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From the June 1989 issue of Radio And Production
Tips & Techniques
The ITC-99B: Usage & Maintenance Tips
by Jerry Vigil
There are many pieces of equipment that are common to a radio
production studio, from Otari reel-to-reels and ITC cart machines to
Eventide Harmonizers and Orban limiters. We will select one of these
familiar machines every now and then and offer some tips on usage and
maintenance of the units.
The ITC-99B is one of the most common record/playback cart decks in
production studios today. Here are a few tips and reminders for those of you
using the unit.
To begin with, let's talk about the erase coil in the unit. The ELSA
(erase, azimuth adjust, splice locate) function will erase the cart twice
during its entire cycle. ITC technicians warn that this cycle should not
occur more than once every 5 minutes, or you risk overheating the coil. This
MAY result in a burnt coil, however, most (we're not sure if all) of the
units offer a circuit breaker that will disable the erase coil when it
reaches a certain temperature. The overheating will occur if you use the
machine just to erase carts, one after the other--IT ISN'T DESIGNED TO BE A
CART ERASER. If you must use it as a cart eraser, you should skip the
azimuth adjust function by pressing the small red button and the large blue
"CUE" button simultaneously. Wait for the "CUE" button to flash ONE time,
then release them both. This will erase the cart and find the splice while
skipping the azimuth adjust. This can be done twice in a 5 minute period
without risk of overheating. If the blue "CUE" light flashes twice, the unit
will simply locate the splice.
A frantic dub session at 4:30pm with 50 dubs to go is another cause of
overheating. If you can make a dub, label it, remove the reel, and thread up
and cue the next dub, all in less than 5 minutes, you are faster than the
cart machine. You can avoid the overheating by skipping the azimuth adjust
function as described above. We don't recommend doing this because of the
phase problems that can arise, but we do know that quality often must be
sacrificed for quantity.
Have you ever made a dub then played it back only to find that you
recorded over the splice? Why didn't this $6500 machine find the splice?!!!
Before you call an engineer, clean the pinch roller. If the pinch roller is
dirty, the unit has a tendency, during the ELSA cycle, to stop as soon as it
has erased the cart for the second time. This leads one to believe that it
has located the splice, but the truth is, the buildup of particles from the
tape on the pinch roller is enough to make the machine think it has found
the splice. The splice locate function uses the distance between the pinch
roller and the capstan to determine if a splice is present. (Tape with
splicing tape on it is thicker than tape alone.) If there is enough buildup
on the pinch roller, the unit will think it has found the splice the moment
it goes into the splice locate mode.
You should clean the pinch roller, capstan, and heads at least once a day.
Head cleaner can be used on the pinch roller, but cleaners designed for
pinch rollers shouldn't be used on heads. If you are able to easily slide
the top cover of the unit back, you can get to the pinch roller easily. Your
setup, however, may have the unit stashed neatly in a tightly packed rack of
equipment, making access to the top cover difficult. If such is the case,
take an old cart and take the top cover off. Remove all the loose parts on
the inside and discard them. Throw the top half of the cart away as well. Go
to your friendly engineer's toolbox and locate a pair of pliers. With the
pliers, break off the plastic shaft in the center of the bottom half of the
cart. Then break off the front part of the cart that normally has the label
stuck to it. (This is good therapy when your sales department decides to
have a 2 for 1 sale on spots.) What you end up with is a piece of plastic
that most people will throw away if they see it, so label it somehow to
indicate that it is to be used for cleaning the pinch rollers. This "piece
of plastic" can be inserted into the cart machine just like any other cart.
Plug it in and hit start. The pinch roller will engage and begin rotating
with the capstan. You can now moisten a Q-tip with cleaning solution and
simply hold the Q-tip against the side of the pinch roller. Don't be
surprised if you use several Q-tips to get the roller relatively clean.
Finally, while we're on the subject of the pinch roller, be sure you have
a few spares in stock. If a cart with tape too tight is played in the
machine, and the tape doesn't move, the capstan can put an indention in the
pinch roller. Once this happens, the splice locate function will not operate
properly and the pinch roller will need to be replaced.
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