Recursive Delete Audio/Visual, Huntsville, AL (2025)

01/19/2025

I’m signing out of here for the week. If you have a 4-track question or need to schedule a repair, send an email or contact me via the link in bio.

Meta has been making increasingly terrible choices for a long time now, but the most recent pivot is a bridge too far for me.

RDAV grew as a business partially because of this IG account, so finding an exit ramp is tough. But I think that time will be soon, and I’ll be using this week to start planning that out further.

As a preemptive measure to not lose touch with us, please join the mailing list (link in bio). Thank you for all your support! More news next week.

01/07/2025

Lunar surface or pinch roller?

A great number of the Tascam 244 and 246 machines that come through the RDAV workshop have melted rubber parts. On more rare occasions, we see what is almost like a dry rotting of the rubber, as was the case with a machine we’re working on for this week.

Many of the models we service have pinch rollers with plastic hubs, and we just replace the pinch roller entirely if they show signs of wear or decay. The 244 and 246 have pinch rollers with brass hubs, and for these, cleans off the old rubber and applies a freshly-sourced tire in its place.

Some of the neglected units we work on probably lived for years in an attic, basement or barn, but occasionally we get one that was stored on the moon!

12/20/2024

I get lots of people contacting me to buy 4-track machines, and I work with each buyer to find the perfect fit.

RDAV has a fairly extensive inventory of machines-to-be-refurbished, but it’s all a matter of finding the time in between client repairs. I’ve learned that promising a future machine to a buyer is not the best method, because they may be waiting awhile due to how booked up we are in the workshop.

So in 2025 I’m taking a new approach. (More on that in a moment.)

Recently I had a Tascam 414mkII for sale. put me in touch with Makena from , who was looking to purchase a 4-track to use in recordings and live performance. Luckily I was about to make one of my regular trips to Nashville to drop off and pick up machines, so it was perfect timing.

This unit was put through our usual refurbishment process: Full disassembly, then handled the deep-cleaning, DeoxIT-ing and new rubber parts.

Given that these are used machines with mysterious pasts, there’s always at least one quirk in each repair. In this case, the vast majority of the input jacks were heavily corroded. The outside was pretty clean, so — I don’t know — did a can of Coke just tiptoe in there? I didn’t want the machine’s future user to have to deal with a crunchy feeling each time they plugged something in, so I replaced all the 1/4” jacks.

Following that was tape speed calibration, wow & flutter / torque / reference playback tests, all I/O checked, and test recordings. Another machine returned to glory!

You’re still wondering, “How do I get my hands on the next one?” Join our new email list! https://recdel.com/list

We’ve got a handful of units ready to go right now, and will be selling one per week, maybe two. The first device is going out to the list tonight at 8 PM ET / 7 PM CT / 5 PM PT.

Any machines not claimed by someone on the list will then be advertised on IG, but the list is going to be your best bet at snagging these offerings first — once it’s sold, it’s sold!

We’ll be featuring multitrack cassette machines, Library of Congress C-1 units, the occasional Fisher-Price PXL2000, plus other cassette-related devices & accessories. See you tonight!

11/04/2024

This next one’s for library lovers only! 📚

We’ve currently got three (3!) refurbished Library of Congress C-1 devices for sale. All three have been deep-cleaned inside and out, with new belts installed. The old, depleted batteries have been removed and replaced with 9V battery adapters for easy portability.

Scroll through the images to see the front and back of each machine. If you’re interested in one in particular, please refer to the serial number written on blue masking tape which you’ll see on the top front of each unit.

For price and purchase info, please contact via the link in bio. No DMs, thanks!

If you have a C-1 or similar LoC or Telex unit, we work on ‘em! Reach out for rates and terms.

10/22/2024

In the course of collecting Type II cassettes, I’ve acquired a bunch of previously-used 100-minute tapes. It’s not advised to use tapes over 90 minutes in length in a 4-track recorder, so these aren’t good for multitracking purposes, but they could certainly be employed for mixtapes or other audio experiments!

I’m currently selling 4 sets of 10 tapes each, all 100 minutes long, from a mixture of brands (Maxell, TDK, Sony, Denon). All the tapes have been fully rewound and bulk erased, will their labels removed. I’m asking $38 + shipping per set of 10. If you purchase more than one set, I’ll cover shipping.

All proceeds from the sale of these particular tapes will be donated to the current Gofundme for Static Age-Records in Asheville, NC, who pivoted to provide necessary community resources in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Even if you don’t buy any of these tapes, consider popping over to their FB profile, click the Gofundme link and drop them some funds.

Also a shout out to .swampape , whose photos, videos and commentary have been my window into the still very rough conditions in western North Carolina. Keep up the good work!

10/14/2024

Over the weekend I was in Nashville and returned this Tascam 424 belonging to .moss !

The 424 had a creaky worm gear on the tape counter which I adjusted, making it much quieter.

Some of the transport buttons had been taking multiple presses to respond, so I replaced all the underlying tactile switches. Now they are very responsive when pressed!

The machine had been experiencing issues with its power adapter, so I included a new, compatible one when I returned the machine.

And as always, the unit was fully cleaned, calibrated and tested, and is working great. Excellent wow & flutter numbers!

The only issue I couldn’t fix was the abundance of melty rubber on the k**b caps. I’m not sure if it’s temperature or just random old age decay, but occasionally I’ll work on a Tascam 424 that has one or two k**b caps where the rubber has become very pliable. I have a decent amount of parts machine extras on hand that I can use as replacements, but when the entire mixing surface is effected, there’s not much I can do.

I told Dylan that one of these days I hope to produce some all-plastic replicas of the 424 k**b caps so that I can do a full k**b cap swap in cases where they’re that far gone.

Do you have a machine with melty or missing k**b caps? Which ones do you need? Let me know in the comments!

10/08/2024

Many 4-track and 8-track cassette machines have internal dust guards covering the faders, preventing dirt and lint from getting down into the fader tracks. Some of these machines are 30-40 years old now, so the materials are starting to decompose.

In many Yamaha and Tascam models, the felt has cracked and hardened, crumbling into a fine dust. Exactly the opposite of their purpose! Cleaning the dust guards and removing the dust is one thing, but these materials are just going to continue to decay.

My objective is to return machines to clients with every small detail having been addressed, so the unit won’t need full servicing for a few more decades at the very least. As part of that goal, it made sense to design dust guard replacements.

has been sketching the dimensions for each piece, then I take those drawings and create cut files. We’ve been experimenting with various types and thicknesses of felt, and have had another success with the Tascam 688 pictured here. (Scroll through the photos for the sketch and a standalone shot of the felt piece.)

With many 688 units I’ve worked on, the original rubber dust guard begins to harden and then gets hacked up by the movement of the fader shaft, causing the fader to feel stiff. In actuality, the faders are very smooth, they’re just getting caught up in the jagged rubber. The new felt dust guard we’ve installed solves that entirely!

We’re continuing to finalize designs for more machines. You can be sure that if you send me a device for repair from here on out and it has a decaying dust guard, we’ll have a replacement.

Side note: this Tascam 688 is actually for sale! It has been fully cleaned, refurbished and tested, and is one of the absolute best examples of the 688 that I’ve worked on recently. Drop me a line via the link in bio and I’ll send you all the details!

09/18/2024

Thirty years ago last night (9/17/1994) was a pivotal evening for north Alabama punk rock, or at least for my experience of it.

The show, dubbed “Lotsapunklosers,” took place at the outdoor gazebo at the Jaycee’s Fairgrounds in Huntsville and featured The Peeps, Sh*tboy From Outerspace, Property, The Jawas, Puddle and Themack.

Funds collected from the $5 cover charge went toward pressing the Nation Of Kids 7” compilation (“Incest Is Best”) which came out sometime in early ’95, showcasing all six bands that had been on this bill. It remains an excellent snapshot of that moment in the scene.

Were you there that night? Say hello in the comments!

Not only was it Themack’s first show, it was also my first show performing with *any* band. I was seventeen. I couldn’t tell you whether the set went over well, how we were received, or how many people bought our newly-recorded tape — all I remember is being full of adrenaline, and the rest is pretty hazy. But everybody’s gotta make their first attempt, and that was mine.

Themack included my two closest friends at the time, Matt (guitar, vocals, not on IG) and David (bass, ), along with yours truly (drums, vocals). I met M & D two years prior at a Catholic youth convention - of all places — and by this point we were super tight, with a shared language of sarcastic inside jokes. It shows up in full force on the aforementioned 17-song tape that we recorded a few weeks before the show.

Somehow that tape hasn’t made it online in the past 30 years, so now seems like a good a time as ever to get it out there. https://themack.bandcamp.com/album/the-tape

The three of us are planning to convene soon for an oral history of the band, and there will be more Bandcamp releases of our later studio recordings, coinciding with the dates in ’94 and ’95 when they were recorded. If you’re interested in any of this, follow Themack on Bandcamp and there will be more updates coming! Word to your mother.

09/11/2024

Visited recording studio in Nashville this week to return this newly-refurbished Tascam 414mkII to and !

The first channel had been buzzing due to a loose wire on the record/playback head, which I reconnected. While the device was in the RDAV workshop, it was deep cleaned, calibrated and fully tested, with all new rubber parts installed.

In addition to the array of reel-to-reel machines Jared and Alanna have at their studio, they’ll be using the Tascam for a bit of tracking as well as tape saturation during mixdowns.

Jared has owned this 4-track since he was twelve(!) and when he first caught sight of it post-repair, he said it looked like he was getting a brand new machine!

09/07/2024

As seen on the underside of a client’s Tascam 246 that I’m reassembling this afternoon. This address in Los Angeles is now a nail salon.

09/05/2024

A conversation I had about tape with is featured today over at !

Here's the link: https://wowandflutter.substack.com/p/wow-and-flutter-009-recursive-delete

Carolyn uses W&F as a means to highlight the work of people who make cassettes a part of their workflow. I’ve really enjoyed reading the other conversations and interviews she has featured, and I’m grateful that she asked me to participate! Be sure to subscribe so you’ll get future issues right in your email inbox!

Most of you probably don’t know that Recursive Delete Audio/Visual was a record label - dating all the way back to 2001 or 2002 - and later a recording studio, before it morphed into a repair business. Carolyn and I discuss a little bit of that, as well as my plans to revive the studio aspect with a focus on digital/tape hybrid recording.

I’d be curious to hear your thoughts in the comments about anything that was discussed. What are *your* strong opinions about music-listening formats?

09/04/2024

It doesn’t happen often, but occasionally a machine will arrive to me with damage sustained during shipping.

This Tascam 246 came from a client in Kentucky, and though the machine was well-wrapped and the box showed no sign of impact, the front left corner of the faceplate was broken off, as well as a tiny bit of the bottom case just below it.

Not to worry! I’ve trained in plastic welding, and quick work was made of this repair. (Channel 1’s input jack also had to be replaced, which is why it’s a different color in the first photo.)

Looking at the corner now, the previously broken section from the outside now just looks like a few light scratches, in keeping with a machine of this age. Success!

08/23/2024

Awhile back I assembled this headphone amplifier which serves two functions: I can switch between monitoring a line level stereo signal via the RCA jacks, or plug my test leads into the banana jacks in order to probe an audio circuit.

The whole thing is based around the HC1 headphone amplifier PCB from .

I’ll be adding more workbenches to the repair shop over the next few weeks, and it makes sense to have a headphone amp ready to go at each one, so this week we built a few more of these.

My plan for the primary testing bench is to build a rack-mounted headphone amp where I can hook up all the outputs from a 4-track machine at once — Line Out, Monitor Out, Tape Out, Effect Out, etc. — and be able to quickly switch between them.

Once that more advanced switcher is ready, I might consider producing them as standalone, effect-pedal-sized units and making them available for sale, if I determine that there’s interest!

08/20/2024

Did I mention that I hired an assistant? Say hello to , who started working with me at RDAV this summer!

They are pictured here with the telephone setup used for some of their recording experiments. There’s a post on their IG feed today describing their affection for the sonic character of the landline telephone. A similar analog nostalgia - in my case, for the 4-track cassette recorder - lead me to start this repair business 7 years ago.

If I recently returned your multitrack recorder and you’re marveling at how “like new” it looks, chances are you have my new assistant to thank. I’ve always given each 4-track device the spa treatment, doing a full disassembly, washing all the plastic parts, contact-cleaning the potentiometers, replacing belts and pinch rollers, etc. Having a second set of hands to take over these tasks has allowed me to focus more on diagnosing and solving functional problems.

We’ve been blazing through the backlog, so if you’ve been thinking about having a machine repaired, now would be a great time to reach out! The RDAV workshop is in north Alabama, but I receive machines by mail from all over the USA. Fill out the intake form - link in bio - and we’ll get you scheduled.

07/19/2024

Hey Nashville! Short notice, but I’ll be in town tomorrow to meet with some repair clients. I’ll also have this freshly-cleaned and refurbished Tascam 414mkII with me! It’s being sold on consignment for and the sale will include a compatible power supply.

Nashville folks get first dibs, but if it doesn’t sell tomorrow, it’s up for grabs to anyone reading this. If you’re interested in checking out the repair notes, details and price, contact me via the link in my bio. (No DMs, please!)

07/17/2024

In the 2+ years I’ve been in Alabama, I’ve been running on a metaphorical repair treadmill, never stepping off long enough to actually finish a real workshop for myself. I’ve been operating on the kitchen counter, random tables, the floor — basically any flat surface I could find — and typing emails at my desk in a halfway-finished workspace that I began building last summer.

My clients are by and large *extremely* patient, but I still feel stress, hoping not to keep their machines any longer than I have to. (Thus the aforementioned treadmill!) Demand for my services has only grown, along with my backlog — it’s been time to hire an assistant for awhile now. To make that happen, I finally had to put repairs on a semi-pause so I could knuckle down and get the space ready.

Toward the end of June I pivoted to painting, hanging pegboard, erecting shelves, and moving RDAV’s inventory out of the boxes they’ve been living in since 2022. (Check out the wall of 4-track machines to my right in the photo — that’s only part of the collection.) My goal was to have the space ready to use by this past Monday, and I succeeded. While there’s still more walls to paint, tools to arrange, etc., the organization is in a much better state than it was even a week ago. Relief!

If you’ve been waiting on a machine from me — some of you for awhile(!) — I thank you as always for bearing with me! With this necessary-but-time-consuming phase out of the way, repairs are back to being my full focus. My goal, if I can possibly help it, is to have my entire backlog tackled by the fall, in the interest of having a shorter wait time for new clients. Here’s hoping! 🤞

06/06/2024

While working on this Yamaha MT8X for , I discovered a flaw that likely affects all MT8X machines.

Jake was experiencing an issue when bouncing tracks where the meters would overload and loud oscillating feedback would come through the headphones.

I narrowed down the circumstances which caused it: the problem would happen only when bouncing to an adjacent track, and only when the combined volume of the sending track and its accompanying Group Send were turned up beyond a certain point. (Example: if you were bouncing material from track 2 to track 4, you’d have no problems, but if you bounced from track 2 to track 3 (or track 2 to track 1), the feedback would appear.

As I was preparing myself for a long and tedious exploration to find what I assumed was a shorted component, I decided to try to retrace my steps using another MT8X in my inventory. Wouldn’t you know it, the squealing feedback happened with that one, too.

This is only a guess, but my hunch is that a feedback loop may be occurring within the playback head itself, which would account for why the problem only occurs when bouncing to an adjacent track. It’s similar to the harsh sibilant noise I’ve observed when trying to overdub on a Tascam Porta02, which is also caused by a feedback loop within the record/playback head, thus my assumption here.

Though I wasn’t able to correct this problem, I was able to provide Jake with specific instructions on how to avoid it: always record with the individual track level at 8, and set the Group volume at 6. This will result in a bounce which is exactly the same volume as the original take, and will avoid any feedback creeping in.

During the machine’s stay in my workshop, I installed new rubber parts, calibrated the tape mechanism, gave it a thorough cleaning, tested all functions and checked all routing and I/O. It was returned to the client last weekend during a trip to Nashville.

Do you own a MT8X or an MT8XII, and have you experienced this problem with feedback? I’d be curious to hear your experiences.

05/29/2024

When I was in Portland a month ago, I worked on a Tascam 464 for .

Jun had bought it from an estate sale and wasn’t sure about its condition. We powered it up — the heads didn’t engage, and all three lights in the transport section flashed. It was a clear indicator to me that Gear C was stuck or broken.

After having spent the week prior to my PDX trip making absolutely sure I was bringing every single part and tool for all the machines I’d be working on, a replacement Gear C was the one thing I’d forgotten!

Immediately I sent a message back to Alabama, gave my brother detailed instructions on where to find the 3D-printed parts in my workshop, as well as where I keep my collection of reusable mailers. I got on my laptop, connected to my computer back home via a secure tunnel, and printed out a mailing label to be affixed.

The baton was passed to my dad, who transported it to the post office. It went out on a Thursday, and by some miracle — and very uncharacteristic of my recent USPS experiences — it arrived to me in Portland on Saturday, two days later. Whew!

The 464 was given a thorough cleaning, then I contact-cleaned all the potentiometers, installed the new Gear C, replaced the melted capstan belt, calibrated the tape speed, tested all the I/O, performed recording tests, and did a major fist pump.

I mentioned to Jun that I sell bulk-erased Type II cassettes, so once I got back to Alabama, he ordered a handful from me. Another neglected 4-track machine is back in action!

Recursive Delete Audio/Visual