[QuadList] AVR 3 heads question

[Chill315 at aol.com]

Lee
 
I truncated it a bit for the answer.  Basically, your tape was made in  a 
defective machine.
 
First thing is that I would use an external sync generator as a source of  
black for the machine.  This is a best practice item that has nothing to do  
with the issue.  It is a step that makes sure the sync generator in the  
machine is working properly.  The internal sync generator in the AVR-2 was  
not the best for playing back.  It was not stable enough to use.  We  always 
ran it gen-locked to a very stable unit.  The only time it was not  was when 
we took the machine out on a remote.
 
 
 [How does the RF envelope look on the scope?  
 
 
No Scope - I can tell I have plenty of RF with my tracking  adjustment.]
 



I would also use a waveform monitor to monitor the RF envelope rather than  
the meter.  The meter is only a quantity and not a quality  indicator.  You 
want to see if the individual heads are equal and flat  across the 16 lines.
 
[Alignment and known good tapes play fine.  
Client has several thousand tapes made in the early 80's (probably on a VR  
2000).]
 

 
 
Because of this statement, it tells me that the tape is defective.  If  it 
were a 1200 or 2000, we could go into a non-standard tracking mode to see if 
 we could recover the tape.  An AVR-1 can play this because it plays  
everything.
 
The control track sounds like it was recorded with the wrong phase  
setting.  This is done during the alignment of the Intersync.  Since  you have a 
head that plays it, use that one and go for it.  [I have 1 very  warn out head 
(supplier unknown) that will lock to these tapes]
 
There were secrets that you learned as part of the alignment to insure that 
 all tapes would interchange without having to make large changes in 
tracking or  head adjustments.  It is one of those minor items but it gave us a 
better  quality of tape.
 
Chris Hill
WA8IGN


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