QCASS: Astrocom Model 307 Quadraphonic Cassette Deck

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I'm more surprised by the fact that you have non-food stores that are open than that they have cassettes for sale!
Yeah, here in the U.S. we still haven't tightened our belts enough with regards to COVID, or we did for a while, but then human and American nature intervened.

For a while everything was closed except for mostly essential businesses (though some of those deemed "essential" were debatable, like state-run liquor stores (?!?). I love my drink, but don't feel they are essential. Now ask those state governments, who make income through those stores, and well...), but then between collective cabin fever, anxiety from shuttered business owners, ignorance/indifference, and American arrogance about being "special" in the world, things have loosened up and re-opened. This of course varies place to place across the country, some might still be locked down pretty tight, others may never have really locked down at all. But the World Health Organization's stats show the side effect of how we've handled this matter as a nation.

I may have inflamed or insulted some fellow American members here with what I've just said, and I'm sorry if I have, but this was only my point of view.

All of that aside, yes, when I go to buy groceries I briefly stop at the local music store to pick-up any special orders that have arrived, and then I'm out again.
 
Don't forget all the mis-dubbed speed-wise cassettes that got offloaded at truck stops for $1.99 in the early 70s.

I have several that play at 3-3/4 on a C-90 or C-100 - some of which are even chrome - because just like the 8-track versions from the same period which play at 7-1/2 - somebody put the bin loop master on the wrong speed.

So it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if some dupe house man took the bin loop master for a Q-8 - duped each program down to a new half-inch 4-track bin loop master - spliced it together to make a whole program and ran off a pancake or two for himself and his buddies in the middle of some weekend night when even the night foremen were gone.

Especially the guys who were working on the various quad-cassette formats of 1973-74.

Once Chrome came out I knew a handful of at least Chicago dupe house guys that would just run the exact same program that would have been run on normal tape onto chrome tape that they bought themselves out of their own pocket or else got permission from the R&D manager at the dupe house to do so and then just ran the same 120 uS EQ that they did in the 80s so they wouldn't have to worry about changing settings on the duper.

If you're in Chicago and on the North Shore where all the dupe houses were - troll around the thrift shops and used-record shops there. I bet you find one sooner or later.

All these guys were in their 40s and 50s in the 70s so they'd most likely all be gone 50 years later - meaning their collections would have been offloaded by family members not knowing what they had.

Just like Nashville - guys at e.g. GRT were dubbing Q-8s, QR's and stereo reels of titles that `weren't supposed to have a release on that format'.

The stereo 8-tracks have a slight size reduction of the cassette art printed on the 8-track label with the cassette catalog number and two programs- as in if the glue is dried out and it falls off it almost fits into a narrow-format cassette box.

The quad 8-tracks that weren't supposed to be quad have the stereo 8-track label, catalog number and 4-program listing except it's in a Q-8 shell and the rears are mostly ambience like you'd get from playing a stereo LP through a decoder.

The quad reels that are from a Q-8 bin loop master are the same as the ``what wouldn't surprise me if they existed'' quad cassettes at the top of this page - i.e. dubbed down to half-inch and spliced together to make a whole program.

Those I HAVE run across and most are in generic duplication company boxes.

Same with the stereo 4-track RCA Quick Load magazines of 1958 and the Fidelipac/Muntz tapes of the early 60s that either play at normal speed but the title was never supposed to be on the format or play at double speed and end up as a 2-tape set.

Rogue dupe-house men have been around forever the same as rogue pressing plant men so it's no surprise that the e.g. bored night staff would be getting into these kinds of shenanigans.

Which is probably one reason why I interned there in high school, got drafted to do it in the Army because of it, and had it as my first job after I got out.

Beta video was also still being made, so I know if my guys and I took 2-inch and 1-inch syndication masters intended for VHS and made Betamax (some even Beta Hi-Fi) - then I know all the guys before me had the same idea for audio.

Which is why you will probably only find these kinds of oddballs in neighborhoods near where the dupe houses used to be.

But they are fun when you run across `em.
 
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Yeah, here in the U.S. we still haven't tightened our belts enough with regards to COVID, or we did for a while, but then human and American nature intervened.

For a while everything was closed except for mostly essential businesses (though some of those deemed "essential" were debatable, like state-run liquor stores (?!?). I love my drink, but don't feel they are essential. Now ask those state governments, who make income through those stores, and well...), but then between collective cabin fever, anxiety from shuttered business owners, ignorance/indifference, and American arrogance about being "special" in the world, things have loosened up and re-opened. This of course varies place to place across the country, some might still be locked down pretty tight, others may never have really locked down at all. But the World Health Organization's stats show the side effect of how we've handled this matter as a nation.

I may have inflamed or insulted some fellow American members here with what I've just said, and I'm sorry if I have, but this was only my point of view.

All of that aside, yes, when I go to buy groceries I briefly stop at the local music store to pick-up any special orders that have arrived, and then I'm out again.


I believe here in Oregon that marijuana shops were deemed “essential” because of medicine and all. Yeah right. God, I spent almost every waking hour of my early teens through to my mid 20’s searching out pot. Not that it was hard to find, except when it was. I even remember going to the neighborhood dealer on Christmas Day when he was home with his family celebrating. His parents knew what he did but I felt like a real schmuck anyway let me tell you. Now the stuff is legal and everywhere and I could care less about it.

Now a Quadraphonic cassette deck, that is a whole ‘nother matter. I would walk to the ends of the earth to acquire something like that!
 
I have two (and at one time had three). But they are intended to be studio multitrack recorders, not quadraphonic recorders.
 
Like a Tascam 234 or some such. I think I'm going to have to end up putting a Musicassette track format R/P head into one and see how it goes.

Hopefully the Portastudio track configuration erase heads being wider than the tracks they erase will be alright enough to erase the MC track configurations two or four at a time to save me from having to pop it out and run it thru a bulk eraser like we used to do with radio carts.

Guys would have stacks of them set up to do take after take after take of an announcement, so everytime a stack would get low a kid would get dispatched to go next door and bulk a stack and bring `em back to try again.
 
I have two (and at one time had three). But they are intended to be studio multitrack recorders, not quadraphonic recorders.
They came out late in the game (for quad) and like you say were intended for for studio, or home studio use. Even the quad reel machines that were still produced were intended for the same purpose. I never bothered with such a machine as I already had a quad reel, so in my case I had absolutely no reason to get one.
 
https://worldradiohistory.com/Archi...eo/70s/HiFi-Stereo-Review-1973-10.pdf#page=73^^^ (pdf page 75)
...JVC showed the Model 4CD-1680 cassette deck which, in accord with the Philips licensing requirements, lays down a total of eight thread-thin tracks...

https://books.google.com/books?id=M...wQ6AF6BAgIEAM#v=onepage&q=" 4CD-1680"&f=false^^^
...a crosstalk elimination circuit...


Looks like JVC did try to get around Dolby Labs objection about using Dolby B for discrete quad compact cassettes by using their ANRS NR.


Kirk Bayne
 
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https://worldradiohistory.com/Archi...eo/70s/HiFi-Stereo-Review-1973-10.pdf#page=73^^^ (pdf page 75)
...JVC showed the Model 4CD-1680 cassette deck which, in accord with the Philips licensing requirements, lays down a total of eight thread-thin tracks...

https://books.google.com/books?id=M...wQ6AF6BAgIEAM#v=onepage&q=" 4CD-1680"&f=false^^^
...a crosstalk elimination circuit...


Looks like JVC did try to get around Dolby Labs objection about using Dolby B for discrete quad compact cassettes by using their ANRS NR.


Kirk Bayne
WOW!
DEfinitely news to me!
 
Maybe if this quad compact casssette had been marketed, it would have caused rapid advancements in magnetic tape tech (tape coatings, more accurate cassette tape transports etc.) much like CD-4 caused rapid advancements in the vinyl record system.


Kirk Bayne
 
I think Astrocom also made instrumentation recorders.
Edit Never mind. I was confusing them with Astro-Med.
 
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