Which cassettes for 4-track recording?

M

musicdavid

Member
I'm revisiting my Yamaha MT50 and I am about to hunt down some decent new cassettes to use with it.

I always remember the use of chrome tapes being recommended. However, whenever I did use them, not only did I not think the sound quality was any better, I always found that the tape would 'wobble' so I stuck to using normal bias tapes.

Has anyone else ever experienced this with chrome tapes?

Does anyone have any particular brand recommendations (particularly for 'normal' tapes since I am inclined to trust my past experiences and stick with them)?
 
If you didn't experience better quality with good Type II tapes you were either doing something wrong or there was something wrong with your MT50. User error can include choosing inferior tape or tapes of the wrong length, etc. Use high bias tape such as Maxell XLII or TDK SA at lengths no greater than 90-minute. Some cassette multitracks had problems with tapes over 60-minutes and most performed best with 60-minute. 120-minute tape would cause audible errors after a few passes. Problems like you describe are more likely due to tape brand and/or length than differences between normal bias and high bias in general.
 
I only ever used to use 60 or 90 min tapes and usually TDK normal.

The only chrome tapes I tried using were the TDK 'CDing' brand and they would always 'wobble' as I described. It's possible that other chrome brands would not do this of course, but it always struck me as odd that while sticking within one brand, this problem would only occur with the chrome type.
 
Try the TDK SA90 or SA60, if you can still find them. Maxell and BASF did good ones for portastudios too. I used almost exclusively TDK SA90s since 1992 and I've never had the problems you've described.
 
Wait! You mean not if your song is 4 minutes... 'cuz if you use a C-15 tape your actual recording time at double speed in one direction on a portastudio like the MT50 is only 3 minutes and 45 seconds! That's only enough time for two Justin Bieber songs... or a Sylvester Stallone movie!
 
!!!

A C60 cassette in a 2x speed 4-track Portastudio will have 15 minutes total run time, or 30 minutes at normal speed.
A C90 cassette in a 2x speed 4-track Portastudio will have 22.5 minutes total run time, or 45 minutes at normal speed.
... appreciably long and manageable.

A C15 cassette in a 2x speed 4-track Portastudio will have 3.75 minutes total run time, or 7.5 minutes at normal speed.
A C10 cassette in a 2x speed 4-track Portastudio will have 2.5 minutes total run time, or 5 minutes at normal speed.
... frightfully short!

:spank::eek:;)
 
Beck said:
Wait! You mean not if your song is 4 minutes... 'cuz if you use a C-15 tape your actual recording time at double speed in one direction on a portastudio like the MT50 is only 3 minutes and 45 seconds! That's only enough time for two Justin Bieber songs... or a Sylvester Stallone movie!
Click to expand...







Who's Beiber?

Some wannabe singer/heartthrob?


Where's that puke smiley?:D
 
Beck said:
Wait! You mean not if your song is 4 minutes... 'cuz if you use a C-15 tape your actual recording time at double speed in one direction on a portastudio like the MT50 is only 3 minutes and 45 seconds!
Click to expand...
No, I meant 16 minutes. My logic being, that if you write long songs, then a high quality 15 minute tape {which, as you correctly point out will net less than 4 minutes} wouldn't be any good. On my 8 track portastudio, I only ever used C90s and I could get 22 minutes out of them. Only twice did I not have enough tape {one was 37 minutes long ! }.
 
Wow, two pages of this? The owner's manual tells you which tape to use - usually TDK SA or maxell XL-II, 90 minutes or shorter.
 
...

I've used Maxell or TDK C90s almost exclusively, with only a few C60s here and there. However, when I ventured in deep to tweak the record/repro adjustments on a 244, I found the C60's thickness to make a huge difference in stability of calibration response, where C90s waivered a bit and were virtually impossible to zero in. For precise calibration the C60s seemed to be the right thing, although in practical real recording I've never detected any difference between C60s and C90s.
:spank::eek:;)
 

Attachments

  • xliis.jpg
    xliis.jpg
    106.9 KB · Views: 27
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top