What is your favorite cassette to record on?

[Beck]

TDK SA-X and Maxell XLII... both in 60-minute lengths, but absolutely no longer than 90-minute.

TDK SA-X turned out to hold up best in the long run of all the tapes I've used over the last 30 years. Stuff sounds like it was recorded yesterday. I used Denon HD7 for a couple years, but I always went back to TDK.

I started with TDK about the same time I started using the original TEAC 144 Portastudio. I prefered it with the Tascam 244 and 246 as well. TDK and Tascam always semed to be a great match. I know for a while there they setup their cassette multitracks with TDK SA... so that might explain it. But whatever you use have the machine calibrated for your tape and stick with that tape.

 

[VESSEL2020]

I used Denon HD7 for a couple years, but I always went back to TDK.

Never used a Denon HD7...(not that I could remember, anyway)
How are they? Probably hard to find now.

I've used some Denon metal cassettes and had some decent results.
I believe I've ran a couple type II's by them back in the 80's,
but not enough to remember the quality.

 

[sweetbeats]

I found my tapes...

Found my box of tapes and rummaged around a bit within.

I think this was the very first tape my brother made for me...a compilation of songs from KISS ALIVE II on an icy blue Scotch Higlander cassette:

Here's one of those Realistic C30 tapes I mentioned above...and I actually found the one that got the squash spilled on it!! GROSS!!!!

LOTS of memories with that last one...got to load that one and see what's on it...


I had a lot more TDK tapes than I remembered. Looks like I had a thing for XL-II's and XL-IIS's from Maxell as I mentioned earlier, but I've got quite a lot of TDK SA's too. And then of course my ultimate favorite the MA-R...here's one of those only there's a secret with this particular one....Its loaded with SM tape stock...want to try it in my 234 with the MA-R shell...

Lookit this early XL-II...Pretty, huh? The labeling on it (i.e. "Future Shock") is eerily coincidental considering the growing difficulty in finding type II cassette's...

I'll leave you with a pic of my tape stash...nothing like what some of you guys have but enough for me.

 

[grimtraveller]

I think this was the very first tape my brother made for me...a compilation of songs from KISS ALIVE II on an icy blue Scotch Higlander cassette:

Now there's a couple of memories that take me back to my teen years in Nigeria. I remember those Scotch tapes. I'd forgotten about Scotch but I had quite alot of my LPs taped onto Scotch C90s. When I got back to the UK I never bought Scotch again, although I did buy their blank videos.
And KISS ALIVE II. Wow, that was one of the early heavy rock LPs I had. It had 3 live sides and a studio side. In the song "Rocking in the USA", there was a line that went;
'I've been to England too
there wasn't much to do...."
which I always thought was a stupid line. And once I heard Led Zep's "Communication breakdown", I could see where Kiss lifted the riffs for "Making love". Ho hum. In the end, it didn't sustain well as a double album {unlike "Alive"} but there were like 10 great songs on it so I eventually made a single album from it.

 

[VESSEL2020]

Found my box of tapes and rummaged around a bit within.

Its loaded with SM tape stock...want to try it in my 234 with the MA-R shell...

Hey sweetbeats,..

How are those TDK SM's ?

Don't believe, I've ever tried them.
I have a bunch of SA's, SA-X's, and a couple SA-XG's.
But, I don't think I've ever come across the SM's
Just curious as to how they sound.
I love my cassettes!

 

[sweetbeats]

The SM's are a recent-issue tape from TDK for cassette mastering...I got a brick from Musician's Friend awhile back.

I have absolutely no complaints about them. I still prefer the sound of the Maxell's but its totally subjective on my part.

 

[lmf]

Maxell XL-II worked for me when I used cassettes.

 

[VESSEL2020]

The SM's are a recent-issue tape from TDK for cassette mastering...I got a brick from Musician's Friend awhile back.

I have absolutely no complaints about them. I still prefer the sound of the Maxell's but its totally subjective on my part.

Right on...So I take it, they are TDK's version of Maxell's MS studio series.
I haven't tried out the MS series yet, either.
I didn't think they were still makin' type II's,..cuz all I've seen were
some newer communicator series, and the regular normal bias you'd see everywhere.

Although I like both,..I prefer Maxell over TDK, myself.
Can't explain it,..I just think with Maxells you can get some really crisp highs,
Where as, with the TDK's I tend to get a better bass response, over highs.
Maxell is better for both,.. the highs and lows.

 

[sweetbeats]

Yeah...I have to think hard to get back in my head to when I was using cassette tape a lot more...that goes back about 15 years or so...like I said earlier I was surprised at how many TDK SA cassettes I had in my box of tapes...looks like I got a lot of those for recording gigs...a lot of TDK D tapes too which I liked because they sounded good and were really affordable. Anyway, the Maxells just sounded like...higher fidelity? Not much different but maybe its like what you were saying...like just tastier HF. The TDK's in my memory were more "accurate" or something. Not as "exciting" as as the Maxells...did I mention this is totally subjective??

Knowing what I've learned over the past several years about bias and tape formulations and such I can totally see how slight differences in these between tapes AND factory settings of different cassette electronics could make these very differences...bias in particular.

Pretty cool.

I see MF is still selling the generic Tru-Tone bulk cassettes and Full Compass has the Clone-Tone...I figure these must come out of the same facility...wonder what those sound like...

 

[VESSEL2020]

I see MF is still selling the generic Tru-Tone bulk cassettes and Full Compass has the Clone-Tone...I figure these must come out of the same facility...wonder what those sound like...

You're talkin' about the type II clear shells right?

I've been wondering that myself.
Somethin' about it, just doesn't sit right with me.
I would really like to hear what they have to offer.
Just don't don't want to get stuck with a nice lump sum of somethin'
I may not like.
I wonder if anyone on here has purchased 'em before?
I'd like to know how they sound too.

 

[sweetbeats]

Yeah...the chrome tapes.

 

[VESSEL2020]

Knowing what I've learned over the past several years about bias and tape formulations and such I can totally see how slight differences in these between tapes AND factory settings of different cassette electronics could make these very differences...bias in particular.

Pretty cool.

Yes it is.

I wonder if there are any other manufacturers still
makin' type II's besides the aforementioned.
I do have a decent stash,..but I'd like to score for a
couple hundred, just to have for band practice recordings.
I have 3 bands that I'm playin' in, besides a couple "one man band" projects,
and I'm just not wanting to burn through my stash like I've been,
just for band practice...but I would also, like to have a good recording.
I don't like usin' type I tapes in any of my machines, just because I'm
real finicky like that,..or I would just purchase a ton of TDK D's or
Maxell UR's. Though I do have a decent stash of those too,..I'll mostly use 'em for the mixdowns from band practices.
Maybe I should just start to transfer alot of the one-pass recordings I do have into my Masterlink, and transfer to disk. Just don't really have the time to do so, and I'm really weird about recording more than once on a tape.
Man I wish they had all the selections they used to have, like in the 80's.