Using an enhancer to improve "cassette" recordings

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chessparov

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Recently I did an (easy) experiment with my BBE 264 sonic maximizer. (the most basic BBE unit BTW-goes for about $70)
Took some commercial CD's and cassettes of identical albums,
and used the BBE to see if they would help the cassette level of
clarity to be closer to a CD in terms of track definition.
By adding between 1-2 db of BBE "processing" to the cassettes
the sound quality improved dramatically without sounding harsh.
The "lo contour" didn't seem to help as much, anywhere between
0-2 db was a moderate enhancement IMHO.
Maybe it's because cassette already has a full sounding low end?

Anyway, if the BBE helped out on professionally mixed, mastered,
etc. recordings, it should help out those of us using cassette based multi-tracks, cassette mixdown/duplication/source material.

Curious if anyone else has had similar experiences?

Chris

P.S. Albums used included greatest hits of James Taylor, Byrds,
and Tom Petty among others.
 
JR, did you find the "lo contour" to be not quite as apparent as an
enhancement compared to "processing" also?

Chris
 
chessparov said:
... Anyway, if the BBE helped out on professionally mixed, mastered, etc. recordings, it should help out those of us using cassette based multi-tracks, cassette mixdown/duplication/source material.
Click to expand...

Well, I don't really know the answer, but just wanted to throw in one note: those "professionally mixed, mastered, etc." recordings on store-bought cassettes were duplicated (i.e. recorded onto the cassette you're playing) using an absurdly high-speed duplicator. You may well be able to get better sound onto a cassette yourself (better high-end anyway) than what you hear on store-bought cassettes.
 
Re: Re: Using an enhancer to improve "cassette" recordings

sjjohnston said:


Well, I don't really know the answer, but just wanted to throw in one note: those "professionally mixed, mastered, etc." recordings on store-bought cassettes were duplicated (i.e. recorded onto the cassette you're playing) using an absurdly high-speed duplicator. You may well be able to get better sound onto a cassette yourself (better high-end anyway) than what you hear on store-bought cassettes.
Click to expand...

It depends on the high speed duplication equipment. There are set-ups that use digital bins. In other words, the cassettes are duping from a digital source. The other common method is to use 1/2" 4 track masters. Both methods are usually done at no higher than a speed ration of 64:1. If the bin and slaves are set up properly, the quality is as high as the cassette medium is capable of.
 
chessparov said:
JR, did you find the "lo contour" to be not quite as apparent as an
enhancement compared to "processing" also?

Chris
Click to expand...

What kind of monitors/speakers? I noticed most on my car stereo and home stereo than I did on my DAW.
 
These recordings were monitored using AKG 240DF headphones.
Both of you raised interesting points about tape duplication BTW.
At least the tapes sound better than FM radio (yech) when played in my car!

Thanks
Chris
 
Yo Chessie:

I love ingenuity and it seems you are endowed.

Not long ago, a good friend of mine and and very good bass player who has played for the best in show business, gave me a professionally mastered session done live. Whoever did the mixing left it very flat, very very flat.

I ran the music into my MD8 of yore, then I remixed it adding some gentle reverb. The gal singer was astounded, as was the bass player with the warmth.

So, Chessman, a little ingenuity in recording is the real fun part of it all, especially if you get a decent result.

Keep twiddling the dials.


Green Hornet:D :D :p :p :cool: :cool:
 
Thanks Green Hornet! You must have been talking with my wife lately.
(the "endowed" part of course)

To me the beauty of home recording is in the aspect of creative experiment,
if it was good enough for George Martin then...

Chris

P.S. shack, I think you could look up BBE's website for info.
 
Using the same CD's and cassettes to test with,
some of the songs on the CD's were recorded to my Tascam 244
portastudio which uses dbx noise reduction automatically.
The the self-produced cassettes were compared with the commercially sold ones. In each case the homemade tapes were
anything from mildly to moderately better sounding IMHO.
The cassette player used was a nice Sony deck that "specs out"
between 16Khz for "no Dolby", and 17Khz for "Dolby B NR".
The 244 has an effective top end of 18Khz for recording/playback.

Chris
 
I use a BBE to enhance old cassette mixes (from the "old days" when I mixed from a 4-track cassette to a 2-track cassette) - and it does add some sparkle to those cassette recordings.

I almost always run the signal through a BBE if I'm dumping a "one off" onto a cassette.

At one time the BBE was a normal part of my mixdown chain (right along side my compressor and my EQ). But I realized I was using it to fix bad recordings - so I stopped useing it and forced myslef to learn to engineer better.

Some people hate BBE or other enhancers - I think they are a tool like any other - used for certain applications.

By the way, a BBE is a good guitar processor - in particular a distorted guiatr sound can gain some "definition"
 
It would also be interesting to hear from some "exciter" users,
especially if they have used BBE too.

Chris
 
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