Tutorial | Tape Machine Cleaning |& Demagnetizing | Before & After Frequency Response

00:00
Safety measures
00:20
Why cleaning makes sense
00:39
How to clean
01:21
What to clean
01:38
Why demagnetizing makes sense
01:54
Demagnetizing / Degaussing
02:43
How the Measuring / Comparison was done
03:55
Level / Peak Matching
04:12
Frequency spectrum analysis / comparison
Before / After cleaning

We use gear to give samples character, so they drive inspiration. The tape machine is new in our setup, and the first sample pack incorporating the unique sonic alterations of recording on ancient tapes will be completed in the next weeks


Safety measures:
Turn your machine off and unplug the power chord. Use only small amounts of Isopropanol at a time to avoid any fluid entering the machine.
Over time, particles from the magnetic tape rub off. Dust and oxide deposits settle
on the tape guiding parts. This can boost high frequency noise, diminish the high frequency response, cause lower playback volume, and unbalanced output levels.

To reduce these effects, gently rub a soft material dipped in Isopropanol against effected areas. For better access, you might want to take covering parts off. Clean the play head, record head and erase head. Some machines, like mine, use a combined play and record head.

Then continue with the tape guides, tension arm, capstan and pinch roller. These are basically
all parts that the tape touches, besides the reel.

The magnetic tape can also magnetize tape guiding metal parts over time. Especially on older tape machines. To counter this you can demagnetize or "degauss" these parts.

Before turning the demagnetizer on or off, make sure to place yourself a few
meters away from the machine. On the web you find quite a lot of heated arguments regarding
what demagnetizer to use and how to use it.

I decided to go with what the manuals of my tape and demagnetizer state. Most statements agree on going very slow, for 5 -10 seconds each part. Maybe next time, i will
go even slower. And measure a bit more. There is a nice A/B comparison in the end.

Before starting to clean, I used a tone generator, created white noise, recorded it to tape, then in the DAW. After cleaning, I recorded white noise again. This time in both available tape speeds: 3,75 ips and 7,5 ips.

Let's put everything back together again and see if there's a difference in the frequency response.

Yes, these tapes are ancient. Like from the Seventies or Eighties. Ok, now let's see
if this was worth the time. To make it a fair comparison, i matched the levels
using YouLean Loudness Meter.

You can see the reset, when I click the red X. The meter drops, then an average is calculated. I also tried to match the peaks, which is hard with a tape machine with input monitoring only.

So here is the A / B comparison. A loop: post cleaning - pre cleaning. You can see a gain of maybe 3 dbs starting at around 10k. Ok, now let's see the curve of the signal straight out of
the tone generator.

Wow, so recording at 3.75 ips is really rolling off the highs like crazy. Cleaned or not, the effect is basically the same.
What about doubling the tape speed? Hell yeah, look at this high frequency response!
Only the mids are still lacking a lot of volume. Maybe I will get
a brand-new tape reel and see if that brings those mid frequencies back.


#tapemachines #tapemachine #reeltoreel #reeltoreeltape #vintageaudio

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