age old question on tape lifespan

[pchorman]

What is a practical limitation to many times you can re-record on a standard cassette tape?

I'm under the impression it's on the order of a hundred or more. Do you typically squeeze that much life out of a tape? Is there a noticeable degradation in recording quality?

thanks

 

[2lim]

I do not know the actual lifespan of a tape, but i tend to only ovberdub once per tape....... if i want to keep the quality asd high as possible. I have noticed, when using my four track that tapes start to sound noticeably different after about 5 or 6 overdubs, this may however just be due to the four track and not the tape.

 

[riley357]

Analog tape "degrades" with every pass of the tape over the playback heads.A few factors that will effect tape life will be how hard the tape transport is on the tape, how clean you keep the heads,(is important to have clean heads) and how many times you play it.
Cassette tape is not known for having a lot of playback life. You may not notice the degregation of sound over the period of a session because your ears get used to the sound very quickly.SoI wouldn't play the tape more then say 100 times if the highest quality is sought.
That doesn't give you a lot of room for retakes and overdubbing and mixing plays. So practice, practice, practice...before taping. For better luck move to a digital recording medium. The only way that you will know that the sound has degraded is when you hear obvious drop out's in the sound...no sound the tape is bad!

 

[riley357]

Analog tape "degrades" with every pass of the tape over the playback heads.A few factors that will effect tape life will be how hard the tape transport is on the tape, how clean you keep the heads,(is important to have clean heads) and how many times you play it.
Cassette tape is not known for having a lot of playback life. You may not notice the degregation of sound over the period of a session because your ears get used to the sound very quickly.SoI wouldn't play the tape more then say 100 times if the highest quality is sought.
That doesn't give you a lot of room for retakes and overdubbing and mixing plays. So practice, practice, practice...before taping. For better luck move to a digital recording medium. The only way that you will know that the sound has degraded is when you hear obvious drop out's in the sound...no sound the tape is bad!