Tape machine setup

[Wakculloch]

I have an old PR99 without meters that only gets used for mastering from computer, and as this has no unexpected peaks i'm wandering if anyone knows how much headroom a standard tape setup allows.
I am guessing there is 6dB for meter ballistics, then another 6dB before tape saturation.
Then as it's transformer coupled will they saturate before the tape.
Does anyone know?
Any opinions/ knowledge will be gratefully received, but no "why dont you mixdown on the computer", cos I allready know this mings.

[Brad1]

You should be able to pound it fairly well to get tape saturation.

But it's not as simple as a "standard tape setup". There is no standard tape setup. You have to factor in a whole bunch of stuff, not the least of which is the brand and model of the tape itself. There are various calibrations that need to be performed to adjust to a tape properly. Google up "tape calibration", and you'll see what I mean.

Barring doing all that, you'll just have to use your ears. Hopefully, the heads are aligned properly. Make sure they, and the entire tape path, is cleaned and demagnetized. (Be extremely careful when demagnetizing. If you don't know what I mean, Google it, and heed the warnings. You can ruin a tape head doing it wrong, and you can destroy nearby magnetic media).

You COULD experiment with different levels, then run them back into the computer to get an idea how much it squashed things by looking at the waveform in an editor.

I'm confused by apparently contradictory statements.

"I have an old PR99 without meters..."

"I am guessing there is 6dB for meter ballistics, then another 6dB before tape saturation."

Does it have meters?

If not going to do a proper setup, alignment and calibration, all you can do is use your ears, with a bit of common sense visual clues from your waveform editor, I think.

Hope that helped,

Brad1

[Steve Conner]

It all depends on the kind of tape, how the bias is set, etc. Those Revox decks are also full of trimpots, and I guess at least some of them will be for trimming input and output levels. The tape should saturate long before the transformers do.

http://johnvestman.com/meter_madness.htm
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1996.../metering.html

I agree that you should just test various input levels and then record the waveforms back into your computer (or use a scope if you have one) and see how much it's getting "squashed".

The last time I tried this (with a Ferrograph Series 7) I had to whack the VU meter needles off the end stops to get a noticeable tape saturation effect.

[Wakculloch]

Thanks for those replies.
The machine is ex BBC, hence the removal of the meters in case someone took it upon themselves to set levels in a manner not approved of by the manderins of state broadcasting.
By standard setup, i meant I set the machine up as per the revox manual which takes account of meter irregularities, but was aware that they leave a lot of headroom, and as i used this machine for recording solely from computer, wandered how hard i could push things before audible distortion.
The "meter madness" link confirmed what i originally thought, in that another 12dB should in theory be possible, but using the audio editor to see when visual distortion begins should get me to where i want to be.
When i've done this i'll report back on progress.