Anyone is in for some rock exchange?

Sadly the Nakamichi Dual-Tracer 550 doesn't work well. Strangely, it worked perfectly when I tested it but once I picked up and took home it doesn't sound... these devices do sometimes strange things like that.
I think the transport causes some stress in some components, because it happened to me more than once.

 

Ivica, we're just starting so feel free to make you offer to someone/everyone, publicly or privately. As I said, I want to share some rock, hard rock and alt. rock, so if you are ready for that, we can start.
I only would like the recording to have a minimun decent quality (preferably recorded on a deck rather than on a walkman or boombox). I'll use type II tapes and record on one of my decks, mostly from vinyl.
If you need advice to do good recordings on a deck, I can suggest you to read my guide:
http://walkman-archive.com/articles/guide-good-recordings_01.html

and then, if you want more, this one:
http://walkman-archive.com/articles/guide-excellent-recordings_01.html

 

Great, that sounds so well. I see you went directly for the SONY I recommended . That's agreat -and cheap- deck. If it works properly you can do awesome recordings with it; you'll see...

Ok, I'll send you a PM.

 

Yes, it's sad. It's a playback issue. The tape rolls but the music can barely be heard in the background so low. In the front there's a slight clicking sound. It rewinds, FF and all that, but doesn't sound .
Time to visit @Sergi... (the tech expert)

 

I don't mind to record two tapes rather than one...

Regarding shipping, I don't have any idea how it works in italy, but when Dr Walkman ships something to me he always use registered, tracked shipping. that's the only recommendation I'll give.

PS: Now I remember that he used "Paco Celere". Does that mean something to you?

 

In my experience, rock can be very well recorded on ferric tapes, especially good ones (like SONY HF-S or TDK AD).
I usually use chromes or metal for everything, but the thing is: the louder the music, the noisier the tape can be. You'll only notice the hiss between songs, but that's something I don't worry at all.

Another advice I can give you is to take good care of the levels when recording, and the peaks. If the song has compressed dynamic range (the loudness war), so the levels move very little, try to not go further the Dolby mark, with chromes. With standard ferrics I think it will be better to stay at -1 or -2 under Dolby mark, or the distortion in cimbals will be high.

I have explained this in a video:


If the levels are "jumping" quite well, just focus on the peaks.

• With standard ferric tapes, don't let the peaks go more than one VU step over Dolby mark.
• With good ferrics you can go up to 2 or 3 over Dolby mark.
• With standard chromes (like CDIng), don't go over 1 or 2.
• With good chromes (like TDK SA, SONY UX), you can go up to 3.
• With metals you can go from 3 to 5 over Dolby mark, depending on the tape itself.

Ocasionally peaks can reach 1 or 2 VU steps higher, but only ocasionally.
Remember that you must forget the '0' mark on your deck's scale as the reference point. The true reference point is the dolby mark, which is always the same for every deck out there.
You can find more information in my guide to make excellent recordings:
http://walkman-archive.com/articles/guide-excellent-recordings_05.html

I hope this makes the whole thing even more enjoyable

 

Sad to hear that.
What do you mean with either quiet or loud? The main rec knob does scratch? Doesn't work smoothly?

 

I suggest you to take it to a good technician depending on what you find inside...