Porta 05! I bought one new in 1987. I was so poor I had to take out a loan to do it. It’s the 4-track I used the most. I loved those low-profile clear knobs.
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So the vintage Luxman deck I recently acquired to match my receiver has an issue. Playback of cassettes recorded elsewhere is perfect and sounds excellent, but recording from the unit itself sounds muffled played back with the signal just above the noise floor/hiss level (without NR)… tried cleaning the record head with alcohol but didn’t help. Magnetizing or head alignment issue?
I actually took advantage of this problem by recording hours worth of various sources thru a Gotharman for ultra low-fi hissy textures to sample, but now that that’s done it would be nice to be able record in higher fidelity again 
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Seems like there’s not enough signal getting to the tape or tape head. Is the record head making good contact? If the head is clean and it’s making contact, there must be something amiss with the level going to tape. Does it have input level controls? Are you sure they work properly? Can you bypass them and record a signal amplified by some other amplification source? Are there input level meters? Are we tape-lovers all a bunch of masochists?
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Yes it has a big fat input knob, high resolution digital metering into the red at times, sent +4 line level into it so minimal input gain needed.
And also yes, apparently
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Rats. I was afraid you say that. So the problem isn’t as simple as a duff input gain pot. The incoming signal is getting to the meters at the very least.
Sometimes I have had issues of this sort (looking at you, Teac 80-8!) when there has been loads of sticky shed on the heads. They looked clean, but I had to scrub them for ages to get a good signal. Sounds like you’ve done that already. I’d try demagnetizing them, but I have a feeling your problem might be deeper into the works.
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I definitely didn’t scrub them, will have to try that. Did you use something other than the standard cotton swab?
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I used the cotton swaps and head cleaner. Lots of it.
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Also, it goes without saying that you shouldn’t scrub so hard that you damage the heads. Many, many multiple passes.
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Kind of why I avoided them for so long. It’s hard to forget the tragedy of a failing machine 
Anything with moving parts will break (especially when you add in the vintage factor… I’m looking at you Juno 106…).
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Indeed. I’ve ammassed a pretty sizable graveyard of tape machines, mostly reel-to-reel, and all in varying states of decay. I used to be a lot more patient with it - and all labor-intensive musica process - but as I’m getting on in years, I’m definitely feeling the need to simplify. I currently have only a Fostex A8 1/4" reel-to-reel and a Tascam 424MkIII Portastudio installed. They are the ‘lowest-fi’ of my tape machines, but also the most reliable and trouble-free.
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Mine only has NR encoding “in/out.” If I have the NR set to “out” while recording, it’s all messed up. Not sure if that might be an issue for you as well.
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Hmm, I’ll try that.
Sorry, I know this isn’t a lofi house thread, but this is the last of my archived b-sides remixed to tape project, and I just wanted to share some thoughts about it.
It can be pretty challenging to mix for tape, but also really fun and rewarding. When you overload tape (not the inputs necessarily), the frequency response seems to change a bit and areas without much frequency conflicts can be really open with unexpected volume changes. Little tweaks and lots of re-recording can get it just right.
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Hey man!
I’m really looking forward to listening to this! Thank you for sharing it here. You are right, this isn’t a thread to promote our own music so I liked what you said about the processes. I too have been thinking the same thing about sharing processes and the music printed to our beloved cassette.
I think a new thread sharing music put on tape, processes we’ve gone through, and also and open place for people to expand there awareness of this format. I will start a new thread dedicated to this so there isn’t any overlap. While the ‘our music’ thread is great, I like many others, are particularly interested in music printed to tape. How the music sounds and the processes we go through would be better suited to a new thread. I will endeavour to make little to no overlap for this thread and a new thread.
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Yes! 
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Some good stuff up in here!!!
Hey there folks ! There is a new cassette available from my label Concrete Collage. Proper mind bending mix of Braindance / Synthwave / Space Disco :
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Believe it or not, if it were not for some online lunatic, corrupt cops, solicitors, and judges screwing up my life, there would be a very fine 3-Head Cassette Deck on the market soon, if not already.
I spent over five years developing one, taking quality, proven designs and making my own adjustments in areas I thought could be done better. The whole machine (not just the front panel) was to be CNC cut, literally, every part of it right from transport to the chassis to every single panel front, back, top, bottom and sides.
I used Open Source software for everything from PCB work, right up to exterior design work and renderings of the finished product (which were done in blender). At the time things really took a turn, I was in the middle of designing a new transport, something that would sound particularly gorgeous when the logic triggered the solenoids. I lost everything, or at least as far as I’m aware, I’m still in a battle to try and retrieve my stuff.
It’s a small world, too, very small. He’s not aware of it since I’ve not contacted him yet, but I live just a couple of streets away from Tony of cassettecomeback.com Being a tape worshipper, I have a very interesting tape-based machine I want to lend him for a video. I’m guessing his viewers would either throw something at the screen or break-down in nostalgic tears if they saw it 
I’m also guessing he’d have a proverbial fit as well if he knew that a new 3-Head deck failed to hit the market for the reasons it did. But yeah, my life’s in quite a mess right now which is why I’ve not invited him round yet. When I do though, he’s more than welcome to borrow the 80s relic I have here and make a video about it, that should be fun!
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Would @HisMostDarxxxellent and anyone else mind to give any tips on setting up a cassette label? Any recommended decks for duplication? Any other considerations (special mastering I guess?)?