Testing out cassette brands - can you give me some input?

Hammerstone

Hammerstone

Out of style
I've decided it'd be a good idea to test out all the currently available type ii cassettes since I want to buy a sizable stockpile for recording myself and other people. The three that I've heard of are:
National Audio Company's BASF 799 Super Chrome
National Audio Company's BASF 771 Chrome Plus
Global Brands' C-90

I guess I was hoping that one would jump out at me as just "right," but it didn't quite happen that way. Anyway, here's what I have:

Tape Tryout Demos | Joseph Irvin

I used a CAD Equitek condenser mic into my modified M67 for vocals on the Left channel, and a Sennheiser E835 dynamic mic and an Audio Technica condenser mic (sorry, forget which model) mixed through an unmodified M67 for guitar on the Right channel. Both inputs went in to the line inputs on my Tascam 244. I kept the same levels for recording all three songs (tried to get it to peak at 0db with an exceptionally hard strum for guitar, a loud scream with vox), and the same levels on output when mixing down to cd (no effects, real basic).

Right off the bat, there seems to be quite a bit of low-end distortion on the 799 tape, which is interesting considering I was fingerpicking on that one. The C-90 also seems to have some slight low-end distortion. The 771 tape, tuning problems aside, sounds the most dead-on to me, and this is what I've decided based on the digital mixes. I couldn't tell much difference at all just listening to headphones off the 244.

Oh, also it seems that my 244 is in need of replacement idler tires, so it might be out of commission for a week or so until I can take care of that, I barely got the tape transferred. When it's back up to full functionality, I plan to redo the test, I think I can do better, also I'll provide some piano backing perhaps. I also might get out a different guitar, mine it a bit temperamental, hard to tune right, and I've been putting off a trip to the luthier for several years (it'll be an expensive repair bill, I'm sure...new bridge, new saddle, reset the neck). I just got a new set of bridge pins hoping that would help, and it has, but not as much as I'd hoped.

What do you guys think? Either of what I've already recorded, or what can be done better for the re-trial?
 
I just ordered a 10 pack of TDK PRO SM-X20 Professional Master High Bias Audio 20 minute cassette tapes from Amazon. I anticipate that they will give me the high quality recordings that I want. With the Tascam 244 I will only get 5 minutes of recording time on each cassette but that is a good thing. I'll let you know how they work.
 
It's really hard to tell because you're playing different things for each tape. I think if you wanted to just test the tape, the best thing to do would be to play the exact same thing on each tape and keep the mic setup/placement/etc. as close as possible from tape to tape.
 
Also, regarding your notes on Lacrimosa, I've lost two big major projects due to bad CDR's going bad. Because of that, I don't ever use them as a sole backup source anymore. I always use an external hard drive as well. CDRs really suck!
 
i recently bought a box of Akai Gx60 and i'm very impressed. there's a place on the web selling sony xr60's as well so i got a box of those.
my holy grail is the old Scotch xs chrome tapes (gold or silver packaging), they were the best tapes i ever used. i occasionally see them on ebay and even though they're old i snap them up if still sealed. don't like maxell or newer tdk (certainly not the master pro series i've had a ton of dropout problems with them).
 
Thanks for the feedback, people! Nothing new to report yet, I came down with a pretty bad cold the day I put all that online, plus I've been writing papers, so no time to record more yet, but I'll get to it soon.

Illsidgus said:
I just ordered a 10 pack of TDK PRO SM-X20 Professional Master High Bias Audio 20 minute cassette tapes from Amazon. I anticipate that they will give me the high quality recordings that I want. With the Tascam 244 I will only get 5 minutes of recording time on each cassette but that is a good thing. I'll let you know how they work.
Click to expand...

Ohh man, 5 minutes' recording time doesn't sound too bad, except the part where you're paying $30.00 for a box of 10 tapes. Then it becomes a bit ridiculous. Honestly, the only thing I've noticed on listening to my recordings that I'm pushing the level on some of them. Bias-wise they seem to work for me, so I don't know what benefit you can get from a TDK tape that would make it worthwhile to buy 5mins for $3.00 when you could buy 15mins for $1.00. Just sayin...

famous beagle said:
It's really hard to tell because you're playing different things for each tape. I think if you wanted to just test the tape, the best thing to do would be to play the exact same thing on each tape and keep the mic setup/placement/etc. as close as possible from tape to tape.
Click to expand...

Play the exact same thing for all three tapes? :O That would get boring fast! But I guess I can give it a shot. To be specific, I didn't change levels or mic placement or anything else from song to song, it was literally just play a song, take tape out, put in new tape, play new song. Good point though, next time I'll just do one song for all three tapes.

famous beagle said:
Also, regarding your notes on Lacrimosa, I've lost two big major projects due to bad CDR's going bad. Because of that, I don't ever use them as a sole backup source anymore. I always use an external hard drive as well. CDRs really suck!
Click to expand...

Yeah, especially Verbatim and Memorex. Stay away from those brands! I really should add that it was my own fault for not having a backup on HD. When I originally transferred to computer, I had no idea how to save everything as WAV files, had to have a friend show me (and it's really simple, you can use iTunes). The only files I can find are WMA and AAC. It's all good, I'm going to transfer my multitracks to Protools and play around with them, see how much better I can do it after a year of learning.

Still, if I do more mixes with using the digital Yamaha mixer, I'll mix down to my Tascam 122 and then convert to cd from there. It should save me quite a bit of headache later on!
 
I use TDK SA60 for demos. Never had any problems with them. I enjoy a bit of tape hiss though....
 
Yeah sorry, I've been busy with classes, which will be over in 3 weeks. So until then, I have juries to practice for and papers to write. After that I can get back to the recording. I did take the 244 apart and replace the rest of the rubber parts, so everything is operating at peak efficiency now, but haven't got to use it since.
 
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