Cassette tape resurgence ?
Very durable format indeed.... Cassettes sound so good when you have decent equipment. People dont believe it.
Couldn't agree more regarding the sound. I often wonder if people that complain about the sound of cassettes understand the technology and the need to have a calibrated, operational deck. Clean and demagnetized heads etc. . Durable was really dependent on the tape mfg and the parts used in the tape shell.
danj
modern primitive
Really? IMO, They seriously need a shot of some real funk - like an immersion of George Clinton, Sly Stone, or Bootsy Collins.
Taketheflame
Super Member
While I don't have a Dolby S deck (all of mine are rather vintage decks that only have Dolby B), I do have quite a few tapes w/Dolby HX Pro (Some w/the "Digalog" tag), including a few w/Dolby S encoding.
Every HX Pro/B NR tape I have sounds great. The Dolby S ones are the best sounding pre-recorded tapes I have (even using regular Dolby B). Considering the price of both used and new vinyl these days, and what I bought the tapes for, I've been getting hooked on cassettes...
Even some of the plain, non-Dolby tapes I have actually sound surprisingly decent for what they are. Point being, it's a night and day difference between crap tape on a crap deck, and good tapes on a nice deck.
Try to find an older one that isn't like "original Walkman" and has new belts on it, they are out there. I noticed Sony sells new Walkmans on Amazon still for like $280.
I have a few old cars - one still with a cassette deck where I make tapes for sometimes when I drive it. Another with just a non MP3 CD player and no aux jack. For that you you need a CD recorder, would much prefer a tape deck.
For newer cars with Bluetooth yes it's great streaming Spotify off the phone - but a Walkman in the console playing your favorite album thru the aux jack is good too and sounds every bit as good (plus no interruptions!)
A few opinions about cassettes (maybe controversial).
Pre-recorded cassettes never sounded very good, they were (I believe) all normal bias tape.
The best cassettes were always type II or better rips. And the sound depended on how you recorded them. I have some old ones where I messed with the bias somehow on my deck that sound excellent to this day.
Dolby (in all of its forms) was something I never really used making a tape. Yes - it provided noise reduction but also took away part of the sound to me.
Pre-recorded cassettes never sounded very good, they were (I believe) all normal bias tape.
The best cassettes were always type II or better rips. And the sound depended on how you recorded them. I have some old ones where I messed with the bias somehow on my deck that sound excellent to this day.
Dolby (in all of its forms) was something I never really used making a tape. Yes - it provided noise reduction but also took away part of the sound to me.
Has anybody noticed how rare decent cassette decks are becoming in thrift stores. They used to be everywhere but I haven't seen one for quite a while. New blank tapes are getting scarce too and they used to be common. A tape recorded on a decent home deck biased for that tape will sound very good. In my experience a pre recorded tape not nearly as good, a readily apparent difference although they did improve in the later years, but still not comparable to a home recorded tape. I thought the early pre recorded ones were lousy, couldn't believe they offered them, couldn't believe anybody bought them... they fouled pinch rollers and capstans with oxide causing the machine to eat the tape, especially car decks, and of course the heads causing that all too common muffled sound... that, and a difficult to clean car tape path caused me to completely avoid pre recorded or cheap tape. Quality tapes... Maxell, TDK... did not do that.
danj- the title is totally ironic
vwestlife
Super Member
About 20% of my pre-recorded cassettes are on Type II chrome-equivalent tape. A&M in particular released many of their cassettes on chrome tape. Others used cobalt tape even if it wasn't advertised as such -- it has a much darker brown color than standard ferric tape.
Taketheflame
Super Member
Ui
On a good day, you might find a modest 2-head or dual well deck that even works. Most of the time, it's nothing at all, or something with missing knobs/parts and fairly beat up. I thought I finally made a good score the other day and found a fairly clean Akai GX-39D, but it wasn't in good working order (and I have enough projects on my hands already), so I took it back. That's the closest I've gotten to a good cassette deck or vintage gear score in my neck of the woods. You can't even find more common vintage gear like Advent speakers in thrifts around here.
I have found NOS/sealed Type I blanks, but that's it.
Becoming? You can't find a good deck in any of the thrifts in my area.
On a good day, you might find a modest 2-head or dual well deck that even works. Most of the time, it's nothing at all, or something with missing knobs/parts and fairly beat up. I thought I finally made a good score the other day and found a fairly clean Akai GX-39D, but it wasn't in good working order (and I have enough projects on my hands already), so I took it back. That's the closest I've gotten to a good cassette deck or vintage gear score in my neck of the woods. You can't even find more common vintage gear like Advent speakers in thrifts around here
.I have found NOS/sealed Type I blanks, but that's it.
danj
modern primitive
I was thrown when you said "one of the most important avant garde bands of the last 50 years" by the lack of anything compelling enough to listen to. To give the band a chance I listened to some more of their tracks (youtube) and still found them derivative and completely lacking a groove. The house band for a mediocre disco, maybe? George Clinton is far more avant garde and interesting. Ironic, maybe if it wasn't so random.
I wouldn't call it a resurgence so much as it is a re-discovery by another generation of humans.
I still have a cassette deck (dual auto reverse record and play) and some of my old 80's & 90's party tapes. I get one out now and then for nostalgia's sake but 1) it doesn't sound as good as my digital collection and, 2) it's too fiddly for me.
I still have a cassette deck (dual auto reverse record and play) and some of my old 80's & 90's party tapes. I get one out now and then for nostalgia's sake but 1) it doesn't sound as good as my digital collection and, 2) it's too fiddly for me.
Yes, they are gone. Towards the end of the era two head and dual well decks were available that were actually quite good. For a while they were everywhere until about a year ago, then gone... blank tapes followed that.Ui
Becoming? You can't find a good deck in any of the thrifts in my area.
On a good day, you might find a modest 2-head or dual well deck that even works. Most of the time, it's nothing at all, or something with missing knobs/parts and fairly beat up. I thought I finally made a good score the other day and found a fairly clean Akai GX-39D, but it wasn't in good working order (and I have enough projects on my hands already), so I took it back. That's the closest I've gotten to a good cassette deck or vintage gear score in my neck of the woods. You can't even find more common vintage gear like Advent speakers in thrifts around here
I have found NOS/sealed Type I blanks, but that's it.
SoundGammon
New Member
luckybaer
Thinks The Devil actually beat Johnny
I stopped buying sometime in the mid-80s, but there were some labels that went to Chrome tapes. A&M Records (one of my favorite labels), for example. Sting's "...Nothing Like The Sun" was on Chrome tape. A&M even had a blurb on the liner notes touting BASF Professional II Chrome tape being used in the manufacture of the cassette.
But you're right - with a good TT and cassette deck and some Maxell XLII-S tapes, I could make cassettes that were better sounding than a lot of the pre-recorded stuff.
Dolby always seemed to make recordings sound stuffy. I just acquired a Nakamichi DR-2, so I fired up some 1980's era cassettes with my son. For the most part, when we engaged Dolby B on the Nak, the sound got stuffy - as though some high freqs were getting eliminated. My son, who has a great ear, didn't like it at all.
Taketheflame
Super Member
I have a few pre-recorded tapes that are chrome/Type II. They, along w/any HX Pro/XDR tapes I have sound nice. I try to mainly only buy pre-recorded tapes that boast these features (except for newer releases, which wont have any of these), because I can usually count on them sounding good - although I have a few plain tapes (No headroom expansion or noise reduction) and tapes w/only Dolby B that still sound decent.
Personally, I just leave the NR off. I find it compresses the sound/kills the highs a bit too much. The one exception has been a Dolby S encoded tape I picked up when played back w/Dolby B (My decks are all pre-Dolby C machines) - S encoded tapes sound a bit harsh with no NR at all, in my experience.
SoundGammon
New Member
A lot of the pre-recorded tapes were mass produced.
No chance being made directly from the master tape.
I re-master my pre-recorded tapes from cds or Spotify using a high quality sound card on the computer.
No chance being made directly from the master tape.
I re-master my pre-recorded tapes from cds or Spotify using a high quality sound card on the computer.
Yk Thom
Active Member
Haven't had one in years. Never did buy pre-recorded but rather recorded new vinyl the first time I played it. I always thought it saved wear and tear on the albums and was something of a record safety protocol - turntables and alcohol could be a scratchy business back in the day when I was young, slightly mad and more prone to entertaining people at home.
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