How do you align a 16track tapemachien yourself ?

[musurgio]

I would appreciate any hints on how to align a tape machine like MSR16S
wich has two heads only.
There are no places that I can send my machine ,locally, to make it
professionally and I cannot afford the cost to send it abroad.
So any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Dimitrios

[Scott Dorsey]

musurgio <"musurgio NoSPaM \" @otenet.gr\""> wrote:
>I would appreciate any hints on how to align a tape machine like MSR16S
>wich has two heads only.

1. Do the azimuth setting.

2. Do the playback EQ settings.

3. Record a little tone

4. Rewind

5. Play it back and mark the level.

6. Adjust the bias

7. Record some more

8. Rewind

9. Play it back and mark the level.

Do this for about three or four hours pulling your hair out until you
find the peak and apply proper overbias.

Then do the same thing for the record high eq. The do the same thing
for the record low eq.

By the time you have done this, the azimuth will have shifted. Now do
it all over again.

>There are no places that I can send my machine ,locally, to make it
>professionally and I cannot afford the cost to send it abroad.
>So any help would be greatly appreciated.

The service manual has the full details. I am terribly sorry for you.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Mike Rivers]

In article > @otenet.gr\ writes:

> I would appreciate any hints on how to align a tape machine like MSR16S
> wich has two heads only.

With a lot of patience. You make a test recording, make an adjustment,
play it back, see if it got better or worse, and keep going until
adjusting in either direction makes it worse, then put it back to the
last setting. Setting bias, EQ, and record level on a 16-track machine
without a separate reproduce head is pretty much an all-day job, maybe
$400 in a pro shop.

Of course you first start out with an alignment tape to set up the
playback azimuth, equalization, and level. That's the easy part.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers - )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

[EggHd]

The joys of a 2 head deck!


---------------------------------------
"I know enough to know I don't know enough"

[musurgio]

Dear Scott,
Sorry for getting deeper into questions but,
How do you do the azimuth setting ?
How do you do the playback setting ?
How do you adjust the bias ?
Thanks
Dimitrios
Scott Dorsey wrote:

> musurgio <"musurgio NoSPaM \" @otenet.gr\""> wrote:
> >I would appreciate any hints on how to align a tape machine like MSR16S
> >wich has two heads only.
>
> 1. Do the azimuth setting.
>
> 2. Do the playback EQ settings.
>
> 3. Record a little tone
>
> 4. Rewind
>
> 5. Play it back and mark the level.
>
> 6. Adjust the bias
>
> 7. Record some more
>
> 8. Rewind
>
> 9. Play it back and mark the level.
>
> Do this for about three or four hours pulling your hair out until you
> find the peak and apply proper overbias.
>
> Then do the same thing for the record high eq. The do the same thing
> for the record low eq.
>
> By the time you have done this, the azimuth will have shifted. Now do
> it all over again.
>
> >There are no places that I can send my machine ,locally, to make it
> >professionally and I cannot afford the cost to send it abroad.
> >So any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
> The service manual has the full details. I am terribly sorry for you.
> --scott
> --
> "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Robert Blank]

can you say "read the manual"?


musurgio <"musurgio NoSPaM > wrote:

> Dear Scott,
> Sorry for getting deeper into questions but,
> How do you do the azimuth setting ?
> How do you do the playback setting ?
> How do you adjust the bias ?
> Thanks
> Dimitrios
> Scott Dorsey wrote:
>
> > musurgio <"musurgio NoSPaM \" @otenet.gr\""> wrote:
> > >I would appreciate any hints on how to align a tape machine like MSR16S
> > >wich has two heads only.
> >
> > 1. Do the azimuth setting.
> >
> > 2. Do the playback EQ settings.
> >
> > 3. Record a little tone
> >
> > 4. Rewind
> >
> > 5. Play it back and mark the level.
> >
> > 6. Adjust the bias
> >
> > 7. Record some more
> >
> > 8. Rewind
> >
> > 9. Play it back and mark the level.
> >
> > Do this for about three or four hours pulling your hair out until you
> > find the peak and apply proper overbias.
> >
> > Then do the same thing for the record high eq. The do the same thing
> > for the record low eq.
> >
> > By the time you have done this, the azimuth will have shifted. Now do
> > it all over again.
> >
> > >There are no places that I can send my machine ,locally, to make it
> > >professionally and I cannot afford the cost to send it abroad.
> > >So any help would be greatly appreciated.
> >
> > The service manual has the full details. I am terribly sorry for you.
> > --scott
> > --
> > "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Scott Dorsey]

musurgio <"musurgio NoSPaM \""> wrote:
>Sorry for getting deeper into questions but,
>How do you do the azimuth setting ?
>How do you do the playback setting ?

These are just like doing any 3-head machine. Nice and easy. The service
manual has all the details on where the controls are. But it's just like
a regular machine.

>How do you adjust the bias ?

This is the nightmare. As I said, in order to find the peak, you have to
constantly record and play back little sections of tape and make small
adjustments until you find where you are. Same with doing the record
operating levels. No fun at all, but again the service manual has details
on how to do it.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Steve Holt]

Tape ma chien?
Why would I want to do dat?

Steve Holt
INNER MUSIC
Music Creation & Production
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/steveholt
http://www.inner-music.com