Topic: Tascam DA 30 mkII and DDS tapes problem

[symon]

I have a strange problem with playing back DDS tapes on my Tascam.
I record using 90m tape on a D7 - which the Tascam will play, but only with encouragement and with a lot of glitches and diginoise.
So, to get round this, I thought I would get some 60m tapes instead and create safety copies by recording from the master (using my D7) and then transferring to PC using the safety.  And now here it gets a bit odd. The Tascam recorded perfectly well, but when I played the 60m tape, it wouldn't play any sound at all! The tape moves and is recognised by the deck, but it just doesn't play what's on the tape. I checked the tape in my D7 to make sure the recording worked - which it did.

The advantage of using the Tascam for playback and transfer to PC is that it reduces wear on the D7. And I prefer taping using 90m tapes as I can just press play and leave the D7 alone for the rest of the gig. It just seems odd to me that I got better results with the 90m tape than with the 60m tape when using the DA 30 mkII. Everything I have read leads me to believe it should be the other way round!

So, am I doing something wrong with the Tascam?
Has anyone else had this problem?
Is there something I can do to the Tascam to make it play the DDS tapes properly?

Cheers

[ellaguru]

im not too sue, but i think the DA30 would not recognize 90m DATs....it was the reason i bought a DA20.

chris

....& i edit to realize that i really didnt answer your question 

[symon]

Well, this is the odd thing. The mkII can recognise them, but it's not too happy with them. But, I get more audio from a 90m than a 60m. I was not expecting any problems with the 60m tape. I'm a bit puzzled as to why the Tascam won't read the 60m properly.

[LEDZEPZOSO]

The MK II will not play 90 meters without a upgrade. The trick around this is on the back of your DDS tape are a few holes. I beleive it is the second one of the left, use a piece of tape to cover the hole. This hole is what the tascam uses to determine if it is a 60 or 90 meters. I am not certain which hole but it is either the 2-3 hole on the left.

[symon]

Yes - I know that trick and can get the Tascam to play 90m tapes. But it only does it grudgingly and not very cleanly.
I had expected the 60m tape to be recognised and play with no problems. But, when I play the 60m tape, the Tascam does not pick up on the fact that there is any sound on the tape. So, it will play it, make it move, count it along, but it will not produce sound. I get better results with the 90m tape!

The audio was recorded on the DAT using the Tascam. The DAT has only been played in the Tascam (apart from a few seconds in the D7 to check it had recorded properly).

So, does anyone know why my Tascam won't produce audio from a 60m DDS1 Sony 60m DAT?