8mm Forum: GS 1200 recording problem

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Posted by Brian Hendel (Member # 61) on August 19, 2006, 08:18 AM:

I'm having a little sound issue: I just spliced together the German Amityville Horror 800 footer and scenes from the Ken release and was all excited about recording it into stereo. I got the sync perfect and when I played it back the Ken scenes had amazing booming sound while the German footage recorded choppy coming in and out. Should I just assume the Ken film had better quality sound stripes? Just wondering if anyone has experienced this problem.

Posted by Kevin Faulkner (Member # 6) on August 19, 2006, 09:10 AM:

Yes I think that if one make of stripe recorded so well and the other was all over the place then it is probably the stripe.

It is just possible that the capacitor which controls the recording oscilators frequency could have shifted its value so that the recording quality on the one make of stripe is just outside the tolerances of the machine.

Kev.

Posted by Brian Hendel (Member # 61) on August 19, 2006, 12:48 PM:

That's a bit over my head -- but would it help to apply a little more pressure or shift the recording heads a little while it's recording?

Posted by Andreas Eggeling (Member # 105) on August 19, 2006, 03:24 PM:

Life is far too short.

[ August 08, 2008, 02:50 AM: Message edited by: Andreas Eggeling ]

Posted by Kevin Faulkner (Member # 6) on August 19, 2006, 03:32 PM:

Brian, DO NOT SHIFT THE HEADS. If the machine is ok with one stripe and not another it's more likely to be the stripe.

As Andreas said above you can get variations in the quality of comercial stripe and you have to remember that they are formulated to give their best qaulity while being recorded at high speed. Most labs recorded the sound at 4 x normal speed.

What i would do is try recording on films. A good thing to do is try on the tail out leaders and see if you get very different results. It may have just been this odd reel in which case leave the Elmo alone.

Kev.

Posted by Brian Hendel (Member # 61) on August 19, 2006, 04:48 PM:

Kev - Glad I read your post - I definitely won't start pushing the sound heads around...

Andreas - I bought the print on Ebay from Germany along with a two reeler of Black Xmas (which again, I had better recording results on one part than the other). Actually with "Amityville" I was having better luck with the recording on part one than on part two... which is the opposite of what you were referring to. But I see what you mean by them being on differnt film stocks. The color on part one is richer than on part two. Part two has a ever so slight red tint to it. I just watched it down again and the sound isn't terrible. I've just been spoiled when I've got really good recording results that sound almost as good as the DVD.

Posted by Rick Skowronek (Member # 385) on September 07, 2006, 01:29 PM:

Hi Guys,

Sorry to step into this thread so late. Have been going through family hell with an Uncle who has demntia. Anyway, as the former owner of a high end audio service business and having probably serviced nearly every major brand of magnetic recording device, just a few observations. I presume, Brian, that you gave the heads a good cleaning with an approved head cleaning fluid or pure isopropyl alcohol. This includes the erase head as well. Kevin, as usual, is spot on on the recording bias shift possibility. This is an extremely critical adjustment for audio to be cleanly recorded on the two stripes. Typically though, if one head (or track) is recording well and the other isin't, this is usually not at fault since they both use that same bias signal. These are pretty stable oscillators and are comprised of very age tolerant parts compared to things like power supply filter capacitors and such.

Good chance, as was mentioned by all, and barring dirty or magnetized heads that the stripe is poor. The balance stripe is smaller as you know and it wouldn't take much offset/material loss to record badly. Recording is always much more touchy than playback.

Also, a very good suggestion by Kevin not to adjust the head positions. You should only do this if you are well versed in tape alignment, particularly the azimuth adjustment, and have a laboratory quality alignment tape/film.

Lastly, the usual only other thing mechanical to substantially effect recording is tape head wear. Also very hard to diagnose as worn heads may play decently but not necessarily record very well. Since the play and record head are one in the same this may be difficult to guess without a magnifying glass look at the tape head lamination's gap. Again, not for the squeamish to undertake.

Anyway, thought I'd just throw a few cents worth better late than never. Or is it better never than late [Wink]

Rick

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