[Coco] ignoring tape errors

[Rick Ulland]

I remember that article now - good call. Modern update? Old rubber is a 
thing today. We used to say grab a prerecorded music tape, now you'd 
have bop off to the goodwill and buy one. Respool (fast forward and 
rewind), then listen for any warbles (wow and flutter) in the music. If 
tape speed sounds iffy,  the deck needs repair beyond turning screws.  
Otherwise, you can tweak the alignment screw for best treble, knowing 
once prerecorded music tapes sound good to people, prerecorded data 
tapes sound good to computers.

Personal note - I did this in 87 because 'ofcourseIdid' and while game 
tapes loaded with less volume fiddling, by the time I got all my 
personal work back from old tapes I'd recorded on that deck I knew way 
to much about tape alignment. So that was fun.

-ricku
CoNect


On 7/6/20 5:41 PM, Mark Anderson wrote:
> There was a tip in the May 1987 issue of the Rainbow. It was called ‘A Minor Adjustment’.
>
> “I/O Errors encountered when using a tape system on your CoCo are quite frustrating. There are so many places for these errors to occur. Similarly, there are a thousand techniques for solving them. I found one that works 99 percent of the time. Use a small Phillips head jeweler’s screwdriver to adjust the head azimuth of the playback head.
>
> First, disconnect the recorder from the CoCo, set the volume to a comfortable level and play the tape. On the CTR-80 and CTR-81, you will find a small hole near the Radio Shack name on the front panel. There is a small screw in this hole. For the CCR-82, the screw is just to the left of the playback head in the tape compartment.
>
> Now, turn the screw slowly from side to side while listening to the tape. Adjust the screw until you hear the clearest, crispest sound possible. This is the point at which your tape has the best chance of loading. Keep in mind, you will probably have to re-adjust the screw for other tapes. However, it isn’t that much of a hassle in comparison with the I/O Errors.”
>
>