Tapes should have tone recorded on them to align your playback electronics with the recorder machine. Line them up for each tape you're mixing. I think you'll find they're all in the ball park if the tape formulation is the same. I'm very familiar with the APR series, so if you have any specific questions ask away. I worked in the serivce dept at MCI/Sony for quite a few years so I may remember some things.

As far as the library wind, just put the unit in either FF or REW and touch the shuttle wheel control. An LED should light up and the wind speed should slow down.

CA

Thank you so much!

At the beginning of the project (thursday) the repro and sync heads were aligned to an original (and brand new) MRL tape, so I'm assuming that aligning the bias, record head and LF playback should be enough for each reel of tape, is that right? I mean, should I trust that the MRL part of the alignment is done for the project, or should I re-check it as I change tapes as well?

the machine sounds incredible, btw.

Purists would check the repro levels for each tape. If all the tapes were recorded on the same machine and the levels look reasonable, I'd say your fine. Studios may align their reproduce levels differently. FOr instance, some set their reproduce levels at 0vu while others set them to -3 or even -6. This is where you get the different "levels" folks always talk about. If you set to -3 you're running a +6 alignment, if you set it at -6 you're running a +9 alignment. The real difference lies in the record part of the alignment where you always set your levels to 0vu. Its like a sliding scale, between tape noise and distortion. When you lower the playback level, you're actually boosting the record levels and saturating the tape sooner. The lower you set your repro levels, you'll get less tape hiss and less headroom before distortion. This only applies to tapes recorded on the machine. Tapas recorded on other machines won't matter.

Most pro studios will have tones on the tapes, so set them to 0vu before you start.

They're great machines. I have one also. Very dependable and they do sound very good.

I have been checking repro and sync levels daily with the tones I recorded at the head of the first reel (1khz, 100hz, 10khz, 50hz and 15khz), and it´s been consistent, so I assume as long as what we´re hearing the mixes through that consistent alignment, the mastering guy should hear the same we´re hearing.

The engineer and the producer for the project decided to leave the alignment as it is, at least for the four tapes with the same serial number. Since the reproduction alignment hasn´t been shifting, and that the mix is always tweaked in repro, I´m thinking we should at very least be really getting what we´re hearing, and that the resultus should be repeatable in different machines with the use of our alignment tones at reel one. Is the logic correct here?

Also, am I correct in assuming a different serial means a different batch of tape? Cause I imagined tapes with the same serial number were just different cuts from the exact same tape, but I was wondering if that is correct.

Don't know about the batch thing. The APR repro alignments generally do not need to be tweaked. The only time I would consider doing an alignment is if the operating level is different on another tape, or you're actually going to record on the machine. Then I would align it with whatever tape you're going to use. There is a good Yahoo group dedicated to the APR5000. Why don't you drop by. Its not the busiest place, but there's lots of good information for APR and MCI owners.

CA

ladewd wrote:There is a good Yahoo group dedicated to the APR5000. Why don't you drop by. Its not the busiest place, but there's lots of good information for APR and MCI owners.

Thanks, I'll do that.

I did some research on this guy Bill Orner. He worked at Sony in Paramus NJ in 1985 for one year. He was a Field Service Intern. He had absolutely nothing to do with the development of the APR series which was designed and built at the MCI factory in Ft Lauderdale FL. That's pretty obvious since he didn't know it had a capstan and pinch roller. Man, all I got to say is that's one hell of a BS resume.

CA

Hey la,

Two questions -

1. Did you work with Steve Sanders?

2. Is there a similar group for 110 owners?

= Justin

Justin,

Yes, I worked with Steve Sadler. I don't think there is a dedicated JH110 group, but Steve, Scott Phillips and I worked at MCI/Sony and we frequent the APR list and answer any MCI questions users may have. Steve and I worked in the field service dept, and Scott was the head of the QA dept. BTW my name is Cary

CA