Part 1 in our "How to" series about recording with tape. If you've committed to recording to tape, you absolutely owe it to yourself to learn how to correctly align the tape deck to get the most out of the medium. Properly aligned and setup, it's unbeatable (at least we think so). Not doing routine alignment on the machine is like running a 3 band EQ set at who knows what into and out of the machine. This is the simplest of the alignments and requires a proper MRL test tone tape, not some tape your buddy made. Read more about the MRL tape at http://www.mrltapes.com/. It's not hard, and with a little practice you'll be able to do a 24 track alignment in probably 10-15 minutes. Long live analog recording.