tascam da 20 problems

ORIGINAL: billyb

hello all, i hope someone can help me with this. i have a tascam da 20 dat recorder that i want to use for band rehersals/live recording etc. , this last weekend we had a jam and i was going to record it with the da 20, i used a brand new tdk pro da-r90 tape and set the machine to record. i was getting a good strong signal on the meters and all seem good to go, however on playback it cuts in and out every 2-3 seconds , example; 1sec-signal,2sec-signal, 3sec-no signal, 4sec-signal etc. i've tried another tape with same results, also tested it with spdif/digital feed from my daw same thing. i've searched thru the manual and internet for solutions to no avail. what am i missing? please any of you who have any ideas let me know. thanks, bill

Do another test and make sure nothing is plugged into the spdif. If there is a sample rate swtich try both 44.1 and 48k. If you are trying to record the SPDIF in make sure the signal is either 44.1 / 16bit or 48k / 16bit... that's all DAT can do.

ORIGINAL: billyb

thanks for the tip frank. but why would it act the same way while recording analog with nothing in the spdif? that is, i originally was attempting to record straight in with two mics. and as i mentioned before, it seemed to record for 2-3 seconds, then pause, then record 2=3 seconds, then pause, then record so on. this is really stumping me. but i do appreciate your input. bill

I've never seen one do that.. I have a DA-30 that is over 10 years old now and it's still working fine. Your machine could be going bad. The good news is you should be able to get another one off e-bay for next to nothing.

ohhey, i hear ya man i sure hope it's not the machine going down. i'm at a point in my band where i really need it for recording pre-production rehersals on our album we're working on. i guess i can try and score another on ebay if need be, but, my budget is pretty strained at the moment with the album and all. thanks again, bill

I misspoke, what I meant to say now that I have gotten home and LOOKED at the front of the beast is that you want to make sure its set to analog input if you are feeding it analog, digital input, makes sure its correct sampling rate. Another common error I remember was when re-recording over old tapes, start IDs can fudge up the process by causing the deck to go into pause or at least hesitate.
And then it could just be dirty heads, lord knows where to get a dat head cleaner tape?! Marketek.com maybe?

hi everyone, i'm still trying to solve this problem. but have learned a few things along the way. i've cleaned the heads with a pro cleaning tape, tried different tapes, have tried digital and analog recording, and found that the problem doesn't lie in recording but in playback instead. it seams that whatever signal i'm going into dat with gets recorded but upon playback there is the dropouts they start out about 4-6 secs into playback lasting 1-2 secs in duration, yet, as the tape plays the dropouts get more frequent to where finally theris no sound. you can rewind the tape a bit and start play and it will start this cycle again. i'm sure it's not on the recording end of it because the dropouts occur at different places i.e. one time the dropout will be at say 1:22 on tape but if you back up to 1:20 and play it the dropout won't occur till 1:25 or so, which means the recorded material is all there on the tape. if it wasn't you wouldn't be able to hear the part that had dropped out previously no matter where you started play from. so, i'm racking my brain for possible causes and solutions this situation, and would be ever grateful to any and all who could shed more light on this. because at the moment i'm truly stumped. thanks in advance. bill

gee, i really hope not, but i appreciate your post. bill

i hear ya donny. i'm gonna try to adjust the tape guides and see if that fixes it. meanwhile i have been checking out ebay and there are some deals there, for sure. thanks for your post. i'll post here if i'm able to fix it. bill