Cassette tape questions.

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I have a handful of EM from the early 90s for various things like circuit DIY's home recording tips etc. THere is a review of portastudios. In 1991, that meant cassette like the Tascam 488 and 688. Has anyone ever done a taste test against a comparable digital portastudio? This isn't my gig, but if I"m reading the specs right, the Tascam 2488 has a 44.1 sample rate.

I'd expect the cassette to be competitive sound wise with NR. They used a slightly higher speed 3 3/4 I think. (Still don't see how that could compare to the 388, which seems to me to be teh holy grail of portastudios....)
 
Blue Jinn said:
I have a handful of EM from the early 90s for various things like circuit DIY's home recording tips etc. THere is a review of portastudios. In 1991, that meant cassette like the Tascam 488 and 688. Has anyone ever done a taste test against a comparable digital portastudio? This isn't my gig, but if I"m reading the specs right, the Tascam 2488 has a 44.1 sample rate.

I'd expect the cassette to be competitive sound wise with NR. They used a slightly higher speed 3 3/4 I think. (Still don't see how that could compare to the 388, which seems to me to be teh holy grail of portastudios....)
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I doubt that any cassette would match the s/n spec of 16 bit or higher digital unless the implementation was really bad on the latter. Even if it could, there is more to good sound than s/n ratio. Analog tape, especially something as narrow as a cassette, would have much higher distortion, not to mention wow and flutter which is non-existent in the digital world.
 
I will take a Tascam cassette Portastudio any day over audio tracked at 16/44.1 using budget ADC's. :eek:
 
sweetbeats said:
I will take a Tascam cassette Portastudio any day over audio tracked at 16/44.1 using budget ADC's. :eek:
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There is very little that sounds as bad a a cassette to my ears. But that's what makes horse racing.
 
There is very little that sounds as bad a a cassette to my ears. But that's what makes horse racing.
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Well put, Rick. :D

I'm basing my opinion on the Sony TCD-D7 I used to use a bunch...portable DAT recorder/reproducer. 16-bit and 44.1/48kHz sample rate. Quiet of course compared to analog cassette, but oh so brittle and sterile...ugh! :eek:

I also used to track to my Onkyo TA-2058 cassette deck before I had any multitrack gear, and when I listen back to stuff I tracked on both and A/B it I much prefer the flavor of the stuff tracked on the Onkyo.

Now I'm done because I really don't want to potentially spur another analog vs. digital discussion/debate...just clarifying the basis for my statement which is clearly limited. ;)
 
sweetbeats said:
Well put, Rick. :D

I'm basing my opinion on the Sony TCD-D7 I used to use a bunch...portable DAT recorder/reproducer. 16-bit and 44.1/48kHz sample rate. Quiet of course compared to analog cassette, but oh so brittle and sterile...ugh! :eek:

I also used to track to my Onkyo TA-2058 cassette deck before I had any multitrack gear, and when I listen back to stuff I tracked on both and A/B it I much prefer the flavor of the stuff tracked on the Onkyo.

Now I'm done because I really don't want to potentially spur another analog vs. digital discussion/debate...just clarifying the basis for my statement which is clearly limited. ;)
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What? There's a debate about digital vs. analogue? What kind of talk is this? :)

Now that I got rid of my Yamaha AW16G, and I won't have my hands on my newly acquired Tascam 38 until May, I got a 414 portastudio to track ideas with in the meantime. It feels like an old friend! I cut my teeth on these machines, and it's really nice to work with them again.

It's great to not have to worry about saving data or backing up anything when you're done. You just turn off the machine, and you're done. :)

I think one of the reasons that cassette portastudios get such a bad rap is because they're usuaully used by people that are just starting out.

This usually means:

A) the rest of their equipment is poor (guitars, amps, mics, etc.)
B) their musicianship is poor
C) their recording skills are obviously poor

So I think that most times the cassette portastudios are never given a fighting chance to produce a good sound. Now that I've gotten years and years of practice under my belt, I can honestly say I really enjoy the sounds I'm getting on mine now. :)
 
And I've said it before and I'll continue to do so, but do a search on this forum for posts by ksounds and A Reel Person. They have some posts of uploads of songs tracked using the 244, 246 and 424 that sound incredible to me...IMHO you'd never know they used the little roach houses to do their tracking. ;):rolleyes::D
 
I had lots of good experiences listening to and recording on cassettes in the 80's and early 90's. In Norway Maxell was the main brand, I used XLIIS for home recording and UDI and UR for radio and LPs. The quality became better and better during the 80's/early 90's, but when I bought some new UR's in 2002 the quality was really bad (worse than early 80's). It seems they think people will be happy if they're able to find cassettes at all. Well are cassettes still made? Any recommendations?
 
vikingbeard said:
I had lots of good experiences listening to and recording on cassettes in the 80's and early 90's. In Norway Maxell was the main brand, I used XLIIS for home recording and UDI and UR for radio and LPs. The quality became better and better during the 80's/early 90's, but when I bought some new UR's in 2002 the quality was really bad (worse than early 80's). It seems they think people will be happy if they're able to find cassettes at all. Well are cassettes still made? Any recommendations?
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The Maxell XL-II is still around and kicking. Some say that particular product isn't quite what it used to be, but I think it's pretty good.

I am a big fan of the TDK SM-[n] (SM-60 for example). I think they are the best quality cassettes on the retail market today. I bought some from tape.com, but I see they don't carry that brand any more.
 
Thank you! I will try those, they seem available elsewhere.
 
I recently bought a brick (10-tapes) of the SM-60's from Musician's Friend for $25. I'm happy with them.
 
I think that another point worth exploring, why many a time cassettes get a bad rap, is that there's a huge difference between prerecorded, mass market, cassettes and dubs made to them from quality sound sources.

I mean, for many, their only experience of cassette deck sound is based solely on these prerecorded tapes, many of which sound awful. The moment you hear a quality deck [and I do emphasize quality here], playing back a song recorded off a quality source, it can be an absolute jaw dropper.

--
 
Can't seem to find them anywhere around here.

I can't seem to find High Bias tapes ANYWHERE around in my city. Looks like we'll be having to internet order them from here on out. Up until about 2 months ago, I used to able to find Maxell type II's at Walgreens (Believe it or not) And that was the ONLY place I could find them. Luckily I stocked up on them over the months before they stopped selling them (after reading Maxell was soon to stop making them) . I have over a 100 unopened now, and generally use them for live room rehearsal recordings or Live show recordings of my bands. :)
 
analog aaron said:
I can't seem to find High Bias tapes ANYWHERE around in my city. Looks like we'll be having to internet order them from here on out. Up until about 2 months ago, I used to able to find Maxell type II's at Walgreens (Believe it or not) And that was the ONLY place I could find them. Luckily I stocked up on them over the months before they stopped selling them (after reading Maxell was soon to stop making them) . I have over a 100 unopened now, and generally use them for live room rehearsal recordings or Live show recordings of my bands. :)
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That's where I used to get mine from. I've noticed recently that they don't have the Type II tapes. I'll have to take a trip down the street and see if I can find out more info.
 
Aagghh! Why did I post all this nonsense on this thread???

A quick run thru my local Walgreens & Stater Bros turned up no XLII 90/2-packs, as before.

This thread got me thinking again, so I hopped out on impulse and bought another 200 cassettes online, @ avg. $1.61/ea (delivered). When all is said & done, I think that's pretty competitive.

I just popped on that for myself for Christmas, though it was a bit impulsive. I have a recording habit to keep up, and a fair amount of cassette based units. I love cassette recording & always will. I'm sorry to see cassette tapes going bye-bye. It's given me a stockpiling mentality as of late.:eek:;)

Anyway,... blah blah blah. I just wanna record!:eek:;)
 
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I don't get it

Open reel tape is being produced once again, yet cassettes are going by the wayside? I figured the production cost of cassettes would be next to nil considering how long they have been produced and the automation systems that assemble the stuff. That's what I get for thinking though.:o
 
Demand for cassette tape is way down from numbers 10 years ago.

Mfgr's seem to have jumped ship a while ago. I'm not sure who's in the game anymore. (TDK or Maxell?) Any remaining cassette stocks may probably be considered "use til gone" clearance items. So if Maxell XLII's won't be produced any more, does anyone have info on whether TDK SA's are produced anymore? Type I /Normal tapes are still abundant, but Type II's are increasingly hard to find. The price is inflating a bit on remaining Type II stocks, depending where you shop. YMMV.

I know roughly what media's available these days. I don't have a firm feeling overall about who's producing cassette tape and who's not.

Reel tapes a boutique industry at the present time. Not sure if that's where cassette's headed, or not. Maybe evenuatlly disappear altogether.
 
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