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Just made my own idler tires using this method, will test in a few days when my capstain and control belts arrive, but there seems to be a lot of grip when I move them manually over the tape rollers
The full line was the WS-1X, SY-1 sync control unit, MX-12 mixer, MR-6 6-track mtr, and the WS-G10 stereo graphic EQ. Sansui suggested using the sync unit to tie 2 MR-6s together to get a full 12 track capability. Quite honestly, fitting 6 tracks onto 1/8 inch tape did not sound as good as 4 tracks on 1/8 in. tape - but that's just me. On the other hand, having 2 tracks on 1/8 in. (which the 'mastering' side of this unit has) would be of good quality relatively speaking.
I've got an X-34 with a couple of problems - channel 4 can be recorded to by selecting ,say, input one to record on channel 4 - but channel 4 cannot be recorded to from its own input, and the light to arm channel 4 to any of the other inputs does not light up. Also the tape motor seems to slow down sometimes but will return to full speed if you give it a whack.. any suggestions? thanks in advance if anyone knows x
I’ve not come across this 4 tracker before, it’s certainly got a distinctive retro futuristic style going on! I think I prefer Tascam/Yamahas approach to routing though.
Wow, for something so simple looking Fostex made an arse of a counter intuitive interface! Not a fan of Fostex all in one units, the 280 is pretty good, but mostly as it works like a 244/246 model, but it has Dolby C which is not great.
I have the same model, and everything works except for the headphone output: I hear a hiss but there's no signal. Any suggestions for places to start troubleshooting? Great video btw!
reverb is bad about letting people list things as "good" but then in the written description, they will comment that they have no idea, and that it is sold "as-is".... dont know why reverb allows this.
hopefully this video can help me put my x77 back together.... I took it apart on a whim to try to see if I coudl fix it, which I could not, but I waited too long to try to reassemble it.... and its is a complicated sandwich to get back together....
I think most people would agree the 2346 is better overall - more richly featured, more stable cassette player.BUT Its also a lot buigger and heavier and you might miss haveing high and low shelf EQ. And a lot of folks including me prefer dolby NR to DBX, so theres that. Could be worth having both for reduction mixes, backwads compatibility with dolby encoded recordings.
Hello, so the first pin that you used pliers to remove.. I accidentally ripped the wires out of the housing and now I need to fix the male side :/ can you point me to the right direction on fixing the pin? Is there a specific size I should be looking for. I’m new to electronics so anything helps! Also what does that plug control?
Tascam transport boards are soft and pressing tactile switches on the transport will eventually lift components and traces when you go to replace tactile switches with my experience mostly with the 2488 series harddrive recorders then things go wrong quickly. It would be great if tascam got someone to copy the transport boards on every model they made and sent them to pcb way to manufacture fresh boards so we could just repopulate the components onto a better manufactured transport board
Just curious: if doing this on an MT4X or MT8X, would you still pan all three of your drum tracks hard left and have channel 1 at center? Would it not be sort of inverted on the MT8X, such that the channel you're bouncing your three drum tracks to would be hard panned L or R in record mode (to indicate which track receives the signal), while the three drums would be mixed in a stereo field rather than hard panned? Was this just a personal choice to make mono? Thank you, hopefully this makes sense
Thanks Tetrakan for all your videos! Anyone, I'm considering purchasing one of these and I'm wondering: Is it possible to bounce a single track just to add an effect to it, tweaking the effect in real time and also listening to the rest of the mix which is not being bounced? This would be needed for my use case. Thanks in advance!
Thanks. You could do that without bouncing using just effects sends or some other mixer routing facility, but if you wanted to record the performance back to tape, yes, provided there is an open track to bounce to (only seven out of eight tracks have information recorded already)
hey, i have a speed problem with my 244 i’d like your opinion on. everything with it works fine, but the speed is always way slower than the pitch is telling it to be. when i adjust the pitch control, it either barely listens, doesn’t listen at all, or slows down. i believe the slowing down is regardless of me moving the pitch control. it almost grinds to a halt at times. i’ve replaced all the belts and tires, and it still has the issue. i believe it’s a problem with the function of the small rubber wheel that pops out from the bottom right of the transport when you’re looking from the outside. it occasionally will stop, and if i’m lucky, a push will get it going again. it was noisy before i replaced the belts and tires, and the noise would coincide with a pitch change, but the problem is still happening now that it’s a lot quieter. my capstan motor does have a wobble in it, and it does squeak, but it stays stationary while the belt is rolling on it so i doubt that it’s causing all that fluctuation. there’s a vid on my channel of the problem, any thoughts are appreciated, thanks!
HI. Just unearthed my 414 mkII after many years. It wasn't used much. Testing channel 1 only I'm finding that input, fader, eq, monitor etc all work fine. It just barely records the faintest sounds/ static/ noise to tape. Cap job probably required? Just downloaded the schematics to try to islolate the problem.
I love your videos, they’re super helpful! My 424 mk1 tape heads arent engaging and when i tried pushing the heads against the tape, it comes out fast forwarded. Everything else for the tape decks seems to work, besides the heads.
Thank you for the offer, on its way back to its owner in the EU, presumably to be sold on as a parts donor, or refurbishment project for someone with more passion for the unit than I had?
Great tear down video, thank you for sharing. You've gone further into the disassembly than I needed to do for the repair of my CD-330, but your video will be useful to me in future should I have to go further with it at any point. I need to point out something you've missed though and the reason why the play mech appears to be jammed. There is a lever mechanism that detects if the tape cover is closed or not. With this removed, it's necessary for you to manually move it otherwise the buttons are 'jammed' in their positions. I wish I could send you a marked up screen shot in the comments, but if I refer you to 24:47 and if you look diagonally up and left from the erase head there is a pivoting lever. Move this up before pressing play. It's located above the red & white wires.
Thanks for pointing this out, I probably won't work on this again - I'm more into multitrack stuff - but hopefully others will benefit from what you're saying about the play function.
@@Tetrakan That's totally understandable - it must have been really demoralising spending so much time for it to be lifeless :( I'm hoping to get hold of a multi-track tape recorder at some point - just hoping I can find one at a decent price!
Hi, thanks for the excellent videos. I have a problem with a Yamaha MT120, which has a very similar transport. There's a nylon "polyslider washer" which holds down a spring against one of the pulleys. You can see the washer on the right of the cover frame for this video, in the circular hole in the green circuit board: it's white, and you can just see a bit of the spring beneath it. Mine is cracked and keeps popping off. Any idea where I could find a replacement/substitute? I've been on various forums and I've tried sequins! Many thanks for any help you can offer. Tim.
I’m repairing one of these. I got it going (2 missing belts, dodgy power jack) but I’m confused by how the pan control works during recording. A lot of 4 tracks seem to want you to pan during the recording process. I have a Yamaha MD-4 that, despite being minidisc based, uses this archaic interface as well! Perhaps there’s some advantage I haven’t thought of, like recording 70% to one chan and 30% to another or something?
This unit was my introduction to recording as a kid and your video helped me diagnose and fix a couple of problems to get it back up and running, thanks so much!
Funny. Roughly, I suppose, I have a similar thing happening on my 424mkiii. The Monitor Level knob does nothing...totally unresponsive. But I can control cue mixes for overdubs via each channel's Effect 2/ Tape Cue control knob. So not sure I even need the Monitor Level knob to work. I think I mentioned this on another of your 424mkiii vids.
Got one of these in very, very nice physical condition. Looks barely used. Can not seem to make the Monitor Level knob do anything though. Each channel's Effect 2/ Tape Cue seems to control the volume of recorded tracks during overdubbing. But the Monitor Level knob does not seem to work at all. It has zero effect on the volume.
I have a Tascam Porta Two that already has varispeed, but the machine is the High Speed version, so I want to slow it down to standard speed to play cassettes off the shelf, but still keep the HS effect for recording. Do you know of any good resources out there that can explain doing this type of mod? I can only find motor starve videos for players that don't have any speed control.
I’ve demonstrated that sort of modification ( lower speed of 4.8 cm/s from 3200 rpm motor) on Patreon on models including 244 and 414, the same principles should work on the porta two hs.
Hi, I’ve bought a yamaha mt8x, it’s in good condition but if you press the play button to record or playback tape doesn’t run. technician said to me I need to find a new capstan motor, do you have one? Many thanks!
Thanks for the great overview. I've got the Superscope CD-320 and restored it. It's a two head version and so no tape monitoring. I really like it and enjoyed the restoration and so I looked out for a CD-330 and bought one and now enjoy the benefit of tape monitoring. You can indeed use it for a short delay, I've played around with this a bit! I did not know you could move the record levels independently, even though I've had it apart, removed both knobs and cleaned the pot I presumed they were fixed together somehow... I'll need to give this a try! :)
Thanks. Have you worked on these compact Marantz cassette recorders much? This is only the second unit like this I have looked at. I have a PMD222, but it works OK, so I haven't opened it up yet.
No thank you. I was one of your first 60 subscribers, and your videos have been very helpful to me. I try to send people to your channel as much as possible.
I thank i other have a stand alone digital than this i hear its very hard to use. I have a tascam dp008ex yes sd card butt omg it sounds like hifi on pkay back.yes i love cassette butt soon there not gonna be old new chrome tape out there than what.
National Audio Company in the US is producing new tape. Its some sort of cobalt doped varint of type 2, not "real" chrome, but it works well in portastudios etc. Bets case scenario is other companies like this will start, and patent holders for TDK SA, Maxell XL etc will liscence these new companies to produce those tape formulations
Hello Tetrakan! I just bought another 244, almost new. It plays all 4 channels well, but 1 and 2 do not record. I have replaced channels 1 and 2 on another 244 I have and it works fine, but the problem was not resolved. And the worst thing is that when I reset the original channels to the last one, it no longer plays or records!! Can you tell me what things I should review? Thanks a lot! Dan
So if you made it with the JSP-HX connectors, that means the connector's pitch of the MT120 are different from the japanese CMX100II. (They look like coming from the same product line so I was assuming they're the same internally somehow). My Yamaha CMX100II have these bord-in connectors with a Pitch of 2mm, in which case the JSP-HX (with the pitch of 2.5mm) wouldn't fit.
TLDR answer - yes. They use the same tape speed and head. Poor calibration in one or both units could spoil things a little, but if the DBX and amplifiers were set similarly on both units you should be able to move a recording from one unit to the other without any issues.
@@Tetrakan Thanks for getting back to me - I appreciate your knowledge being made public very much. I do have one more question - I've seen on eBay, a service offering 8 direct outs for a 488 mkii. My question is, what do you know of this mod? It sounds like good content. Also, do you know if it's possible on the regular 488 as opposed to the 488 mkii? THANKS TETRAKAN!
