tried connecting it to a home hi-fi system and the noise was similar.

Any ideas, please?

Thanks!

 

[Herm]

Sounds like a cord is plugged in wrong or just bad. I would start by changing cables. How are you getting your signal into your computer?
Check to make sure you are plugged in to the output jack and not the inputs.

 

[Tim Gillett]

In stop the R8's playback audio is muted. In play it isnt.You only get the sound when the circuits are activated, so it has to be in those circuits. Are all 8 tracks the same? Mixing them all into 2 track means we cant tell which track(s) is making the noise.

Try and isolate it to a particular channel(s).

It may be as simple as one head wire disconnected.

Tim

 

[krhall]

If you get crackling when playing back a blank tape, you might want to de-magnetize the heads, as i have found that this helps to reduce this noise.

As for thre humming. That sometimes does occur on certain sound cards. But this could also be something to do with the playback amplifier cards. I recently installed 2 brand new playback amplifier cards in my Revox A77. It runs beautifully now, in fact it is the best sound quality i have ever had.