EQ Magazine - March 2008 - (Page 49)

the edges. It leaves behind some plastic dust, which you should vacuum off the tray. Even then, you might work the surface over with some adhesive tape, as static electricity could hold some of the flakes behind. RULES TO LIVE BY • Don’t run the machine with the translucent fruit roll sheet inside. You want the warm air to circulate. • Any time you move the dehydrator, check the thermostat, because the knob rotates pretty easily. You don’t want to melt your musical babies. • Don’t try to use your kitchen oven for this job. The thermostats aren’t that accurate, and they don’t move the air around enough to evenly heat the tapes. • Don’t bake acetate tapes. Trust me. • Watch out for tapes with splices. Old splices have a tendency to break any way, but the heating seems to make it worse. Just keep your eye on them when you play and rewind. • Clean your heads often. • Rotate the trays and tapes. The lower trays get a little warmer than the upper ones. So every half hour, move the top tray to the bottom, and the bottom tray moves up one. Flip the tapes over, and even turn the reels so that the part that is near the center of the tray moves about a quarter turn away from the center. DETAILS, DETAILS . . . True restoration experts may recommend that you slow wind the tapes onto metal reels before baking. I didn’t do that because I was worried about causing further destruction to the tapes. All I can say is I’ve baked more than 300 tapes—most of them on plastic reels—and I continue to be thrilled with the results. (If you have tapes stored tails out, it’s not necessary to rewind them before transfer. In the digital domain, you can play the tapes backward, and reverse the audio once it’s in the computer.) I let the tapes cool by laying them on top of empty plastic yogurt cups. It seems to me that as they cool, the moisture and temperature should have a chance to completely escape. Although all my tapes have been 1/4" and 1/2", you can make the machine work with wider tape. You’ll have to make one of the trays into a spacer by cutting the webbing away from the outer ring. (American Harvest also sells a Convert-A-Tray that lets you take the web out.) Then, you put the tape on the tray below, and use your new spacer to support the next tray up or the lid of the machine. When working with wider tape, I would suggest increasing the heating and drying times. Try adding an hour for 1" tapes and two hours for 2" tapes. If the tape still has problems playing, try baking it a second time. So now that you know the cheap-andeasy story, you don’t have any more excuses for not getting started on your transfer project right away. And you can offer your tape restoration services to others, as well. Just don’t tell them how inexpensive the “special equipment” is. We’ll keep that secret between us. TheAll Sound Measure of Hear into your mixes with unparalleled clarity, accuracy and detail. Listen longer with less fatigue. Neutral, uncolored sound, an uncompromised midrange, surprising bass extension and shocking output. These are the hallmarks of the all-new Klein + Hummel O 410. O 410 Active 3-Way Tri-amplified 1” / 3” / 10” www.klein-hummel.com O 110 Active 2-Way Bi-amplified 1” / 5.5” O 300 Active 3-Way Tri-amplified 1” / 3” / 8” O 800 Active 10” Subwoofer Bass Management A Sennheiser Company For details on the complete range visit: www.klein-hummel.com www.eqmag.com MARCH 2008 EQ 49 http://www.klein-hummel.com http://www.klein-hummel.com http://www.klein-hummel.com http://www.eqmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EQ Magazine - March 2008

EQ Magazine - March 2008 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Punch In Tool Box Dream Theater Nick Drake LO-FI Recording Tricks Guitar Trax Bass Managment Key Issues Drum Heads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Tascam Gigastudio 4 Cakewalk Sonar 7 Crane Song Avocet Cad Signature Series Mic Packs Waves GTR3 Kjaerhus MPL-1 Pro SE Ableton Live 7 Centrance Micport Pro, Tapco LINK.midi 4x4, Multi-Gigabyte USB 2.0 Memory Sticks Digital Redux Electrotech, Nine Volt Audio Action Drums, Big Fish Audio Hadeeth 2 Room with a VU

EQ Magazine - March 2008

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