teac reel to reel up and running!! ?s

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clevodrummer

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I have my Teac A2300sx 2 track up and running. My cuz fixed it and its in pristine condition. Only prob was fried caps from sitting for 20 years. I have a few ?s.

I was reading up on dolby noise reduction units for this rig, but Im using this as a mixdown deck and wont be dubbing to tape but to my masterlink. Is noise reduction essential for tracking or more for dubbing deck to deck?

It has bias and eq controls so Im leaning on passing on noise reduction outboard gear.

any thoughts?......also, lets say I track on my korg D888 which is a digital 8track and mix down to the reel to reel. If I take the mixdown from that and mixdown again to my masterlink , will incorporating the reel to reel in the mixdown chain be a waste of time or will it yield a warmer sound...
 
Does that 2300 run at 3 3/4 and 7 1/2ips? 1/4" tape on 7" reels right?

Hm...

First of all, noise reduction is typically used during tracking whether it be dubbing, over-dubbing or native tracking.

Based on what I've read (take the grain of salt), at 7 1/2ips hiss is going to noticeably be there without noise reduction. Only you can answer whether or not it is too much for your application.

Try it out. Experiment with those macro bias and eq controls and see if you can minimize the hiss and retain the high-end definition. If you decide that you want to go with noise reduction and you decide you want to use dbx noise reduction, you would want to go with the Type II noise reduction. Type I was geared toward 15ips and up machines...different filter curves.

also, lets say I track on my korg D888 which is a digital 8track and mix down to the reel to reel. If I take the mixdown from that and mixdown again to my masterlink , will incorporating the reel to reel in the mixdown chain be a waste of time or will it yield a warmer sound...
Click to expand...

Try it. Your ears will be the best advisor.

Another thing to keep in mind too is that noise reduction is doing a lot to the signal, so it is not just a surgical hiss remover. Depending on what type of noise reduction is used it is a variety of companding and eq filters...it is not a transparent process. Some like it, some don't. Some like it because the tape noise is reduced and/or because of what the process does to the source material...others prefer not to use it precisely because of what it does to the source material. Only you can decide.

Not much of an answer, but hopefully it gives some food for though.

To get an idea of what noise reduction does check out post #257 in this thread. There are two links to .wma files of a 1 minute test song, one tracked with dbx Type I and one with no noise reduction. Keep in mind as you listen that this was done on a 1/2" 8-track deck at 15ips. The bias isn't properly set and the levels going into the deck were weak. The format of the deck used to tracks the samples has 1/2 the track width of your 2300, but twice the tape speed and the tape path is quite a bit more sophisticated. Don't listen to the samples as a judgement of how your deck can/will perform, but rather compare the two samples to each other to get an idea of what the noise reduction does.
 
great response...appreciated

Greta info...thanks...yes it runs at the mentioned speed and reel size....

I will take your advice and thanks for the link.....

thanks again

clevo
 
Also remember that Dolby Noise reduction will have a lot LESS impact on the signal than DBX... does it say on the unit which version of Dolby it is? I am betting on Dolby B.

AK
 
Think I misread that - do you have the dolby unit or were you just looking into gettin gone?



AK
 
AK, I think he's just researching about picking one up.

You're right tho'...Dolby n/r just messes with part of the frequency spectrum, while dbx grabs the whole thing and messes with it.
 
scored Teac AN-80 noise reduction rig ??s

Man this reel to reel is more fun than anything else Ive played with. I was very,very, fortunate to have this rig given to me. It is in immaculate condition and you should see the reels fly @ FF and rewind......killer design. Anyway I scored the noise reduction unit (AN-80) because its in the manual with the 2300 as an advisable unit. Off Ebay buy now for 34.95, so how can I go wrong? It says, immaculate condition,etc.,etc., so we shall see. Anyway I noticed right away there are calibration screws for both rec/and playback. Now I guess Im going to have to find a manual unless someone knows how to set-up the calibration screws as Im sure it aint calibrated to my 2300, but you never know.


Thanks for all the advice all, I really appreciate it!!! But at that price I may as well roll the dice....


thanks again,

clevo
 
The calibration screws on the AN-80 are more than likely simple level trimmers to match the level of signals coming out of the AN-80 (either on their way to the 2300 or on the way to your mixer) to the corresponding input. Record trims would be for signals coming from the mixer to the AN-80 and then on to the 2300, and play trimmers for signals coming from the 2300 to the AN-80 and then on to your mixer.

Send a -10dBu 1kHz tone to a "from the mixer" input on the AN-80 with the encoder switched in. Put a level meter on the output that goes to the 2300 that corresponds to that input and make sure that it is still -10dBu. If it is not, tweaker the corresponding record trimmer until it does read -10dBu. Repeat for the other input. Now do the same thing for the inputs from the tape deck going to the mixer, but switch in the decoder while you do it and tweaker the play trims. Make sense? You are just trying to make sure that, level-wise, what goes in is what comes out going both ways, but make sure that the noise reduction (encoder and decoder) is switched in as usually when it is out it is a hardwire bypass in the unit and the trimmers do nothing.
 
thanks sweetbeats

Great info, I appreciate the response. Now Im ready to go!!


clevo
 
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