Re: [ARSCLIST] Need help with a Revox A77 [?] in Chicago

[Paul Tyler <ptyler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

That's a good suggestion.
  Paul

David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:  Have you tried recording new material on this machine? See if you get the same 
effect on playback (assuming you have tape on which to record..maybe a blank 
spot at the end of one of your reels).

dl

Scott Phillips wrote:
> This is part of the mechanical alignment of the heads, and can easily
> produce the symptom you describe. It refers to the 'tilt' of the heads,
> left to right so to speak, of the heads as you face them. That is, as
> you face them the heads are supposed to have their 'gaps' perpendicular
> to the direction of tape travel. This is normally set with a MRL or STL
> alignment test tape with a phase meter or more properly (IMHO) with a
> o'scope.  For 'special' reasons it can me deliberately misaligned to
> match a tape made on a misaligned machine.  
> 
> I'm likely not explaining this well.... As is common with someone who
> has done it for so long... :>)
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
> [mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Paul Tyler
> Sent: Saturday, April 07, 2007 3:28 PM
> To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Need help with a Revox A77 [?] in Chicago
> 
> Ah, there's another word of which I was ignorant.  Is the azimuth
> related to the alignment?  Could that be why one of the channels is way
> muddier than the other?
> 
> Thanks
> Paul
> 
> phillip holmes  wrote: Paul, Could be the
> playback head's azimuth was mis-adjusted (?).
> Phillip
> 
> Paul Tyler wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I'm hoping someone can help an electronic ignoramus.  Here's the
> story.  I have a hundred and fifty open reel tapes I recorded twenty
> five years ago that I've been trying to digitize.  Most are field
> recordings I made on a Nagra on loan from the American Folklife Center
> or on a Revox B77 (I'm unsure of the exact model number) owned by a then
> brand new public radio station in Fort Wayne.  The restof the tapes are
> the 26 one-hour radio shows I produced using my field recordings.  After
> that gig ran it's course, I was left with the tapes and no machine.  The
> original field recordings are in the Archives of Traditional Music at
> Indiana University, and what I have are earliest copies dubbed on the
> ATM's Ampex decks.
>> Fast forward twenty years and I bought a Revox A77 on eBay and started
> dubbing my field tapes in my spare time.  Somewhere along the way my
> preschool daughter filched a light bulb out the Revox--I don't know what
> you call it but it was for a light activated shutoff.  I took the Revox
> to 20th Century Stereo on the north side.  The elderly European-accented
> proprietor ended doing $300 worth of repairs and adjustments.  This was
> two years ago, and I'm just now getting back to dubbing my tapes.  
>> But they don't sound the same.  I don't have the technical vocabulary
> to describe the sound difference.  The clarity is gone.  It sounds like
> my recordings have gone through some sort of filter that distances the
> sound.  Another description:  
>> the loss of clarity sounds like what happens when you dub cassettes on
> cheap portable decks from 1980.
>> Can anybody offer any help?   Like what kind of words I should use if
> I take it back to the old German guy.  Or do you know any other good
> repairman (or woman) in the Chicago area I could consult. 
>> Thank you
>> Paul Tyler
>>
>>
>>   
>                                                   
>