Will amp vibrations affect tape heads?

[Skronk]

Hello, I'm new here, first let me say how much this site has helped me and give a big thanks to everyone who contributes here. Ok, so my question is this: I have an Otari MX5050 1/2" 4 track. I plan on renting a practice space to do some recording soon. Fortunately I live in a city with lots of options for that but obviously the bigger the room the more it costs. If I go with a small room (say 10'x10' since there's no drums right now just a drum machine) and want to get a guitar amp loud enough to saturate will that cause the tape heads or anything to vibrate in a negative way that would affect the quality of the recording? A 40w tube amp at a volume loud enough to break up can definitely create a rumble in a small room. Also, given a practice space being just that, I wasn't planning on a room mic for anything just close mic the amp, in that scenario would a brick space be more detrimental than a drywalled space? My apologies if this has been covered, I searched "vibrations" and only four threads came up. Thanks for all replies.

 

[The Ghost of FM]

I don't think you need to worry about the heads vibrating from loud monitoring/playing. Recording studios and live concerts that are taped get easily as loud as a 40 watt guitar amp...maybe even louder!

About the room, a 10x10 all brick wall room would sound about as good as trying to mix inside a Mcdonald's washroom. Very bouncy kind of sound. Same size in a dry walled room will be a bit closer to usable but some wall and floor treatment would be in order. Rugs, old padded office divider panels, acoustic foam, etc. Basically, a small room is better off completely dead as it's got little to offer in terms of a natural space, sound-wise. A 10x11 room would be better too with less standing wave issues to deal with. Square rooms resonate badly. Irregular dimensioned rooms, far less.

Cheers!

 

[Skronk]

Hey thanks, I feel kinda stupid now after you mentioned the taping live shows thing. I was picturing a studio where there is a control room I guess. Obviously I'm pretty new to this so thanks for answering a dumb question!

 

[The Ghost of FM]

Hey thanks, I feel kinda stupid now after you mentioned the taping live shows thing. I was picturing a studio where there is a control room I guess. Obviously I'm pretty new to this so thanks for answering a dumb question!

It wasn't a dumb question. Why do I say that? Because asking it shows that you have concerns about properly using your gear and that can never be dumb. Dumb is when you've learned how to do something the right way and you still do it the wrong way. That's dumb. Your's was more of a n00b question and everyone, at some point in their life is a n00b.

All of that aside, there are concerns about tape recorders being placed near all speakers which have no magnetic shielding as the magnets in the speakers could cause drop outs or partial erasure if they're too close to each other. So keeping them apart by a couple of feet is usually good for addressing that issue. And that goes for your tapes as well. Never leave them sitting on or beside an unshielded speaker or any other source of possible magnetism.

Cheers!

 

[sweetbeats]

The only dumb question is the one that goes un-asked.

I second everything Ghost said. I follow a rule of thumb of always keeping tapes at least 3' from unshielded magnets. 3' incorporates a safety margin.

 

[WarmJetGuitar]

We're sometimes so loud our drummer has a hard time hearing what he's playing. Only had occasional dropouts when using very old second hand tape.