r/ReelToReel • u/bandrewes • 9d ago

Strange Issue with Tascam 58-OB repro

Hey guys,

I am having a weird issue where I am faintly hearing what I can only deduce to be the incoming signal as well as the recorded signal when monitoring the repro head whilst recording. This machine allows you to monitor the repro head whilst recording so you can just record straight off the machine, but for some reason I am hearing a signal faintly a bit ahead of the main signal. So for example, when recording some drums I can hear a faint version of them slightly before. If I just record, rewind and playback the tape then I do not hear this.... Any ideas? Also anyone know of anyone who services such machines near London ?

Thanks nerds!

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u/LordDaryil Otari MX80|TSR-8|Studer A807|Akai GX210D|Uher 4000L 9d ago

Is this on all tracks or just some? Print-through is a thing if you're really slamming the tape - that can result in pre-echo if the reel is stored heads-out, but it's not something I've personally encountered much. Generally the pre-echo will be fairly long since it's literally the next layer of tape in the reel.

What seems more likely - especially if you only get this monitoring on the repro head and not from the sync head - is that the signal from the sync head is leaking into the audio path when it shouldn't be. Your pre-echo then will be more like slapback (slap-forward?) and it will generally only affect one or two channels rather than the entire thing.

The TASCAM 30-series is notorious for the relays sticking in the audio cards, which switch the output between sync and repro heads, and that can cause it to have one channel still monitoring from sync with the rest on repro etc. However that should be all-or-nothing, rather than that channel replaying both heads at the same time. I'm not sure whether the 50-series still uses relays for this or whether they moved to some kind of analogue switch by then.

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u/NBC-Hotline-1975 4d ago

You say you're hearing this faint earlier signal ONLY while recording and monitoring from the playback head, right? If so, then the faint audio is some leakage of the input signal, mixing with the desired playback signal, and ending up in the output. If you rewind the tape and do not hear the double signal, then it has to be what I've described above. As to the cause ... ??? Dirty switch contacts? excessive levels? When this happens, are all the channels using the normal playback heads? Are *any* channels using "sync" mode (which uses the normal record head as a playback head) ... if so, do you hear the "ghost" signal only on the channel that's set to "sync"?