Tascam tsr 8 - Low Output

T

terribletraffic

New member
Hi there,

I've been recording to a tascam tsr 8, going through a Fostex 812. I send my tracks to the 8 bus tracks and then to the tape reel to reel. All the inputs look nice and hot and everything is working well, I record and then when i play it back the signal is super duper low and the output monitoring on the reel to reel is very low too and the mixing desk barely even registers it! It ust sounds very quiet and very muffled.

Can someone please help me? I seem to be cleaning the old thing the whole time and it doesn't make a huge difference but, maybe that is just what i need to do! Any clues?
If someone could give me a step by step set up that should work, that would be amazing! Thanks very much
 
What tape are you using? Make sure it's not old Ampex tape, since it will clog up the heads resulting in something like this.

Double-check that the record and erase heads are both clean - doubly so if you have been using Ampex tape. The record head should be shiny - my TSR-8 had the heads matt black with gunk when I first had it and would probably have sounded like this if it worked at all. I cleaned the heads and transport path prior to even attempting to use it.

This sounds silly, but it has happened a few times here - are you sure the tape is the right way round? The brown, shiny side has to be facing inwards, in contact with the heads. The black, matt side faces away from the heads and is in contact with the black rubber roller.
 
I'm using Ampex 456. They are old too. Some haven't been opened though. Will these be alright do you think? That is a real pain, as I got given loads of reels of ampex when I got the Tsr8.
Why is it that they do this then? Are they too old, or just bad quality tape to start with? I thought they were meant to be the best!

Where can I buy good tape and what should I be looking for?
Thanks so much for your help
 
terribletraffic said:
I'm using Ampex 456. They are old too. Some haven't been opened though. Will these be alright do you think? That is a real pain, as I got given loads of reels of ampex when I got the Tsr8.
Why is it that they do this then? Are they too old, or just bad quality tape to start with? I thought they were meant to be the best!

Where can I buy good tape and what should I be looking for?
Thanks so much for your help
Click to expand...

Yeah, the problem was that they changed the formulation in the 1970s when whale oil was banned, and what they replaced it with turned out to be unstable and would go strange after a couple of years. The 'Sticky Shed Syndrome' thread should have more information if you're curious.

There are several failure modes - the most common one is that the tape will shed sticky gunk all over the heads and block the signal. It also puts the tape transport under extra stress and the machine may stop playing randomly for no apparent reason - this is particularly the case which marginal tape that isn't visibly shedding.

I have a Webber test tape which turned out to be printed on old 406 tape. I remember seeing the signal levels slowly drop and when I stopped the tape everything was covered in white ick.

There are ways of recovering the tapes temporarily in order to get precious recordings off them, but you don't really want to go that route for new recordings.

Ampex changed the formulation again around mid-1994 and that fixed the problem, so anything from 1995 onwards should be safe. Everything branded Quantegy was after the change and is considered safe.
The tapes have a date code printed on the box: 5 digits for Ampex, 7 for Quantegy. The first few digits are the year, e.g. 96228 is 1996, 92070 would be 1992 and bad stuff. With Quantegy it's the first 4 digits, e.g. 2004128. The last three digits are probably the day of the year.

For new tape, I'd suggest RMGI SM911 which should be a drop-in replacement for Ampex/Quantegy 456 (which the machines are usually lined up for). They seem to be having supply problems or something at the moment, though. I've also had good results with ATR Mastering tape, but that stuff isn't cheap.

If you want to look on ebay, again, Quantegy 456 is good. BASF or EMTEC SM911 is also worth getting if you can find it. Stay sharp, though - try to get it sealed, since if it's been opened what's on the box might not actually be what you get.

Good luck!
 
Look very closely at the heads with a light and magnifying glass. I had the same problem with one of my TSR-8's and MSR-24. Sometimes the tape oxide residue dries on hard like paint. Even if you are routinely cleaning the heads you need to get a good look at them to be sure there are no tiny specs on them.
 
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