Brand new tape machines need to be aligned before every session. If you have a vintage ATR, depending on how much it floats, you may need to align it before every song. That's why I'm saying you should pay someone to show you how to calibrate a tape machine. It's not hard... but there's a LOT of other factors in deciding what you should do.
The short answer... YES the meters should all read 0 VU if you send a 0 VU source into the deck. The short answer ends there.
- What ips are you running?
- What tape manufacturer and formula?
- What level of overbias does that manufacturer recommend for that formula on an ATR?
- Do you have an oscilartor that can generate 100hz 1K and 10K at 0vu?
- Do you have a MRL?
If you know all that... Put the machine in record safe. Put the MRL up on on the machine. Put the machine on the playback head. Find the 1K 0VU tone on the MRL. Play back the 1K tone and align the playback head so that the needles read 0vu. Move to the 10K tone and do the same, last the 100hz tone. Double check 1k, 10K, and 100hz one more time to make sure they are still at 0vu. If not, repeat.
Put the machin in sync and repeat for the sync head.
Pull the MRL off the deck and store in a dark cool place.
Put up your tape to be used on the session. Take the machine out of record safe. Put the machine to the repro head. Send 1K @ 0vu to all channels. Put the machine in record and adjust the 1K record calibration until the needle is at 0vu. Do this again for 10K and 100hz. Then..... put the 10K tone back up and adjust the over bias until the needle has gone up and then started to go back down. Go back down however far the manufacturer recommends. This is listed as the overbias amount. Once overbias is set, repeat the 1K, 10K, and 100hz tones and get everything back at 0vu (it will have changed a bit during biasing).
Go back up to the top of the tape. Cut a big chunck of leader on the top. I like about 15-20 seconds worth. At the end of the leader, label it as "TONES ->", then "1K @ 0vu". Print 30-60 seconds of 1K. Put 5-10 seconds of more leader and lable as "10K @ 0vu ->" and print 30-60 seconds of 10K. Another 5-10 seconds of leader labled "100 Hz @ 0vu". Last 30 seconds of so worth of leader.
Fast forward to the end and add 30 seconds or so of tail leader.
If you are a "tones at tail" kind of guy, then do the same thing, but at the end of the real. However... if at the end... put plenty of leader before the tones to help prevent you from wiping out the tones while recording the music.
That's the quick and dirty guide to calibrating a tape machine.
-Tom
PS. Hire someone to show you the first time you do it.