Fe Cassettes?

R

Railway Surfer

New member
Hi Guys,
I'm having a bit of trouble finding Chrome cassettes here in NZ. I have found someone selling Fe cassettes. Are Ferris tapes just as good as Chrome? These are to be used in my Porta Two by the way in case it makes any difference. They are 40 minute cassettes which I'm told are quite good as they are a little thicker. Any help would be great. Cheers.
 
Ferric tapes are low bias, Type I, probably not what you want. You need chrome/high bias/Type II for most cassette based multitrackers.
 
Cheers man yeah I know type 2 is the way to go, I wasn't sure what type the ferric ones were. Thanks for that, so are chrome the only type 2 cassettes available?
 
Railway Surfer said:
Cheers man yeah I know type 2 is the way to go, I wasn't sure what type the ferric ones were. Thanks for that, so are chrome the only type 2 cassettes available?
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Basically yes. Chrome, high bias and Type II should all be the same. Using low bias tapes on the high bias setting or with a machine preset for high bias will give poor sonic results because the machine will be over-biasing the tape during recording. The result is reduced HF response.
 
Just keep looking for anything that says High Bias. True chrome tape hasn’t been around for a long time. The industry went to cobalt tape for High Bias, such as TDK SA and Maxell XLII. Some chrome tapes remained but cobalt is considered better, quieter and higher output. We still use the terms Chrome and High Bias interchangeably because of tradition.

It’s a shame but in some parts of the world people are going to be stuck with generic no-name High Bias tape because that’s all there is. It’s not ideal, but still better than any normal bias for a cassette multitrack. One good bet to find high bias cassette is from Christian ministry supply houses. The church still uses a lot of tape in evangelical outreach because many of the people they’re trying to reach still use cassette and may have never seen a CD player. Do a search for Christian media supply and similar terms.

Drop a line to the Christian Broadcasting Association in Auckland.

Contact | Christian Broadcasting Association
 
Steenamaroo said:
I have three sealed TDK MA90s if you want them.
Potage might be OTT though.
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Tougher still is trying to erase them in a portastudio.

There was a metal tape designed to work in Portastudios from TDK called HX-S, which I used in my old 244 Portastudio with great results! As these would offer up the extended high frequency response of a type IV metal tape and could be erased when needed during retakes. I belive Denon also marketed a similar formulation tape called an HD8. Good luck finding either of those, these days though. :(

Cheers! :)
 
Thanks for the ideas guys, Steenamaroo I may yet take you up on that offer. I have found alot of people on e-bay but none of them seem to deal internationally??? I have a local music shop hunting for me as well. Cheers
 
Railway Surfer said:
Thanks for the ideas guys, Steenamaroo I may yet take you up on that offer. I have found alot of people on e-bay but none of them seem to deal internationally??? I have a local music shop hunting for me as well. Cheers
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I don't want to ruin a deal between you and Steenamaroo but you can not use metal tapes in your Portastudio unit as the erase head can not full erase a metal tape. So unless you are a 100% flawless musician and never make a mistake while playing or recording, you won't be able to redo any parts without an audible ghost track of your previous take.

If you have a different home cassette deck that can use metal tapes, and that is what you want the TDK MA90's for, then that's fine.

Cheers! :)
 
Ah I see now, I misread your earlier post Ghost, so I'm simply looking for high bias NOT Chrome. I have found a chrome cassette in my old tape collection but wouldn't think it would be very sucessfull to erase and re record ... would it? Hopefully the local music shop comes through with a source, or the CBA as previously suggested. Thanks for all your help guys.
 
Railway Surfer said:
Ah I see now, I misread your earlier post Ghost, so I'm simply looking for high bias NOT Chrome. I have found a chrome cassette in my old tape collection but wouldn't think it would be very sucessfull to erase and re record ... would it? Hopefully the local music shop comes through with a source, or the CBA as previously suggested. Thanks for all your help guys.
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Actually, you should be able to erase your older type II music tapes to reuse them in your Portastudio. Just do an initial 4 track recording with all the levels at zero and let it run all the way to the end of the tape.

Maybe just try doing that to one of them while you hunt around for fresh new tapes to buy so that you can use your Portastudio now, if you like.

Cheers! :)
 
Railway Surfer said:
Ah I see now, I misread your earlier post Ghost, so I'm simply looking for high bias NOT Chrome. I have found a chrome cassette in my old tape collection but wouldn't think it would be very sucessfull to erase and re record ... would it? Hopefully the local music shop comes through with a source, or the CBA as previously suggested. Thanks for all your help guys.
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Type II/high bias tape is chrome, or was until it was reformulated with cobalt. It was often labelled chrome because that's what people were used to. You need TypeII/high bias tape whether it's chrome or cobalt or special Type II compatible metal. You don't want Type I/low bias/ferric or Type III (FerriChrome I think and long gone) or Type IV/metal.
 
No problem Ghost. Better that the right info is out there.

I don't know anything about tapes, but i have the following if they're useful to anyone.

3x TDK ma90
3x TDK D-C90
4x Fuji FX-I

The latter two types are normal bias, so I'm guessing no use, but take it or leave it. :)
 
AtoDeficient said:
For interested parties. . . Don't know about International Shipping. . .
But here in the USA Northeast, they are super fast with shipping. . .

Total Media Inc. 1-800-355-4400 - Blank tape, cdrs, mini dv, audio, video and computer recording supplies

RADIOSHACK C110 Super High Def Music Audio Cassette SHD-110 :: Total Media Inc. 1-800-355-4400 - Blank tape, cdrs, mini dv, audio, video and computer recording supplies
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Nice of you to post the links, but just a reminder to everyone that C-100 and above length tapes are no good for a portastudio. It's much too thin. 90-minute is the highest you should go.
 
Gday railway surfer i live across the tasman in Australia and i recently found a bloke in Melbourne who sell chrome cassettes. It won't let me post the link but try www casstape . com . au he has all the goods ;-)
 
You guys are stars, thank you so much. Local music shop never returned my call, I wonder why so much music is getting downloaded these days!!! Thanks I'll get onto them and get some tracks down!
 
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