I’m an avid user of the Tascam DA38 8-track machine, and I absolutely love it. My choice to use it as my primary recording medium stems from a desire for that high-risk, high-reward experience while maintaining the highest fidelity. It’s a delicate balance-a nod to the good ol’ analog days-while still achieving top-notch recording quality. Keep up the great work!!! 🎉🎉
When I see DAT machines, I'm glad I don't fix things anymore. The sticky coating appeared on a lot of things. I threw away 2 pairs of Binoculars that had that problem.
Excellent video - many thanks guys, I'm just about to follow your lead and investigate my DAP1 with the same system faults. I spent an hour cleaning the sticky case coating - nasty job
My solution to the sticky coating was just to put strips of packing tape over it that way it's keeps it off my fingers. But I did clean it off of the tea act dap20s that I've got which have the same coating on it it's terrible stuff whoever thought that was a good idea I tell you. It probably sounded like a good idea at the time until years down the road the stuff all deteriorates my car has that kind of finish around the gear shift so I'm expecting that it's at some point going to go bad because it feels like the same material
I have an amplifier remote controller from Onkyo with that rubberized surface. It started to get sticky after just 4 years. And yes, the damaged beginning of DAT tapes often proved to be a problem. I later chose to always skip the first 30 seconds before I started to record any music. Just let it record the ABS timecode and set your first start ID at the 30 seconds mark. That way, there were 25 centimeters if unrecorded tape where some crumpling couldn't hurt anything.
Professionals always ran 1 minute lead in. Bars and tone on video tape. That why on pro tapes they are usually 64 minutes, or 125 min for 2 hour tape. For the lead in.
I had one of these that stopped playback and recording properly. Sent it back to Toronto to be repaired with new head assembly costing $500.00. It came back with the same problem. I threw it in a box for about 7 or 8 years and finally threw it out about 3 years ago. My final choice was made because the outside case was like gummy glue that left black smudge everywhere.
Neighbor's operating a power saw! My 2001 VW Golf GTI had that same rubberized coating on interior components and eventually started wearing off....nasty stuff
@@12voltvids how much I am craving to get all Dats and the best player and hook it on to my rig. Even on UA-cam compressed format, this sounds heavenly
I contacted Tascam UK service and they quoted me 27 UK pounds for a replacement belt - I, carefully - with a scalpel, cut down the cross section of a 10mm dia. O ring and it works just fine
Dave, Thanks so much for passing all this service information on the DAP1. What is your best advice for removing the sticky rubber goo from these units? Thanks, Tom
Lighter fluid will remove the finish fairly well but I recommend placing clear tape over the lettering before removing the finish as the lettering is on top of the rubber finish. Just know the fluid can also discolor the plastic beneath the rubber finish. Ps those yellow belts are an alternative and are actually braid bands, they will snap rather than melt in place. I don't expect those rubber bands to last long. The right belts are available. I would be willing to give 12Volts a handful so he can use the right belts on his da repairs.
Apparently you’re the DAT repair guy now😂 definitely a format I can’t see being used today other then maybe Archiving, but even then you’d probably be better off transferring the tapes to a CD or a computer
@@12voltvids Yes, a surprising number still come in to me. I have a fleet of five Sony and Tascam machines. Some people use modified computer DAT drives but I'm not sure that's the best route.
My Lenova laptop has the same rubberised material that basically degrades over time. There is a chemical you can use to change it, but it quickly reverts back to this state. Soapy clothe cleans it up for a few hours. TEAC & TASCAM of course are the same company. Wonder how many noticed it was a TASCAM you worked on and the circuits boards were TEAC?
Any tip on removing the sticky coating? I have a DA-P1 that "needs" repair. If I was going to attempt to fix it I might as well clean off the coating. Great video as usual!
After watching your video I purchased a TASCAM DA-P1 which had the same sticky rubberized coating problem. I was just getting started with the process of removing the rubberized coating using 91% IPA, but before I used the alcohol, I tried QD Contact Cleaner (CRC brand). I was seeing if the Contact Cleaner would remove the coating, but instead of removing the coating it removed the stickiness. The rubberized coating and lettering remained intact. I'm not sure for how long the stickiness will be gone, but it seems to work well enough on areas that have not completely turned into a gooey mess. Some areas where the coating had completely degraded to the point that touching the surface leaves an indention in the surface didn't respond as well. The surface stickiness was removed, but underneath the surface was just more sticky mess. The deck itself is in pretty rough shape. Eject doesn't work, but motor noise is heard when eject button pressed. I haven't downloaded the service manual, but I'm hoping the eject mechanism is belt driven similar to how the tape loading mechanism is belt driven.
I"ve always wondered, they're called Digital Audio Tape, but reads the tape like a VCR which is analog. When i think digital i think of things like CD's that use lasers and the 1's and 0's they read.
I hate that black rubber type coatings. I have a DVD player (portable) with that stuff on it and it was only two years old and it was sticky and horrible! Hate it!
Hey Dave, gotta question. Do you know if companies like Fostex, Panasonic, Tascam made portable DAT machine kind of in the style that Sony had a DAT Walkman?
That machine looks like a pain in the ass to work on. I hate that coating, i have an old dell laptop with a red sticky coating :-( Heavy smokers make it worse.
The coating is a shame indeed, otherwise it's a pretty nice little unit, free of stupid copyrightey SCMS things. It'll just record everything 44.1k/48k you throw at it. Thankfully the coating is mostly fine on mine and I keep it in its own case so it doesn't deteriorate further. It seems to mostly deteriorate from skin oils. It is cramped inside, but it's not that bad to work on; what gets bad is the tedium of taking it apart and putting it back together while troubleshooting. What surprised me is that TEAC released service (?) notes for this machine, which advised how to mod earlier units for better playback error rate, among other simpler things. (there's a mistake in that mod, but that's another story) I basically traded a Sony DTC-690 for this Tascam. Mechanism on that Sony is awful, ugly and full of crack-prone plastics and weird unobtanium belts.
@@12voltvids well yeah, I did agree with you that DAT is dead, for the consumer market it was dead as soon as it came out because the labels didn't like the fact that it could be used to make perfect digital copies. But from an audio quality perspective the technology is superior.
@@Destructor8031 it was dead it hit the market because the consumer was confused about what they could and could not record. The serial copy management scared people away as they did not realize that they could copy any CD they wanted and make a compilation tape but what they could not do was make a second generation digital copy of that compilation tape. Not really that much of the limitation because you could make as many first generation copies from the original CD as you wanted. But damage was done. Also the competition DCC didn't help the matter because the customer was now confused as to what format they should buy. Throw in mini discs and well it's fate was sealed from a consumer perspective. Dat did however flourish in the recording and broadcast market. Those machines had no such copy protection and anybody with a slightest bit of knowledge would buy one of the tascam decks and be copy protection free. Digital audio tape did exceptionally well in the professional market and was the de facto standard for CD production around the world. I still use dat on a regular basis not so much for recording now except for as a acquisition for transfer format. I will log music stations on my cable system record multiple tapes in one session and then go and play those tapes and pick the individual tracks I want to keep and record them onto my computer. That's how I acquire my music library these days I don't bother downloading I just listened to the logged tapes from my music service and pick the tracks I like. Can go through a 2-hour tape in a matter of a few minutes and snag the half dozen tracks that I'm interested in and just erase the tape and start over again that's what I use the format for.
Hello I have two units that are the same (one with sticky rubber and one without stickiness) Both can eject the tape but when I power them I hear the motor noise but the tape does not move and buttons don’t operate I don’t feel confident nor as knowledgeable to do what you do I have a bunch of DAT I recorded back in the nineties that I like to listen to Would you be willing to help fixing them if I sent them to you ? Of course I am glad to compensate for your work Thank you kindly
I’m an avid user of the Tascam DA38 8-track machine, and I absolutely love it. My choice to use it as my primary recording medium stems from a desire for that high-risk, high-reward experience while maintaining the highest fidelity. It’s a delicate balance-a nod to the good ol’ analog days-while still achieving top-notch recording quality. Keep up the great work!!! 🎉🎉
People that do what you do are getting rare theese days and the videos you make are a way to preserve this knowledge. Thank you.
Just wanted to wish you a Happy Canada Day! We love our neighbors from the north! 🇺🇸❤️️🇨🇦
Hey, that's my DA-P20 I donated to you. Good to see again.
Yup still have it. Still working after cams replaced and built a 120v adapter.
Thank you for the helpful vid, it gave me the confidence to go in and replace that loading belt - Bingo, it's singing again.
Yes those 8 track that uaed the hi8 tapes were good
When I see DAT machines, I'm glad I don't fix things anymore.
The sticky coating appeared on a lot of things. I threw away 2 pairs of Binoculars that had that problem.
Excellent video - many thanks guys, I'm just about to follow your lead and investigate my DAP1 with the same system faults. I spent an hour cleaning the sticky case coating - nasty job
My solution to the sticky coating was just to put strips of packing tape over it that way it's keeps it off my fingers. But I did clean it off of the tea act dap20s that I've got which have the same coating on it it's terrible stuff whoever thought that was a good idea I tell you. It probably sounded like a good idea at the time until years down the road the stuff all deteriorates my car has that kind of finish around the gear shift so I'm expecting that it's at some point going to go bad because it feels like the same material
I have an amplifier remote controller from Onkyo with that rubberized surface. It started to get sticky after just 4 years.
And yes, the damaged beginning of DAT tapes often proved to be a problem. I later chose to always skip the first 30 seconds before I started to record any music. Just let it record the ABS timecode and set your first start ID at the 30 seconds mark. That way, there were 25 centimeters if unrecorded tape where some crumpling couldn't hurt anything.
Professionals always ran 1 minute lead in. Bars and tone on video tape. That why on pro tapes they are usually 64 minutes, or 125 min for 2 hour tape. For the lead in.
I had one of these that stopped playback and recording properly. Sent it back to Toronto to be repaired with new head assembly costing $500.00. It came back with the same problem. I threw it in a box for about 7 or 8 years and finally threw it out about 3 years ago. My final choice was made because the outside case was like gummy glue that left black smudge everywhere.
Neighbor's operating a power saw! My 2001 VW Golf GTI had that same rubberized coating on interior components and eventually started wearing off....nasty stuff
My 2019 volt has it around the center console.
the audio quality is superb.. outperforms any source..
There is a reason that dat was the standard for final mix in recording studios for over 20 years.
@@12voltvids how much I am craving to get all Dats and the best player and hook it on to my rig. Even on UA-cam compressed format, this sounds heavenly
I contacted Tascam UK service and they quoted me 27 UK pounds for a replacement belt - I, carefully - with a scalpel, cut down the cross section of a 10mm dia. O ring and it works just fine
Tascam charge a fortune for those belts. Dental bands aparantly work well.
Buggered up. A great British saying from my Commonwealth cousin across the ocean :-)
Dave,
Thanks so much for passing all this service information on the DAP1.
What is your best advice for removing the sticky rubber goo from these units?
Thanks, Tom
Lighter fluid will remove the finish fairly well but I recommend placing clear tape over the lettering before removing the finish as the lettering is on top of the rubber finish. Just know the fluid can also discolor the plastic beneath the rubber finish.
Ps those yellow belts are an alternative and are actually braid bands, they will snap rather than melt in place. I don't expect those rubber bands to last long. The right belts are available. I would be willing to give 12Volts a handful so he can use the right belts on his da repairs.
Looks to have the same operations as a vcr might need a good cleaning.
Apparently you’re the DAT repair guy now😂 definitely a format I can’t see being used today other then maybe Archiving, but even then you’d probably be better off transferring the tapes to a CD or a computer
Right. That's the reason to keep these decks running. Lots of tapes out there that have yet to be dumped to cd or HDD.
@@12voltvids Yes, a surprising number still come in to me. I have a fleet of five Sony and Tascam machines. Some people use modified computer DAT drives but I'm not sure that's the best route.
@@video99couk
Just fixed another da40 today and another one on the way in.
My Lenova laptop has the same rubberised material that basically degrades over time. There is a chemical you can use to change it, but it quickly reverts back to this state. Soapy clothe cleans it up for a few hours. TEAC & TASCAM of course are the same company. Wonder how many noticed it was a TASCAM you worked on and the circuits boards were TEAC?
Any tip on removing the sticky coating? I have a DA-P1 that "needs" repair. If I was going to attempt to fix it I might as well clean off the coating. Great video as usual!
Acetone or isopropanol will remove it.
After watching your video I purchased a TASCAM DA-P1 which had the same sticky rubberized coating problem. I was just getting started with the process of removing the rubberized coating using 91% IPA, but before I used the alcohol, I tried QD Contact Cleaner (CRC brand). I was seeing if the Contact Cleaner would remove the coating, but instead of removing the coating it removed the stickiness. The rubberized coating and lettering remained intact. I'm not sure for how long the stickiness will be gone, but it seems to work well enough on areas that have not completely turned into a gooey mess. Some areas where the coating had completely degraded to the point that touching the surface leaves an indention in the surface didn't respond as well. The surface stickiness was removed, but underneath the surface was just more sticky mess. The deck itself is in pretty rough shape. Eject doesn't work, but motor noise is heard when eject button pressed. I haven't downloaded the service manual, but I'm hoping the eject mechanism is belt driven similar to how the tape loading mechanism is belt driven.
The mechanism is belt driven. If the belt is slipping it won't open.
I"ve always wondered, they're called Digital Audio Tape, but reads the tape like a VCR which is analog. When i think digital i think of things like CD's that use lasers and the 1's and 0's they read.
What about digital VCR. Mini DV, digital8, dvcam, digital betacam, hdcam ect. Tape can have 1 and 0 recorded on it just like optical and silicon
The proper loading belts are available on reverb Tascam part #V00013500A/B
I hate that black rubber type coatings. I have a DVD player (portable) with that stuff on it and it was only two years old and it was sticky and horrible! Hate it!
very good video, thank you
Hey Dave, gotta question. Do you know if companies like Fostex, Panasonic, Tascam made portable DAT machine kind of in the style that Sony had a DAT Walkman?
Have no idea. I wasn't really into the portable machines.
That machine looks like a pain in the ass to work on.
I hate that coating, i have an old dell laptop with a red sticky coating :-(
Heavy smokers make it worse.
The coating is a shame indeed, otherwise it's a pretty nice little unit, free of stupid copyrightey SCMS things. It'll just record everything 44.1k/48k you throw at it.
Thankfully the coating is mostly fine on mine and I keep it in its own case so it doesn't deteriorate further. It seems to mostly deteriorate from skin oils.
It is cramped inside, but it's not that bad to work on; what gets bad is the tedium of taking it apart and putting it back together while troubleshooting.
What surprised me is that TEAC released service (?) notes for this machine, which advised how to mod earlier units for better playback error rate, among other simpler things. (there's a mistake in that mod, but that's another story)
I basically traded a Sony DTC-690 for this Tascam. Mechanism on that Sony is awful, ugly and full of crack-prone plastics and weird unobtanium belts.
What do you do went the playback switches become sticky (stuck at a specific function)
Is that more like a Deoxit kinda remedy?
I have all my recording projects from sound school I am trying to get to want to do a transfer from DAT to CD
The adhesive seeps through making it sticky. Oven cleaner get it off.
It says TASCAM but all the boards inside says TEAC.
Which it is it 🤔
DAT is dead but it's no more obsolete that CD and it can record and play at a higher sample rate than CDs
Well last time i checked CD players can still be bought, blank CDR are available and record companies still make CD. Not so for DAT.
@@12voltvids well yeah, I did agree with you that DAT is dead, for the consumer market it was dead as soon as it came out because the labels didn't like the fact that it could be used to make perfect digital copies. But from an audio quality perspective the technology is superior.
@@Destructor8031 it was dead it hit the market because the consumer was confused about what they could and could not record. The serial copy management scared people away as they did not realize that they could copy any CD they wanted and make a compilation tape but what they could not do was make a second generation digital copy of that compilation tape. Not really that much of the limitation because you could make as many first generation copies from the original CD as you wanted. But damage was done. Also the competition DCC didn't help the matter because the customer was now confused as to what format they should buy. Throw in mini discs and well it's fate was sealed from a consumer perspective. Dat did however flourish in the recording and broadcast market. Those machines had no such copy protection and anybody with a slightest bit of knowledge would buy one of the tascam decks and be copy protection free. Digital audio tape did exceptionally well in the professional market and was the de facto standard for CD production around the world. I still use dat on a regular basis not so much for recording now except for as a acquisition for transfer format. I will log music stations on my cable system record multiple tapes in one session and then go and play those tapes and pick the individual tracks I want to keep and record them onto my computer. That's how I acquire my music library these days I don't bother downloading I just listened to the logged tapes from my music service and pick the tracks I like. Can go through a 2-hour tape in a matter of a few minutes and snag the half dozen tracks that I'm interested in and just erase the tape and start over again that's what I use the format for.
Hello
I have two units that are the same (one with sticky rubber and one without stickiness)
Both can eject the tape but when I power them I hear the motor noise but the tape does not move and buttons don’t operate
I don’t feel confident nor as knowledgeable to do what you do
I have a bunch of DAT I recorded back in the nineties that I like to listen to
Would you be willing to help fixing them if I sent them to you ?
Of course I am glad to compensate for your work
Thank you kindly
Contact me by email. I can probably get them working.
@@12voltvids many thanks
What is your Email address please
Also I live in Foxboro MA
Would appreciate your email address please thank you
i'm sure its the surface mount caps that are dinked.
call me suprised that those dont have leaky caps , they seem to look like the ones used in camcorders
Certain brands were worse than others but you are right I get nervous when I see them.
Hi bro I dol
Don’t you just hate equipment that feels nasty! You fingers stick to that low end grimy covering...Yuk! :(