anyone know how to fix tape decks?

[sully]

i've got a 4 track tape deck, and years ago, it stopped working. when you push the play/rew/ffwd buttons, the spindles that turn the tape wheels stopped moving. perhaps the belts that drive the spindles need to be replaced or somethin, i dunno.

i bought what i thought would be a replacement 4 track, but the pitch control won't go slow enough to play the stuff i recorded back in the day, which is a drag.

my whole point was to send my old recordings track by track to my mac and have digital files.

so if any of you guys out there know how to fix these kinda things, lemme know.

sully

[Newc]

Re: anyone know how to fix tape decks?

PM sent

[fett]

Re: anyone know how to fix tape decks?

What brand is it? I know my tapedecks.

[sully]

Re: anyone know how to fix tape decks?

vestax.

i've figured that the belt that drives the gears to turn the spindles is a bit loose. i'm going to check some vcr repair places or radio shack to see if i can find something similar. hell, a decent rubber band would work.

sully

[Shotgun]

Re: anyone know how to fix tape decks?

I've used rubber bands before, short term. It was on an old nakamichi cassette deck, IIRC.

Anyway, good luck - I'd put my money on John / jgcable for being the guy I'd ask.

Keith

[SeventhSon]

Re: anyone know how to fix tape decks?

Can you use the new 4 track machine, copy the tracks over one by one, then pitch/tempo shift the tracks on the mac? I'm not a studio engineer, but i would think if you used a high quality DAC unit (as would be included in a high quality external sound card for your mac), you wouldn't lose any fidelity in this process.

[sully]

Re: anyone know how to fix tape decks?

not a bad idea. i moved a track over, but i can't for the life of me find how to slow a track down in garageband. hmmmm... gonna have to check more on this.

oh, i was able to replace the belt, but sadly that appears to have been only part of the problem.

[SeventhSon]

Re: anyone know how to fix tape decks?

I think you have to create a loop? Then stretch the loop?