I'm in the market for a bulk tape eraser. This will be for 1/4" audio tape on 10" and 7" reels as well as radio "carts." It would be nice if it worked on videotape, cassettes, DAT, DLT, etc., but none of these are critical. Cheap is good. This is for occasional home use, not full-time professional use. What should I buy? Is there anything to avoid buying?

I've been borrowing a little handheld model that works OK, but now I'd like to purchase something for myself.

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However, bulk erasers for carts are a different story. There is no erase heads I know of in BE and ITC Cart Decks, and I am sure that condition probably exists with other manufacturers as well.

For cart bulk erasers, I usually seen the best results obtained from those that look like a clothes iron. If those styles are used, move the eraser further away from the cart before securing the power so the flux field will not leave its impression on the tape. Otherwise, you will hear a low-key "shhh shhh shhh" during quiet spots on the tape.

As a passing thought, keep the heads clean and in perfect alignment. If not, the machines may never see the Sec tone, the Tertiary tone, or the Stop tone. It is a total disaster if the "stop tone" is not read properly. The machine will continue to cycle until it sees the tone, or until the machine is manually shut down.

All three tones are recorded on a separate track from the audio. If the heads are out of alignment, you might hear the tones in the audio, and other tones from the audio track might be heard by the control logic causing false shutdowns and false triggering of an on-coming cart machine.

Cart decks are great Hi-Fidelity machines....but they require much more TLC in servicing and cleaning than the average reel-to-reel or cassette.

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The Fidelipacs should be available on the used market, I would think, since cart useage has waned in broadcast.

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Better Projection Pays!

The field is so strong that I get noticeable deflections and color impurity on a CRT display a few feet away. (The field coil makes a great degaussing coil too).

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"The trick is to slowly pull the cart away on the last swipe, before you release the button. That's effectively what the splice-finder/erasers do; they ramp the voltage down on the erase coil after a few seconds, leaving a nice, thumpless "bulk".

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Tim is absolutely correct.

John said:

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"My technique with the AC-energized field coil is to wipe the cassette in a circular motion around the center of the energized coil for a few seconds, then flip the cassette and wipe again. Then slowly pull the cassette away from the magnetic field with the same circular motion."

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John's method is very effective if you are not blessed with the bulk erasers such as Tim and I suggested.

I always get a laugh out of these guys who slam the tape down, turn on the power, shove it around for a few seconds, turn off the power, and then pick up the tape. They they scratch their lower posterior trying to figure out why all the "thumps" and "shhh shhhh shhh" noises are still on the tape!

As I look at John's quote, It could have a whole new meaning if it read like this:

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"My technique is to wipe in a circular motion around the center for a few seconds, then flip and wipe again. Then slowly pull away with the same circular motion."

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John, that sounds like a wad of toilet paper doing its job with the Klingons encircling Uranus in Star Trek.

Some degaussers can leave sub-auditory 'thumps' in the oxide on the tape that the erase heads on the vcr/reel to reel/cassette deck cant possibly begin to remove/reshape. This means that there may be some degradation in the recording.

They never really decided what type of degausser was the best.

We have a big one at work (30 amps, 220 volts) that pulls the medium through on a conveyer belt. When it comes out the exit side, I flip it over, and run it through again. The end.

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wipe in a circular motion around the center for a few seconds, then flip and wipe again.

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I'm ROLLING!
Also, I apologize, Paul. The description of my "technique" is essentially the same thing you said earlier.

YES! I remember that same guy, whose spots always went "shh-shh-shh"! He never had a clue!

Bruce, yes, that'd be interesting to see the conveyor belt jobbie. I remember seeing ads for those things. Always looked like they could double as microwave ovens, and at 30 A, maybe they could!

Scott said,

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Who decided that cart machines don't need erase heads, anyway?

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I'm hypothesizing, of course.

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Better Projection Pays!

I might add that since the cart decks were not equipped with erase heads, it allowed for some voice or music lay-overs. That might be another reason why....I don't know.

I just fixed the damn things, I never ran them.