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Thanks much; I realized once I posted that I'm essentially looking for hand-holding, which feels kind of silly. But for whatever reason, the calibration is intimidating. You're right, the manual's dry and technical style doesn't help much! I do have a signal generator I use for troubleshooting amps ...

Miraculously, I was recently "given" an A810 (I put given in quotes because who knows, the owner could come to his senses and ask for it back). Anyway, I know how tape calibration goes in theory, and I've even gotten an experienced engineer to show me how he calibrates his Ampex 440. I have the serv...

I've posted this subject in various forms a couple of times before, but my understanding is still limited. From what I can understand, this will improve the grounding situation in my basement studio: 1. Ground all the audio gear to a new (or otherwise unused) ground cable, one that DOESN'T hit the m...

Foolishly, I admit, I purchased an old Ampex 600 "Suitcase" deck and am getting it working again. Actually, it works quite well, considering what it is, but I'm trying to find a calibration tape for the machine. The central question is: What eq curve does the machine use? I found a semi-appropriate ...

As the subject line may indicate, I'm wiring up a breakout box at the end of a snake (8 inputs, 2 headphone returns). The process seems pretty straightforward, but are there any tips or tricks about the actual wiring I should know? For instance, someone suggested that ganging up the headphone return...

Well, got the sound-on-sound and speed problems licked; now I'm trying to find the intensity adjustment pot. It's inside the case somewhere, but I don't know which pot it is. Anyone know or have a service manual handy?

Thanks much!
-Seth

I just bought a Roland 555 I'm pretty psyched about. Everything works more or less okay except for "sound-on-sound." Even the indicator lamp doesn't come on. I understand that the switch is basically just defeating the erase head. Any tips, anyone?

Um, that'd be me. I have a very nice RE-301 on loan, it's as close to mint as I've ever seen and a friend literally found it sitting in an alley. Go figure. Anyway, I want to get it sounding a little better--less noisy, mostly--than it does. The impedance/reamp triack makes a good deal of sense to m...

Thanks much for the replies, folks! Yes, the cold water pipe is properly grounded. Does anyone feel I'll get better noise suppression if I add a new stake (bonded to the house ground) and run ground straps from all the audio gear to the new stake?

Thanks,
Seth

Hi there, I have a more or less functioning home studio, and I'm wondering about improving the grounding situation. Currently, all the control room gear is on its own circuit, which shares the house ground. Some people have suggested that I will improve my (minimal) hum and noise issues if I drive a...

Interesting, and thanks for the tips. I was under the impression that the studio circuits could pick up noise/interference from the regular house circuits, via the common ground.

I just bought a Rode K2; I've only used it once, under serious time constraints, but I noticed that with a few of my pres--the ones I most wanted to use, of course--there was a serious hum coming off the mic, with the power supply ground lifted or not. However, with other pres there was no problem w...

I installed two new AC circuits for my basement studio, one for the tracking room and one for the control room. The panel is grounded to both a stake and to water pipes. There are no big AC noise issues, but I'm wondering if I will see an improvement if I run both studio circuits to their own stakes...