[peel] Re: Muffled tapes

[RobF]

Thanks for all the feedback. I'll take a look at my tape deck (a reasonable
quality TEAC that I picked up a few years ago new from StudioSpares). The
Azimuth is easily adjusted and I did rip a lot of mouldy 400 box tapes!

The prompt for the question was actually that I sold an original Creation
cassette copy of MBV's Loveless on Discogs to a guy in the US and he has
left me feedback to say that the tape is muffled. My first thoughts were
that it was most likely his deck but thought I'd canvass opinion

To be honest, I assumed he was just a collector who wanted the album in a
reasonably rare format. Given that they just reissued it with the sound
nicely remastered, I wasn't expecting him to actually listen to the tape!

On 17 September 2012 22:11, aadam jacobs <aadamjacobs@...> wrote:

>
>
> I own a stack of Naks that are useless. Once they break, they're very hard
> to fix as parts are no longer available.
> They're the best when they work, but your 20 quid may be for a paper
> weight.
> If you could check them first, that would be ideal. And if you can buy two
> of the same, one for parts, that might help in the long run.
>
>   ------------------------------
> *From:* Stuart <stuartb@...>
> *To:* peel@yahoogroups.com
> *Sent:* Monday, September 17, 2012 3:02 PM
> *Subject:* [peel] Re: Muffled tapes
>
>
> I was obviously typing at the same time as you Roger!
>
> I can vouch for the quality of these Nak MR-1s they are basically the same
> as My BX300 but with a rack shaped front and studio line outs. Ideal for
> the projects as they have pitch control and it's easy to adjust th azimuth
> once the door is removed. But, they may have been well used....
>
> Stuart
>
> --- In peel@yahoogroups.com, Roger Carruthers <unity.gain@...> wrote:
> >
> > Generally there are three things that could cause this: a dirty head, a
> > magnetised head and/or mis-aligned head (azimuth).
> >
> > Your first, and easiest solution is a cotton bud and alcohol ­ if your
> bud
> > comes away covered in brownish kak , you're probably sorted.
> > If not, then try to borrow a head demagnetiser ­ but take great care to
> use
> > it exactly as per the instructions. Turn it on/off well away from your
> > heads, move it very slowly in the vicinity of your machine whilst it's
> on,
> > and avoid sudden movements near the heads ­ yes, you'll feel like a dick,
> > but it helps to pretend you're a bomb disposal expert de-fusing a bomb
> ;-)
> > As a final resort, adjust the azimuth (if you can ­ not all machines will
> > allow this without some heavy surgery). Again, probably left to an
> expert.
> >
> > But having said all this, none of these should cause an intermittent
> > problem, except possibly an azimuth problem where the head was a bit
> loose
> > and able to shift itself about ­ which is not good.
> > So your best bet might just be to try another deck ­ beg, steal or
> borrow;
> > there are some tasty decks to be had from that BBC auction, which ends
> in a
> > couple of days, Nakamichi's, Denons etcŠ.
> >
> > Šactually, come to think of it, maybe we should chip in and grab a
> couple of
> > Naks for the group - do we have any Londoners who could view/pick up for
> us?
> > They're currently up to only around £20 a piece!
> > Cheers
> > Roger
> >
> > From: RobF <robfleay@...>
> > Reply-To: <peel@yahoogroups.com>
> > Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2012 09:34:49 +0100
> > To: <peel@yahoogroups.com>
> > Subject: [peel] Muffled tapes
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > A quick question if I may - I know a lot of our tape rippers are
> > knowledgeable in this field..
> >
> > If we have an old tape and play back is muffled (sounds almost
> underwater)
> > what are the general causes of this and is there any way to fix it?
> >
> > I noticed on a lot of my last batch of L tapes that the start of the tape
> > (first minute or so) was often muffled but it soon righted itself.
> Sometimes
> > it would be muffled but if I pressed stop then start again it became
> > unmuffled immediately.
> >
> > Any thoughts? I know we've discussed azimuth at length before but does
> this
> > sound like the same thing?
> >
>
>
>
>
>
>