setting up a tascam 58?

[mfdu]

hiya chappies (and chappettes)

been meaning to deal with this for ages, but too slack.

anyone got advice of setting up (calibration / bias) a tascam 58 1/2" 8track unit?

don't have an mri tape, but can create one by printing tones to tape from protools (?) - i know 1Khz and 10kHZ tones are required. . . what else?

in anticipation,

chris.

[soundguy]

you need to buy an MRL tape or if you cant afford one, at the very least "make" one on a machine that has been tightly calibrated to a standard using a MRL tape. Saving a windy explanation, you really cant make one accurately on another machine, the MRL tapes are full track tone across the entire tape, very important when setting up your azimuth, anyhow... You need to setup the playback first in order to set the record, if you record tones on your deck without doing the playback cal first, your tones wont mean anything other than reflecting how in or out of cal your machine happened to be that day. You really kinda need the mrl tape...

dave

[EarlSlick]

1/2 inch 8 track is definitely better than no tape at all. The area of tape per track is just slightly less than 2'' 24 track. And in fact Roy Thomas Baker did a lot of his more famous work, like the cars first album on a 2'' 40 track, which has less area of tape pre track than 1/2 inch 8 track. I have an Otari MX5050 MkIII, which is probably the best 1/2 inch 8 track available but I'm sure you could get great reulsts on a 58. I'm relatively new to recording on tape, but the listenting to the first project I did on the MX5050, i was immediatly blown away by the sound as compared to what I did in the digital realm. It was really very exciting. Hope I was helpful.

Bart

[EarlSlick]

I also wanted to add, that soundguy is completely right you cannot make yor own MRL. Even off a well calibrated machine. It is refrence tape so the source has to be flawless if you could hypothetically make one.

[mfdu]

thanks guys, and point taken.

hey - i was just putting the concept of a protools MRL forward in the spirit of DIY, but i smell what you're both cookin.

still haven't tracked down a service manual for the deck though - i have the operation manual, but it ain't worth spit.

bart - i love my 1/2" too - nothing like it, is there?

chris.

[brianroth]

While I *strongly* recomemnd having a fresh MRL tape (not some Ebay tape..."you don't know where it's been" <g>), you could concoct a Better Than Nothing solution if you have a friend/contact with both a 58 deck and an MRL tape in good condition.

Your friend would have to VERY carefully align the playback with the MRL, then do an equally careful record alignment of his deck.

Once that deck is aligned as closely as possible, then you could print tones on it to use as a reference point for the second machine.

While an imperfect solution, it really isn't that much different than Ye Olde Days when we printed tones at the head of a reel that was destined to be completed at another studio. When the tape was moved to the other room, the repro response of the deck there would be tweaked to match up with the tones pad, and then the record section would be aligned.

Bri