Tascam 244 noise issue, help please!

[alenu]

Hi everybody! I´ve been visiting the forum for months as a "guest", but i´m having a little issue now so i thought it would be a good idea to register.

My english is not perfect, i apologize for that.

I´ve recently bought an old Tascam 244 which arrives in a decent condition. Everything works just fine: it plays and records well, and i think belts, heads, pinch roller, etc. are ok. But there´s a strange noise during playback, like an electrical buzz. It is constant, but it "follows" the dynamics of the music: to make it clear, for example, when there´s a snare hit, the noise increases during the hit. It´s kinda difficult to describe it.

The weird thing is that sometimes the noise stops by doing a little pressure with my fingers on the mixer´s rear panel.

I have not demagnetized the heads yet (i´m waiting for a degausser, it should arrive in two or three days) but i did the proper cleaning with isoprophyl alcohol.

My guess is the unit has some kind of electrical fault. I´ve opened it looking for a bad wire or something, but i am not able to see anything broken by just lifting the bottom case.

I hope when i finally demag the heads the noise will disappear, but i´m almost sure that won´t fix it.

I´ve tested some tapes recorded on another Portastudio with DBX, a Tascam 644, and the noise affects what´s recorded there too, while they play fine on the 644.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[Tim Gillett]

It sounds like you have a noise in the playback chain. It also sounds like you are using the dbx. That would account for the "pumping" of the noise.

The problem could be as simple as a loose earthing connection somewhere. Perhaps a shielding wire or plate is not earthed properly. Unless you can fix it yourself it sounds like it needs looking at by a tech.

Tim

 

[alenu]

It sounds like you have a noise in the playback chain. It also sounds like you are using the dbx. That would account for the "pumping" of the noise.

The problem could be as simple as a loose earthing connection somewhere. Perhaps a shielding wire or plate is not earthed properly. Unless you can fix it yourself it sounds like it needs looking at by a tech.

Tim

Thanks a lot, Tim. Yes, a loose earthing connection makes sense. I´ll try to find it by myself before taking the Portastudio to a technician. The DBX cannot be turned off on the 244, it´s always on, so i´m not able to test the performance without it, but i guess you´re right and that´s the reason for the "pumping".

I´ll be back tomorrow, thanks again!

Ale.