Last year, I acquired a completely refurbished Otari MX-5050 Model 2HD. It has all XLR Inputs (both microphone and line) and Outputs. Unfortunately, my Air Tight ATC-3 Line Stage only has RCA inputs and outputs: same for my Air Tight ATE-2 Phono Stage. I'm hoping to transfer records to tape, in addition to making live recordings from my Earthworks Microphones. My first question is, am I safe in buying interconnect cables that have XLR (male and female) connections on one end and RCA (male and female) connections on the other? My second question is, which equalization should I use, IEC or NAB? The model 2HD has a switch on the top of the transport mechanism that allows you to choose between two track and four track (it can only record in two track mode but, with the flip of that switch, can play back four track tapes). So, I guess that second question is a bit loaded since I'll obviously be playing back two track as well as four track tapes. I can tell you that I will always record at 15 ips (which means, obviously, that the playback speed is the same). But my four track tapes are all recorded at 7 and 1/2 ips. Perhaps this boils down to when I should use NAB and when I should IEC Equalization, admittedly knowing absolutely nothing about the difference between the two. My goal is to make the best recordings I can and, of course, play them back in such a way that they sound their best as well. And I'd like to hear my four track tapes sound great as well. Any advice and/or information anyone would be willing to share with me will be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Steve Welch
