Can you play cassettes?

[ManjuShri]

[xox]

^ masochistic buyers

[Echolalia]

Masochistic sellers

[ManjuShri]

[mcbpete]

I've gone back to only listening to releases using this tech combo -

 

[whosebrian]

Yes

 

Nakamichi RX-202 - Plays great, but I don't use it too often.

 

Sony WM-GX680 - I use this quite often, either with headphones, or I plug it into my car stereo.

It's working well after replacing the drive belt and cleaning the pinch rollers with this: http://www.reelprosoundguys.com/RestoreKit.html

[Soloman Tump]

If I bash them on the table I can make some nice rhythms.

[MadameChaos]

Yes, but I am a robot. I play them in the slot which is where my mouth would be if I wasn't a robot.

[joshuatxuk]

 

 

 

 

 

I wonder what it'd be like listening to artists  who deliberately produce their tracks to sound as though they're being played on a cassette anyway, on cassette? R Stevie Moore, Ariel Pink etc. A bit shit I'm guessing.

I guess it depends on at which point the "cassette-ness" has been applied

 

1991 seems to do it right, as the digital downloads seem to be cassette rips - the actual cassette versions sound great.

 

I do have a cassette release that sounds terrible, though.

 

 

Just thinking about artists like Tobacco - who recorded loads of his last album on a crap Tascam multitrack, according to this ep of Song Exploder. 

 

I'd be interested to know what the mastering guidelines are for tape too, as I've read loads about vinyl but not seen anything about cassette tape.

 

Looks like you sold a few tapes there, can't be that bad!!

 

Ohh I didn't mean that was me, I meant I have that release on cassette :p Was just really disappointed with the sound quality, it really is rather terrible.

 

I'm sure there's a few people on here who have some tips on mastering for tape, I know brisk definitely knows a thing or two (he's 36 on bandcamp)

 

 

I know only the basic one which is to set the loudest part of the recording in red / 0db with it hitting +1-3 db on the peaks. If it's higher quality tape type II or type IV you can push it in the red a lot more (+4-5 db). Too much creates distortion AKA tape saturation. For many this is a really nice effect of tape. 303 acid sounds even nicer recorded on tape in red (seen this mentioned before on here) BoC mentioned doing this on Tomorrow's Harvest for one of their sound stabs. Lot of shitty dubs aren't even close to the red which is why they sound so hissy. 

 

 

Yes and no, depends on the deck, too, because you also have to consider the headroom of the signal path before the tape.  So if you're pushing it too hard you are also probably getting some transistor distortion (not necessarily a bad thing).  I've got a basic, early 90s two head Nakamichi (thanks, other people's trash!) that I forget the model number of and have packed right now since I'm moving in a few days, and it seems to like it when I average just below the red on the level meters and rarely hit the top. I use that on the odd occasion I do a small cassette release, but when I am recording to cassette as an effect I use my old portastudio from when I was a kid, and in that case I run it as hot as possible with the noise reduction off (because running things hot with noise reduction on doesn't work - you aren't pushing the tape itself harder you are just pushing the noise reduction's compressor harder, the output level from the noise reduction circuit to the tape is standardized and you will get better results by being conservative with your input levels in that case) because there's not a single part of that signal path that doesn't sound good when it distorts.  Sometimes I won't even record to tape, I'll just run stuff through it and drive the pres really hard for that specific kind of saturation it gets.

 

But yeah, as a general rule, don't record too hot when you use noise reduction, if you don't use noise reduction record as hot as you can before it starts to sound bad to your ear (which is totally subjective since I don't think any of us are going for "audiophile" here, and at any rate a good home dubbed cassette is always going to be better than a commercial cassette that was dubbed at about 20x speed in a high speed duplication machine - that's a reason why Nakamichi's short lived, well regarded line of audiophile cassette releases were dubbed in real time on one of their higher end commercial decks, for example).

 

 

I don't think I ever responded to this - thanks for the write-up and explanations.

[Braintree]

"Remember when tapes were old the first time?"

[SampleScience]

I own 4 tape decks:

 

- The Technics M12 (1980); not hi-fi but works surprisingly well. I currently use it for listening.

- The Yamaha KX-393 (1995); the best tape deck I own, I use it to dub small runs of tapes.

- The Onkyo TA-2130 (1988); my first deck, I found it at a thrift store for 15$. It sounds great! For most tapes, I can't hear the difference between this and CD. With an EQ, it sounds even better.

- The Sony TC-WE435 (1999); I had high hopes for this tape deck, but it has disappointing performances. It sounds good but the dubbing system on it tend to break very easily.

 

I also collect vintage portable tape recorders for sound design purpose. Amplified with vintage 70s amplifier you can get a very retro and warm sound.

[Paul]

yeap, gotta nice lil deck 2 usb

[Candiru]

I majored in harpsichord in clown college and I spent all of my lottery winnings on cassette tapes because after the apocalypse, they will be used as currency. Even lesser Meat Loaf albums on cassette will get you some food that could save your life. Maybe some antibiotics if they still work. A late 80's Rolling Stones album could get you a horse and a switchblade, which would be like owning a Bugatti Chiron and a grenade launcher in present day planet Earth. Truly, the best times are ahead of us if you stay positive and don't speak ill of the listeners in the wasteland. 

[Braintree]

*begins illustrating comic book based on Candiru*

[Candiru]

After the Sky Volcano cleansed the surface of the Earth, we all lost a bit of meaning. In several major cities spread across the Eastern hemisphere, there are survivalist bunkers that have been repurposed to act as independent think tanks for what possible future mankind will best thrive under. Each one a vastly different socio-econimic and cultural experiment that poses a stark threat to the others. But for an as yet unexplained reason, they each have an aquarium with exactly one of the last surviving octopuses. Each have survived for well over two centuries and have been a cultural signifier of spiritual, musical, and sexual expression. Above each of these bunkers is a Mars Rover-like exploratory vehicle with a Sony CFS-W370L Radio Cassette Boombox attempting to draw out a sign of contact between them. 

 

It plays one track for eternity. 

 

 

 

[bitchroast]

just got an Akai GX-M10. 

not really had a tape deck before since i was a kid so not familiar with what to expect from quality. background hum + kind of muffled audio. is this about right? google suggests q-tips and alcohol cleaning the heads is the way to go for a clean. 

Edited July 25, 2019 by bitchroast

[Zephyr_Nova]

I have 2 walkmans and a small stereo that can all play cassetes and all sound fucking terrible.  So i can play cassettes but would rather not.

[MisterE]

you can get actually pretty decent sound from cassette, depending on the tape you use and the deck itself. type IIs are the way to go for less muffled treble, or even type 4s for the best performance there, but those are fairly expensive. but keep in mind that afx said that lots or all of the first selected ambient works, and SOSW, were taken from cassette tapes.

one time i posted here that i noticed for the analord series, he listed, i think at rephlex records website, that he used an elcaset, which i'm sure isn't what he used for the SAW/ambient stuff, but he prob acquired it later (and apparently used for analord stuff). it's a deck that takes special, bigger (and kind of rare) tapes, and runs at twice the speed of normal cassette and is said to sound more like reel to reel quality.

a few of the standard cassette decks can run at double speed too, and i've had 3 of those decks, and they do actually extend the freq response all the way to 20khz and usually lower the noise floor in double speed mode. the four track tape machines used by people to make bedroom demos etc can usually run at double speed too, but i'm talking about standard stereo 2 track decks. there's very few of them that can run at double speed. i've been using one for processing synths and stuff. the one i currently have is a marantz 4020 i think. this one doesn't actually lower the noise floor in double speed mode like the other one i had did, for some reason, but it does extend high freq response. i saw a guy at a tape forum offering to mod tascam 122 mk3 decks for double speed, claiming they gave specs like reel to reel tape after the mod (i kind of believe it because my mk3 is pretty rock solid). he wanted like $1k for the mod... i have a super sexy looking B.I.C. T4m top of the line deck that can do double speed. i had to replace belts which on this deck was a BITCH, and it worked for a short while before eating tapes and i left it there. it sounded INCREDIBLE in double speed while it worked (recorded a couple of cds to it and played them back). some day i might pay to have that thing professionally looked at..

anyway even a standard single speed deck can sound pretty good if taken care of. i originally didn't believe that SOSW was sourced from cassettes but now i do. i also wonder if  ICBYD was, since it has that cutoff in the high freqs, but still sounds pretty lush

Edited July 25, 2019 by MisterE

[ManjuShri]

 

[Braintree]

An old roommate gave me their 1990s CD/tape combo stereo, so that's come in handy as a receiver. Still need to get decent speakers for it though. The ones they came with sound like they had been kicked down a few flights of stairs.

[Soloman Tump]

Last month i finally cracked and bought myself a tape player.  After being outbid on ebay a bunch of times by people going crazy for Walkmans and the like, I opted for one of those new tape to USB players as found on Amazon for about £20. 

So now i can finally listen to the tapes that were sent to me for review when I was doing my zine! And I must admit I have purchased a couple of new tapes. 

I have a new routine where I go for an evening walk to listen to a tape and leave my phone at home. Its nice.

[Braintree]

I don't want to hijack the thread, but I have some tapes from Schematic that I was planning to sell at shows. Those aren't happening around here anymore, so if you still want one, just DM and I'll mail it to you with a download code + some stickers. $7.

Edited September 5, 2020 by Braintree

[neurone]

[whosebrian]

1. Squarepusher - NTS Mix 22-06-19

2. Lanark Artefax - Live - No Bounds Festival 2019

 

1. EDM - Acid jam 4 track

2. Sun Electric - Northern Lights #5

[logboy]

i had the aiwa hs-px1000 in my late teens, 30 years ago … £200, top of the range, amazing sound. used a rechargeable battery, which was so unusual i didn’t realise they lost the ability to hold their charge gradually, so i assumed it was breaking. they now sell for a lot of money. no better personal stereo, as far as i know. a top blank tape, probably about £5 a time, from a CD, and the sound would be better than official release tapes, easily.

http://www.walkman-archive.com/gadgets/series_aiwa_px_line.html

Edited August 13, 2021 by logboy