More otari madness (MKIII issues)

[King Arthur]

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

[ironbut]

That sounds a lot like dirty switches to me.
Get some spray contact cleaner, and using the capillary tube, find a little slot or opening on the back or side of one of those switches (probably inside the machine) and squirt a tiny bit in there and work the switch back and forth 10 times and see if that helps.
Usually the contacts will be pretty clean in whatever spot the switch was in when it went into storage while the others will be totally exposed to environmental elements that could cause oxidation and/or leave deposits on the switch that prevents conduction.
It could also be any multipin connectors that carry that signal in and off of the circuit boards so the next step is to gently pull and reinsert the connectors you can get at easily. Hopefully it's one of those.

[King Arthur]

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.