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Messages - King Arthur

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1
Reel to Reel Tape Machines / Otari MX5050 MKIII Question
« on: November 06, 2015, 09:54:51 PM »
This may be a long shot, but does anyone know if you can play back and record onto the same track at once?

I've recorded onto two tracks, which I have combined in a group and want to record the output onto one of the tracks I am playing back from, overwriting it (while playing it) with the combination of itself and another track.

The repo head is before the record head right so hypothetically you could do this eh?

I'd send them both to another track but they are all used up. The pitfalls of 8...

2
Reel to Reel Tape Machines / Otari leaving marks on tape
« on: August 06, 2014, 11:53:55 PM »
Greetings fellow tape tudors

I've got a lovely Otari MX5050 MKIII. I've just had it serviced and it appears to be running and sounding wonderful.

I have noticed however the tape looks a little odd. There are darker lines, some narrow and some wide on the tape (please ignore my greasy mitts)



Doesn't appear to be any residue left on the heads after using it.

Is this anything to be concerned about...any advice welcome.

Thanks

3
Tape Tech / Re: New ATR tape leaving a mess on my heads
« on: April 18, 2014, 06:58:05 PM »
Thanks for the reply. I will give my distributer a call about this...

The band I recorded aren't going to be to happy :(

4
Tape Tech / New ATR tape leaving a mess on my heads
« on: April 18, 2014, 05:24:21 PM »
Hey guys

I've got some new ATR master tape which I have recorded a few songs onto. I haven't had this problem before, but after playing about 2 mins of the tape the heads are covered in brown residue and seriously impact the quality of the audio on playback. I've cleaned my deck thoroughly but every time I play the tape the grit comes back after no more than 2 mins

I've never had this problem with ATR tape before. Can anyone shed some light on why this is happening?

See a picture here: http://1drv.ms/1f4DfjG

5
Tape Tech / Re: Tape and guitar speakers...
« on: May 03, 2013, 01:57:51 AM »
Thanks

6
Tape Tech / Tape and guitar speakers...
« on: May 02, 2013, 04:07:14 PM »
Hi Guys

I have a analog recording setup in my room. I have a couple of guitar amps in the vicinity of my tape deck and a collection of recorded tapes 1.5m of the ground with a floor speaker about 1m away.

So what I'm getting at is... how close is too close to have speakers and tape? I'd hate to accidentally wipe something, if that is possible...

I've had stuff pretty close, possibly even tape resting on top of an amp but haven't noticed any erasures yet...

7
Reel to Reel Tape Machines / Re: Otari MX5050 BII Brake Issue
« on: November 22, 2012, 08:37:11 PM »
I managed to figure out what the issue was. Both of the tape arms had springs/screws detached and missing from inside of the unit. I fixed them up and also changed the position of some adjustable springs on the brakes and now all is well.

Thanks for your help.

8
Reel to Reel Tape Machines / Otari MX5050 BII Brake Issue
« on: November 21, 2012, 02:20:00 PM »
Hi There

I have recently made a purchase of an ex-radio station MX5050 BII. It's in good working order but unfortunately there is a bit of a problem with the brakes when the stop button is pushed. Basically, when the stop button is pressed when either in the play or ff/rw function the brakes lock in immediately and the reels come to an abrupt halt. When testing the stop button in ff mode it pulled on the tape and stretched it rather badly. I've just had the unit serviced and the technician seems to think there is not much that can be done... Can some one please shed some light on whether I can make it work any smoother? I'm hoping to use this deck to mix down from my 8 track and don't want to spend money on new tape if it's going to be stretched...

This is the comment on it I got from the tech:

That machine was designed so that when you hit the stop button the motor power switches off and the mechanical brakes are activated. It's a fairly basic mechanism design - on a more sophisticated unit the tape would be slowed down by applying reverse torque, then the brakes would activate just as the tape came to a standstill. The mechanical brakes have a force differential of about 3 to 1, clockwise to anticlockwise. Thus when stopping the tape the trailing brake has more braking effect than the leading brake, to avoid the tape "throwing a loop". This effect is much increased when using 7" reels - you will find it a lot smoother using 10 1/2" reels.
 
When you dropped the unit to me the brake differential was more like 10 to 1, because of the accumulation of friction material from the brake bands onto the brake drum, resulting in an even more fierce "stop" - so having cleaned the drums, this is about as good as it gets. My recommendation would be to either use 10 1/2" reels (always more preferable) or to hit the opposite fast wind button to slow the tape, then hit stop when the tape has pulled right up.

 

9
Reel to Reel Tape Machines / Re: Otari MX 5050 Mk. I
« on: August 02, 2010, 09:03:42 PM »
Thats a good looking deck. I hope you get it working correctly...

10
Reel to Reel Tape Machines / Re: More otari madness (MKIII issues)
« on: August 02, 2010, 08:53:35 PM »
The machine was in a pretty tidy condition when i got it, ill be surprised if the switches are oxidised but ill give it a clean anyway. Also I did notice that the record head plays back with more high frequency tone than the play head. Any ideas what could cause that? Cheers.

11
Reel to Reel Tape Machines / More otari madness (MKIII issues)
« on: August 01, 2010, 09:07:18 PM »
Hey all,

Im having some issues with my otari and was hoping for some feedback. Recording to track 3 gets constant flutter (drop in/outs) and recording to tracks 4 - 8 doesn't have anything on playback after being recorded to! Hopefully its just the head alignment or something like that. Also, repoducing to the play back head seems to intermittantly "drop out" completely after a few seconds on channel 2. If you switch it over to the record head (sel rep) on playback the signal comes through fine. Its either very weird or I dont know how to operate my machine properly... Im hoping its the latter. FYI, the heads are in great condition.

Thanks

Aaron


12
General Discussion / Re: R2R links
« on: June 16, 2010, 04:25:26 PM »
Heres a link on baking tapes with Sticky Shed problems..

http://www.youramerica.net/tapebake.htm

Only thing is, he doesn't recommend any approximate temperatures!

13
General Discussion / Re: horrors of REAL life
« on: June 16, 2010, 03:53:27 PM »
Theres actually a website out there of a lot, and I mean A LOT of really old vinyl that one man has converted to digital to preserve... I'll try dig up the link.

14
General Discussion / Re: Microphones
« on: June 14, 2010, 05:18:37 PM »
Thanks for the tips. Those royers looks really nice...

15
General Discussion / Re: Microphones
« on: June 14, 2010, 03:18:39 PM »
At the moment I have a SM57 and a AT-2020 condenser Mic which is actually pretty good considering how cheap it was. I'm looking into getting a ribbon Mic at the moment as I hear they give the best vintage sound..
 
http://www.coutant.org/reslo/index.html

Aaron

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