Got Beta? I do! (Sony SL-HFR30 q's)

[vinyldavid]

Picked this up for free from an older lady that's moving to florida. Supposedly it all works.

A buddy in Ohio has the Beta Hi-Fi adapter if I want it.

Your thoughts on these decks? Supposedly this one works...

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/kshefan/photo2.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/kshefan/photo.jpg

Sorry about the iPhone pics.

Yes, those cases are all full of Beta.

And I even got the remote with working batteries!

[Warped Bezel]

Super Betas SL-HF360 (doesn't eject) and HF2000 (the last one)

SLF-305 player with linear 2 track audio

Zenith Move Director (Sony rebadge) and Sanyo VCR4500, both not working right.

I think all were given to me.

[Pacific Stereo]

These are great machines, and you definitely want the Beta HiFi adapter!

[vinyldavid]

Thanks guys for the info. I'll buy the HiFi unit once I get some extra spending cash-chasing a Sony APR-5002 at the moment.

So how good would a Beta HiFi setup be for making board tapes of concerts? I ask because I want to do board tapes of a local acapella group I mix.

[Pacific Stereo]

Bad. Beta HiFi suffers from a large amount of audible switching noise. You'd do much better to use a VHS HiFi machine, if this is something you wanted to do. Why not find and use a DAT machine, or even a consumer CD burner?

[vinyldavid]

I have a Panasonic SV-3800 DAT machine, just not sure if it works, plus, DAT has been fairly unreliable in my opinion. Also I have no tape for it (thats why I dunno if it works). Same for VHS HiFi, I have mostly factory made tapes, and nothing I can really tape over. I have about 98 Beta tapes from: Memorex, TDK, Sony, SKC, Fuji, and Polaroid.

Screenshot of Beta III recording off local TV

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/kshefan/photo3.jpg

[pooneil]

Nice find on the Beta!

We use to do a poor mans 4 track with a beta hifi and Sony PCM601es interface for some local bands. I used the hifi tracks for the audience mics, and the PCM for the soundboard. With the noise floor of the audience recording, the switching noise was not too noticable.

PCM made DAT look pretty reliable in the 90's*hope*

You need to fire up that 3800!

DAT has been somewhat reliable for me....I have a Panasonic 3700 that I bought new in 1992. Its on its 2nd set of heads and still works for the most part. It was stored for the better part of this century, and I recently broke it out. The transport was a little stiff, but seems to be working ok now, as I left it on for a few weeks and ran a few tapes in it.

(I can give you a few gently used DAT tapes if you need to test out your 3800, just pm me your addy)

I know this goes against all things tape based, but if you want to record live music, the tascam flash recorders are pretty decent for around $100-ish at guitar center....most will do 24 bit as well

[braxus]

I thought Beta Hifi was supposed to be better then VHS Hifi. Now I read the opposite?

[vinyldavid]

I thought Beta Hifi was supposed to be better then VHS Hifi. Now I read the opposite?

Me too.

Nice find on the Beta!

We use to do a poor mans 4 track with a beta hifi and Sony PCM601es interface for some local bands. I used the hifi tracks for the audience mics, and the PCM for the soundboard. With the noise floor of the audience recording, the switching noise was not too noticable.

PCM made DAT look pretty reliable in the 90's*hope*

You need to fire up that 3800!

DAT has been somewhat reliable for me....I have a Panasonic 3700 that I bought new in 1992. Its on its 2nd set of heads and still works for the most part. It was stored for the better part of this century, and I recently broke it out. The transport was a little stiff, but seems to be working ok now, as I left it on for a few weeks and ran a few tapes in it.

(I can give you a few gently used DAT tapes if you need to test out your 3800, just pm me your addy)

I know this goes against all things tape based, but if you want to record live music, the tascam flash recorders are pretty decent for around $100-ish at guitar center....most will do 24 bit as well

Thanks for the offer, I'll send ya a PM ASAP.

The 3800 was essentially free with the purchase of 6 Tascam DA-38's and the RC-898 remote. 3 work, 3 were underwater and I haven't even popped the tops.

When I get a decent amount of money to spend on digital again, I want to buy an Edirol R-09mkII, as the R-09's I used pretty much daily at my former high school were excellent when using the line level stereo input. Definitely made recordings easier (previously I used a Teac A-3340S). The MkII adds 24/96.

I'm so interested in using BetaHiFi when I get the adapter because I just have a ton of media...and in Beta II or III mode (the deck only records in II and III), I can get a lot of material on one tape and switching them is very easy...also it's just cool. Does Beta III speed lessen the wuality of Beta HiFi?

[Pacific Stereo]

Vinyldavid, you can still buy brand-new ordinary VHS blanks, which is all you need to run a VHS HiFi recorder. And you'll get six hours of audio.

You will be severely disappointed using Beta Hifi as an audio archival medium. You'd do much better to use the old Multi PCM function on the Sony 8's (EV-S700u and others)- 24 hours of music on one 8 tape.

Beta Hifi is definitely not better than VHS HiFi. While they both have similar specifications, switching noise in Beta Hifi can be very, very audible, depending upon the program material. The noise reduction system in VHS HiFi was specifically developed to address the problem of audible switching noise, and some models were tweaked even further to improve audio performance.

[pooneil]

Definatly not trying to hijack the thread, but the topic of Beta/VHS Hifi audio noise is of interest of me, as I am currently transfering a lot of tapes done at clubs and shows.

I found this article from 1987 that talks about the issues with HiFi vcr sound

http://www.anstendig.org/VCRNoise.html

If anyone else has input/experience on how to clean up switching noise, I'd love to hear about it