Hello Douglas,

Did the Soundmirror have a special facility to optionally pull the permanent 
magnet erase head  from the tape (as in playback) when it was recorded to 
virgin/bulk erased tape? If not, wouldnt the increased noise  be there 
regardless of whether it was a first time recording or overwriting previous 
material?

Rgds,
Tim.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Douglas Pomeroy" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2018 10:33 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] ARSCLIST Digest - 28 Oct 2018 to 29 Oct 2018 
(#2018-245)


Tim,
The recorder was my father's, and I don't think he recorded over previous 
recordings.
But, yes, the erase head was a permanent magnet. The noise level was no 
doubt due
to the electronics and would certainly be higher than with a more modern 
recorder.


Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2018 22:26:55 +0800
From: Tim Gillett <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Soundmirror tapes

Thanks Douglas,

It seems then that so far, the sticking winds is an isolated case.

I mentioned earlier that the very high noise floor seems confined to the
actual recording. I suspect the machine used initially (early 1950's) was a
Soundmirror which apparently used a permanent magnet erase head. When I
made a new recording on an unused piece of the paper tape, on a modern era
machine (Nagra 4.2), the noise was much lower than on the original
recording.

Tim Gillett
 Douglas Pomeroy
Audio Restoration and Mastering Services
193 Baltic St
Brooklyn, NY 11201-6173
(718) 855-2650
[log in to unmask]
Music Over Business 


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