How to soften harded pinch rollers? (+ worn tape heads)

[RoadrunnerOZ]

The early urethane rollers it seems were a short life item, those rubber coated drums were much the same - not sure what they used there - maybe some type of neoprene. Synthetic rubber although invented in the early 1900’s didn’t come fully into play until after WWII but was commonly used for all sorts of rollers and seems to last, natural rubber hardens and breaks down over time - each type of rubber has different reactions to solvents - some dry out and harden, some soften and re-harden, some just go sticky. To determine which cleaner to use means knowing the composition of the specific roller and researching what’s safe to use.

 

[Brian Roth]

It's been too many years, but we followed the instructions in the factory manual re. cleaning the components in the tape path. IE, we didn't use drain cleaner! lol

During my discussion with Otari factory tech support, it was some sort of "known problem" to them. Maybe a bad batch of "rubber"? For factory tech support to tell me NOT to order a replacement from them was interesting/unusual.

Bri

 

[RoadrunnerOZ]

I thought Drano was standard issue as a studio cleaning product

 

[Brian Roth]

I thought Drano was standard issue as a studio cleaning product

Well, I used automotive battery acid followed by Drano to neutralize the battery acid! <g>

Bri

 

[RoadrunnerOZ]

Makes sense - vinegar and olive oil is a good dressing for rubber - improves the taste

 

[Brian Roth]

Back on topic re. worn tape heads. For decades I've used the services of John French for head refurb:

http://jrfmagnetics.com/

I know my own limitations when it comes to things like "restoring" the heads of a Studer A800! It's beyond my capabilities with a bench grinder and wet-dry sandpaper. <g>

John has this thorough article on his website:

http://www.jrfmagnetics.com/tapeheadintro.html

Like me, John is no longer a spring chicken. I know that he and his business partner (Cookie French....she handles office operations and the books) have been reducing days per week they are operating, and taking frequent well-deserved vacations. I don't know what I will do once Cookie and John decide to completely retire.

Greg Orton (Flux Magnetics)....

http://www.fluxmagnetics.com/

....could be retiring as well, leaving another hole in supply for new tape heads.

Bri

 

[RoadrunnerOZ]

As I mentioned in an earlier post #37 Gunter Wagner here in Australia does relaps - link in the post.

 

[Brian Roth]

As I mentioned in an earlier post #37 Gunter Wagner here in Australia does relaps - link in the post.

Indeed......I was just saying that those services are becoming a rarity. In my situation, sending a head block thousands of miles for what used to be "routine maintenance" is a bit scary!

Bri

 

[Barry Hufker]

When I worked in radio we originally had Scullys but then purchased an Otari MTR10 when they first came out. I was very excited about the upgrade but all it did was give us problems, one after the other. As production manager, I finally contacted Otari service and told the technician we were having problems. He asked what series it was. I said it was the first series - "A." All he did was laugh... We bought Studers from that point on.

 

[Brian Roth]

@Barry Hufker I don't recall doing work on a MTR-10. I WILL say the first MTR-90's (aka "MK I") were pretty half-baked.

Bri

 

[RoadrunnerOZ]

MCI JH24 machines were fun - every morning you gave the sliding card drawers a good thump so all the record/repro cards would work - once a month you’d pull all the cards, clean and refit. Reliably unreliable.
That’s why I always liked the Studer A820 - head clean and software record align every day and you were away. One studio I had 2 A820s that I built a synchroniser for from a Tascam unit to run the two machines as one - the braking setup on these was so good you could have both machines land and start playback or recording from rewind or fast forward simultaneously.

 

[Brian Roth]

Oh yes.....the (bad) Olde Days locking up machines! <g>

The craziest I recall used a Lynx synchronizer. Machines under control were: 1. Otari MTR-90. 2. Otari MX-55 "center stripe" version. 3. Sony BVU-950 U-matic VCR. 4. ProTools. It was amazing when it all worked...lol.

Bri

 

[RoadrunnerOZ]

I ended up synching the two Studer machines to a 32 track Sony digital recorder - they used to lock up in milliseconds - we had 64 channels of mixdown so track comps were bounced to digital, all recording done on the two 24 track tape machines. Not like my early days of 24 track recording with 1 track for SMPTE and two for automation on the old MCI setup - basically left you with 21 tracks and you could only bounce tracks a couple of times before degradation set in. You bounced all the drums to a stereo drum pair, then percussion, then guitars leaving enough tracks to do vocals and BV’s then bouncing the BV’s to leave enough tracks for vocal overdubs.

 

[C.B. - Boudio]

One studio I had 2 A820s that I built a synchroniser for from a Tascam unit to run the two machines as one - the braking setup on these was so good you could have both machines land and start playback or recording from rewind or fast forward simultaneously.

Now I'm curious how my Revox's will handle that!
I am going to test my latest, the F, a bit more extensive to get a better idea of it's W/F. If needed, I'll buy a new roller from that Italian bloke.
I'll probably use the D more as an effects machine (since there is a quite significant coil core missing, so one channel doesn't record, I think it's that), for the preamps and if needed, for valves for my projects (ah, those lovely valve prices!).

 

[RoadrunnerOZ]

The sync system on the 24 track machines was to record SMPTE time code on one track to use as exact tape position location actual to tape, this being fed back when approaching the sync point by slowing the machines and reading actual position off tape via high speed cueing. With 2 track machines you’re relying on the tape counter which can be out a bit but can still work as long as you zero your counters at start.

 

[C.B. - Boudio]

The sync system on the 24 track machines was to record SMPTE time code on one track to use as exact tape position location actual to tape, this being fed back when approaching the sync point by slowing the machines and reading actual position off tape via high speed cueing. With 2 track machines you’re relying on the tape counter which can be out a bit but can still work as long as you zero your counters at start.

They have also a rudimenatry remote control (a start-stopswitch that can be connected; it interrups the solenoid power); I would do it that way.

 

[RoadrunnerOZ]

Is there an RTZ (Return To Zero) on these machines?

 

[C.B. - Boudio]

Is there an RTZ (Return To Zero) on these machines?

No, nothing like that...
Hm, maybe I'll make something with a microswitch and a notch or something in the tape counter. Sounds fun, now I think of it.

 

[RoadrunnerOZ]

Or an OCR reader on each counter and a calculated brake point for each machine to stop at zero.

 

[C.B. - Boudio]

Or an OCR reader on each counter and a calculated brake point for each machine to stop at zero.

That sounds for me more convoluted (it probably isn't, but my knowledge stops by a simple transistor). I'll see what I'll do, when the need is there.