Re: [ARSCLIST] DAT libraries and issues

[Alyssa Ryvers <alyssa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 7-Feb-06, at 11:34 AM, seva wrote:

> when trying to play their tapes back on the very same machines they 
> were recorded on, have lots more errors, i.e. dropouts, muting, and so 
> forth.  these machines hadn't been serviced, so the alignment was the 
> same.


You know, the thing is, it could be that the machines have moved out of 
alignment subsequently, or that alignment that was out, was moving 
further out of alignment. It would be worth checking? I would only fix 
"one" machine to begin with, in case there are alignment problems, 
which when corrected, make matters worse! for tapes that were recorded 
on them, and currently are playing back "fine" on those same machines. 
I would have to hear the tape to know whether it was drop out or 
alignment problems. Without hearing it, I would say that generally, if 
the tape is going along just fine, and then you hit a section where it 
starts to make that horrible digital noise sound, 
sssssssffffffffffeeeeeeeee, then, further along in the tape, it's fine 
again, _probably_ that's a drop out, and not and alignment problem.

What to do about drop outs, I haven't heard. As I said before, an 
analogue drop out is categorically not nearly as serious...If you find 
anyone who knows how to get over the digital drop outs, let me know; I 
would be interested as well :)

As far as alignment, I wonder if there are people who specialize in 
moving the heads in and out of alignment in order to get the tapes to 
play? What a gig!

When I used to work in broadcasting, often, it is true, one machine 
would play back the tape where another one wouldn't. This still was 
alignment problems. But if the alignment was severely out - tough luck, 
and you couldn't get it to play back, unless you could find the 
original machine - I wasn't always around to see if that _always_ 
worked, but more often than not, I heard it did; but these were tapes 
that were recorded usually only a few weeks before being played back, 
at best - not years - so the heads on the recording deck usually 
couldn't have gone that far out in the meanwhile...

Best,

Alyssa.