whirr click click whirr click click

November 8, 2009 11:52 AM

My four track recorder is making an odd mechanical noise at all times. What gives?

There's a weird sound coming from the cassette deck of my Tascam four track. It's a very faint whirring sound with two louder ticks occurring fairly rhythmically back to back every second. The recorder itself seems to be working perfectly, but it sounds like some mechanism inside is activated whenever it is powered on and makes me think that the whole shebang is about to die any moment. What could it be?

posted by bunnytricks to technology (3 comments total)

do you ever clean it?
posted by rhizome at 12:01 PM on November 8

It was well cleaned when I bought it second hand three months ago, and since then I've only used it for about six hours. Before today it had been about a month since I had last powered it on and at that time it wasn't making any strange noises.
posted by bunnytricks at 12:24 PM on November 8

it ticks when it's powered on at all times, or when the drive mechanism is engaged (play/rec)? basically, i'd just clean it up as much as possible, opening it up to check belts and stuff (they probably look more like rubber bands). could be winter cold has shrunk some plastic/rubber and is bringing out some dirt or part-quality quirks. i mean, it could be about to die at any moment, but it'd probably be due to something that can be maintained. electric motors don't tick as much as gears and stuff do. good luck, i'd try to google for a service manual.
posted by rhizome at 1:20 PM on November 8