1975 Scotch High Energy "Super Ferric" Type 1 Cassette Review - A 45 year old Super Ferric? Really?!
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- Old Scotch cassettes aren't know as being "survivors". This is 45 year old and claims to be a Super Ferric. I have a look and listen as well as review it's surprisingly useful packaging.
Deck Used : Nakamichi CR-7
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*Wow that free recording guide is excellent, back when they knew that people would actually read things that were instructive...*
That dance tune is missing the ubiquitous sample of Alison Moyet laughing!
I wanted the "Yeah! Wow!" Sample, but couldn't find it without a drumbeat behind it 😆
You here, Kevin! So nice.
You mean that Yazoo sample? Yes that would work. 😁
HAAAAA!!!!! The tape blew me away, until the song quickly stole the spotlight!!! 👍👍👍👍
He had me at "AHH YEAH!"
Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing I believe...
3M
You are correct sir.
Got one of those in my collection. Hasnt aged well, or was recorded badly in the "GDR" back then. My father recorded music from the radio on it an wrote down all the tracks with a pencil onto the inlay. Nice piece of sentimental remembering him. 😊 Thanks for your video. 😊👍🏻
This is most likely a 'microferric' tape instead of what we currently understand under 'superferric'. Page 8 of the booklet refers to the use of 'extremely small and needle-like particles' for the Scotch High Energy tape. That refers to the innovations introduced with the second generation of Type I tapes in the early '70ies, which are now commonly referred to as microferrics. There is no reference to cobalt-doping anywhere in the booklet and it seems to stand to reason that Scotch opted for the 'super ferric' moniker because this sounded commercially appealing and because the later distinction between microferrics and (cobalt-doped) superferrics wasn't being made at the time. Check out the Wikipedia article on cassette tape formulations for more on this.
I'd be willing to bet these Italian-made Scotch tapes were made by the film manufacturing company Ferrania in Northern Italy. 3M acquired Ferrania sometime in the late 60s and sold many types of Ferrania film under the Scotch brand until the early 2000s. Factory totally shut down in 2008, I believe. Interesting addendum: a small group of filmmakers & former employees acquired the abandoned factory and saved the old equipment via a Kickstarter campaign in 2013 and are now making new B/W film. It would be interesting to query them about what info or equipment to make magnetic tape might still exist
Worst recording I've EVER made:
1995, dollar store Scotch BX60 in a 4-track portastudio...
Understood NOTHING about bias🤦
Oh my... don't they always say to use Type 2 tapes in a portastudio?
@@PaulTaylor1 Absolutely! That was my first lesson in not ignoring Tascam's instruction.. it sounded like it was recorded in a dishwasher🙁
BX tapes are great, ive done a few zappa albums on them and they played great even in a car stereo, i will say that it is a noisier tape but i was using live albums that were recorded on 2 track uher tape recorders so really the performance could have been the reason why the noise was louder,
Bias levels, azimuth....all of it matter, dolby should be Calibrated also
Worst tape i own due to aging! Put it in your cassettedeck,pres play and you hear the high tones disappear after seconds >>> time for headcleaning.
The grey/silver ones,the chromium tapes aged less but sounds a bit dull.
Great Scotch!!! I can't believe what I'm hearing for this Ferric tape! Amazing for a 45 year old cassette!
3M AVX tapes, built later, are crap in comparison
I'm about to soon get one for myself which is great
What a remarkable cassette tape. I reckon that sounds better than the 1980's scotch bx and cx.
I'm born in 1975 and this super ferric Scotch sound superb and beautiful for a 45 years old cassette!
I used to buy scotch audio tapes from Woolworths back in the 70,s seem to remember they had a transparent blue shell . It doesn’t surprise me how good it sounds because I always thought their video cassettes were the best and they also had a life time guarantee.
Great video Tony . I love cassettes as they are far more user friendly than blank CDs . My option is just because a technology is old it doesn’t make it bad ,that’s why I’ve stuck with with cassettes .I think they truly are unbeatable.
Dick Smith Electronics had a similar booklet in the 80s , you could buy for 50 cents. Yes I bought one.
I've seen 90's ferric cassettes you commended perform way worse to the point where I could clearly hear the treble loss on the playback. This one? Nope. This cassette adds some hiss but takes away nada!
Funny story, I actually heard of your "Jack The Jack" tune on Bandcamp before watching this video, lol.
Hi, loved the Song. And loved the Northern take on the Yank Accent 👌. I'd be up and Danceing to that!!!!!!
The Tape Was Very Very impressive. Great looks and Preformance. And 40+yrs old!! Amazing.
Cheers Grant 😊
Wow!! It handled that well!! That 45 year old cassette was a surprise indeed!!
Your music was more late 80's, a very good track!! Tony does it again!! Cheers for the video 😁👍 bring back tangible media!!
Scotch: RE-RECORD THEN FADE AWAY, re-record then fade away. ..... .... ....
Hi K7 commeback. Opening one of those Scotch 3M tape will be very interresting. Those tapes don't provide little wheels on the side, but just a metal cylinder. With time, this doesn't work anymore. Many car radio died because of that
At that time, my uncle was working for the 3M company and I got a lot of those tapes for free. They didn't last long. Not because the tape was crap, but because the box was missing capstans in the angles, replaced by a metallic cylinder. Too bad...
I think what cassette has over reel to reel (apart from convience) is that of *housing*. The wound cassette tape is kept away from the elements, whereas a R2R tape is far more exposed.
Very enjoyable video Tony.
I still have some of those cassettes I bought back in the 70's as a kid. I used to tape the top 40. They still play to this day.
Por favor sube el PDF cassette recording guide.
I believe those were made in the 3M Ferrania factory.
Scotch "TAPE" :)
Loved the tune. My best mate and I are 80s revivalists/synthwave. Please give this a listen ua-cam.com/video/HMSaQda6Zjw/v-deo.html
Awesome vid!! Stunning little booklet, wow! What a great one Tony
Looking and sounding great! This type of Scotch has definitely aged better than all those squeaky Dynarange ones that I remember...
Italian-made Scotch? Next you'll be telling me the Germans made Wine, and the Japanese made Dark Stouts.
...oh wait they have?
dunno about japanese dark stouts as i've neven been to japan, but as a german living halfway between bamberg and würzburg, let me tell you that there is some fine wine made around here.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franconia_(wine_region)
For Dark sandpaper and pure sandpaper era tape this reproduced really well. For 70s guess it is indeed a real deal Super.
That free book was awesome. If stuff like that was available in wider numbers back in the day we may have appreciated tapes more than we did.
Love the track you put together. Very early 90s. Just the sort of stuff I listened to back in the day 👍
And man, that tape preformed amazingly for even a new cassette. 45 years old? Unbelievable.
I wish I'd had that booklet back in the day...
I love that guide, hope we can download it somewhere in the future 👍😊
Great video Tony. Love the music! Here is a link to the Scotch cassette recording guide at hifiengine: www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/3m/scotch-cassette-recording-guide.shtml
I only used 1 Scotch XS II 90 with not very good results, but I couldn't outwardly adjust the BIAS on the TEAC A-400 deck, so I considered it a mismatch and stopped using 3M. I should have tried their Super Ferric!
I would like to get the pdf but hifiengine won't let me download without an account and they don't allow new registrations so it's impossible to download, do you still have it or did cassetecomback ever upload the pdf somewhere?
I bought a new old stock 1977 Scotch Master I 60, and it took around +6 db, but i didn't know at the time because i messed up the volume level pots of my Sharp RT-100 because on playback the level display was too low. Playing it back on my new deck (Onkyo TA W100, because the levels are at factory settings) it sounded good and was peaking at plus 6.
I. expected the highs to be gone but this is a great tape.
This is what I like - trying to kick some life into really ancient cassettes. I'd enjoy seeing a full video of the major contenders of 1975, and another of superstars of the 60s. Who knows what could happen with the right bias and level and some 2020 music???
5:18 Poo brown
Hi! have you able to pdf it yet ? I would love to read it !
wow the packaging is beautiful. you cant find something like this nowadays!
Yep... it is... but that was just how it was back then - it was the 'style'... often a lot of brown and orange shades. Stylish designs and colours that were thought of at the time as 'futuristic' but nowadays look.... dated! But they were beautiful!
I was a youngster during the early 70's and it all looked fantastic, and so many styles looked sci-fi which was great for me then as I was 'space/sci-fi mad'... Cassette tapes were hailed as the new best thing for the future; it was said at the time that they'd never wear out, and outlive vinyl records.... and nowadays, it seems it's a pretty close race with both vinyl and cassette production constantly climbing! However, the fact that a 45 year old 'cheap' tape in it's day can still sound sooo bloody good today, really does go to prove how long-lived tape can be! Many 45 year old records sound terrible having been used and abused on crap record players over the years, but a decent cassette can still go on, unaffected by the quality of the playback decks (as long as it wasn't faulty and didn't try and eat the tape!!)....
Sorry... Went on for far too long there! But yeah, you're quite right.... beautiful, and nothing like them today! :-)
This test shows that this tape still can sound excellent after 45 years, but it can't show how well a recording would have sounded today, even if it would have been made with very high quality decks, and how it would have performed after laying in rough climate.
It's save to say, that vinyl is pretty much indestructible as archive storage. Tapes can suffer from heat and especially humidity. But I agree: Tapes are still sounding great after some time. However some tapes had a lot of problems after long term storage. ("dirty ones" where the glue disintegrates and the ferric particles can be seen on the pinch roller and tape head)
i still have 2 sealed scoth III fecr tapes stored... porobably late 70s. The one ive opened did sound fantastic but had very harsh crayone smell... very very strong smell...
That'll be the chrome bit.
@@CassetteComeback the good chrome smell. when I smell that, I instantly think of chrome tapes. I like it ...
Wow. I just noticed that there is a “hole” on the left side of the bottom of the tape! 😮
What’s that about? Did you find any plastic inside the case?
5:52 You can see it clearly. Good catch.
Great tune, but seems to jump ? Is that intentional, or cassette drop out?
@The Best Western Ah...you were switching between the two??🧐
WOWWW.....Awesome find from 1975
As of a couple of days ago, I found a Scotch High Energy cassette, and it was the US edition, so I got it a few days ago. The US edition has a guy in silhouette playing a guitar which was a nice looking cover art. It has a gold label with a welded clear shell.
Bvbg
Bvbg
Bbbbbbi
Bbbbbbbbbbbbi
Bbbbibibibbbiiij
Now check Sony HF from 1971. I have 1968 Sony C-60 it takes +3, no dropouts, a bit hissy, but it has very smooth balanced sound and it's 52 yeas old tape!
@ChevyCaprice90
Back when Sony meant the top rung of quality.
May I suggest "The Cassette Recorder Book" from Usborne books UK (1982)
Cheers. I used to love Usborne books as a child.
The only Scotch cassettes I ever really liked were their Japanese XS1 and xs2. Their reel tape and videotape was excellent. Never had a chance to try that Scotch model.
Wow, what an interesting booklet by Scotch
Hey, I just bought an unopened box of MAXELL UR 90's. I can't make out the packing date. The date code is: 138907213. Can it be July 2013?
All right Tony, if that is your real name. I gotta say this was another cool video. With a real neat old Scotch tape. Enjoyed it alot.👍👍
It's my real name.
Sorry Tony but for me I owned this book when new and also bought some Scotch cassettes from new and my experience was anything but positive in using them, perhaps the wonderful Nak and the pad lifter make a difference......Nice video though.
IF we could get NEW cassettes that are as good out of the wrapper as these were 45 years ago when they were brand new, then the circle would be near complete. And from a time when the letters RTFM indicated that there WAS an actual manual to be read, said manual included as well. And a thoughtful and informative J-Card on top. I thinks we has here one of the normally elusive Trifecta's displayed before us. Very satisfying.
I like putting my own songs on tape too, I like trying to make stuff that sounds real early 80's synthpop. Even though I mess it up alot, I still really like the way it sounds on tape
Maybe a little off-topic, but why aren´t you using manual white balance on your camera? Solves the hassle of dealing with the shifting colours.
Because of the variety of colours of wrappers I'd have to keep changing it whilst recording.
@@CassetteComeback once you adjust it, it should actually improve things as long as your light source does not change. Give it a try if you have a camera that supports it. In this video, in some of the shots the auto white balance washes out the gold label because, having no white reference, it tries to make it neutral.
@@CassetteComeback shouldn't be as long as the light source stays the same. Anyway I think you know what you are doing. Feel free to experiment and keep up the entertaining videos!
Wow wasnt expecting that. Have scotch dynarange with foam head pads not good. The cassette and booklet shows scotch once did care and made decent stuff. Bit of history that booklet look forward to you uploading this historic document
Wow--for a cassette that's about as old as myself (I'm currently 43), it sounds and performs amazingly for its age! And the recording guide booklet is a nice bonus too.
Considering the tape is made in Italy, I have to wonder if it was Ferrania who manufactured these, since they were owned by 3M in the 60s and 70s as "3M Ferrania", and manufactured photographic film (and I believe magnetic tape also) under both the Ferrania and 3M brands.
Låter fantastiskt bra med tanke på dess ålder! Kul!
Well, even though it was through the internet and computer speakers, the only real difference I could tell was that the source was a tiny bit brighter. Impressive for a tape that old, for certain.
i remember in 1976 ish in walsall had this tape or similar to record from fm on a mono rec.player. sounded good i thought at the time.
The shell looks familiar with the index lines above the window and one on the bottom (and did side 2 have 2 on the bottom?) Is it Audition from Woolworth's?
This is one of the best videos I have seen from you. That cassette surely dropped my jaw when you where switching from source to tape.
I have loads of high end tapes from the 80s still sealed including high end sony and maxell metal tapes to.
Did you FFWD and RWD like the booklet said to do before you started the recording?
The tape only outshone by the tune :)
Well that brightened up my afternoon. Thanks Tony. 😁
I wonder how many cassette tapes ended up in landfill in 90s and 00s
Scotch is the better tape for recording music ever!!!!
do you have these cassettes avaliable on your webstore? if so for how much? meany thanks
I hope you have reviews for ATR Magnetics Cassette Tapes
TDK and 3M dat tapes suggest running it forward first.
Has the pressure pad deteriorated as it looked pushed down flat?
Damn,this is pure gold!45 and shining ⚡📡⚡
Did you get round to making a PDF of this ?
Great video, thanks Tony. Talking about 70s, 80s recordings... Is rerecording with an equalizer the way to revive them? Anybody?
If it sounds good to you to tweak them, then that's all that matters
Minnesota Mining Manufacturing company. XD
What's funny about it..? Am I missing something? It's Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, or "3M", that made this cassette. Is it the missing "and"? What's so funny? Can you explain it to an non-native English speaker?
@@nmosfet5797 The funny part was him not remembering the name and commenting that we all would be here to correct him.
The track puts me more in mind of the late 80s, maybe up to around 1991 or so. Reminds me a little bit of 'Party Line' by Bizz Nizz. Looking forward to that PDF for nostalgia value. I made some truly dreadful recordings as a kid in the 80s and 90s because despite having a half-decent hand-me-down Sony deck, I had no idea what I was doing with it!
Good ear. Partyline is a song that I had in my head whilst making this.
That's an awesome booklet!
What a deck in 70s could reveal the potential of those cassettes? Nakamichi 1000 ZXL Limited?
According to the graph on the J-Card, Nak 700
Have you ever thought about tape hiss as working like an instrument? It's like when you record dialogue and the sound needs some white noise in the background to make it sound more realistic. The same way I feel about tape hiss. It makes the music sound more realistic/alive/fuller to me. Of course that isn't true for any kind of music, but I find myself liking hissy songs better, more often than not.
A lot of synths allow you to add white noise to a patch, to give that hiss effect
Thanks Tony for the vídeo!!Very interesting cassette tape which performs amazingly!! Congrats for the tune!!Very Nice music!!I Will search Villarosso!Regards!Rafael
That booklet is a priceless article that should be preserved. If you have any problems turning it into a PDF, give me a shout and I'll help out. It could easily be made into an A4, folded to make an A5 booklet.
Yeah, I'm going to take the staples out and scan it properly and compile it in to a PDF. Cheers for the offer.
@@CassetteComeback Way to go mate!
Its too bad the tape deck we know as NAKAMICHI is long dead and parts are no longer worth looking for when parts are needed today.
Bowers and Wilkins has parts and does servicing in the UK.
I have some Scotch cassettes from the 1970’s and they were US made, along with a few Highlanders, and one C90 cassette. The 1975 ones are the US made ones, and it sounded not too bad.
What an amazing find! That booklet is a real treasure - an artefact. You are genuinely bringing the past back to life showing us that. Please scan it. Also, thanks for so many videos during the lockdown period, I really appreciate it.
I'm going to PDF the booklet
10:30 Microphones... give you the greatest scope. I like how you casually skipped over that illustration (lol). They're all pretty funny, actually. Love the 90s homage on 70s tape made in 2020. Heard it first on the Retro Nouveau, and it really sounds like it could have been a hit 3 decades ago. The tape performed surprinsingly well for going on nearly half a century.
I totally agree - as a boy I bought a couple of Scotch Dynarange tapes and they squeaked when running and one jammed. I did have a High Energy cassette which I seem to remember did produce better recordings on cheap cassette recorders (before I moved onto proper HiFi decks later in the Seventies). Nevertheless, I never really trusted the brand.
By the way, the information must have been from later than 1975 as I saw pictures of the Scotch Master range that was introduced in the late Seventies...
Pretty impressive performance from an old guy. This was not expected yet it stepped up just the same. Not bad! Hey Tony, toss a few for me! Wish I could join you too! Be careful me mate. Can’t afford to lose you!😊👍🏻😷
Amazing tape. Made in Italy too! (although I presume it means 'assembled in Italy' but still, proud of my little country ;) )
Thanks for your reviews; always an enjoyable watch!
Mine is a US edition of Scotch High Energy cassette, but I only have the C60 version of Scotch High Energy cassette with a guy playing a guitar on the cover in a black background which was really cool, but it has no instructions on the US edition.
I love this tape! I remember having a few of these in years gone by. My father used to buy scotch dynarange tapes in the 70s including c120s! Dying to see you do a feature on one or more c120s.....
That's an idea
Cassette Comeback I always had a fascination with 120’s, and yes we were all advised not to use them, but personally I had no more problems with them than any regular c60 or c90. My dad started using scotch, audio magnetic, alpha plus and alpha super in the 70s, later on I carried on the tradition in the 80s and 90s with boots audio, memorex, Agfa , basf and tdk and even Tandy concerttape c120s!
All the gold scotch cassettes I've come across tended to be a bit sticky. It's almost as if the base film had gone hydroscopic. To be able to use some of them I had to open them and replace the rotten foam pad with a more usual fibre & springy metal version. They do sound fantastic for their age, but beware.
Agree with you ; Mines are out of order , the tape sticks to itself on the reels . As I remember , the audio performance were good .
I have a couple NOS Scotch FeCr tapes which sound extremely good, despite being from the 70s. I like them so much, I have one left, still on plastic, which I'm saving for the first recording of my album. Yeah, I'm one of those FeCr heads....lol
I've allready said many times I enjoy your videos, but this one was truly a great one to watch! I'm not entirely surprised at the result, I've never met a bad Scotch from entry to top end, and those MASTER series pictured are simply jaw dropping, no matter it be type I, II or III. Thank you Tony, goes without saying you've earned respect for your content from me and dare I say many others too, and such praise is well deserved
Sometimes I think what if my mom didn't unwrap me 45 years ago right after I was made either? What a terrible life these cassettes have had😀. But thanks to collectors we can open them now as NOS and record them!!!
Great job as usual, Tony! I’d love to read a PDF version of that recording guide, if you get around to it. Scotch is one of my favorite tape brands.
A surprising result! I honestly wasn't expecting that. Nice J card too! 😀
Have you turned the booklet into a PDF yet? Do you have a link? I'd like to read it.
I will
It looks beautiful with that gold label on a black shell...
Id like to get back to the hobby but those prices for a decent tape decks...
Maybe someday.
What a wonderful cassette. Great video. Also that song was lovely. Sound cheerful and happy to me, how could one be in a bad mood while listening to that!