Originally Posted by ORC  At 15 ips on my deck, I can select NAB or IEC eq. I prefer the sound of the iec curve, but most 15 ips mixes that come to me are NAB eq. My deck also does 30 ips AES eq of course. I'm curious if your machine does 30 ips as well. The reason i wonder is becaused flatpicked acoustic guitars, mandolins, snappy upright bass, etc. Can have some pretty quick transients that can become softened or even masked at 15 ips. I really like the sound of 15 ips, but for material with a bunch of fast transients i
prefer 30 IPS.
Its important that you know for sure that your deck's electronics are iec or nab. You need to have the proper MRL tape for your machine. Specify NAB or IEC eq, 15 ips, at least these tones: 1k, 10k, 16k, 100hz. Then your reference level 185 nWb/m = 0, 250 nWb/m = +3 db, 355nWb/m = +6, 500 nWb/m = +9. If your deck does 30 ips AESeq as well, order a 2 speed MRL tape. OH I almost forgot. Make sure your MRL tape is NON-FRINGING COMPENSATED!! fringing compensation is for narrow format multitrack machines.
I use a 2 speed MRL at 250 nWb/m. With a single tape like this, you will be able to setup for +0, +3, +6, and +9 operation using your VU meters.
If you want to make your mastering engineer really happy, print these tones at 0VU for him: 1k, 10k, 16k, 100 hz, bass sweep from below 20 hz to 200 hz or so, and some white noise at 0vu. Some guys like to adjust playback azimuth using 16k. Some guys like to use white noize to set azimuth.
One more thing to get done assuming your heads are in good shape would be to send your head block to JRF magnetics for an optical alignment. This is inexpensive, and can really help you get the best performane out of your machine. |