Let’s clean tape heads on the Tascam 388, fix the channel 1 fader, and discover what everyone besides me already knows: recording hot levels to tape is cool. Come with me as I chase my tail learning things that I could have just googled.
Tell me what you hear in the comments!
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0:00 (1) Fixing Channel Fader 1
3:21 (2) Cleaning Tape Heads
5:46 Test 1 Results
7:22 (3) Hiss Signal Noise Ratio Insanity + Tests
Part 1: Fixing channel fader 1. I thought I would have to replace this fader but I was able to fix it. I will make sure to lose this fader in the next year, only to find another fader breaks, and prices have sky rocketed for these guys.
Part 2: Cleaning tape heads. Do you hear a difference? Cleaning tape may make a huge difference for you, if your tape heads are filthy. People say it makes a difference. I’ve heard that demagging does nothing, which is why I didn’t try it. These tape heads appear to be in good shape, and very clean, which is perhaps why I could hear no difference. But this lead down a dark journey…
Part 3: Chasin’ noise.
I’m not sure about you, but I don’t believe anything in terms of sound until I hear it for myself. I don’t buy into marketing hype, or claims made by companies that a certain piece of gear makes a certain sound. Amp makers, and gear makers will always try to sell you crap like that. I won't believe the earth is round until I drive around it. This philosophy is kind of what led down this white noise rabbit hole, and taught me that tape makes noise haha.
So originally I got on this wild goose chase because I was hearing a ton of hiss at idle just through the headphone jack and I could have sworn also from the stereo out or PGM out. And I heard this with ZERO tape running, so I was convinced the machine was generating white noise and that I had bad capacitors and so I had to start testing everything …oh boy…
But after testing, I realized firstly that the headphone out is just super hissy (although I do like listening through the headphone outs). Then I learned that when when monitoring from PGM or stereo out, the machine at idle is basically silent (Even if the gain staging is not perfect). Cranking up the trim added a touch of hiss, but nothing horrible. As long as nothing in the signal path of the machine is cranked, to my ears it doesn’t make a huge difference. That wasn’t the main culprit. I’m sure it’s obvious to you, but I really needed to find out for myself how to get the purest or loudest signal to tape, not using dbx. And it came down to the volume of the signal.
You might retort, NO it’s the level of compression you are getting when you smash the signal that is increasing the apparent loudness blah blah whatever. I hear you.
If you listen to elliott smith’s first couple albums, there is SO much tape hiss. And it sounds beautiful. It’s a hallmark of the sound. Trying to eliminate the sound of tape, might not make a lot of sense. Because then why record to tape? Battling the hiss a little to get a better signal to noise ratio might be a fight worth fighting, but for myself, I don’t want to be tweaking levels all day to reduce the hiss 1db. I’d rather worry about getting a few trademark tape sounds. For instance a hissy tapey sound, a squashed pumped sound, or a dbx blankety sound. All three are cool. All three can be made by the machine naturally and are useful in music.
The testing never ends, and I don’t claim to be an expert! I’m always learning.
BTW I also hear ton of hiss on that rode NTG hybrid camera mic which drives me insane regularly so I must just have a hiss chasing mental issue.
#tascam #analog #recording #homestudio
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Producer & Virtual Guitar Teacher