| Home recording and general music post from the archived Yabb Recording Website Message Board. Some of the info here may be outdated but many of the audio recording and home studio tips are still good. Note: The only tags I made and attempt to convert are italics, bold, center and underline. So if you see some gibberish surrounded by brackets, just ignore it.
Recording Website Archived Yabb board Post
Febuary 2001 Yabb Message Board Archive
Subject: really cheap four track
by btg@lclark.edu | 03/06/01 at 11:49:14
i have a tascam porta one, the super old one, i was wondering what i can to help sound quality, will dbx or dolby do anything, what about a noise gait
Subject: Re: really cheap four track
by ds | 03/06/01 at 17:26:36
You should be able to get a decent sound from it. Do the following:
Thoroughly clean the heads with head cleaner (available at Radio Shack). You'll be fine using q-tips in this situation, just make sure you don't leave any fibers on the heads. Clean the guides as well.
Clean the pinch roller (the rubber part) with a water based cleaner like Fantastik.
Demagnetise the heads. You would proabably be okay using one of those cheap Radio Shack tape deck demagnetisers in this case.
Buy the best tape you can (use metal tape if the machine has a switch for it), in 15 or 30 minute sizes to prevent tape stretching.
Set your levels properly when taping. Make sure you have a nice hot level for whatever channel you're using. Experiment with how hot your machine can take a signal before distorting. Generally on those machines you're talking 0 to 6 db on the meter.
Run the tape at the highest speed available.
If you do those things you should get a pretty clean sound with just a little tape hiss. The DBX available in the later Tascam machines works pretty well, but it also gives the music a certain sound.
Subject: Re: really cheap four track
by Silent_Bob | 03/06/01 at 20:52:05
I used to have one of those. I sold it a few years ago for a compressor.
I agree with the previous reply, keep them clean. Before you clean the metal parts of the well, wipe out the whole inside of the well with a rag Q-tips to help prevent dirt from getting into the tape path. Degauss the heads too. Sometimes crackling and high frequency loss can come from magnetism building up on the heads. Also, if you can, patch the direct outputs into another mixer like a mackie 1202. The mech on the 01 is decent but the mixer sucks. My sound improved 3 fold when I started using an external mixer. Always use DBX. It extends the headroom and when you run you levels hot like I did (+3 averagel), it will add a slight 2:1 compression that can help fill out the sound.
Use 60 minute or less tape, CR02 formulation. I found Maxell XLII worked best in that machine.
Subject: Re: really cheap four track
by Haywire | 03/06/01 at 22:00:54
All good ideas. Only thing I might add would be having a can of compressed air around. Works great for getting dust, etc. out of places where you don't want it. I hold a little Dirt Devil right down in there while I spray the air. Then I go in with a soft clean cloth to get anything left. That compressed air is one of the best things I have around the house. I use it on the computer, keyboards, and to scare the bejeezus out of the cat.
Be sure to keep the can reasonably upright when you spray. I buy mine at Sam's club..3 cans for 5 or 6 bucks.