Processing Dilemma

[busyradioguy]

One other item that might be of interest to you guys. years ago I was in charge of mastering automation music reels, for a station that had one of those old Century21 CD systems that required use of their index coded CD's. This meant consumer CD's could not be used in the system, because they typically didn't have the index codes. So those songs went to reel.

To save me some time, I built a home studio to do this. I used a Broadcast Electronics 25 Hz tone encoder / decoder and an Ampex ATR 700. Little did I know the XLR connectors on the ATR's line inputs were unbalanced! Since it was a home studio, I didn't have all the test gear normally used for this stuff, and had to go by trial and error.

While I was initially testing the setup, I played back my first trial tape and it seemed to sound a little strange. The real shocker came when a song I used from the Miami Vice Soundtrack came up. Can't recall the song's title now, but it's the one with a soft flute intro. On the tape I made, that one sounded distorted! Long story short, I had to get a balancing transformer inbetween the 25 Hz output and the ATR's input.

I never did understand why Ampex made a deck with balanced line XLR outputs but with unbalanced line XLR inputs! ???

The ATR 700 has balanced inputs, since you use the MIC input as a Line input, switching the att. ON, at least that's what I understood from reading the manual. By the way... As some of you guys know I have an ATR 700. It had a simple issue. I tried to fix it following the hints suggested here somewhere. The screwdriver slipped somewhere on the board while doing that. It became worse. All the logic is messed up.

Uh oh.... you killed it. You're not an authorized equipment service technician, and you just voided your warranty. ;D Good luck and I hope you can find someone who can assist you 8)

My ATR had balanced XLR mic inputs, but unbalanced XLR line inputs. I don't have that machine anymore though. I may still have a service manual for it. I'll have to look around.

 

[SFM-Ptgal]

One other item that might be of interest to you guys. years ago I was in charge of mastering automation music reels, for a station that had one of those old Century21 CD systems that required use of their index coded CD's. This meant consumer CD's could not be used in the system, because they typically didn't have the index codes. So those songs went to reel.

To save me some time, I built a home studio to do this. I used a Broadcast Electronics 25 Hz tone encoder / decoder and an Ampex ATR 700. Little did I know the XLR connectors on the ATR's line inputs were unbalanced! Since it was a home studio, I didn't have all the test gear normally used for this stuff, and had to go by trial and error.

While I was initially testing the setup, I played back my first trial tape and it seemed to sound a little strange. The real shocker came when a song I used from the Miami Vice Soundtrack came up. Can't recall the song's title now, but it's the one with a soft flute intro. On the tape I made, that one sounded distorted! Long story short, I had to get a balancing transformer inbetween the 25 Hz output and the ATR's input.

I never did understand why Ampex made a deck with balanced line XLR outputs but with unbalanced line XLR inputs! ???

The ATR 700 has balanced inputs, since you use the MIC input as a Line input, switching the att. ON, at least that's what I understood from reading the manual. By the way... As some of you guys know I have an ATR 700. It had a simple issue. I tried to fix it following the hints suggested here somewhere. The screwdriver slipped somewhere on the board while doing that. It became worse. All the logic is messed up.

Uh oh.... you killed it. You're not an authorized equipment service technician, and you just voided your warranty. ;D Good luck and I hope you can find someone who can assist you 8)

My ATR had balanced XLR mic inputs, but unbalanced XLR line inputs. I don't have that machine anymore though. I may still have a service manual for it. I'll have to look around.

I have the manual ;D If someone here need schematics from a particular part of an ATR 700 just ask and I'll scan it.

 

[gtomas]

When our studio was wired, they put white label tape on every wire, and each tape had a typed indication of where it is to be connected. Excellent idea if you need outside engineering help! 8)

That's just call good engineering practice. A label/number on each wire (on both sides) plus there should be a wiring list (documentation) with all sources, destinations and dedicated wire numbers. That's how we did it.

Unfortunately seems less of a common practice but rather a rarity...


Regards,
Goran Tomas