VCR for Recording Long-Term Audio: Q for RWhite

M

Mark H.

New member
Dear RWhite,

I thought your suggestion that I consider using a stereo hi-fi VCR for recording 6 hours of lectures was fascinating and worth a new thread. I vaguely remember reading something about recording audio to VCRs in Stereophile from about 15 years ago, but since I never tried it, I need more information. The size and weight of a VCR is no worse than anything else I'm planning to lug around, and I already have a small Mackie mixer (the 1202VLZPRO), mic stand and a few mics that I use.

Could you or others here describe HOW one records to and plays back from a VCR, what the sound quality is like, and your experience, if any, in dubbing down to cassette? (Regardless of the medium I start with, eventually I'm going to have to dub to cassette for other people who need to listen to the tapes, as well as for my own convenience.)

Thank you in advance for your help,

Mark H.
 
I recall my Geometry teacher in high school telling me about this (It also was a few years back). Obviously, you'd need a high quality tape, and running in EP mode you could get 6 hours (which would be considerably less quality than SP mode).

I've been told that you want a HI-FI Stereo VCR, as opposed to an MTS Stereo VCR. A HI-FI uses the entire width of the tape to record (somehow interwoven with the video), whereas an MTS uses only a small slice at the bottom.
 
You will get a quality recording using a VCR. And like the previous post by Seanmorse 79 mentioned, you will get a better recording by using the shorter recording time (SP). But since you are just recording speech lectures, then you shouldn't have a problem with using the longer recording mode (EP).
Could you or others here describe HOW one records to and plays back from a VCR, what the sound quality is like, and your experience, if any, in dubbing down to cassette?
Click to expand...
You will need to run the MIC's to your mixer, then run a patch cable OUT of the mixer IN to the VCR.

You will need to purchase a RCA patch cable to go OUT of the VCR IN to your home cassette player/recorder.

That is pretty much a simplified desription of what you need to perform your desired task.

:)

peace...

spin
 
Well these guys partly answered your question, I'll try to fill it out.

All VCRs record a monofonic sound track that runs parallel along the tape. It is realitively low quality, although it would probably still be fine for recording a lecture.

Hi-Fi stereo VCRs add an additional two tracks. Now since tape speed helps fidelity, by spreading out data over a wider area of tape, these stereo tracks are actually recorded diagonally in small slices across the tape by a spining head. The result is the same as if the the tape were moving at a much faster speed. Now even with this arrangment you still get better sound quality by recording at faster VCR speeds. If you were recording a band you would want to tape in 2 hour (SP) mode. However recording lectures should sound just dandy even in 6 hour (EP) mode.

MTS stereo simply refers to the tuner inside the VCR, meaning it can digest a stereo signal. This wont matter to you since you will be recording using the line-ins on the VCR, from your mixer. You DO want to make sure the VCR says Hi-Fi stereo, but almost all of them do now.

In years long past I used to do exactly what you described. I would record from the radio in 6 hour mode. We had a radio station in town that used to do things like "Beatles A-Z" where they would play every Beatles song ever recorded, in order, over several days straight. I would just feed the receiver output into the VCR and come back to swap tapes every 6 hours. Sometimes I used to simaltaniously record a video image of a screen saver from my Amiga computer, so I would have eye candy to look at during playback if I wanted to. I would then dub the songs I like best onto cassette in order to play in the car. The end cassette would be a bit muddy, but surprisingly good - but not much worse than some MP3s I have heard. Of course it helped that I had a decent VCR and a good cassette deck.

Hope this answers your questions.
 
Actually - just to clarify a minor point. The hifi track is not simply a normal audio signal as you would get with an analog tape machine.

The better audio quality of a hifi-recorded signal is not because of the higher speed as much as the audio is encoded as a form of FM modulation that allows recorded signals that approach CD-quality. The down-side of this is undue modulation noise on low-level high-transient signals - resulting in a light static-type noise occuring around the transients.

Bruce
 
Thanks Bruce, I have had people try to explain that to me before, but your explaination actually makes sense to me, I think.

In any event, for a lecture situation, I think VCR tape will work great. I still occasionally record informal live "jams" in my basement on VCR. The sound quality is at least on par with cassette and you can't beat the price and long recording time.

One last thing I forgot - most VCRs don't have any sort of input metering, so you may want to do a bit of experimenting with your mixer to find the ideal recording level.:D
 
You hit the nail on the head Bruce.

Long ago, I used to use Beta HiFi for two channel Jazz recordings. There was lots of funky noise in quiet passages that could be attributed to head switching / modulation etc.

I fixed this noise by using DBX II NR with the Beta HiFi machine. It worked great! It actually worked better than using DBX on a normal analog tape deck because with the FM HiFi signal, there are no minor azimuth errors to amplify into the classic DBX "pumping and breathing" artifacts.

TTFN - Off to Chicago for a week!
 
Sometimes I used to simaltaniously record a video image of a screen saver from my Amiga computer, so I would have eye candy to look at during playback if I wanted to.
Click to expand...

This is so awesome! I bet the tapes were awfully fun to "watch".
 
Thank you Mr. White and all others for this helpful discussion.

If my preliminary tests result in high enough quality, then I think I'll look at tacking a Rane MS-1b or other small mic pre on top of a Stereo Hi Fi VCR as an easily portable unit for location recording.

Costco recently had several Stereo Hi-Fi VCRs in the $100 range, including a JVC S-VHS for $119 that felt a bit heftier (probably has a better power supply).

My home deck is 5 years old and in the $550 range. I'll start my tests with that, then try one of the Costco cheapies to see if it's worth doing. The nice thing about Costco is they allow returns within 30 days without hassle.

Again, many thanks to all who responded.

Best wishes,

Mark H>
 
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