New to R to R. A few quesitons about MSR-16.

[minorkeylee]

Its been a while since I've been here. I was hoping to get a few tips or suggestions on using the Tascam MSR 16. It's a 1/2" machine. Direct Drive.

I searched through the forums and found a few posts about it. These posts at least helped me decide to go ahead and buy it. I think I got an alright deal. The machine was from a private user. Father (now deceased) had it in his home setup to record his daughter back in the day. Along with a RAMSA 820B. I grabbed that too.

I've tested the unit. All channels record and playback. The unit is very clean, but it DEFINITELY needs some maintenance. There is a decent amount of gunk (tape shed?) on the, ummm, pinch rollers (?) (the silver shafts in line with the heads). I assume I just clean all these parts with alcohol as usual? What about the Capstan rollers(?)(rubber rollers)? Currently they are greyish and fairly soft.

Beyond that, I gathered that Full Compass is the place for Tape? Which type of 1/2" would be best of these three: http://www.fullcompass.com/product/344165.html or http://www.fullcompass.com/product/344613.html or http://www.fullcompass.com/product/344141.html

Or better suggestions altogether?

Thanks in advance.

[1grex]

I have been very pleased with the performance of mine so far. For the rollers I recommend this guy http://www.terrysrubberrollers.com/index.shtml
Your heads, tape lifters & guides should be cleaned until all traces of foreign material are gone, before every session, or every 2 hours or so. Alcohol will work and there are specialty solvents that have been pointed out to me by members of this forum. Far as I can tell these machines are not picky about tape; I have used 10 year old Quantegy 456, new RMG 911, and new ATR tape http://www.vintageking.com/ATR-Magnetic ... g-Tape-1-2 with great results

[Rob Coates]

The rubber pinch roller eventually starts to deteriorate on these and becomes sticky. When that happened to mine, I cut a strip out of a finger on a latex rubber glove that was the length of the pinch roller and simply stretched it over the roller. Problem solved. Worked perfectly, and I didn't have to replace the roller.

[Electro-Voice 664]

Depending on which version you have, I'd suggest not using the dbx noise reduction.

I aways thought of it as the suck button, but YMMV.

I haven't used the Dobly version.

[Rob Coates]

Depending on which version you have, I'd suggest not using the dbx noise reduction.

I aways thought of it as the suck button, but YMMV.

I haven't used the Dobly version.

I'd agree with that. When I had mine with DBX, I was always debating with myself re should I or shouldn't I use the DBX. Without it, more hiss. With it on, shaved off high end. Usually went the route of not using it. Trying to get really good sound from those tiny little tracks was tough.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

I have the Dolby unit. It's pretty great considering the tape width.
I'll second Terry's Rubber Rollers. I got replacement rollers for my MSR and my Otari and both are great. He will also strip and re-rubber your old worn out roller for less than the cost of a replacement.