Hey guys,

I miss playing tapes. I loved the experience of the whole thing much better that an ipod with 65 trillion tunes on it that I couldn't possibly listen too in 5 lifetimes.

Please, don't go on about how I don't want a cassette deck, I do.

I have the facility to record 24 bit masters of anything I want as do we all these days. But there was a time when it was nice to just stick a tape on and let it play away.

So im not loosing anything here. All my vinyl etc is already recorded very well. Thats not what I want a cassette deck for. I want a cassette deck to make collections of favorite tunes without having to go near a computer and also to be different.

So, what bargains are out there to be had? Anyone recommend any particular model? Rack mountable would be nice but not essential.

I've got a Teac AD-800. This is a combined CD player and cassette deck, which makes it quite space efficient. Out of the box it isn't rack mountable, but you can buy rack wings for it, which I did.

CC

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Put the fun back into dysfunctional.
Mr Punch's Studio

Hi mate. Hey, it looks like you can still buy them new. Canny pricey.

Had new from 400 quid down to 250 on Ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=Teac+AD -800&_sacat=0

Does it have space for rack lugs or is it a DIY? Whats your opinion of it?


EDIT - 100 quid for the rack mounting kit!!!

Edited by Kolakube (25/03/12 07:50 PM)

Strewth! I paid £12.50! But I've just checked the site I bought the kit from and they're sold out, sorry. I think the AD-800 is a perfectly decent machine and I've had no problems with it.

CC

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Put the fun back into dysfunctional.
Mr Punch's Studio

Hi mate. Thanks for the info.

I may need something cheaper. Im on a buying spree at mo with other bits of studio kit. Bloody cabling alone is costing a bomb.

So there still making new cassette decks then? Thats good to know

Look at this lot!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trkparms=65%253A12%257C66%253A2%257C39%2 53A6%257C72%253A6003&rt=nc&_nkw=dolby+cassette+deck&_dmd=2&_dmpt=UK_CE_Cas sette_RL&_ipg=96&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14.l1514

Ok, you could catch a cold but anything by Denon, Sony, Technics, Yamaha is potentially fine.

I have in fact just re- housed my Sony TC-611S Dolby S deck with my Sony MDS-JE500 Minidisc record stacked on top in an old Audax rack. Just finished wiring the breakout patchbay for them both.

I would eschew all frill on a cassette machine such as auto reverse and twin decks (if you ever need to copy tapes just bounce them into the pc and and out again). My 116s is just one deck, one way but 3 heads and boootiful with it.

Dave. (send you some pics)

I was almost going to tell you about this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Teac-AD-500-CD-Tape-deck-3U-rackmount-/290688037 348

But I wanted it :-)
Tape section may not work though but for a little over £30 I can't complain.

However plenty of technics units going cheap on ebay, always were good qualtity, the one that is built into my SA-X900L (which my gran almost chucked!) sounds excellent (although no pause on technics models (I have yet to see one anyway)

Ooo! Ooo!
Had one of these...Denon DRS-810 3 Head High End Dolby BC NR HX Pro

Super machine. I actually got it for nothing because the guy had dropped it and I saw some print damage and the flat capstan motor would not work so I qouted him a big estimate since I had to guess the cost of the motor with integral control board and save my A if the job took ages due to hidden problems. "Keep it for spares" he said and "What do I owe you so far?" I took nothing and forgot about the machine until a few weeks later when I decided to phone Denon for a price for the motor assy' About 8quid!
So one of them and a few hours linking print and I had a S of A cassette machine!

Dave.

OK, so it was some years ago now, but I bought a Sony deck just as they were falling out of use and as I don't use it a lot it's fine; it also has the most accurate pitch of any cassette deck I've had with the possible exception of the Neal 103 I had back in the 70s, which may have been a bit better but I had no means of measuring it then. It's a TC-KB820S. There must be plenty about not in use any more - maybe you could advertise for one. You'd probably get none or too many.

MIne is occasionally used to transfer spoken word cassettes to computer - I use the unit in my car for playback, having taken over my mother's 2000 model Jaguar which has no CD. I fully agree it's nice to just play a tape and I do remember with affection making compilations for myself and friends. I'm not doing this now as I have something like 400 cassettes which I select from, pretty much at random, and bung in the car to see whether I still like 'em. There is something more personal somehow having the choice of half a dozen tapes rather than 10,000 song on a iPod.

Favourite re-discovery so far is Garrison Keillor reading his novel 'Radio Romance'. I thought I'd hate it as GK's voice is a bit over-used now, but it sucked me right in ...

How good a quality one do you want?

There's a twin tape deck going free near me, you'd just have to pay postage.
I can find out the make later this week if you're interested?

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I've never liked a solo violin, you need at least five for a proper fire.

i have an old Yamaha one in the loft somewhere with remote but one side don't work, 1 wheel wont go round and eats tapes and it needs a new bulb for the 1 half of the display but the other side was ok.

that was 7 years ago tho and it was not cheap but ill dig it out and see if it still works and you can have it for postage cost if you want it but its heavy.

cant find it on Google images so must have been a good one but cant get up there till the weekend to find it but will pm you the model no if you are interested.

Tascam 122s go for cheap these days... rack mountable and lit VUs. Good stuff. Nakamichis are also good some allow for automatic azimuth adjustment.

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I'm All Ears.

Not used a cassette for years

Why not look for a second hand cassette based portastudio.

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Madman_Greg

I've just had to junk an old Denon somethingorother because of vast amounts of ugly noise on the wobbly outputs - even after a good resoldering. If you're buying used, I suppose there's a list of things to look out for...

Still got a fairly basic TEAC V-615 in the hi fi stack, which does a decent job.

i found the remote but cant find the pic of the deck atm.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/YAMAHA-RS-KW9-KX-DUAL-TAPE-DECK-REMOTE-CONTROL-/26 0837021240#ht_520wt_1163

Aiwa AD series were always pretty bullet-proof units. I've got one in the loft which see occasional outings. Not sure which model but dolby b,c & a bias trim control I never fully understood. I seem to recall it was recommended in a making 'four-track recording' book by John Peel.

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Not much in life worth running for. Or from.

I've used the basic Aiwa decks for ages - they work pretty well and some of ours must have done thousands of hours of real time duplication without any problems. I also liked the old Pioneer CT200 that I had - until the belt stretched.

James.

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JRP Music - Audio Mastering and Restoration.
http://www.jrpmusic.net

Had (well still have but broken) and AIWA AD-F450 good deck, plus got it for free :-)

lol, I should get paid by SOS. All my threads seem to generate a million replies. (Down to a great community I say, and my amazing good looks)

Im thinking about buying something new now that I know they still make these. I just worry all them moving parts and I just like things to work. Currently scouring Ebay

@ Rino and Necro. Thanks for the offers guys. Really appreciated. Think im going for new though as said. Scared of buying 10 units to find one good un.

Anyone know if 3 headed is the way to go? My wife has two and she seems fine

@ ef37a

Is your model not a Sony TC- "K" 611S

Cant find anything on Sony TC-611S




Anyone know if TDK are still making tapes?

Quote Kolakube:

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Anyone know if TDK are still making tapes?

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Apparently still available at various places, this was the cheapest result that I saw for one

http://247electrical.co.uk/tdk-audio-cassette-d-90-single-100pb-500pp.html

For a pack of 5 - £7.88

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/19476450/TDK-D90X5-Audio-Co mpact-Cassette/Product.html?_%24ja=tsid:11518%7Ccat:19476450%7Cprd:19476450

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http://soundcloud.com/richie-royale
http://www.mixcrate.com/richieroyale

Quote Kolakube:

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@ ef37a

Is your model not a Sony TC- "K" 611S

Cant find anything on Sony TC-611S




Anyone know if TDK are still making tapes?

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Same deck, some Sony literature drops the K for cassette after they stopped making open reels, BTW for some really anal info the T stands for Tape the C for Corder and the K for cassette, TapeCorder used to be a Sony trademark before they used Sony, TDK sold the tape & CDR operation to Imation a few years back and they still make the cheaper formulations such as SA chrome tapes, the Sony 611 is biased for a Sony tape that is compatible to the TDK SA so it would be a great fit

I still haven't given up mine. It is in my entertainment center next to my minidisc. I have a Yamaha currently on display, a Technics with only one side working in the studio just to bounce tapes off and a working but older one in the garage

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www.descentintomadness.com

I picked up a bunch of TDK SA-90 on Amaz*on a little while back - I often used to use those back in the 90s, and had no idea they were still around!

If you are going to spend good money on a cassette tape deck.... Make it a Nakamichi 3 head machine and really don't bother considering any other junk you have been looking at.
If you are Seriously considering dropping £300-400 you would be chucking your cash into a fire if you don't look at Naks.

Also don't get anything with auto reverse.

A Sony ES series deck is also good.

I'd by-pass Technics unless you have them modified, out the box they don't sound anything special.

If you want your deck serviced and working like new, PM me I know a guy.
I was lucky enough to buy a modified Technics off him for really cheap, I'm savvy like that with deals lol Usually it would of cost a lot more as all the work done on it:

Normal service for the mechanics.

All mech switches cleaned

All control switches on the front panel are replaced by new Alps switches.

JFET buffer installed to reduce the PB noise.

Recording amplifier modified to provide 10 dB more headroom - enough to record on top quality metal tape.

The original (worn) MX permalloy head is replaced by NOS Canon S&S (laminated sendust) long life sandwich head.

All required playback and recording adjustments done.

4066 monitor switch IC replaced with the ANT4066A

Headphone amp is modified for better sound.

All pots are cleaned and greased

May I also suggest

http://www.tapeheads.net/forumdisplay.php?f=6

Copying your music to cassette is illegal.

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http://soundcloud.com/orgasmo-sonore Revisiting Obscure Film Music

Quote Frank Rideau:

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Copying your music to cassette is illegal.

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No it isn't. Copying OTHER PEOPLES' music might be but what a can of worms THAT has been over the years!

Going 'tother way. I have found a cassette in sons' room "Coleman Hawkins & Benny Carter in Paris" (with Django and Grappelly) rec' 1935-46. That is now preserved on hard drive and will be several times over.

Dave.

I picked up a Tascam 112 from sleazebay for less than a ton and, rump me obliquely, but the bastard actually worked.

It's great listening to some of my old composition in true 3 bit, 8 dB dynamic range. Kinda added some natural bit crushing and SRC all at the same time and in a 4 bit FP domain.

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Samplecraze
Stretch That Note

Quote Zukan:

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It's great listening to some of my old composition in true 3 bit, 8 dB dynamic range. Kinda added some natural bit crushing and SRC all at the same time and in a 4 bit FP domain.

---

I also love the way that you value your recordings even more, knowing that each time you play them a little more rubs off until eventually there's nothing left to listen to

But the very best part is when the tape gets grabbed by its goolies inside the innards of the mechanism and then after you've done your best to flatten it out again you get that wonderful 'crumpled distortion' as the new folds pass over the replay head


Martin

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YewTreeMagic

Quote Martin Walker:

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Quote Zukan:

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It's great listening to some of my old composition in true 3 bit, 8 dB dynamic range. Kinda added some natural bit crushing and SRC all at the same time and in a 4 bit FP domain.

---

I also love the way that you value your recordings even more, knowing that each time you play them a little more rubs off until eventually there's nothing left to listen to

But the very best part is when the tape gets grabbed by its goolies inside the innards of the mechanism and then after you've done your best to flatten it out again you get that wonderful 'crumpled distortion' as the new folds pass over the replay head


Martin

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Yep, that effects is known as the 'gnat's buttock'. A little band-widthed if I may be bold?

Additionally, once your rec ordings have all but disappeared, with the faintest of 'pixel' noise left, then it can be used to layer digital recordings for added warmth and wax realism.


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Samplecraze
Stretch That Note

Cassette, even pretty good stuff is like a BR sandwich, don't look too hard!

I had not used my TC-K611S for some time so I ran a 1kHz tone thru' it onto some bog-s TDK D at 0"VU" (about +3Dolby) and the 3rd harmonic is "only" 48dB below that, nice bit of "warmth" tho'at -56dB 2nd har'. Baseline noise is at -72dB rev 0vu but I have an annoying 50Hz hum at just -46dB and 150Hz at -47dB. The 150Hz harmonic tells me this is mains traff into the head? Need some mu-metal tape!

And AFAIK TDK SA was not a chrome tape but a high energy ferric but used on type 2 bias/eq. TDK AD was almost as good and a bit cheaper (SA was NOT cheap!)but most decks were not biased high enough for it.

Dave.

Quote Martin Walker:

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But the very best part is when the tape gets grabbed by its goolies inside the innards of the mechanism and then after you've done your best to flatten it out again you get that wonderful 'crumpled distortion' as the new folds pass over the replay head


Martin

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I have a few tapes like this, it actually does add a little something. It would pain me if it was on an album that was my only copy, but it seems to work on dance mixtapes quite well. I wish something could emulate it, it is a combo of reverse, pan shift and filter in one go.

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http://soundcloud.com/richie-royale
http://www.mixcrate.com/richieroyale

Quote Richie Royale:

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I have a few tapes like this, it actually does add a little something. It would pain me if it was on an album that was my only copy, but it seems to work on dance mixtapes quite well. I wish something could emulate it, it is a combo of reverse, pan shift and filter in one go.

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So, a wow and flutter plug in with some printhrough control...

Hahah... Funny how we spent so much time making sure these things weren't introduced in the first place on analogue tpae only to desire them on digital!

love it.

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I'm All Ears.

Quote Martin Walker:

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Quote Zukan:

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It's great listening to some of my old composition in true 3 bit, 8 dB dynamic range. Kinda added some natural bit crushing and SRC all at the same time and in a 4 bit FP domain.

---

I also love the way that you value your recordings even more, knowing that each time you play them a little more rubs off until eventually there's nothing left to listen to

But the very best part is when the tape gets grabbed by its goolies inside the innards of the mechanism and then after you've done your best to flatten it out again you get that wonderful 'crumpled distortion' as the new folds pass over the replay head


Martin

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IIRC there's an Aphex Twin tune on "Ambient Works 85-92" or "Polygon Window" where the "master tape" was a crumpled cassette that had orange juice spilt on it.

(However I gather some people contend that lemonade gives a more authentic 'acid' sound, etc etc)

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~~~ A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen as you are tossed with! www.feline1.co.uk ~~~

Quote feline1:

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IIRC there's an Aphex Twin tune on "Ambient Works 85-92" or "Polygon Window" where the "master tape" was a crumpled cassette that had orange juice spilt on it.

(However I gather some people contend that lemonade gives a more authentic 'acid' sound, etc etc)

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Wasn't the whole of AW1 mastered from cassette that had been through everyone's car stereos?

Some old mates of mine recorded their first album in their kitchen on a 4-track cassette - that ended up being used as the master. No amount of proper studio time could get the same vibe, apparently (we're talking a proper and successful release by the way, not some web download or promo freebie type thing).

If it does what you want...

Quote nathanscribe:

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If it does what you want...

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Indeed - sometimes 'the vibe' is far better on elderly compact cassette band recordings when there was no 'red light' to put you off


Martin

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YewTreeMagic

Wow tons of replies.

Vinyl Junkie. Where the hell do you think im going to spend 400 quid? No mate, hoping 150 absolute tops. Thanks for mentioning the tech you know. Ill no doubt be in touch re that as whatever I get will no doubt need a service.




Yeah, all of Aphex Twins first ambeint works LP was masterd to tape. (Well according to Aphex Twin who frequently lies on interview anyhow )




Analogue tape is well know for adding its own compresssion. This is due to the tape mechinisms squashing the music together on the acctual tape itself apparently.

I got my deck from him for £110 with all that work done and service usually it would cost a lot more but it was one of his personal units and like most weirdo collectors there comes a point where you have too much clutter in your house and need to let go of the less desirable stuff.. Luckily for me it does the job just fine and it's a nice deck.

FYI and my test.
Dave.
Ah! Got that cracked then!

Edited by ef37a (30/03/12 06:54 AM)

Quote:

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Indeed - sometimes 'the vibe' is far better on elderly compact cassette band recordings when there was no 'red light' to put you off

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Maritn, I totally agree.


Skip back to 1990s. Id stick my latest 12" onto a cassette for my walkman. (Only failing for me of vinyl was its total lack of portability.)

Id simply stick on the vinyl and set the levels with the tape deck paused and then unpause and bobs your uncle.


These days I get a detailed layout on my DAW and spend the next month farting around with one tune as I try to remove clicks and other stuff and then no doubt never listern to the tune again for 6 months anyhow. Again, my same old argument, progress?? I simply would not know of any microscopic bits of distortion back then, my ears certainly didnt and still won't unless my eyes tell them too after looking at a waveform read out, then my ears are suddenly convinced.

People who say, "ahh but digital distortion is diffrent." Well I didnt have the facility to edit out clicks and fart on with DAT either and that format served all of us very well until 16bit became the work of the devil.

Its so easy these days to get wrapped up in free everything and infanite everything and get far less done than when we all had limitations impossed upon us.

Yea but with cassettes you have to piss about with setting Dolby rec levels, bias levels for each tape and if your deck was really fancy you could adjust head azimuth.

hmmm, I never mate. Just whopped the tape in and off we went. Never liked Dolby B or C and never tried the new one (S I think) I prefered the hiss and the treble.

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(Sent via my iPhone and no doubt riddled with typos as a result)

Quote Kolakube:

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hmmm, I never mate. Just whopped the tape in and off we went. Never liked Dolby B or C and never tried the new one (S I think) I prefered the hiss and the treble.

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Common myth about Dolby, treble loss, although a lot of badly setup machines didn't help.

The idea, at least for quality recording, was to chose a good tape and get a tech (c'est moir!) to set the bias.
Regarding jodrelling about with levels, why? Once you knew the peak level off the vinyl deck you were set, the dynamic range of properly setup TDK AD.SA, BASF, Maxell UX etc was easily the equal of the black stuff, which of course were themselves cut from at best 2nd generation tape.

It is of course ironic that the digital "revolution" came just a bit late to save cassette. That Denon I had was auto setup. You put in any tape and after 30seconds or so it was optimally biased.In fact with Dolby HX you did not really need Dolby B at all for dubbing disc or radio. You had to watch tho' that the levels HX allowed did not crack the replay amps on some lesser, mostly ICE machines.

Dave.

Kola here is a example of how good dolby can sound on a well setup machine.

Here is a single wave file of short(1-2 mins) parts of various songs recorded on various tape types (Metal, Chrome and Ferric) from various sources (Vinyl, CD and Wave) with and without Dolby NR.

Here is the link and track list:

http://wtrns.fr/9TEIraJX2forTde

1. Chrome Tape No NR > The Fatback Band (CD)
2. Metal Tape No NR > Nina Simone (Vinyl)
3. Ferric Tape Dolby C > John Lee Hooker (CD)
4. Ferric Tape Dolby C > Janet Jackson (CD)
5. Ferric Tape Dolby C > Mario Fabriani (WAV)
6. Chrome Tape No NR > John Martin (CD)
7. Chrome Tape No NR > John Martin (CD)
8. Chrome Tape No NR > John Martin (CD)

I'm on the look out for one too as my dear old deck died a while back. I found it good to quickly record my latest tune on, then i could listen in the car (yes i still have a cassette player in the car)and also on my mini hi fi in the kitchen. Gives you a rough idea how things are gonna sound.

I was walking round at work a while back with a sony walkman on, the amount of people who came up and said "blymey, where did you get that? i had one one i was a kid".

I still use a vestax 4 trk cassette sometimes so i go round charity shops looking for brand new blank c60s and c90s, i have about 50 odd stock piled now and have three sony walkmans that i have also found in charity shops. I have also so found hundreds of brand new hd and dd floppy discs which are handy for my old synth and sampler. Also look out fot guitar leads found a few of them too.

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Ahh ha ha, ever get the feeling you've been cheated?

VJ, Only got crappy laptop speakers mate. Not worth me doing any accute listening on them. I deliberatly do not have the internet anywhere near my studio set up. Also, with my ear infection I seem to have had for bloody months again, not sure I could tell a diff. Thanks though for your time posting them. I am gratefull.

I will say, I really dont like to get as technicle as yourself and e47/dave. One of the whole reasons I am wanting to have a cassette deck back in my life is, I switch it on, press play and ta-daaaa, instant bliss with no fanying about that comes with a PC.

I hate getting too involved in details when it comes to music. I get lost and go off researching stuff for ever than makes 10% diff at best. Id rather not get sucked into anything like that in the first place.

Im totally happy without dolby, allthough would give it a try if its just a flick of a button. But the hiss never bothers me. My brain filters it out much like it does on crackles and pops on vinly. I have countless trakcs recorded on a realistic/tandy cassette deck from back in the day and for me seems as I have listerned to them fo so long sounding crap, (IE not a great tonal range at all) the crapness becomes a sort of charicter I assosiate with the track.

I think if I was into the pursute of ultimate sound quality I certainyl wouldnt be looking at cassettes and vinyl and thoes make up 75% of my collection.

Id gladly swap, hiss, crackles, pops, and other artifacts for simplicity and real tanglible formats I can touch, taste, smell and see as well as just hear any day. Thats just me though. As ever I understand 99.9% of the world thinks im as mad as a hatter when it coems to my views on music tech and such.

stollypop, sorry missed your reply.

My reply to you is

"I hear you man - Loud and clear"

Likeminded.

Get yourself to a specialist mate, you've had this ear infection for way too long imo
In 97 I was close to loosing my hearing and had a infection for a year, NHS was crud so in the end after many attempts to sort it I went to a specialist who sorted it in a few months!

I've not had anything that bad ever since (thank god) and what I have had was able to shake off in less than a month with normal anti-biotic's from the quacks but in some cases they don't do much.

Back to cassette.. I love the smell of tape in the morning hahah



Edited by vinyl_junkie (31/03/12 08:36 PM)

Quote:

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Back to cassette.. I love the smell of tape in the morning hahah

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Haha - superb!

Quote:

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Get yourself to a specialist mate, you've had this ear infection for way too long imo
In 97 I was close to loosing my hearing and had a infection for a year, NHS was crud so in the end after many attempts to sort it I went to a specialist who sorted it in a few months!

I've not had anything that bad ever since (thank god) and what I have had was able to shake off in less than a month with normal anti-biotic's from the quacks but in some cases they don't do much.

---

Yeah your right mate. Been around 4 months. Ive had 5 courses of Antibiotics.

First step, Im going to see my GP in the morning and demand a referral to a specialist. Ill give the NHS a bash first before I pay cash. I like to spend all my cash on gear :]
I know, not much point if you cannot hear it - WHAT?? EH??? YOU SAY SOMETHING???

No way!!!! Sony still make Mega Bass Walkmans!! Sorry if you all already knew but I had no idea.

Even mainstreet retailers sell them and have them in stock!
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5129711.htm?CMPID=GS001&a mp;_$ja=tsid:11527|cc:|prd:5129711|cat:home+entertainment+and+sat+nav+%2F+personal+audio+a nd+visual+%2F+personal+cd+players+and+radios+%2F+personal+cassette+players+%2F

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(Sent via my iPhone and no doubt riddled with typos as a result)

Quote:

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I also love the way that you value your recordings even more, knowing that each time you play them a little more rubs off until eventually there's nothing left to listen to

---

I always used cassettes to make a copy. Usually of Vinyl or CD so I could listern on my walkman. If I didnt possess the original (naughty) then Id make a master tape and a working copy.

Quote:

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But the very best part is when the tape gets grabbed by its goolies inside the innards of the mechanism and then after you've done your best to flatten it out again you get that wonderful 'crumpled distortion' as the new folds pass over the replay head


Martin

---

...... Compared to me having my data on a harddrive and the mechanism failed meaning I lost gigabytes of data not just one tape. I know this has happened to Vinyl Junkie as well as others.

But whoese fault is that? Mine, really for not having a backup in place.


Anyone who used to master to tape suerly made a master that got stored and a working copy. Thigs havent changed really. If you dont back up your work and play the only master your asking for trouble. I know I have learned my lesson over th years. Same applied then and same applies now only the formats have changed.

you can still use dat tape to back up ur pc

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/hp-ae307at-storageworks-dat-72-internal-tap e-drive-usb-320gb-86gb-hr

Not really the way Id want to use a dat though fella. :0

The fact walkmans are sold in a major high street store and made by a major electronics brand fills me with joy. Cassette isnt totally dead then. Its hanging on at least. Now all I have to do is buy a lifetimes supply of stuff

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(Sent via my iPhone and no doubt riddled with typos as a result)

Theres a guy near me selling a Denon DRS 810.

May be the one.

My daughters Fisher Price portable cassette player still goes, even 20 years on, great big buttons and it even includes a microphone so you can sing along with your music - wonderful technology and sounds like it's exactly what you need...........

Bob

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www.bickerton.co.nz

Quote Bob Bickerton:

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My daughters Fisher Price portable cassette player still goes, even 20 years on, great big buttons and it even includes a microphone so you can sing along with your music - wonderful technology and sounds like it's exactly what you need...........

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now, now. no need to take the piss, Bob.

I've got that FP for my daughter. Its good but its a bit of a pain to set the bias...

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I'm All Ears.

Quote ken long:

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Quote Bob Bickerton:

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My daughters Fisher Price portable cassette player still goes, even 20 years on, great big buttons and it even includes a microphone so you can sing along with your music - wonderful technology and sounds like it's exactly what you need...........

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now, now. no need to take the piss, Bob.

I've got that FP for my daughter. Its good but its a bit of a pain to set the bias...

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Pah tell me about it.. You think you have trouble setting bias on that thing, I can't find a needle or belt for my record player any where lol

Kola must be stuck in a time warp, if I'm not mistaken they stopped making Walkmans few years ago.. T'was in the news and everything.
To rub it in even more ipods sold more if I can remember right than the walkman's entire life span in like the first 2 years or something.
What they have there is new old stock....

I say good riddance, what's being sold there is just junk compared to the stuff they were putting out when the format was at it's peak... Those direct drive ones with laser amorphous heads that's what it's all about hahah

Edited by vinyl_junkie (02/04/12 09:34 PM)

Quote vinyl_junkie:

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That's a beaut and I was looking for one for her but the hipsters have bought them all up.

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I'm All Ears.

Quote:

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Kola must be stuck in a time warp, if I'm not mistaken they stopped making Walkmans few years ago.. T'was in the news and everything.
To rub it in even more ipods sold more if I can remember right than the walkman's entire life span in like the first 2 years or something.
What they have there is new old stock...

---

Yep, time warp and love it mate. I just love the format. It forces you to only take your best tunes with you as opposed to 15 gazillillion and then when you see your mates ipod, you just copy his 24 billion trillion to your 15 gazillion. Gets on my wick With a cassette I loved making a collection of some of my 12"s and you had to be choosey as you only had 90 mins to play with.

Not really bothered what format sells most. Id imagine download mp3 sell more than CD singles or vinyl these days. Much rather have either of the latter. Im honestly not bothered if iPods sell intergalacticly. I follow my own path.


New old stock does me. Dont need a good walkman mate. Listening on the move hardly an audiophille experience.



As you all know, I love limitations. Cassette therefore is perfect for me. Im sure to everyone else cassette died forever a go and good riddance. Im not trying to change anyones views on that. Id hate everyone to be like me anyhow. Its cool being one a 6 billion at at least something

Quote:

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now, now. no need to take the piss, Bob.

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Ken -All he ever does mate in most of his posts. That or tries to wind people up. I used to like kiwi's too

Quote Kolakube:

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Quote:

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now, now. no need to take the piss, Bob.

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Ken -All he ever does mate in most of his posts. That or tries to wind people up. I used to like kiwi's too

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You need to read more of my posts. I reserve 'piss taking' for a selected few posters who may benefit most from the process....... So you are very lucky Kola........ oops, there I go again

Bob

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www.bickerton.co.nz

What reason? You always seem to talk down to me like you know what is best. Usually with a one liner that serves no purpose. There are other opinions as well as your own and obviously mine drastically differ.

If ever you have anything constructive to add Id be only too pleased to listen but anything you say doesn't seem to help, just condescend.

I get you, you don't like cassette's think there out of the arc and im mad for even wanting one. Ok, noted. ..... But im still wanting one and going to get one.

I don't want to fall out with anyone here, but please unless you have anything useful or constructive to add I have nothing further to say. Lifes to short.

Apologies for any offence taken - it was a joke!

I'm sorry you didn't see it that way.

Bob

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www.bickerton.co.nz

I remember paying extra for 'metal' tape. Less stretch.
I dont miss the wow and flutter - even on a good deck, recording the pure tones like piano was the grail. I had a good cassette deck. It was very expensive. I would mix down to the tape from a Yamaha MD4 with tasty results - happy days!

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17ft here! Too deep for non divers.

Quote vinyl_junkie:

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Get yourself to a specialist mate, you've had this ear infection for way too long imo
In 97 I was close to loosing my hearing and had a infection for a year, NHS was crud so in the end after many attempts to sort it I went to a specialist who sorted it in a few months!

I've not had anything that bad ever since (thank god) and what I have had was able to shake off in less than a month with normal anti-biotic's from the quacks but in some cases they don't do much.

---

Sorry for the off topic post but what kind of specialist to go to? How would I go about this?

I've had ear infections in my left ear on and off for almost 2 years. I've been to my GP so many times it's lost value, all the idiot does is prescribe antibiotics which do no good in the slightest bit.

***

Reading this thread inspired me to get a Tape Deck off ebay; paid £4 for a Technics deck...

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http://soundcloud.com/earwighoney

@ Bob

Quote:

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Apologies for any offence taken - it was a joke!

I'm sorry you didn't see it that way.

Bob

---

Ok fella. In fairness perhaps I have simply misunderstood your scene of humor on many occasions. Written communication is bloody awful for gauging another intentions as its how the reader reads it as opposed what the writer meant. 90% of communication is non verbal and we don't get that with written only.

Also, as we all know the net is littered with people who like to make snide comment with the intentions of offending other all from the safety of there own bedroom computer with a cup of coco in there hands. Keyboard warriors I refer to them as. Sadly there numbers are in the trillions. So perhaps, this is another reason why I may have misjudged your intentions and that is my wrong doing. Of course its all in the intention though. I love a laugh, winding up or being wound up in jest as much as the next.

You have apologized and that means a lot. More than most would offer by a landslide. Fair enough mate. Perhaps I took you wrong. Lets put it behind us and move on. What ya say?

@ Hammond

Mate, thoese metal tapes these days cost around a tenner a pop and then some. Thats £10 not $ and thats a good deal. Vinyl Junkie reports then going for £20 and £30 each.

@ Vinyl Junkie. Hey!! Did you say "I" was stuck ina time warp?? Pot Kettle fella

@ Caveman

Quote:

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Sorry for the off topic post but what kind of specialist to go to? How would I go about this?

I've had ear infections in my left ear on and off for almost 2 years. I've been to my GP so many times it's lost value, all the idiot does is prescribe antibiotics which do no good in the slightest bit.

---

A GP is no good mate. You have to let them try and cure it first with a few courses of anti biotics. (myself im on my 5th course in 3 months!!!) Now its my right that I be referred to a consultant/ specialist. If your GPs any good they won't hesitate. If there no good simply change docs and get refereed. Or if your mr money, go to Bupa (not me, rather spend my money on gear I cant hear properly haha) If I can be any more help of this let me know. PM if you like.

Quote Kolakube:

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@ Bob

Quote:

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Apologies for any offence taken - it was a joke!

I'm sorry you didn't see it that way.

Bob

---

Ok fella. In fairness perhaps I have simply misunderstood your scene of humor on many occasions. Written communication is bloody awful for gauging another intentions as its how the reader reads it as opposed what the writer meant. 90% of communication is non verbal and we don't get that with written only.

Also, as we all know the net is littered with people who like to make snide comment with the intentions of offending other all from the safety of there own bedroom computer with a cup of coco in there hands. Keyboard warriors I refer to them as. Sadly there numbers are in the trillions. So perhaps, this is another reason why I may have misjudged your intentions and that is my wrong doing. Of course its all in the intention though. I love a laugh, winding up or being wound up in jest as much as the next.

You have apologized and that means a lot. More than most would offer by a landslide. Fair enough mate. Perhaps I took you wrong. Lets put it behind us and move on. What ya say?

---

'Story....... (kiwi abbreviation for 'That's the story', translation - yes I agree with what you're saying)

Bob

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www.bickerton.co.nz

So were cool?

Yes!

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www.bickerton.co.nz

Hey guys just thought Id update. Got a Sony TC-4661S today and im loving it

Thanks to everyone who positively contributed. Greatly appreciated.

Next of the shopping list a Walkman .

Modern society is flooded by an overwhelming sea of data. Our computers/phones/iDevices hold so much of it that any one train of thought will invariably get lost in the sauce.

How am I supposed to give someone a mix tape? If I take a bunch of great songs and give them to my friend on a flash drive, upon loading, those songs will just join the thousands of other mp3s they already have.

Maybe if I put the songs onto daw, keep proper gains, and plop a mic up, I can make a dj style mix tape. And burn a properly meta tagged cd. Which may STILL get lost in the sauce.

People don't seem to play cds that much, or have players like they used to, except maybe if they use their blue ray players.

Back in the days we simply made a cassette. You'd spin records or cds, control levels as you went, made spontaneous anouncements, cued up the next song in your headphone, and had fun. That energy made its way onto the tape.
It ONLY held up to 90 minutes which is a good thing. That accountability, tangibility. Sure the downside was if you wanted a big collection it meant clutter. But each tape stood as a complete thought on its own and could not, clutter notwithstanding, get lost in the sauce.

Just my 2 NIS rant
MMD

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Gear list: If you can't find it, grind it

Im in total agreement fella. Every word.

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(Sent via my iPhone and no doubt riddled with typos as a result)

Ok, I finally got a 1989 mega bass walkman by sony for a tenner. Works superb! Sounds as good as any iPod/MP3 player and this is a budget model at best.

I know you all think im mad, my wife too, but right now I am so happy with music now that its tangible again. Great times!

If the walkman gives you good enough sound quality, great.

If you want a better quality deck for archiving selected cassettes, here is another recommendation for a deck I believe is still in production. I recently got a new Tascam 202 MKV cassette deck ($180 new on sale) for archiving old cassettes to digital files. It works well, in spite of having too many "fancy" features like dual cassette, reverse, high speed dubbing, pitch control, etc. I do find Dolby useful for playing back old cassettes, many of which were recorded with Dolby and sound horrible played back without.

Cassette tape inherently has a limited lifespan, so I recommend digitizing any cassettes that you feel are "irreplaceable". You could just listen to the rest until they die, however, those deaths can be a painful process. You might wind up with lots of iron oxide residue in the tape transport mechanism that requires frequent cleaning, or worse, you might have a tape break and get tangled up inside.

I would caution you about buying an old used non-refurbished cassette deck that still has the original rubber belts. Broken belts are a frequent cause of failure of these decks, and can be difficult and expensive to replace.

Hi mate, THanks for your reply. Im in total contrast to your advice however

With the greatest of respect........

I got a fully refurbished deck so ok there.

As for cassettes failing, its funny you mention that. I have an old tape of a mix I dont live on regional radio back in the day. The tape I had was the only copy. Its a crappy unbranded tape. Needless to say it got caught in a cheap ghetto blaster and w had to cut it to get it out.
I then put my greasy fingers all over it and sellotaped it back together.
Guess what? Yup, this 25 year old tape still works perfectly.

Ive also dug my bag of tapes out of the loft. Stored there in UK temperatures for around 15 years. Guess what, they all work fine!

Now, I always thought tapes rotted or went bad etc etc. But thats not the evidence im presented with here at all.

Im relatively safe though. My tape deck serves mainly to make my CD and Vinyl collections portable. IE by taping them and then having them on a smaller format. Most of the masters of my collection will be from a 12" or CD that I own. So I should be fine.

One more thing I will say. I hark back to a day when no one understood what 16 bit was, never mind 24 bit headroom and 192K and whether 44k was 0.00000003% better than 96k. Back to a day when people just wanged in a tape and set a level and recorded and it was good enough. Not like today where you record a track and spend 6 hours farting on manually deleting clicks and pops.
To summerise this paragraph, the last this I want to do with any of my music, is go next to a damned PC.

I do appreciated you taking the time to reply though fella.

I don't know how old the cassettes are or how much you cherish the music on them. They may work fine now and maybe for a few more years, but won't last forever.

We had some reel to reel masters of folkloric music recorded in Cuba by the Smithsonian Institute in 1978. Tape quality was top of the line back then. We tried to archive these 33 year old tapes to digital last year and every one of them was unusable. The multimillion dollar NYC recording studio we went to first thought they could do it and quoted us $1100 for the 8 reels. After trying to archive the first 2, they gave up on them, didn't charge us, and recommended we take them to a professional archivist. The archivist baked several of the tapes in the proper way to try to salvage them. Even so, the oxide flaked off the plastic backing, the plastic backing broke, or the sound quality was horrible. Over a thousand dollars of donated studio and archivist time later, we finally gave up on salvaging them at all. And some of the bits and pieces of music we heard from them were KILLER! A big disappointment.

One advantage of digital is it can be archived and preserved without losing quality after the original digitization. Any distortions of the music due to "digital sound" are orders of magnitude less than the distortions you will have due to old cassette tape artifacts. But it sounds like your priorities are very different than mine, so enjoy your cassettes while they work, with no need to worry about all this new fangled digital technology.

Kolakube,
I am with Jorge here. Get anything you value that is on tape onto the hard drive PDQ.

Your new oxide scraper might be topish range and refurbed but the mech' in you car certainly isn't! The transport probably cost about a dollar, slot loading cassette mechs are NOTORIOUS for eating tapes. So get the music onto the PC (16 bits, 44.1Hz is well good enough) and then buy a stack of TDK D90s and copy the songs over (if you are coming off old cassettes, bog ferric type 1, TDK D is plenty good enough. If you want to copy CD then TDK SA or similar would be better).

Dave.

Just had a mini catalogue thru from CPC and if anyone is interested they are selling the Teac W-890R twin cassette machine for £159+vat. Dolby B and HXpro.

Should be good?

Dave.

I can't believe I was still using a tape deck to record rehearsals as recently as 2008, the guys were like, "how do you get it on the computer?"

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Do you need real drum tracks? http://www.drumtracksdirect.co.uk/

Quote Beat Poet:

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I can't believe I was still using a tape deck to record rehearsals as recently as 2008, the guys were like, "how do you get it on the computer?"

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Heh! The dynamic range of even non Dolbied dupes is an overkill in my rattletrap (but very reliable!) Proton.

Dave.

Well, I've got a Nakamichi Cassette Deck One that I had fixed about a year ago (a stray belt), in case I ever decided to use it again. I have, for about an hour or so. (I also have A Nak 480--broken belt, faulty left Peak meter--it sits on a shelf, waiting for my Lottery win and some interest to actually fix it.) I have quite a few tapes from back in the day, which I had fun putting together, but really--I'll never do that again. It's a whole lot easier to use a computer and a DAW if you're so inclined, and I've done it, and now have mix CDs--it's just as easy, of course, to make mixes and put them on an mp3 player.
Cassettes are a poor medium--there's no getting around this. Even using my Nak One (adjustable azimuth!), the second you put the tape into a Walkman or some such thing, the middling quality goes right out the window. Walkmans are nice-looking junk, period. I remember buying the slim-line Walkman, which wasn't much bigger than the cassette itself. I bought it because it looked cool. I remember thinking, "I'll bet this thing won't last too long." It didn't. Maybe nine months, and I took care of it.
I gotta ask--Why? Why bother? What's with the nostalgia for a crap medium that was the working definition for "planned obsolescence"? I don't have any problem at all with not putting a bunch of music I don't like on an mp3 player. Can't you just listen to what you want to listen to? No one forces you to put stuff on an mp3 player, and in the off chance they do, you can delete the stuff you don't want. No?
I realize a lot of younger people think it's cool or whatever to release stuff on cassette. I will do this, too, and I've got a first-rate deck to do it with. I know that cassette technology is exciting to some people, but really now . . . .

Nobody's going to argue with your points Tim, but this isn't about logic, it's about 'soul'!

The original post in the thread said:

Hey guys,

I miss playing tapes. I loved the experience of the whole thing much better that an ipod with 65 trillion tunes on it that I couldn't possibly listen too in 5 lifetimes.

Please, don't go on about how I don't want a cassette deck, I do.

I have the facility to record 24 bit masters of anything I want as do we all these days. But there was a time when it was nice to just stick a tape on and let it play away.

So im not loosing anything here. All my vinyl etc is already recorded very well. Thats not what I want a cassette deck for. I want a cassette deck to make collections of favorite tunes without having to go near a computer and also to be different.

At the end of the day music is about what stirs us - it's usually content, but it can sometimes be far more factors than that. When I think of some of the stuff I enjoy from the '50s and '60s the technical quality is appalling by today's standards - duff edits, distortion, unmatched level changes, clunky drop-ins etc etc etc.

The bottom-line is the total experience for the listener. That can be just as much about the medium as the message. I have some cassettes of stuff I recorded in the '70s... technically it's appalling, but it still brings a smile and makes me feel good because of the associations it all conjures up.

Thanks Mike,
It was not my intention to drag up all the arguments again!
Just to point up what looks like a very good tape deck from a leading manufacturer at a decent price to them as wants one.

But even so, Dolbied HX pro has GOT to be better than 128k MP3?

Dave.

I agree Dave.

I recently inherited (literally!) a JVC KD-D4 which is in very good nick and working perfectly. Testing it using some classical cassettes I still have about the place the sound is perfectly acceptable for casual listening. It's proving useful too as I try to help people who contact me with cherished recordings of loved-ones who now have no means of playing those recordings.

No reflection directly on Tim, but I think sometimes we all get too caught up in S/N ratios, self-noise etc etc and lose sight of what this is meant to be all about.... people enjoying their music in a way that suits them. I guess it's inevitable in a forum of this nature... the thing I note about Exalted Wombat's posts (other posters are available!) is that he constantly reminds us that it's ultimately about the music and not the technology. It can be irritating, but bottom-line - he's right!

But do I strive for excellence? Yes. Would I go back to the "good old days"? No.

Well everyone has their betes noir.

My two were clicks and spits, unavoidable from vinyl and wow. A good turntable should be ok for the latter but only the very best cassette machine could support a sustained piano note without me wincing. Smooth hiss I could live with to a degree. (I choose my car listening VERY carefully!)

I also have a good 100 or so TDK SA/ADs with various proms on them and other R3/R4 stuff from yonks ago...ONE day I shall get it all on hard drive!

Dave.

Quote ef37a:

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I also have a good 100 or so TDK SA/ADs with various proms on them and other R3/R4 stuff from yonks ago...ONE day I shall get it all on hard drive!

---

I just completed this process after several months of concerted effort. Not one cassette now lives with me - they're all on hard drive. It was lovely hearing them hit the bottom of the wheelie bin!

It means I'll actually listen to them now, rather than have them sitting attracting dust on a shelf!

Bloomin' good riddance!!!!!!

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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

Quote The Elf:

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Quote ef37a:

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I also have a good 100 or so TDK SA/ADs with various proms on them and other R3/R4 stuff from yonks ago...ONE day I shall get it all on hard drive!

---

I just completed this process after several months of concerted effort. Not one cassette now lives with me - they're all on hard drive. It was lovely hearing them hit the bottom of the wheelie bin!

It means I'll actually listen to them now, rather than have them sitting attracting dust on a shelf!

Bloomin' good riddance!!!!!!

---

OOOoooo! Mine will go back in the loft. Hard drives fail, good tapes in good machines rarely do and IF they do you only lose the one!

Dave.

Quote ef37a:

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OOOoooo! Mine will go back in the loft. Hard drives fail, good tapes in good machines rarely do and IF they do you only lose the one!

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I have backups of backups of backups! I never lost anything yet and I'm not about to start!

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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

sorry guys I didn't know this thread was still going.

Well, ive had my deck now for a few months and have never looked at an MP3 since and never missed them at all. I also treat myself to a pro Sony Walkman. Its superb.

I have certainly made the correct choice here. I am very happy I have cassettes back in my life.

I bought a bundle of 400 metal tapes from the US. 200 got through customs but im waiting to hear back how much more I owe on the second lot that got stopped. Anyhow, either way im well stocked. 400 tapes will do me for life.

Hi K,
I looked at metal tapes when I dusted off my Sony Dolby S and quickly stopped looking! The price!
Then I had memories of reports of instabilities in the coatings and justified myself with those and bought TDK-SA.

I would be interested to know if there is much subjective difference between a metal tape and a properly biased (most were not) SA?

Dave.

FWIW I never found metal cassettes all that good with either my Nakamichi or Aiwa decks - both of which allowed for proper settings for tape formulations.

Not only did metal tapes sound brittle, but they also seemed to stretch and fail more frequently. I much preferred SA (or SA-X if I could find them) - they were more reliable, produced a subjectively better sound and were forgiving of Dolby B (I hated the artifacts of Dolby C).

I seem to recall someone telling me that metal tapes caused increased head-wear, but maybe that was just an urban myth.

--------------------
An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

Quote The Elf:

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FWIW I never found metal cassettes all that good with either my Nakamichi or Aiwa decks - both of which allowed for proper settings for tape formulations.

Not only did metal tapes sound brittle, but they also seemed to stretch and fail more frequently. I much preferred SA (or SA-X if I could find them) - they were more reliable, produced a subjectively better sound and were forgiving of Dolby B (I hated the artifacts of Dolby C).

I seem to recall someone telling me that metal tapes caused increased head-wear, but maybe that was just an urban myth.

---

I'm half with you there re metal tapes but personally I've had very good results with Dolby C
I can hardly tell the difference between source and what's coming off the tape when using C

Quote Bob Bickerton:

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Yes!

---

Bob, surely that's "no worries cuz".

Cheers
Graham

Quote ef37a:

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I would be interested to know if there is much subjective difference between a metal tape and a properly biased (most were not) SA?

---

I seem to remember that SA had funny bias requirements which made it sound subjectively brighter on cassette decks biased for normal chrome tapes. The main advantage of metal tape is that you can record higher levels of high frequencies without distortion. A friend of mine had switchable RIAA eq on his amp. It was a good test of a tape machine to record from vinyl with RIAA switched off and then play back the tape with RIAA switched on - metal tapes certainly worked better for this although none was as good as reel to reel.

For longevity I would rather go with Maxell - certainly their reel to reels seem to last better than TDK's.

James.

--------------------
JRP Music - Audio Mastering and Restoration.
http://www.jrpmusic.net

Thanks James,
I did mention biasing. The SA and AD tapes needed probably the highest bias of any cassettes of the day. In fact AD was almost as good a type 1 tape as many other brands type 2s.

Any tape test must assume proper biasing and EQ. Be like comparing fuels of different octane ratings without re setting the engine timing (with screwdriver and spanner,NOT a bloody computer!).

Hmm? I wonder if you can still buy sets of magneto spanners?

Dave.

I love nostalgia... it's like foundation makeup (for ladeez) -- covers over all indication of blemishes!

I too have fond memories of TDK's SA and SA-X tapes. I used to use AD's for run of the mill vinyl transfers, and SA or -- like Elf -- SA-X if I could find it for important stuff. Still got a box full of recorded cassettes here.

I never got on with metal tapes, or Dolby C, and while Dolby S impressed I was already going digital with a Sony PCM701 and betamax recorder by then. When set up well Dolby C works quite well, but it is very critical of rec/rep alignment, with any errors causing obvious mistracking artefacts.

I was recently asked to reconstruct a music compilation from the late 1970s/early 1980s, using a combination of mostly original CDs and vinyls, because it was increasingly difficult for the owner to find places to play the well-loved cassette, and their own transfer sounded rubbish!

However, while working on the project I was reminded of many things which I had previously managed to erase from my memory:

1. Cassettes stretch with use (or speed control was worse than I remember!).
2. Cassettes lose high end dramatically with use.
3. Cassettes have noticeable wow and flutter.

These things are all horrible and have thankfully all been blown away with the digital wind. Why would anyone want to go back there?

4. Remastered CDs -- especially compilations -- are usually terrible.
5. CDs and vinyls from the same period often sound noticeably different to each other.
6. Different pickups (and Turntable setups) sound quite different from each other.

Thre is no such thing as the 'original' version -- that only existed in the recording studio. Once a track is mastered for release each format sounds different, adn ech replay devices adds its own sound colour overlay. All that matters is what sound character you or the client likes, or doesn't like!

7. When someone gets used to the sound of a completely worn-out tape, recreating a pristine version on CD isn't always quite what they expect or want!



hugh

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Technical Editor, Sound On Sound

Hugh, I certainly have to agree about the speed instability/inaccuracy/wow and flutter of cassettes. As cassettes were moving to their natural exit from audio, I was looking to replace my old Neal deck that had expired. It took several goes to find one that played at the right speed and I ended up with a Sony one that was pretty close with a test tape. I think it's also more gentle than some others as I have a couple of tapes that make it stop playing, despite frequent rewindings. Which brings me on neatly to the big problem I always had with cassettes: having to wind/rewind them on a mains deck pretty often if I'd been playing them in the car. Once autoreverse appeared in car stereos, I played some cassettes to death because of this. These were the days when people would break into you car to steal tapes!

Quote tacitus:

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It took several goes to find one that played at the right speed and I ended up with a Sony one that was pretty close with a test tape.

---

Just about every cassette recorder ever made has adjustable speed if you know where to look.

James.

--------------------
JRP Music - Audio Mastering and Restoration.
http://www.jrpmusic.net

Mine is quartz locked direct drive Look at me with my fancy technology in 2012 lol

I'd like to see how stable the speed is imported in a DAW actually, might do that one day when I'm bored

James - I have no idea where to look and I don't want to learn now!

Yeah, I know some of those old recordings sound not so good, but they are of their time and sound good (even great) for it.
I do believe that even Dolby B on a good machine will sound as good as a 128mp3 . . . another reason to push for better standards for compressed files. As storage capacity goes up, hopefully folks will start accepting larger file sizes and . . . well, this belongs on another thread.
It's weird, but after talking to many people, some folks almost feel compelled to store huge amounts of songs on their Mp3 players. Others, like me, have relatively few songs.

I bought a Tasacm 112 off eBay 2 years ago to catalogue my amazingly dynamic ranged (you see what I did creating a verb out of...oh never mind) cassettes and haven't used it since. No, I lie. I used it once to weigh down a geeza at the Rye that owed me money.

--------------------
Samplecraze
Stretch That Note

Quote TimJN:

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I do believe that even Dolby B on a good machine will sound as good as a 128mp3 . . . another reason to push for better standards for compressed files.

---

Bur "as good" (or maybe "as bad") in different ways! After a generation of digital speed stability we're maybe now more sensitive to the wow of vinyl playback, the flutter of cassette.
I actually copied material from some cassettes yesterday. Some of them had survived remarkably well.

Maybe in another few years we'll marvel at how we tolerated the distortions of a low-rate MP3.

Quote Exalted Wombat:

---

Maybe in another few years we'll marvel at how we tolerated the distortions of a low-rate MP3.

---

Possible future thread titles iniclude:

"I want a Fraunhofer codec! Yeah, you heard me!"

or

"Bouncing my final mix: Lame or Ogg Vorbis for that early 2000 sound?"

"128kbps give a certain je-ne-sais-quoi to the sound - like those turn of the century recordings!"

--------------------
I'm All Ears.

FWIW, the Bush House clear-out has a whole lot of regular cassette decks going at auction, which I doubt are going to go for much dosh since hardly anyone uses cassettes these days. As well as Revoxes and other more serious tape bits and bobs.

Still waiting for my other 200 metal tapes!! Bloody customs.

Got a ton of my vinyl on my cassettes now. Love it. I just identify so much better with a tangeble object such as a cassette, a 12" etc rather than bit of light and sound.

Its not about sound quality for me. Of course 600 million bit 5 trillion zillion K Wavs are going to sound better. But who cares about such stats when theres great music to be listerned too. Im a huge fan of music, not an fan of stats. Cassettes sound good enough for me and as said ive bought 400 to last me as long as I need.

Id like to make it clear, im not buying albums on cassetes here. Al though that wouldnt bother me, its just I like to have a master copy. And that will be a CD or a chunk of vinyl. So im just making my own compilations and mix tapes. Theres such a great experience in doing that. Of course thats why you all use computers for everything though right? To remove the expereince of everything. I mean it just gets in the way and takes time up. Why bother saying hello to someone and getting of your arse when you can poke someone on face book etc. Same with tapes, why bother when you can just put 60 billion on one device the size of a peanut.
Well, for me its the experience of touching the tape, opening it, putting it in the cassette deck. Being able to relate to a selection of tracks on one tangible object. Ive sadi all this before.

Also, turning a computer on to listern to music does little to please me. Id no doubt end up farting around on it and once again music becomes a background thing.

Tonight I have just sat and listerned to 3 hours worth of music in a room computer free. Ah bliss! Music in the foreground all the way. Not temptations to check facebook or other virtual freind crap. Just music all the way.

I honestly wish id never got rid of cassettes first time around. I mean I never got rid of my vinyl or CDs.

As always I understand 99.9% dont agree with me. But what can I say I am 100% happy with cassettes back in my life.

Quote Hugh Robjohns:

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However, while working on the project I was reminded of many things which I had previously managed to erase from my memory:

1. Cassettes stretch with use (or speed control was worse than I remember!).
2. Cassettes lose high end dramatically with use.
3. Cassettes have noticeable wow and flutter.

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You forgot print-through. Most of the albums I bought from 1983 to 1993 are on cassette, and that "pre-echo" where you get a hint of the next track in the gap is part of the experience!

A lot of my cherished albums from that time are no more due to record companies using cheap materials and the tape eventually snapping. A lot of vinyl from that period is flimsy and prone to damage as well - shame.

Quote Kolakube:

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Its not about sound quality for me.

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Is this the same Koalakube who was kitting up with audiophile DACs and top-flight monitor speakers a year ago? :-)

Glad to see you're up and out and doing things though.