Mastering to a VCR

[Ricklh]

Thought I'd share this idea for anyone here who may not have thought of it. Master your MR-8 stereo mixdown to a hi-fi VCR. I rearranged my set-up yesterday and moved the MR-8 close to my stereo cabinet so I could transfer my stereo mix to my stereo VCR. Of course, I can transfer a .wav file to my computer, but I like the idea of keeping the computer out of the process as much as possible. This way, you can archive 6-8 hours of tracks on a VHS tape and the fidelity is much better than a cassette deck (no Dolby NR to worry about). And it doesn't matter that there's no visual content, the VCR works great as just an audio deck. Of course, there's the issue of finding things on a tape once you've filled one up but I can live with that by keeping up with the counter settings. I played back an acoustic version of "Norwegian Wood" through my stereo in Dolby Pro Logic II surround and it sounded great coming from my speakers! If I want to burn a cd, I can just transfer from the VCR or receiver to my computer and burn a cd-r that way. Anyone else used a VCR with your MR-8?

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

While the quality of HiFi VHS audio is much higher than that of cassette, be aware of several issues....

The method of audio recording hifi VHS uses is FM, and it's prone to leaving artifacts on very transient signals - try recording a hi-hat sound; you'll hear a slight swirling hissing around the hi-hat...

Also, you need to leave a couple minutes of gap between songs for safety -- VCR mechanical operations aren't very precise and if you leave only seconds like you would with cassette, you risk overwriting segments as the unit rewinds and "backs-into" record....

Also - some machine have undefeatable audio compression built-in to their signal chain, severely compromising audio quality with very audible pumping/breathing effects...

That said, if you're aware of these issues, you can get good results for a fairly cheap investment.

Keep in mind though, Minidisc recorders are fairly inexpensive too, and will easily outperform hifi VHS for sound quality (even with the inherent data compression).