been a good week for cassette finds

[briank]

I was at the local hardware store the other day. They have a corner that's like a little time capsule of old media. I nabbed the last 2-pack of TDK SA 60mins for $2.49. Also grabbed a 2-pack of TDK "CDing-II" 74mins for the same price. These both look to be late 90's era.

I might go back and grab the rest of the TDK SA 90mins (or were they 100?) too while they're there, I much prefer 60mins or less but what they hey right? Do any of you have any experience with the CDing IIs? How are they? Haven't had a chance to play around with these, if nothing else they should be fine for making mix tapes.

So then I caught the last half hour of the Friends of the Oshkosh Public library book & media sale after my session today, it's right down the street, and among other things I scored two brand new sealed Maxell XLII-S 60mins for 25 cents each These appear to be early/mid 1990's era.


Anyone find anything good lately??



I have missed cassettes and am renewing my interest in them. I need to give my wartorn old Tascam 122mkII deck a good servicing and have a little fun. I was just fishing through a closet to find my 122 belt replacements and came across a couple sealed XLIIs on the way. Swell.

 

[famous beagle]

I've used the CD-ing IIs and had no problems; they worked great.

I've really been getting back into cassette as well. I have a whole bunch of songs that I'm recording on my Tascam 424 mkIII now and loving it.

It's funny, when I started out on cassette 4-track (a Fostex X-26) way back when I was 15, I had no idea what I was doing and didn't even know what they meant in the manual when they mentioned "reverb," much less compression or anything like that. I basically learned how to plug a crappy mic in and record my crappy guitar with my crappy beginning playing skills. No wonder it sounded like crap!

It wasn't until about a year ago, at almost 40 years old, where I actually have an equipment set up that includes just about everything in the "recommended setup" diagrams, including FX processors, compressors, mix-down deck, studio monitors, etc. And, of course, my skills (both playing and engineering) have gotten a bit better too.

And now I'm realizing that those cassette 4-tracks can turn out some pretty darn nice recordings when you give them a chance!

 

[Beck]

I had a good couple weeks. First I got a sealed 8-pack of late model Japan made TDK SA90 for $10.00, including shipping ($1.25 each). Then a few days after that I grabbed 20 sealed 90's Japan TDK SA-X60 that worked out to $2.85 each including shipping. That's definitely yesterday's prices... actually less than what I paid for these tapes when they were new back in the day. These were both Buy-it-Now on eBay. I was just in the right place at the right time with reasonable sellers.

I've got enough sealed tape, mostly Maxell and TDK, to outlast me, so I pick and choose only the reasonable deals. I could stop buying tape of any kind now and never be lacking, but if I see a good deal I can't pass it up.

 

[famous beagle]

Hey Beck,

Do you happen to have a copy of the article from which your signature was pulled?

I had a good couple weeks. First I got a sealed 8-pack of late model Japan made TDK SA90 for $10.00, including shipping ($1.25 each). Then a few days after that I grabbed 20 sealed 90's Japan TDK SA-X60 that worked out to $2.85 each including shipping. That's definitely yesterday's prices... actually less than what I paid for these tapes when they were new back in the day. These were both Buy-it-Now on eBay. I was just in the right place at the right time with reasonable sellers.

I've got enough sealed tape, mostly Maxell and TDK, to outlast me, so I pick and choose only the reasonable deals. I could stop buying tape of any kind now and never be lacking, but if I see a good deal I can't pass it up.

 

[Beck]

Hey Beck,

Do you happen to have a copy of the article from which your signature was pulled?

Sure... It was originally in a pretty in-depth article comparing the Tascam MSR-24S and the Fostex G24S in the January 1993 issue of Sound on Sound Magazine. I have the hard copy from back then and it’s not available to read on the SOS site, but the author later republished it in six parts on his website. The links are below (I can’t seem to find a Next button or Part 2, etc button starting from the first part of the article. I may be missing something because I’m wiped out from a bad cold, so that’s why I’ve listed each part of the article separately). The quote is in the last paragraph of Part One.

(Part 1)
Hands on Multitracks - Fostex G24S and Tascam MSR-24S (part 1)

(Part 2)
Hands on Multitracks - Fostex G24S and Tascam MSR-24S (part 2)

(Part 3)
Hands on Multitracks - Fostex G24S and Tascam MSR-24S (part 3)

(Part 4)
Hands on Multitracks - Fostex G24S and Tascam MSR-24S (part 4)

(Part 5)
Hands on Multitracks - Fostex G24S and Tascam MSR-24S (part 5)

(Part 6)
Hands on Multitracks - Fostex G24S and Tascam MSR-24S (part 6)

 

[briank]

I've used the CD-ing IIs and had no problems; they worked great.

Cool! I'm sure they're fine but I couldn't work out if they're SA tape in an alternate package and length or if they were TDK's cheaper high bias tapes or what.


Beck, sounds like some good finds for sure, nice price on the SA90s, about what I got the 60s for. I went back today and picked up a couple packs of SA100s, little more than the 60s at about $1.80 a pop but I was thinking my car still has a tape deck and I kinda want to make some mix tapes for a trip I often make which is, wouldn't you know it, about a 100min. drive.

I've also got a Tascam 424mkIII for personal demo'ing but it hasn't seen much use in a while, I'm lamentably not playing my own stuff too much these days, too focused and busy with pro engineering on the 1" 8tk and ProToolsHD rigs. Gotta get my 122mkII in order though, they're good tape decks but mine has probs. I've replaced the belt and re-gripped the other rubber parts which cleared up a couple issues, but the speed is still off, sounds wobbly and the deck usually stops halfway through a tape, might need to replace caps on a motor board but I'm gonna be really annoyed if I pull apart that tape transport, do the work and it doesn't fix it ;D