From: cd@notformail.com
On Mon, 12 Jan 2026 10:34:12 +0000, liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid
(Liz Tuddenham) wrote:
>Cursitor Doom wrote:
>
>[...]
>> No, it's not coming in bursts. As I said in my original post, it
>> really does sound for all the world like an old 45 vinyl record that's
>> been played with a worn stylus. Then a few minutes later it might be
>> fine again - for a while.
>
>That distortion is a combination of intermodulation and
>noise-behind-signal. Really severe tape squeal is the only thing I can
>think of that sounds like that on a tape recording
>
>
>> I made up a test tape of a 5khz sine wave using my Ferrograph deck and
>> played it on the Uher. I could hear the distinct difference in quality
>> cutting in and out periodically when I played it back. I then tried to
>> make another test tape of the same tone on the Uher to play back on
>> the F'graph, but didn't have sufficiently low source impedance from
>> the generator in this instance so I had to use a radio broadcast
>> instead. Not ideal, but the distortion is still readily noticeable on
>> high quality audio recordings.
>
>Have I understood this correctly?
>
>1) A tape recorded on the Ferrograph shows intermittent distortion
>when it is played back on the Uher.
>
>2) A tape recorded on the Uher shows similar intermittent distortion
>when played back on the Ferrograph.
>
>3) The distortion occurs at the same place each time the tape is played
>back and isn't related to signal level.
>
>
>By elimination: 3) rules out any problems in either playback amplifier,
>2 ) shows the problem isn't in the Ferrograph recording amplifier and 1)
>shows the problem isn't in the Uher recording amplifier. The only
>things left are the tape itself or one of the transports.
>
>Years ago there were problems when one or two tape manufacturers
>produced tape with a backing that caused squeal in pressure-pad machines
>(which both the Uher and the Ferrograph are) but you would be able to
>hear that by turning down the sound and listening to the tape going past
>the heads.
>
>
>I'm surprised the signal generator didn't have low enough source
>impedance to feed a signal into the Uher; most audio signal generators
>have an output impedance around 600 ohms and most Uhers have inputs of
>around 600 ohms and 'high' (around 47k).
>
>Why were you using 5Kc/s as your test tone? The second harmonic of
>that, which is the first spurious frequency created by distortion, is
>10 Kc/s which you may not be able to hear and which won't be recorded at
>any tape speed below 7.5 ips. (Intermodulation distortion would be
>audible as spurious low frequencies if there were other tones present,
>but you wouldn't get them from a single sinewave tone.) I would have
>chosen something around the middle of the audio band e.g. 630c/s so
>the harmonics fell in the area of the greatest hearing sensitivity.
Thank you for your observations. I had hoped to devote some time to
this issue today, but other events kind of took over, so the next slot
will be Weds afternoon.
It's a real nuisance not being able to record the test tone on the
Uher. I'm surprised as well. In fact I'm wondering if there's
something else going on there.
I'm going to follow up on your suggestion of cobbling together a hi-z
amp for probing stage-by-stage. I think I've got some FET front-ended
audio op amps somewhere in my parts stash which should be ideal for
this purpose. Can't recall what I originally bought them for, but
whatever it was never got finished, clearly!
I did notice that for some reason on the slowest speed (the 15/16"ips)
there's considerable variation in the tonal reproduction with music
off the radio, as if the speed is wandering during transport. Not
noticed any such effect at the higher speeds so not sure what that's
all about. Fortunately, it's only music where it's noticeable; speech
just sounds normal and at that speed, it's really only speech that one
would use it for anyway.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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