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Hi,

I have a Tascam Porta Two.

It's been in good working order for the last six months but yesterday I noticed during playback that the sound I recorded onto Track 1 plays back with light cracking and distortion. You almost can't hear it if you're not listening closely, but its definitely there, making for a gritty/ugly recording. This happens when I record directly and when I use the bus to bounce two tracks onto track 1 (E.g. the tracks on 2 and 3 sound fine when played back on their respective tracks but when I bounce them onto Track 1 they get the crackle!) I think the issue must lie in the recording process because music recorded earlier on track 1 doesn't have the crackling.

Cleaning the tape heads didn't help. Would demagnetizing potentially solve this? (I'd rather not buy a demagnetizer but...) Does this sound like a job for a technician? :-/ Looking for any info I can get...

Thanks!
RD

Comments

kmetal Sat, 08/19/2017 - 20:30

I'd try using a different tape, and running through the maintainence routine described in the manual which will include de magnitizing. Beyond that I'd have to ask someone more knowledgeable than myself.

If you haven't de magged, you should anyway reguardless if that is the problem or not. Part of tape is consistently cleaning and de magging and lubing things.