Topic: Digi-noise ruined tonight's recording

[balou2]

So, tonight I tried a couple of new pieces of gear.

Ran:

184's>V3>D8

Specs:

184's > V3 with phantom on
          V3 had the ANSR button on
          Set to 44.1
          HP/LP off

V3>D8 ran coax out of box, 7pin in to D8

Everything looked good, no battery issues, no drops-outs.  Listened briefly during the recording, everything sounded great.  I got home 30 minutes ago, popped the DAT into the home deck (R500) and the only thing I hear is digi-noise.  The band is in the background, but the entire recording sounds like one big digi-fart/static.  I have NEVER had this happen.

I ALWAYS check cabling twice, so nothing was loose or tattered.

What the hell happened? and how can it be prevented?  Ruined a perfectly good show.

[sleepypedro]

head failure on the d8?  first time for everything.

[drewloo]

Did you try listening to it on the D8?

[momule]

how about a small sample to see if it is repairable.
Nick

[tim in jersey]

Definitely try playing it back in the D8. You may have a head alignment problem on either the D8 or the home deck.

[balou2]

Well silly me.  Listened back through the D8 and everything is just fine.

In this case, how do I determine the deck with issues?  I purchased the D8 last week for a friend and gave it test run before sending it off, so have no history on it (other than what the seller said, and it looks GREAT).  The R500 has been a rock solid piece of gear since I bought it new, and has never even misloaded a tape.  I'm glad the tape wasn't ruined, but I'm still concerned about having a deck with head issues. 

+ts abound.
mike

[balou2]

Well, as I listen further, there are a bunch of intermittent digi-farts when played back through the D8 as well.  Enough to ruin the tape.  It's nothing that can be fixed.  I'm guessing it's on the heads of the D8. 

So, next question, a head-alignment...I'm imagining I could send it to prodigital...anyone know how much that would run?

[audBall]

+T for your troubles.  You just recently snagged that V3 right?

I got mine not too long ago used and right from the get-go I was having digi pops/clicks using the opti out (I had originally sent the box to Grace for the opti mod).  I f'd up a few recordings before I figured out that the opti out from the V3 seems to be a little tempermental and if there's too much pressure on the cable, noise shows up.  If I'm going to stick with the upright/vertical method, I need to get that RA>RAmini Toslink.

I sure hope your problem gets fixed soon.  Talk about a real bummer when you spend a grip of cash just to have problems right from the start.  That's the life of a gear lovin' tapir, I guess.

btw, I love the box now 

[balou2]

+T for your troubles.  You just recently snagged that V3 right?

I got mine not too long ago used and right from the get-go I was having digi pops/clicks using the opti out (I had originally sent the box to Grace for the opti mod).  I f'd up a few recordings before I figured out that the opti out from the V3 seems to be a little tempermental and if there's too much pressure on the cable, noise shows up.  If I'm going to stick with the upright/vertical method, I need to get that RA>RAmini Toslink.

I sure hope your problem gets fixed soon.  Talk about a real bummer when you spend a grip of cash just to have problems right from the start.  That's the life of a gear lovin' tapir, I guess.

btw, I love the box now 

Yep...just got the V3 from focker.  He was cool enough to send it to Grace, though, where it got a FULL tune up and polarity switch.  They even replaced the back faceplate.  This is not an opti-mod box, so I'm not dealing with that.  I used a RA gold coax connector, then Zoalla locking cables from the V3 to the 7 pin.  Couldn't have been more secure.  I'm going to love the box. 

Still get the noise when on the R500, but only intermittment pops and static on the D8, at the beginning of the tape.  Weird.

[drewloo]

Although I sort of doubt your Zoalla cable is bad, you might also try using a different interconnect.  One time I thought my Oade cable was bad and was about to send it to Doug & he said to check the cable before sending it in.  Sure enough, my cable was bad.  Just something else to check before sending in the D8.

actually, nevermind this--if it plays decent in one machine and not at all on another it's probably not a cable issue.

[tchoub]

just by curiosity... what kind of DAT tape did you use in your D8 ?
Sony PDP125 ?

[balou2]

just by curiosity... what kind of DAT tape did you use in your D8 ?
Sony PDP125 ?

HHB 90minute

[chucky]

I've had this problem with multiple DAT decks.

The problem almost certainly lies in the D8, due to misaligned heads.
You can prolly get it fixed from Pro-Dig, but it may cost as much or more than you
payed for the deck depending on how bad the damage is which sounds pretty bad.
I've heard that you can send them the deck and they will look at it and tell you if it's
even worth getting fixed or not for free, but Im not 100% on that.

tchoub also brought up a good question.
The last deck that I had this problem with was worse or better with certain brands of tapes.
I had the best luck with some unlabled tapes that shaggy bought off Ebay for like $10 a box.
Maxells were the worse. It was like night and day between the two dif. tapes. I taped a 4 show run, the final show I had to borrow a 3 hr. tape from Shaggy (the unlabled)The first 3 shows were unlistenable while the last show had very little digi-noise, but had a shit load of noise if played through a diff. deck ofcourse.


EDIT- Looking back I see you know it was a deck and are looking for the problem deck.
         Prolly best to check out pro-dig, and see if they'll check out the D8 since it may be free.

[svenkid]

try transfering/listening to the tape on a different dat. I had a borrowed dat a long time ago. it would record fine but would playback with digi-noise. problem solved by playing it in a fixed or different dat.