lek wrote on Tue, 10 January 2006 13:54 |
Some maintenance questions, just received my atr102 fixed up from atr services. - ATR recommended I use isopropyl alcohol to clean the heads and everything else (instead of head cleaner on the heads). How do you feel about that? - Do you use generic cotton swabs or the fancy ones they sell? - should a machine (in my case the atr102) be kept on all the time / at least some of the time - if so, how often? - for demagnetizer, which do you recommend, the Han D? - How important is it to keep the unit covered from dust? - should the flanges be kept perfectly clean - could they possibly have deleterious effects on the tape? - am I supposed to keep tape stacked vertically? - any other general care tips greatly appreciated. I'm anal about keeping this thing working great! I ordered my first tape - arriving today will be 1/4" 456, pretty excited to try my first mix on high end analog! Lek |
lek wrote on Tue, 10 January 2006 07:54 |
Some maintenance questions, just received my atr102 fixed up from atr services. - ATR recommended I use isopropyl alcohol to clean the heads and everything else (instead of head cleaner on the heads). How do you feel about that? |
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- Do you use generic cotton swabs or the fancy ones they sell? |
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- should a machine (in my case the atr102) be kept on all the time / at least some of the time - if so, how often? |
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- for demagnetizer, which do you recommend, the Han D? |
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- How important is it to keep the unit covered from dust? |
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- should the flanges be kept perfectly clean - could they possibly have deleterious effects on the tape? |
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- am I supposed to keep tape stacked vertically? |
Enjoy your ATR! Sounds like you're in for fun.
BK
Ryan Moore wrote on Tue, 10 January 2006 08:30 |
I use generic cotton Qtip swabs from the drugstore |
Barry Hufker wrote on Tue, 10 January 2006 11:41 |
Make sure your tapes are library wound or played through. You may know this already, but it is important to keep the tapes "tails out" so they have to be rewound before they can be played. This will reduce print-through. Barry |
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??? The flanges should never even touch the edges of the tape at all. No rubbing allowed, so "dirty" flanges seems an irrelevant issue. - Bob Katz |
lek wrote on Wed, 11 January 2006 12:43 | ||||
Thanks to everyone so far.
What do you mean library wound? You're saying I should store them so that the tape is played to the end - every time? And every time I intend to use it, rewind to the beggining?
I had a leftover to use as the takeup reel and it wasn't that clean - perhaps I'm being anal, but I was thinking the new tape will thread onto that reel - perhaps the takeup reel flange's dust/residue/crap/whatever may make its way onto the tape, via, air, through time, or maybe capillary action? Some other thoughts after 1 day of playing this machine - I assume it's normal for the tape, at various parts, to be sticking out horizontally (as opposed to the perfect flatness of new tape) - and I assume this is why we store it vertically? - am I to completely cut off the beginning of the tape where the paper/serial code is - will this cause any problems as tape winds over it (it got a little crumpled, and seems thicker than the actual tape?) - is it normal to hear slight warbles as I fast forward or rewind? - I do hear hiss, and I remember Mr. Katz recommended using dolby sr at 15ips, is this still sold anywhere? I have heard however that some people don't like what dolby does to the top end - overall, sounds great |
lek wrote on Tue, 10 January 2006 12:54 |
Some maintenance questions, just received my atr102 fixed up from atr services. - ATR recommended I use isopropyl alcohol to clean the heads and everything else (instead of head cleaner on the heads). How do you feel about that? - Do you use generic cotton swabs or the fancy ones they sell? - should a machine (in my case the atr102) be kept on all the time / at least some of the time - if so, how often? - for demagnetizer, which do you recommend, the Han D? - How important is it to keep the unit covered from dust? - should the flanges be kept perfectly clean - could they possibly have deleterious effects on the tape? - am I supposed to keep tape stacked vertically? Lek |
cdr-1 wrote on Wed, 11 January 2006 09:46 |
While we're on the subject, I've heard a lot of conflicting opinions on when to de magnetize. My friends who went to recording school said it should be clean, de-mag, and calibrate before every session. I've also heard that de magnetizing every time you use the machine can do more harm than good, but I have no idea why that would be a problem. any thoughts? thanks, Adam CDR |
lek wrote on Wed, 11 January 2006 18:43 |
Some other thoughts after 1 day of playing this machine - I assume it's normal for the tape, at various parts, to be sticking out horizontally (as opposed to the perfect flatness of new tape) - and I assume this is why we store it vertically? - am I to completely cut off the beginning of the tape where the paper/serial code is - will this cause any problems as tape winds over it (it got a little crumpled, and seems thicker than the actual tape?) - I do hear hiss, and I remember Mr. Katz recommended using dolby sr at 15ips, is this still sold anywhere? I have heard however that some people don't like what dolby does to the top end - overall, sounds great |
lek wrote on Wed, 11 January 2006 12:43 | ||
Thanks to everyone so far.
What do you mean library wound? You're saying I should store them so that the tape is played to the end - every time? And every time I intend to use it, rewind to the beggining? |
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Some other thoughts after 1 day of playing this machine - I assume it's normal for the tape, at various parts, to be sticking out horizontally (as opposed to the perfect flatness of new tape) - and I assume this is why we store it vertically? |
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- am I to completely cut off the beginning of the tape where the paper/serial code is - will this cause any problems as tape winds over it (it got a little crumpled, and seems thicker than the actual tape?) |
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- is it normal to hear slight warbles as I fast forward or rewind? |
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- I do hear hiss, and I remember Mr. Katz recommended using dolby sr at 15ips, is this still sold anywhere? I have heard however that some people don't like what dolby does to the top end - overall, sounds great |
scottoliphant wrote on Wed, 11 January 2006 22:20 |
hey there! welcome to the wonderful world of analog. Yes to the tail out. A lot of folks store their tape "played through" and then rewing it when they want to use it. |
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One reason you may be seeing the tape sticking out at different spots is because it was rewound or fast forwarded before storing. When the tape is played through and stored with the tail out, the packing on the reel is better, but if you fast forward it to the end, you are liable to get as bad a packing as rewinding it. It defeats the purpose of playing through for the packing if you FF it to the end, but some people store tail out for the protection that it gives to the beginning of the tape. |
Johnny B wrote on Thu, 12 January 2006 00:03 |
Perhaps some of the information here will be helpful in some fashion. http://home.flash.net/~mrltapes/ Keep us informed of how you are doing with your new machine. |
LRRec wrote on Thu, 12 January 2006 01:41 |
Lek, you ask a lot of questions for someone from New Jersey. |
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Personally, I would not leave the tape machine on 24/7 unattended. There are a lot of tantalum caps in there that are used for power rail bypassing and when they fail, they can possibly short and BURN! This may or may not be a problem depending on the state of your bank account. (You do know that any tape machine should NEVER be on when you demagnetize it?) I would also recommend that you go through the archives of the Ampex Mailing List at Recordist.com, Good luck. |
Ryan Moore wrote on Thu, 12 January 2006 05:14 |
Its happily dawned on me we are probably seeing someone moving from digital to analog recording and is dealing with those issues instead of how many of us older folks moved from analog to digital, with all the issues of thereof - anyway, its funny (in a good way) contemplating making this 'reverse' journey and imagining what that must be like... |
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Hiss - welcome to the World of analog I view that as part of the sonic glue which holds things together.. You could try recording at a hotter level, Hotter level = less hiss Lower level = more hiss Thats when you get into the art of analog tape eg: how hard to hit the tape, its like a rubber band... Personally I don't hit the levels too hard, but not too quiet either. If the hiss issue becomes a problem you could always try NR but that can effect the sound so its a tradeoff.. Good luck! RM |
bobkatz wrote on Thu, 12 January 2006 05:26 |
Any tape that's going into long term storage should be flat wound, in either library wind or play mode, continuously from beginning to end. If you get lazy (as I often do) you can cheat by stopping at any leader tape and restarting, but the chances you're going to create a layer that sticks out and can be potentially edge damaged. |
scottoliphant wrote on Thu, 12 January 2006 09:37 |
is there a certain style of music that you are likely to be doing a lot of? One thing you'll find is how forgiving this medium is. You don't have to sit on pins and needles hoping something doesn't all of a sudden hit red in your digital system, making that oh so pleasant digital clip. I've got tracks all the time that even frighten me they are so hot. Also, do you know what level your tech aligned the deck to? It'll be something like +6 or +3 (or +7,8,9, although my 1/2 won't get up there). I ask about the style of music only because recording rock and roll and classical music at 15 ips would deliver more or less noticeable amounts of noise. |
lek wrote on Thu, 12 January 2006 23:19 | ||
Thanks for all your help Bob. What does flat wound mean? And I?m not sure I understand your ?cheating? method either ? stopping at any leader tape? I thought leader tape means only the tape at the beginning? Alright, I know I?m hogging this thread (though I did start it ). I?m thrilled to get all of these replies. I?m glad to be putting smiles on some people?s faces as well (is this getting too corny? ? fade to scene in the movie airplane where everyone leans their head toward the center of the plane and smiles. |
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should I be losing that much top end |
bobkatz wrote on Fri, 13 January 2006 13:35 |
Since this point is so basic but should be mentioned in every book on tape machine care... I'd like to give you, Keith, credit for the reminder in the second edition of my book on mastering, where I'm going to have a chapter on analog tape restoration. |
ssltech wrote on Sat, 14 January 2006 11:58 | ||
-See you on Tuesday evening, perhaps? Keith |
bobkatz wrote on Sat, 14 January 2006 14:48 |
Would love to see you Tuesday, Keith. Hope they'll look the other way and let them put in some extra chairs. Or is the company totally paranoid about that absurd fire department rule of a maximum of 49 chairs? |
bobkatz wrote on Fri, 13 January 2006 08:40 |
if you have an edited leader tape at the head of any song that's in the middle of the tape, you can stop there and then restart. We might not care if a piece of paper tape edge sticks out a little as long as it is not signal-containing audio. It is cheating though! And the library wind (constant tension) mode of the ATR 102 makes it so easy to just go back to the beginning and tail out that the issue is academic. BK |
scottoliphant wrote on Fri, 13 January 2006 15:26 | ||
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bushwick wrote on Sat, 14 January 2006 17:39 |
Lek I am not sure if anyone told you this or not, but be sure to put your new tape on the take up side (the right side) "upside down" when you first get it and rewind it on the the supply side (the left side). After the tape has finished, then flip the reel so that you will get a true "tails out" recording. I didn't recall seeing this flipping through earlier posts. |
bushwick wrote on Sat, 14 January 2006 17:39 |
Which heads do you have on your machine? Stock ferrite or Flux Magnetics Extended response heads? I ask becauase that is going to affect your bias. Make sure you know. |
jamesp wrote on Wed, 18 January 2006 06:56 |
I thought that GP9 was the successor to 3M 996 - made after Ampex acquired 3M's tape business. Cheers James. |
lek wrote on Tue, 17 January 2006 12:39 | ||
Hi again. So you're saying if I've spliced some leader tape in the middle of a tape at the beginning of a song? I could just go back to that leader tape and then 'library wind' to the end from that point. Sorry, but I don't understand why starting at leader tape in the middle would be any different than starting anywhere else. BTW, since I am a first grader... no, kindergartner with all of this, I assume 'library wind' means winding it for storage? |
bobkatz wrote on Wed, 18 January 2006 18:24 |
I see in the rest of your post you said, "it was just aligned at ATR". Well, maybe it's just me, but I don't trust a machine's alignment that has traveled and shipped in a packing case. BK |
lek wrote on Wed, 18 January 2006 19:27 | ||
Actually, I, along with the help of some guy (actually my father), drove to ATR, loaded the mother in the back of my car and drove it back here - perhaps though I still need to realign it, twas a smooth ride, but obviously not free of friction and bumps. Some other funky questions that have since bloomed forth - actually, I'll save it for another thread...and I've experimented a bit more |
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What would you say you spend yearly (even if averaged over several years) - in order to maintain a 2"? Is there a typical list of things maintenance-wise a tape machine should undergo ever year - what other things besides alignments? |
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To my ears 456 has the smoothest knee when it starts to give and after only using 499 or gp9 for a long time |