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I have a teac/Tascam 44 1/4 track reel to reel, when i'm recording from various sources my left and right input levels are equal. upon playback one channel is always lower than the other, what can i do to resolve this?
Follow Ups:
Have you re-capped it?
Have you aligned it?
How many hours are on it? Have the heads been relapped?
Here is the order I'd follow:
1. Inspect the heads for wear. (Google what to look for.) If they look ok, use a soft crayon to mask the heads, run tape, and see where the tape is hitting the heads by looking at the pattern left afterward. You're aiming for a perfectly vertical rectangular pattern centered on each head. If you don't have that, send the head block to MRL for relapping. They are great people to work with. If they are badly worn and won't tolerate relapping, find replacement heads.
2. While the heads are out, make good use of your down time by re-capping the electronics. Electrolytics have a limited lifespan. Identify the 'lytics, order new ones from Mouser, Newark, or Digikey, get your soldering station out and put the new ones in. For me at least, this is "happy idiot" work. Now is also a good time to order a new pinch-roller. (I seem to recall some versions of that deck had a couple belts in the transport. If that's the case, find 'em and order new ones.)
3. Get the MRL alignment tape for the deck, get the manual, and go through the alignment procedure: playback alignment first using the MRL tape, then repro EQ and bias. You'll need a signal generator for this, or you can use the signal generator plugin in ProTools if you have it. I assume you can find wav files on the web that will do in a pinch, but I haven't tried that.
BTW, there is great tape expertise available at tapeheads.net, and on the Bottlehead and Tape Project forums (the last two both found on the Bottlehead site.)
WW
"A man need merely light the filaments of his receiving set and the world's greatest artists will perform for him." Alfred N. Goldsmith, RCA, 1922
I'm sure that Bill meant to send your headblock to JFR (not MRL).
Thanks ironbut, and they really are great to work with.
WW
"A man need merely light the filaments of his receiving set and the world's greatest artists will perform for him." Alfred N. Goldsmith, RCA, 1922
That's a shotgun/overkill approach which may or may not fix the problem.Secondly, I would never, ever, never, intentionally put crayon wax on my tape deck heads!! At the very least, that results in thoroughly cleaning all of the following tape path components. The record or playback head is either "in whack" or "out of whack". "Out of whack" may have happened recently, or hundreds of hours ago, or the head isn't nailed down in position and it's happened slowly over a period of time as the head slowly moved.
In any of those scenarios, a visual check along with a test tape check will reveal the current status. No need to put wax on anything.
It DOES make sense to check the head alignment. Pulling the heads for re-lapping and replacing playback amp capacitors doesn't. It could be as simple as a gain or attenuation adjustment in a playback amp card.
Find the problem first, then fix IT.
:)
Edits: 03/20/14
There appear to be multiple approaches, which is generally a good thing.
If your deck needs alignment, the link has a good alignment process, though admittedly it's not from the "out of whack" school. It is a little involved, but tape is worth it. Suggest clicking on the "alignment outline only" link near the top to get the basics, and ignore references to sync. The basic process is: 1) playback levels using the MRL tape; 2) bias if needed; 3) record level at 1kHz followed by 10kHz and 50 Hz (typically) to get EQ right.
To check the tape wrap (wear pattern) on the heads, either crayon or marker pen will do and neither will have any ill effects. If the heads are badly worn, you can see the pattern just by looking. Yes, eyeball heads to check zenith (head face parallel to tape) and what you see should confirm the wear pattern you got with the marker/crayon step. Checking azimuth (clockwise/counterclockwise tilt) is hard to do by eye, and really needs a dual trace o'scope. Scopes, BTW, are dirt cheap these days, and plentiful. I paid about $150 for a fairly compact almost new LG scope, and the kits to turn your PC into a scope go for half that or less. Big old HP or Tektronics scopes sometimes go for under $100. There are also freeware oscope plugins for Protools, Ableton, and other DAW packages.
WW
"A man need merely light the filaments of his receiving set and the world's greatest artists will perform for him." Alfred N. Goldsmith, RCA, 1922
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