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Re: Magnetic tape playback

Subject: Re: Magnetic tape playback
From: Dan Dugan <>
Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 00:17:16 -0700
DAN
>  > When I
>>  transfer a cassette in my studio, I always set the azimuth for best
>>  reproduction of the individual cassette. I often have to re-set it
>>  for the other side of the cassette. This is difficult for a consumer
>>  to do, especially since you need to be able to re-set the machine for
>>  standard azimuth before using the machine for recording.

STEVE PELIKAN
>you make me hope that you (or others) could tell interested but uniformed
>recordists how to do this sort of thing. Or where to find out how to do it=
.
>Or at least more about what it really means.

DAN
Getting it set back to standard so you can make tapes is the tricky
part. It's hard to do without an expensive test tape and an x-y
oscilloscope (can be a very cheap 'scope). If you need to deal with
cassettes you didn't make yourself, you could have a deck just for
playback. On that you could mess with the azimuth by ear for each
playback and not have to worry about re-aligning it.

>As a related question, I always try to digitize cassette recordings shortl=
y
>after making them, using the same machine for playback that I used for
>recording.
>My thought has been that all the "magical parameters" that only experts
>understand and can adjust (eg azimuth etc.) will thus differ as little as
>possible between recording and playback. My hope is that the overall quali=
ty
>of the reproduction will be highest that way. Is this a reasonable
>expectation or just silly on my part?

That's an excellent policy.

-Dan Dugan


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