Does anyone here still use cassettes?

[kfbkfb]

Cassette Dolby B - record deck 20kHz - play deck 13kHz

Many years ago, an audio store salesman told me there could be a problem with Dolby B playback tracking if the recording was done on a wide bandwidth [~20kHz] Nakamichi 1000 (for example) cassette recorder and played on a modest bandwidth [~13kHz] cassette deck HK CAD5 (for example) since the...

www.tapeheads.net

One unusual problem w/Dolby B - even with everything properly cleaned/adjusted/aligned - Dolby B NR can adversely affect the playback frequency response due to the mismatch between the cassette recorder frequency response, recorded content treble content and the cassette player playback frequency response (post #22 explains it all).


Kirk Bayne

 

[ummagumma]

Hey, that was an interesting read, thanks for the link!

 

[barfle]

You can thank Philips, and their insistence that all cassette recordings be compatible with all cassette players. The only way you could have recorded in Involve quad would to have had the encoder feeding the recorder; the encoder fed from the output of a multichannel mixing board. Philips blew it on that one; the cassette could have done so much more.

I’m guessing 1977, I was working at a company called GYYR (pronounced “guy-er”) on a cassette recorder intended for courtroom transcriptions. It ran at 15/16 ips and used four discrete channels - one each for witness, judge, prosecution and defense. I think it made money, but didn’t set that market on fire. As an engineering technician, I designed the interface circuits between the processor and the reel motors. It looked like it was designed by someone as a first effort, because it was exactly that. But it never had any issues that I was told about.

 

[MidiMagic]

Ah but then there was the discrete 4 channel cassette recorders from TASCAM. I think there were at least a couple of different levels/models but the one my neighbor had looked like this:

View attachment 87981

As he moved into the digital age we played back over this & I copied to digital. The audio was surprisingly good.The unit did indeed record in 4 individual chs with good track bouncing for even more FX. But of course the musicians using this didn't use it for quad, it was always mixed down to stereo.
I remember reading the Eurythmics first album used a lot of audio recorded on a TASCAM cassette deck. Just simply because some of the music was already done & ready to go, and the quality was decent enough.

No idea if/what kind of NR was used.

I do know. The TASCAM 244, 246, 414, and 424 used DBX noise reduction and required CrO2 tape. They also run at 3.75 inches/second.

I have a 246. I used it to record matrix quad, but not discrete. The multitrack tapes I made could be played discrete, but have panning only across the front and across the back, but not along the sides. The encoder I use uses the front pair for the front half of a Dolby Surround recording, and the back pair for the back half. They meet at center left and center right.

They were able to make these because the Philips US patent on the cassette expired in 1978 and with it the licensing power..

 

[Owen Smith]

Looking online at pictures, I think my friend had a pair of Tascam 238 for his 14 channel recordings. He mixed live for a local band, and he used the Tascams to do multi channel recordings of one or two tracks at each gig. I don't know what he did with those recordings, the band broke up and a couple of years later my friend moved away.

 

[mlrocker]

if anybody has multi-track cassetes and wants them converted to multitrack 8 track , reels, or digital I offer my services at no cost

 

[par4ken]

Cassette Dolby B - record deck 20kHz - play deck 13kHz

Many years ago, an audio store salesman told me there could be a problem with Dolby B playback tracking if the recording was done on a wide bandwidth [~20kHz] Nakamichi 1000 (for example) cassette recorder and played on a modest bandwidth [~13kHz] cassette deck HK CAD5 (for example) since the...

www.tapeheads.net

One unusual problem w/Dolby B - even with everything properly cleaned/adjusted/aligned - Dolby B NR can adversely affect the playback frequency response due to the mismatch between the cassette recorder frequency response, recorded content treble content and the cassette player playback frequency response (post #22 explains it all).


Kirk Bayne

My Akai GXC-740D has calibration pots and an internal Dolby calibration tone, you set it up to match the tape that you are using. Pre-recorded reel tapes usually have a calibration tone at the start of the tape. Without proper calibration Dolby B will either do little or nothing (if the playback level is too high) or do too much (cutting treble) if the level is too low! I think that most people simply used the Dolby button as a treble boost, on for record off for playback!

 

[MidiMagic]

if anybody has multi-track cassetes and wants them converted to multitrack 8 track , reels, or digital I offer my services at no cost

How are you compensating for the different head stagger distances in the different brands of 8-track cassettes?

 

[Owen Smith]

I think that most people simply used the Dolby button as a treble boost, on for record off for playback!

I never used it that way, I just had Dolby on all the time. I did pay attention to using B or S once I had a deck that could do Dolby S. I never used C, never had a deck with it that didn't also have S.

 

[JohnN]

Sometimes I visit with a long lost friend. Used for tape transfer to CD (spoken word).
Pioneer CT-W616DR - Double Auto Reverse Cassette Deck with Digital Processing
Popular Science: Sept. 1997
Pioneer Exclusive DPS (Digital Processing System) With 20-bit A/D - D/A Converter

too much (fun)

 

[halbroome]

I never used it that way, I just had Dolby on all the time. I did pay attention to using B or S once I had a deck that could do Dolby S. I never used C, never had a deck with it that didn't also have S.

Dolby C was always my preference (back in the day). I think because it did seem to have a higher treble threshold, but hey, we're talking
cassettes here. B was the standard for tape traders, but in the early 90s there was the C option that it seemed most traders were willing
to satisfy, and I took advantage. Digitized my tapes but they are still in a closet somewhere.

 

[Marcsten]

Here's my in car stereo.

 

[vinylguy4]

Can try to find a Yamaha MT100 - 4 track cassette recorder w/DBX, does double speed also.

 

[The Bushmaster]

CT-F700 Pioneer and YES I still play and record cassettes. I can also play and record CDs . CD-RW5000 Tascam. My pickup has both a cassette player and a CD player.
All my records are recorded on Reel to Reel stereo (Pioneer RT-707) including quad records (Akai GX 270D-SS).
I have no use for Dolby systems and never use the CT-F700's Dolby system. For noise reduction I run my records through two KLH TNE-7000As (Burwin). Setup in parallel for quad records and in series for stereo records.

 

[mlrocker]

Sometimes I visit with a long lost friend. Used for tape transfer to CD (spoken word).
Pioneer CT-W616DR - Double Auto Reverse Cassette Deck with Digital Processing
Popular Science: Sept. 1997
Pioneer Exclusive DPS (Digital Processing System) With 20-bit A/D - D/A Converter

too much (fun)

that luftwaffe link in your picture actually works

 

[JohnN]

that luftwaffe link in your picture actually works

? Elucidate