4 track cassette recording: random(?) cracks, blips, and cuts

[gathernogloss]

hey / peace.
wonder if anyone who uses or has used cassettes for recording could shed some light on this issue ive been dealing with, unwillingly accepting as a part of life.

while recording on what seems like a good condition tascam , i get random cuts,cracks, blips- not really sure how to describe it but heres a link to a song you can here it on at the 13 second mark
https://acceptyourself.bandcamp.com/tra ... -christmas

i chose this recording because it was done not long after a friend who was over the top about 4 tracks cleaned and demagnetized and all that jazz
(i havent kept up on it but i only record about once a year for a month)

the only clue i really have is sometimes when im listening to playback and adjusting the pan or fine tuning mix dials it sometimes recreates this phenomenon
this occurs on a wide variety of sealed type 2 tapes gotten from various sources

hopin to record a new album soon and it would be great to not have to throw away takes because the phantom showed up.
much love to anyone who could take the time to offer any insights

[markjazzbassist]

where are you located? they are old machines and it likely needs service and regular cleaning of the tape path and heads. check out recursive delete which is a person who fixes these up

https://www.instagram.com/recursivedelete/?hl=en

[Magnetic Services]

It's super hard to tell from that brief example, but it sounded more like a quick "warble" than a dropout to me. It could be caused by one of the motors stopping or slowing for a second, or maybe the tape slipping against the capstan. Unfortunately, while it's easy to clean the tape path and demag the heads, motor issues are a bit tricker.

However, if you notice it only when adjusting knobs, it could just be a dirty pot causing a brief dropout.

[gathernogloss]

where are you located? they are old machines and it likely needs service and regular cleaning of the tape path and heads. check out recursive delete which is a person who fixes these up

https://www.instagram.com/recursivedelete/?hl=en

thanks (both of you)

mark, im in upstate New York at the moment but move around quite a bit, looks like recursive delete is out on the west coast, any recommendations come to mind on the eastern half of the country?

[Theo_Karon]

Wow, flutter & dropouts are part of the magic!

Unavoidable on even the best-maintained and most stable of cassettes.

The inertia of the reels isn't a significant part of the system, mass-wise - unlike even smaller-format reel to reel recorders where the reel motor assembly + tape pancake + reels themselves add up to a significant amount of inertia that smooths things out. That little capstan is doing all the work. (This is part of the reason why tape loop playback on a r2r is much less stable than normal reel-to-reel travel!)

So any little imperfection or voltage fluctuation is going to cause flutter. Also dropouts will occur less with better tape but owing to the narrow track width - the same 'size' dropout that would be a minor, insubstantial level drop on a wider format will 'eat' more of the track width.

Learn to love it - or use a more robust format for recordings where this behavior is a problem.

This is a great sounding 4 track recording! For what it's worth the flutter doesn't bother me at all. I kinda like it. Shrug

T

[jacksaturn]

Hey gathernogloss,

I own Recursive Delete, and though I'm in Oregon, I'm connected to other technicians around the country and would be glad to help you make a connection if you decide to have the machine repaired. If you're interested in this possibility, fill out my intake form so I can get the details about the machine: https://recdel.com/intake There's someone just outside of NYC who does great work and I'd be glad to put you in touch.

With that said, I listened to the Bandcamp track you linked, and to be honest, if you hadn't told us to listen closely at the 13-second mark, I wouldn't even have noticed anything was amiss! Any kind of wavering that is happening there may be noticeable to you because you're the one who recorded it, but it's subtle or non-existent to outside ears. I've heard some pretty bad wow & flutter in my time, but this track sounds fairly consistent to me!

Jack Saturn
Recursive Delete Audio/Visual
https://recdel.com/

[vernier]

Listened but didn't hear any cracks blips cuts.

[gathernogloss]

appreciate all the input, glad to have found this community. I hear the "it's part of the tape experience",trust me you're preaching to the choir, I guess just what I haven't been able to get across is that this example doesn't sound like much, but a lot of times I have 5+ good takes that have really noticeable disruptions that I don't release and record over and over again. Due to time constraints, supposed to get out to cabin in start recording this week, I took it to a solid repair shop in Rochester and fingers crossed they can get the ol dog runnin a lil smoother, if not il love her none the less. Didn't Vince Lombardi say somethin like: the measure of a man is what he does with what he has?

[vernier]

Oh I hear it now, its super subtle.