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