Blank DAT? What the heck?!

[IceMan]

Taped a show the other night and was able to easily fit both sets on to a single 90.  I checked my levels..things were real nice.  I get home and go to listen to it today, load it in..and it reads "Blank" on my D8.  1/2 the tape was used I had to FF and Rewind etc.  Any ideas?!  Damn it..freaking bummed.

[Nick Graham]

Classic tape misload...

+T for your troubles

[IceMan]

aieeeeeee..drat new DAT too.  Should I toss the DAT or re-use?

Thanks for your help.

[grider]

I would say its time to have the dat machine heads realigned, if you recorded fine, then your deck got jostled around on the trip home, you reinserted the tape but the misaligned heads could not read the properly recorded tape it would be blank, Nate Fisher loaned me a master dat once and I took it home and it appeared blank to my DAP1 but I'm sure it read fine with his machine, don't give up just yet Jon

[ethan]

Taped a show the other night and was able to easily fit both sets on to a single 90.  I checked my levels..things were real nice.  I get home and go to listen to it today, load it in..and it reads "Blank" on my D8.  1/2 the tape was used I had to FF and Rewind etc.  Any ideas?!  Damn it..freaking bummed.

Most likely a misload or as others mentioned alignmnet problem. Another problem that I've had is my decks head amplifier went out. The head amp amplifies the single that's written on the tape. When it goes the tape is written on but not strong enough to be picked up by playback decks. In this situation it's possible to find a real high end pro deck like the Sony 2700 which will read it if there's anything at all on it.

-e

[Tim]

here's a trick so you can catch it next time that happens

turn the light on
open the deck
load the tape
close the deck

if the light goes off you had a misload and you need to start over

now if you are running on batteries and the deck goes into sleep mode it will have to reload the tape when it powers backup and you can get a misload even if the 1st load was correct

[dnsacks]

or, a fair bit before show time, load the tape, record a bit, rewind back to beginning and hit play.  If you see levels, you know the tape loaded properly. 

Then, when you're ready to "really" start recording, play the tape back again.  Once you see levels, hit pause and then hit record -- since the tape will not unload after playback (where it was showing levels), you can be pretty confident that the tape's in fact loaded and ready to roll.

[IceMan]

Thank you all for the responses!  I have been in need of a good dat service but every time
I think I can send it for a week or 2 to get serviced I panic I won't have it back in
time to tape the "next" show!

Again, thank you all.

[Tim]

AFAIK - getting the deck serviced will have no impact on the load/misload issues, it's just one of the quirks of the d7/d8's

[macdaddy]

is this an issue with the d100..?

also, i was told that you shold tape the prerecord stuff on another deck - that a portable deck can misload, show leveles, on record and playback, but not really be correct. i you do the test record (for level check) on another dat machine, and then put the tape in the portable deck and see levels, then you know that all is good for sure... is that accurate..?

[Nick Graham]

is this an issue with the d100..?

also, i was told that you shold tape the prerecord stuff on another deck - that a portable deck can misload, show leveles, on record and playback, but not really be correct. i you do the test record (for level check) on another dat machine, and then put the tape in the portable deck and see levels, then you know that all is good for sure... is that accurate..?

If I remember correctly, it's an even worse issue with M1/D100s than D7/D8s.

The only tape misload I've ever had was with a D100 and I only used it maybe 6 months. I ran a D8 for 2 and a half years and never had problem 1. Take that FWIW.

[Cooker]

4 1/2 years of heavy D8 use - not one misload
3 years with an M1 = 4 misloads.

[Tim]

I had all of my misloads with a D8

[greenone]

I had all of my misloads with a D8

Ditto here...though I've only ever used a D8. Had maybe a half-dozen misloads but only ever lost one show because of it - after the first time, if I get a misload, I just throw the tape away.

I found it most often happens when you're in a hurry or if the deck falls shut (i.e. you don't close it carefully). Close it gently and you're better off. Tim's light trick is a good one, I use it all the time.

[macdaddy]

does the light trick work with the d100..?