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I recently was asked to record unfinished guitar to a track that Steve Albini recorded. So, I calibrated my tape machine using the tones that Electrical Audio provided on the reel.I record to 2 16 track almost every session. But I have only been using tape since 2004. And unfortunately in that time, only two of the session reels I have ever transferred, overdubbed, or mixed even had reference tones. SO thanks for the tones.Is the 50 Hz tone you put on the reel used to check for head wear? Or does your Studer make use of that tone? My sel rep head if i remember correctly was within a tenth of a dB at 50Hz. I think the repro head had a bit more deviation--maybe 1/4 dB on some channels. I have an Otari MTR-90 mk III ... so just curious about 50Hz. PS sorry if this an obvious question. And it was great to hear the sounds you get at Electrical on my own monitors...we had a lot of off-the-clock discussions regarding the bands great experience there.

Thanks. And yes I use the IEC circuit and IEC MRL calibration tape. We have a cheat sheet for NAB/IEC conversion.

The 50 Hz tone is just a second tone to check the low frequency response below the head bump. I like to look at a tone above the head bump and one below, with the aim being to minimize the error between the two. If the 100 Hz tone is at 0VU and the 50 Hz tone is +2 dB, making for a 1dB average error, then I'll try lowering the LF eq to see if I can get a smaller average error.If this was a conventional session from here, then the tape will be 15 ips CCIR (IEC1) eq, and if you use an NAB circuit you may not be able to get the response adequately flat.Good luck.