I have a Philips CRO2 diditally recorded cassette tape of Vivaldi guitar Concertos that is fabulous. I have a Verdi Requiem that the saprano is great but the accompanyment is awful and another Philips opera that is the same.

What's up? Were digitally recorded tapes meant for analog decks (I use a Technics RS 276US) or is the one Philips (Vivaldi) a fluke? Thanx much, Chuck :no: :yes:

I have a Philips CRO2 diditally recorded cassette tape of Vivaldi guitar Concertos that is fabulous. I have a Verdi Requiem that the saprano is great but the accompanyment is awful and another Philips opera that is the same.

What's up? Were digitally recorded tapes meant for analog decks (I use a Technics RS 276US) or is the one Philips (Vivaldi) a fluke? Thanx much, Chuck :no: :yes:
errr...OK. :scratch2: Am I the only one who has no clue regarding what exactly your question is???

I would assume that like some LPs that were labelled digitally recorded it refers to how the master was recorded, not how the end product is recorded.

If you have tapes labelled digital that sound (assuming it's not a physically worn or damaged tape) bad it probably comes down to the peformance or mixing rather than the mastering process.

While digital cassettes (DCC) do exist I don't think they fit in a standard cassette deck, let alone play.

Well actually guys, Rat Shack in the mid 80's developed a digital cassette machine, one of the few products they helped develope it would play both analog and digital .. I think it used ATRAC or some other compression scheme ... sound like dawg poo to me .... I heard it at a Winter Chicago CES back in the early to mid eighties just before they moved the show to Vegas.. It had a real short life a the rat shack ... nobody bought them ......... I had entertained the thought of having one .. but then I moved on ... Did a google search with no luck, trying to come up with an old model # . It could have been made by Panasonic or Sanyo ... don't know. All I do know is they made one. :yes:

Steve

Ahh a little more research and ............. success ......... DCC (http://www.faqs.org/faqs/AudioFAQ/part7/) Guess I was a little wrong ... I think Rat Shack had something to do with it, like help in funding the project ... besides rebranding .. ( I worked Part time there back then ) but it looks like Phillips was the main developer ... and it used PASC not ATRAC as the compression ....

DCC was developed by Philips. A DCC deck will play back a standard analog cassette, but a DCC can't be played in a standard cassette deck.

When DCC was being introduced I remember seeing pictures of prerecorded DCC tapes in either an ad or press release, but I've never actually seen one. I do remember that the label covered the entire front of the tape. DCC tapes play in only one direction, they aren't turned over.

I would assume that like some LPs that were labelled digitally recorded it refers to how the master was recorded, not how the end product is recorded.

If you have tapes labelled digital that sound (assuming it's not a physically worn or damaged tape) bad it probably comes down to the peformance or mixing rather than the mastering process.

While digital cassettes (DCC) do exist I don't think they fit in a standard cassette deck, let alone play.

I am currently listening to a cassette tape that is labled as Digitally mixed and mastered, now is this the same as what you mention about the LPs? Coincedently I was listening to this tape when I saw this thread and I was just thinking how crisp and clear is sounded. It is a recording by Doc Watson titled Portrait and it is performed on accoustics, so maybe it the explanation to the clarity.

Actually Rat Shack sold a DCC deck in the early 90's and it was actually produced in the USA by Tandy. It was sold for about 2 years and It used a compression scheme called PASC (Precision Adaptive Sub-Band Coding) . The sound was a bit dry and harsh. Technics and Philips also sold a DCC deck in the USA for a few years but it was heavilly discounted and discontinued by 1995. Both the Technics decks and the Phillips decks were one the same. DCC decks were mors popular in Holland.

The Spars code contains a sequence of three letters, either "A" or "D." The "A" stands for analog, the "D" for digital. The first letter in the sequence tells you how the album was recorded; the second, how it was mixed; the third, how it was mastered.

Hence, a Spars code that reads "AAD" tells you the album was recorded and mixed on analog (i.e., magnetic tape) equipment, but mastered digitally; "ADD" tells you it was recorded on analog, but mixed and mastered digitally; "DDD" tells you it was recorded, mixed and mastered on digital equipment.

In the case of a "digital recording" on a standard cassette tape, the Spars code would be DDA.