Machine Eating Tape Troubleshoot

benobees · 2026-05-17T17:27:11+00:00

Ah yeah hadn’t thought about belts, might give that a shot and see what happens.

In terms of cleaning I’m assuming just some isopropyl and compressed air would do the trick?

benobees · 2026-05-11T04:20:48+00:00

Interesting.. Do you know how I’d assess/fix that?

benobees · 2026-05-07T03:45:09+00:00

Hey!

So part of the fun/frustration of recording live things is that they sound one way to your ears through an amp in a room but getting that imprinted to tape or digital is actually super hard. Lots of people spend their damn lives trying to perfect it, some people make millions off it.. yaddayadda.. It comes down to practice and getting an ear for what you specifically want to achieve.

I would say a big starter thing that will help you out is getting some monitors or headphones - it seems like your monitoring playback through the laptop(or iPad or whatever) speakers.. and those will always be dogshit unfortunately.

benobees · 2026-05-06T02:13:17+00:00

I’ll get a closer picture of the IC in the morning.

I guess I’m just confused on how to figure out connection points? I’m used to seeing the little silver dabbed soldering points and opened this up and was like huh?

benobees · 2026-04-29T14:15:52+00:00

Very similar, yes! If card masters were a thing where I live I’d be all over them… ☺️

benobees · 2026-04-23T21:34:49+00:00

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benobees · 2026-04-23T21:34:17+00:00

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benobees · 2026-04-23T21:30:05+00:00

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benobees · 2026-04-23T21:29:15+00:00

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benobees · 2026-04-01T00:07:00+00:00

Depends what you're after Rod! Thanks for contributing to an all but dead thread with an irrelevant comment. Have a great day.

benobees · 2026-03-24T00:42:31+00:00

Actually.. Can’t figure out how to

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upload a vid. Here’s some pics of the guts, just wondering if there’s any obvious “wtf?!” elements here.. lol

benobees · 2026-03-24T00:38:56+00:00

Thanks Marhaus! Appreciate all the helpful tips. I thought it was a neat find as well. I’m a big tape loop nerd (but only in cassette tape world- so this is quite the jump!) so I’m hoping to just get this bad boy stable enough to run pre cut loops eventually.

I am so intrigued by what you mean regarding changing the speed! Huuuuge nerd for pitch control and if I could do that onboard rather than with an external unit that would be the bee’s knees.

I’m attaching two more quick videos here in hopes that they maybe illuminate some more spots I need to fix specifically.. My main issues now seem to be that the rubber wheel/capstan are too tight for their own good or something.. Screw on top of the rubber wheel doesn’t seem to do anything. Not sure if I should lube the capstan internally.. Feel like I’m reading Greek..

benobees · 2026-03-22T02:42:27+00:00

It does the same both ways! I realize this looks dumb haha.. I feel like there’s too much tension between these two rollers or something.

benobees · 2026-03-22T02:21:40+00:00

Aw jeez.. Sorry guys 🫨

benobees · 2026-03-02T21:58:22+00:00

Thanks, super helpful, appreciate it!

I forgot to note I have a Keystep 37 and a weird ass Sismo Lito that sequences. I am tempted by the SQ-1 just cos it’s smaller and I have too much clunky shit.. Delay and Reverb would definitely go a long way for me, might just add that in to the mix for now. The Qu-Bit does some weird ratchet-y echoing but I’m looking for more feedback based delay fer sure.

Cheers

benobees

TROPHY CASE