Bouncing/Mastering with Cassette?

[Beck]

So, the belt was straight up goop. Stuck to the flywheel. Just needs a cleaning, oiling, and a belt replacement.

EDIT: Cost of the deck was $25. Repair costs are going to be more than that probably. I hate when that happens.

This is known going in when you buy vintage gear. That's why we pay pennies on the dollar for things. It's going to need some repair of some kind, most commonly rubber with any tape machine. You budget for that and as Dave said, hopefully can do it yourself and have even more fun in this pursuit spending even less.

 

[Beck]

I don't disagree that there is another generation going from open-reel to cassette...but there's more to it than that, don't you agree?
Differences in electronics, track width, speed, machine setup capability.

The stereo mixdown/master is a key point in the whole recording process. When someone talks about a "master", it implies that copies will be made from that. I would think making cassette copies from an open-reel master will be much better than from a cassette master.
Now....if indeed it's going to be a one-off....just a single cassette master that will never be used to make more copies, then that's different.

Back in my 4-track days, I use to mixdown to a cassette, but that was my final copy. If I wanted more copies, I would actually do more mixdowns rather than copy off the cassette. Then I got my 2-track open-reel, and that made a noticeable difference, and allowed my to truly have "masters" that I could do multiple copies off of.

Yes absolutely! To clarify, I was thinking more along the lines of going from a cassette master straight to digital, which is more common in home studios.

Cassettes made in a home studio are better in many ways. They are recorded in real-time and to better Cr02 (actually cobalt) high bias tapes. Commercial releases are (were) recorded on relatively low quality bulk ferric oxide tape at high speed, which makes for a less than stellar end-product.

 

[miroslav]

... I was thinking more along the lines of going from a cassette master straight to digital...

Yeah, that would work.....I was just going by the OP's initial post where he said he didn't want to touch anything digital....so I thought he was going to make tape copies then....???