Re: arsclist Re: (I surely hope) Tubes will not die

[Brenda Strauss <bnelsons@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

on 11/14/02 10:40 PM, matt Sohn at mahatma@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> I am doing my best not to make bad copies. I am curious about how to adjust
> azimuth for optimum playback. Is this an issue with mono 1/2 track tapes?
> how do I know if the azimuth is correct for the tape I'm playing? I'm very
> leery of changing the azimuth of the machine, which sounds fine to me. I
> mostly am dealing with 1/2 track mono material, but there is a portion of
> the collection which is (mostly) mono tapes re-recorded to stereo. Should I
> adjust each tape's azimuth or shold I just take the best-recorded channel
> and mult it to both recording channels..

Hi Matt,

If I understand this question correctly, you are playing full track mono
tapes back on a half track machine. In this case Azimuth is pretty
important. Since it's mono you'll get HF loss if the Azimuth is off.
Additionally, if your transferring any acetate tapes the edge curl will
cause the image to move back and forth between the channels. Short of buying
a Cedar azimuth corrector, the easy answer is to, as you suggested, use only
a single channel. In extreme cases you can switch to the 1/4 track playback
head and use the innermost track (credit must go to Seth Winner for pointing
this out to me).

>   Also I would welcome some discussion of power conditioners. I am unhappy
> with the noise floor of my system, and would welcome any recommendations on
> providing clean power on a limited budget.

The inexpensive power conditioners like Furman and ETA do nothing to lower
the noise floor. Just expensive power strips really. To get what you want
you'll need to go to balanced power. Typically, a balanced power adaptor
will cost $1500 - $2000. Not cheap and will only lower noise by 3dB or so.
Your money would be better spent having a separate circuit with an isolated
ground installed for your analog audio equipment. Most AC noise comes from
ground contamination - lights, motors etc. You can also check the studio
wiring. Assuming you're running balanced lines, try disconnecting the shield
at the tape decks, leaving it connected to your console. Have you tried
lifting the AC ground yet? Sometimes this can do wonders.

Good luck!

-- 
Konrad Strauss
Director of Recording Arts
Associate Professor of Music
Indiana University School of Music
http://php.indiana.edu/~kstrauss
http://www.music.indiana.edu/som/audio


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