Is there such a thing as "recalibrating the board"?

zachoff · #1 02-03-2013, 10:37 PM

Dude that was supposed to record us yesterday said he had to cancel because he had to "re-calibrate the board"... Is this real or were we pretty much tossed aside? I betting on the latter. I've recorded a few times and haven't ever heard of such a thing. It's cool though... Got in a sick day snowboarding at Vail instead.

two fingers · #2 02-03-2013, 10:39 PM

What kind of board? Seems like a crock to me.

lokikallas · #3 02-03-2013, 11:00 PM

Even if it was a real thing, which I don't believe, why wouldn't he have scheduled it when he was already planning on your session.

dave_p · #4 02-03-2013, 11:30 PM

Back in the day we would 'zero out the board' which means you would make sure 0db on the board matched 0db on the tape machine and so on and so forth. We would do it every session. So yes that's a lame excuse. It's pre requisite to a session you have all your gain stages set and everything matched as far as level metering goes.

LiamCohl · #5 02-06-2013, 07:06 PM

I've definitely had to deal with more than just zeroing out the board from time to time, going through the internals with an oscilloscope to get everything working properly is just part of whats required to keep things working well. No large piece of electronic equipment, analog or digital is going to go through its whole working lifespan without the need for servicing. At least couple times every few days on the Neve 80 series I used to work with a pre/EQ needed replacing, and thats only accounting for the easily swappable modules on the surface, theres a whole lot more going inside there than is visible, hundreds of 1272's inside those things that cant be adjusted by any easy to reach external pot. Having recorded a few times is far from being a studio tech who actually maintains that kind of gear.

Nagrom · #6 02-09-2013, 07:06 PM

So there you have it... your dude either had to suddenly do deep internal gear maintenance, or he blew you off. Look into your heart-of-hearts and you shall see the true answer.

seamonkey · #7 02-10-2013, 09:41 PM

He probably spent the time getting his wristwatch cleaned and calibrated. Maybe a new watch spring put in.

DWBass · #8 02-10-2013, 09:45 PM

What...is he still running tape? I know the old tape recording heads and rollers had to be cleaned and calibrated from time to time.

SquierJazz72 · #9 02-10-2013, 09:47 PM

Certainly lots of maintenance that needs to be done on certain equipment. You'd think, though, that it would be scheduled for a different time than set recording, unless he had a sudden issue with it.

Could be legit, or an excuse. How do you really feel about it?