You do realize that Bias with white noise is calibrated at -20dB, right? Because at 0dB, you are oversaturating the high frequencies far beyond anything even the best Type IVs can take. You can use 0dB for a 315 Hz sensitivity calibration, but never for treble. Usually, on a 3-head deck, you feed white noise into the line input, record that at -20dB and then adjust the Bias until the comparison between source and tape have the same coloration in the treble. It's best to use headphones for that.

Great to see your method! As others have pointed out, I calibrate to -20dB too. I have a method I use with 2 head decks such as my Nakamich DR-3. What I did was actually record the calibration tones from a Sony TCK-611S for reference. These are short alternating bursts of 400Hz and ~9200Hz tones (about 0.1 second for each). So in Audacity, using the repeat effect, I recreated these tones as eleven 2 second sequences (with a 2 second gap between) to match the eleven bias positions on the Nak. Then I set the bias to the far left, and start recording the sequence. In the gap between bursts I turn the bias knob to the next marked position. I repeat for all eleven settings, then playback the recording and capture that into Audacity. Then I choose the bias level that corresponds to the burst in which both frequences are at the same amplitude. It's pretty easy to spot the best setting by eye, especially if you switch to viewing amplitude by dB in Audacity instead of linear. Sometimes the left and right bias are different - and in that case I choose a mid point. Finally I confirm by ear with some music.

Thank you so much, I never knew you could do this with Audacity. I was previously using a pink noise video on youtube.

Instructive! How do you set the Bias for Normal, Chrome and Metal tapes? Will you please do a video?

Thank u again for some useful info! I been wondering the proper way to go about this for some time so I am going to try this using adobe audition and my denon drm700 and drm700a sometime soon!

Great video. Can this process be used to setup at tape deck as best as possible to use it to record some test tapes for future tape deck repairs.? I set up decks, but difficult to buy good test tapes.

The user manual for my Aiwa AD F850 says to calibrate bias at -25db and EQ at 0db.

0dB on an adjusted level meter of an adjusted sound track is a certain voltage level in aux input. If your audio card output exceeds it (afair .4V) that will be +6dB or even +12dB. So, pls ignore those dBs

So so interesting thing calibrate cassette deck with audacity, you are really interesting 🙂i am so curious what will be? I love the videos of this type of technique but the stuff that people forget. i loved your caset deck collection just like teyp heaven 😍

Could you burn that to audio CD and do the same thing using just your CD player, will that work ?

Welcome back Zeddie!

Nice video, useful I don't have a calibration button on my Sony ES

You have to go inside the deck and find record level pot's and adjust that...look in the service manual and it will show you which one to adjust.

Can I calibrate a Reel to Reel, shoud be much the same. I think

nice

Right now I don't have a computer can I run white noise from my cell phone plugged into my input of my cassette deck or you don't recommend this nice video by the way I have seen some white noise videos on KZfaq I have a jvc td v 621. A pretty decent machine

Your focus problem may have been because there was glass, and at least one surface behind the glass. My Samsung S8+ has a "selective focus" camera option, which sometimes can help with such a situation. btw I am a Google Fi subscriber...

I picked up a used cassette deck a Yamaha KX 800u three head deck with Dolby B and c. And. Dbx. Has a built-in bias test button so you can easily adjust your bias this is a beautiful cassette deck I paid 75 bucks I think I got a pretty good deal it looks like it was used very little in excellent shape

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I didn't understand anything :/

I HAVE A SONY TC-WE825S AND I TEST MORE TAPES IN THE SERIES NORMAL. CHROME. AND METAL. WITH TO TONES. SO IT PUTS THE LEVEL METERS IN THE RIGHT POSITION. EVEN WHEN I RECORD AT TOP LEVEL. THE DECK DOESN'T DO THAT. AND THE GREATEST IS. IT'S A DUBBEL DECK TO.

Audacity so hard to use I never get it 😂

Bias adjustment should always be carried out at -20dB relative to 0dB on the meters to take tape saturation out of the equation. For a full internal recalibration... A service manual will nearly always tell you how many millivolts RMS of input signal are needed for the meters to reach either 0dB or the Dolby reference markers on the meters with the record level set to maximum and the balance control centred at a frequency of usually either 315Hz or 400Hz (sinewave). Setting Audacity at 0dB is irrelevant as you need a DMM that measures AC volts RMS to tell you what the input voltage level actually is. Then you can adjust the internal recording level pots for the correct metering level. Any other method is just plain wrong as you're not calibrating against a known reference voltage. You can generally leave internal meter gains alone as they seldom drift by more than a percent or two with age. Then you can adjust the internal playback level pots for 0dB/Dolby level with your new 0dB/Dolby level 315Hz/400Hz reference recording. In summary: Apart from head azimuth calibration, you can achieve everything else with just the service manual, Audacity and a decent DMM.

It does not have a balance input level..... wtf, the button is right there. 4:59

Use Nak T 100, lots more accuracy.

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