Running a Tascam 48 at +9?

  • Thread starter Thread starter lo.fi.love
  • Start date Start date
lo.fi.love

lo.fi.love

Functionally obsessed.
Hey folks,

I'm trying to milk as much performance as I can from my current setup, and I'd like to know if anyone has any thoughts about running my 48 at +9.

A: Can this machine run at +9? Can it operate at this level as well as it does at +6?
B: If anyone has experience running a 1/2" 8-track at +9: What about noise reduction? Did you need NR? Does running at +9 WITH dbx NR sound even better than running at +6 with NR?
C: Anything else?

Whatever you do, please respond with something that'll keep me from buying an Otari MX-70 8-track. I don't think my budget (and sanity) can handle that!! :)

Cheers!
Jeff
 
I ran my TSR-8 for a short time with Quantegy GP9. I didn’t need the on-board dbx running it this way. I’m sure the crosstalk was worse technically speaking if I had measured it, but in use I didn’t notice it. I pushed the tape with all the machine could muster and the audio was always clean. The down side is I believe tape compression would be very hard to achieve with GP9 if you wanted the effect for drums or something. Perhaps another tape formulation like SM900 or 499 would have more grit, but I didn’t try them.

It worked very well, but I decided to set it back to 456 due to the increased wear and tear that +9 tape would put on the heads and transport over time. I recommend people treat these vintage machines with a lot of TLC if they want them to last with minimal maintenance.

The Tascam 8-tracks are factory set to 250 nWb/m flux level, but the machines and 456 tape will do much more. For those that don’t use noise reduction I recommend staying with 456 and compatible tapes, but set 0VU at 320 nWb/m to squeeze out a little better noise performance without putting excessive stress on the machine. You could also leave things as is and just burry the meters while recording as many people do. However, I’ve always preferred to know where I am signal wise, so I actually use the meters as God intended. :)
 
hey jeff,

i don't have much personal experience with a tascam 48, but here's what i have to say:

A) most machines have more headroom than the tape will allow. to test this just put it on input and the machine really hard. you won't hear distortion, even with the meters pegged. so yes, your machine will be fine pushing 3 more dB.

B) here's what i suggest- align 4 tracks +9/185, bias for the new tape, and leave 4 at +6/185 with the original bias. record, listen, compare- both with NR and w/out.. it's the closest thing to A/B you can get with machines/tape/elevated levels/etc. i do it all the time to find the best overbias machines i get.

C) yes, there's much more. ;)

-chris mara
www.welcometo1979.com
www.nobraineraudio.com
 
lo.fi.love said:
Do you have experience with other narrow-format machines (1/4 four track, 1/2 eight track)?
Click to expand...

i have a lot of experience with 1/2 four tracks- restoration, alignments, recording on them..the whole 9 yards. plus i own two of them. (MCI's) 1/2 eights...yeah a little, mainly transfers & alignments and such..not much actual recording LOL.

[edit- just read 1/4" 4 track...not 1/2" four track from your question]

the answer to that question is no..not a lot.

why, what's up?

-chris mara
www.welcometo1979.com
www.nobraineraudio.com
 
58 yes

Hi Jeff,

I'm currently running a Tascam 58 at + 9 to ATR tape. The 58 can do it and it sounds pleasing to ATR. The 58 shares channel cards with the MS16 and they both need the bias cap mod to be able to set the bias level high enough for +9 operation. GP9 needs more bias than 499 and ATR I should note.

I do know that the 48 uses different channel cards so I cannot speculate on it's ability to run at +9. I would expect he electronics to do it and expect the bias to have a problem getting high enough (without a mod). It is not that there is not enough bias available but rather that the adjustment does not go high enough.

I decided to use +9 on my primary capture machines (MS16, 58 and ATR-100 1/2" 2t) for the signal to noise ratio. I'm still a bit new to running +9. I will say that I have never pushed ATR into compression (yet).

-Ethan
 
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