Tape Speed Adjustment Video

[Lasonic TRC-920]

I found this video online, great tool for adjusting tape speeds correctly.


But you have to go to the users youtube page to see it

www.youtube.com/watch?v=60dG35aJPmY

 

[devol-toni]

Thanks
This is very useful, right now I'm working on a GF9191 deck and I just needed to adjust the motor speed

 

[TW5]

I have an old-old-school tape deck with a line synchronous motor
to make a speed test tape.
Got it mainly for making a test tape and also its a 3-head tape deck.
Most decks are not good to make an accurate speed test tape.

 

[superlew]

This is exactly how I've done done it, but I use the ClearTune app. on my phone. Serves the same purpose - great app. BTW.



*Sorry about the massive screen shot.

 

[AE_Stereo]

Excellent Tutorial. I was searching for this for long time. Thank you.

 

[Lasonic TRC-920]

Hey Guys,

I went and made a 440 Hertz test tone that you can download here (right click and save as) to do this same thing.

Like the guy in the video says...

Record this tone onto your best cassette deck, then put the tape in the deck to be adjusted, play this tone back through your computer speakers while the deck plays the 440 Hertz tape and make your adjustments.

 

[Beosystem10]

Awww, RATS! My Watson plays 2%-4% fast on deck one and the same amount slow on deck two. I thought only Hitachi 3D40s did that!

Seriously though, thanks for posting that test tone up here, Chris. You d' man!

 

[Superduper]

Eh, I dunno. This all presumes that the deck doing the recording is calibrated. I still like using a calibrated test tape and using that along with frequency counter to do adjustments. Those tapes aren't all that important and if you don't have a dedicated frequency counter handy, most decent DMM's have that function.

 

[Lasonic TRC-920]

Eh, I dunno. This all presumes that the deck doing the recording is calibrated. I still like using a calibrated test tape and using that along with frequency counter to do adjustments. Those tapes aren't all that important and if you don't have a dedicated frequency counter handy, most decent DMM's have that function.

YES! You have to start with a correctly calibrated deck (i.e. chicken before the egg), which can be an issue.

There are ways of testing that as well and that is, play a cassette of music, find that same track on youtube and see if it sounds right. Obviously, this is not very scientific, but better than nothing

Norm, Do you know where to get those calibration tapes? I looked online and they were like $25-$30! That's why I apted to make my owe.

Awww, RATS! My Watson plays 2%-4% fast on deck one and the same amount slow on deck two. I thought only Hitachi 3D40s did that!

Seriously though, thanks for posting that test tone up here, Chris. You d' man!

Thanks, hopefully this garage tech will help

 

[Lasonic TRC-920]

This is exactly how I've done done it, but I use the ClearTune app. on my phone. Serves the same purpose - great app. BTW.

ClearTune.png

*Sorry about the massive screen shot.

YES! Another way of getting it done!

My set up is for people who only have their Breaking Bad crush phone!

 

[BoomboxLover48]

I love this thread!

All the VIPs are here to contribute!

 

[Superduper]

Hey Chris, I meant to say not too expensive but Dang phone thinks it knows better than I and changed it to important, lol. Anyhow, yeah I've not followed pricing so I thought they weren't too expensive but looks like people are asking a lot.

The thing is, once you've calibrated one deck (a decent one that has good consistent speed), it can be used to make more tapes and you don't need no fancy expensive metal tape either. I probably wouldn't do a tape to tape dubbing though because that requires both decks to be calibrated 100% and any error would only be compounded. A better way is probably use a calibrated deck to record and a stable signal generator to provide several frequencies to record from while simultaneously verifying the frequency with a counter monitoring the signal in real time.

Perhaps someday when I run out of things to do and am really really bored, I'll make a batch.

 

[baddboybill]

Great info but I use Jeannies ear.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[superlew]

*A note about using a tuner with a tone generator to make a test tape:

Make sure your tuner is set to "equal" or "even" temperament.
There are hundreds of different "musical" temperaments that consider "A" to be a value slightly different from 440 Hz (usually a couple of cents sharp. ie.: A4=443.4 Hz).
Anything other than "equal" or "even" is really only useful for tuning acoustic instruments.
So, if you use, say a "Kirnberger" temperament to record a A4 test tone, then try to calibrate the deck to 440 Hz on the tuner, the deck is actually going to run a little slow.

Sorry for the jargon, but I thought this might be good info for anyone using a tuner whose native temperament is anything other than "equal" or "even."

Great info but I use Jeannies ear.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

That works too!

 

[Lasonic TRC-920]

Hey Chris, I meant to say not too expensive but Dang phone thinks it knows better than I and changed it to important, lol. Anyhow, yeah I've not followed pricing so I thought they weren't too expensive but looks like people are asking a lot.

The thing is, once you've calibrated one deck (a decent one that has good consistent speed), it can be used to make more tapes and you don't need no fancy expensive metal tape either. I probably wouldn't do a tape to tape dubbing though because that requires both decks to be calibrated 100% and any error would only be compounded. A better way is probably use a calibrated deck to record and a stable signal generator to provide several frequencies to record from while simultaneously verifying the frequency with a counter monitoring the signal in real time.

Perhaps someday when I run out of things to do and am really really bored, I'll make a batch.

Isn't that what I was doing?

Great info but I use Jeannies ear.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Oh yes, Ellen will say "That doesn't sound right" and I'm off to the laboratory to make corrections!

*A note about using a tuner with a tone generator to make a test tape:

Make sure your tuner is set to "equal" or "even" temperament.
There are hundreds of different "musical" temperaments that consider "A" to be a value slightly different from 440 Hz (usually a couple of cents sharp. ie.: A4=443.4 Hz).
Anything other than "equal" or "even" is really only useful for tuning acoustic instruments.
So, if you use, say a "Kirnberger" temperament to record a A4 test tone, then try to calibrate the deck to 440 Hz on the tuner, the deck is actually going to run a little slow.

Sorry for the jargon, but I thought this might be good info for anyone using a tuner whose native temperament is anything other than "equal" or "even."



That works too!

I think it's time to just get a tuning fork