tape inconsistency

[a27thletter]

i just figured out today that my fostex 4 track has an inconsistent tape speed. i've been recording stuff on my 4 track for a while and recently i've started transfering tracks from the 4 track to my computer for editing and such. well i was working on a song track by track and trying to send each track i had on the tape to a seperate track on the computer program, turns out thats a bad idea cause i've discovered that its impossible to line the tracks up now, i mean, i can line them up fine at the start but by the time the song gets halfway through one track will be a few tenths of a second faster than the other and by the end the tracks are totally out of sync. is this just a weakness of the x 12 unit or may it just be a poor quality tape? and obviously since its causeing speed problems in the songs its causing pitch problems too, so using the speed adjustments in magix music editor still doesnt help me.

 

[carelessorc]

Can you hear the pitch variations as you playback the songs?
Tape machines need regular maintenance to keep 'em running properly.
Given the problems with 4 track tape hiss, you might get a better result recording directly to the computer - you could still use the 4 track as a front end pre-amp.
Good luck
Orc

 

[a27thletter]

as far as the pitch variations , its there but its very faint, someone who doesnt really have an ear for notes wouldnt notice it at all , but i think i figured out that the problem was with the tape , because i was using a 90 minute tape instead of the recomended 60 minutes and i think the tape was stretching to a slight degree, i just wish i could find the maxell 60 minute high bias tapes around here,