TASCAM 38-8 and stuff came early.

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Sennheiser

Sennheiser

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My stuff came a day earlier than expected. The shipping boxes looked good and no damage.

I first cleaned up the deck, checked the cards, and cleaned the heads and tape path. All in all it wasn't too bad. At least the machine has been maintained. Lots of head life left too.

What bummed me out was the crack in the last meter window. Shit if it hadn't been for that the machine would've looked brand new. At least all the bulbs work.

The only adjustment (I hope) it needs is the right reel table height need to come up about 1.5mm. The take-up reel is hitting the two small cap head screws that hold the front panel on. Pain in the ass to do from what I've read in the manual so far.

I don't have it wired up yet except to the DBX units. I'll get to that tomorrow after I make the reel table height adjustment.
 
Well Sen,...

You know the meter doesn't get cracked, and the reel height doesn't need adjusting by itself, just for no reason. The 38 probably experienced a moderate 'bump' during shipping, even though the boxes looked normal. The deck might have been bumped or dropped, and experienced the effect of the shock, all inside the box, with no box damage evident. Hey, it could happen.

Overall, I'm glad you got your 38/M30/DX-4D system, and I hope it works out well for you.

I just don't think the meter got cracked, or the reel height got funky, all by itself. That's what shipping does to heavy reel-to-reels, by it's very nature, but you should consider yourself lucky. I've had a 38 utterly thrashed from shipping, with cracked back panel, and bent outer skins,... damaged beyond repair. I could show you pics of damage that would blow your mind.
 
After literally stripping the machine down to the chassis I was able to get at the reel table screws and made the adjustment. It's fine now.

I did my first recording. I did a new-age piano solo cover tune that I know, in stereo. I was astounded at the clarity and definition.

I never heard that with a Porta. Just (F) amazing. An not one bit of tape hiss. I've got ears like a bat. If it was there I'd have heard something. It was like I was standing there listening to myself play like an out-of-body experience. Whoa, maybe it was!

I'm gonna ditch the M-30. Without a manual I was utterly lost using most of the controls. I was lucky I even got anything to tape. it's not set up quite like the mixers of today are. I spent nearly two hours dickin' with it and I don't like it at all.

My M-1516 should be here by the end of next week. I can put up with the M-30 until then but I won't be doing any serious work on it.

At least I got my feet wet today and heard what I've been missing all of these years. Awesome sound. Digital wishes it sounded as good. :D
 
Yeah, I'm sure it sounds huge compared to the 488mkII.

Anyway, the M30's a fine little mixer, and it's really not that hard to understand, or at least I don't think so, but the manual can help the first time user. Hopefully you'll find the 1516 a bit easier to use, and not harder.

The difference between 1/2" 8-track and cassette 8-track is huge, and it's a difference you can really hear.
 
Welcome to the 38 club! You're right about the M-30.... I know it's probably a good mixer for its day but I also tried figuring it out without having the manual and it was a bitch! When I finally did get something to tape though I was amazed at the sound I was hearing. It sounded punchy, clear and ballsy!
 
Thanks! :)

I was about in a panic last night. The first recording I made that I mentioned in another post started sounding bad.

I cleaned the heads twice and it still souded like crap. I hooked up the synth and overdubbed some strings and flute to go with the piano, still sounded bad.

I advanced the tape up to about 1000 and tried again. Still bad.
Now I'm thinking I might have something wrong with the heads.
I'm bummin' now.

Today, same thing. So I rewind all of the tape and swap sides and then rewind it to the other reel. I had a bad section of tape.
Whew!

I'm using one-pass tape that I bought from this shop at www.tapetape.com. More like 1 million pass tape. That's the last time I buy that crap. Scared the shit out of me to begin with, and then just disappointed me. Who knows how many more drop outs I'm going to find on this crappy oxide.

I have one virgin reel of Quantegy 456 that I'm saving for my first real recordings, so I guess I'll have to put up with it until then.
 
Yeah, media's important.

I'm sure that's happened to almost everyone, at one time or another. Older media will experience more deterioration and dropouts than newer media. Granted, your tape might be deteriorating, so just remember to clean the heads and tape path as well as possible. Instead of a little swab, you might want to find some little squares of 'lint free wipes', so you can get your whole fingertip onto the cleaning media and head, when cleaning. Older tapes can gum up your heads pretty quickly, and it takes a light-to-moderate scrubbing to get them clean, sometimes. Anyway, hang in there.;)
 
Congrats on the new machine!

Alright sen, didn't know you got a (new vintage) machine also. Have fun, arn't they great!!! Now, what is it about digital that everyones talking about? If they only knew:D
fitz
 
so Sennheiser, now that you've had the new rig for a month or so, what are the detailed impressions ??

other than the initial setup/ shipping corrections, any difficulties?

any neat tricks / settings / sounds discovered?

what instruments/ techniques have you fed it so far?

inquiring minds need to know !!!!

b-h
 
Well it turned out that the initial problem that I posted on turned out to be some relays sticking on several tracks.

The problem has corrected itself through a lot of use.

I have only recorded one tune so far on it, but it sounded 100 times better than my 488 MkII.

I really haven't changed any of my techniques as far as recording goes except for maybe hitting the tape harder since I have a lot more headroom now.

I am going to start recording another tune in a week or two. I have a new Roland R-5 drum machine on the way and I'm going to use it on the new tune.
 
Sennheiser - somewhere on here I (momentarily) found your posting of the song done on the T-38, you had a preliminary version up for comment, that you were going to work on further.

I seem to have lost which board/ group that was posted under - can't find it.....

also, as I'm pretty lame on the computer side of things - I can get a song onto CD via stand-alone devices - with a CD to plug into my computer - what's the good choice for converting it to MP3 to be able to email to folks or post on these boards?

thanks

b-h
 
It's in the MP3 Clinic, but hell I can't remember the post title.

Just go to nowwhereradio.com

When you get there search for Michael Carter. The song on the '38 is "Back in the City".

There is some ground loop noise on several of the tracks that I didn't fix before I uploaded. The noise was from my computer system after it was hooked up to the main out's on the console. I never re-uploaded the tunes after I fixed the problem. There is no noise on the above song.

I'm not a great singer so try and bear with me.
 
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