Exploring the good ol' Cassette Tape
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- Опубліковано 22 чер 2016
- If you remember the cassette as sounding awful, I have news for you. They actually sound just fine. The Compact Cassette has a unique history in the world of sound, which we explore along with their attributes in this Tech Explorations video.
Music Credits:
Rubix Cube by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Artist: audionautix.com/
Old Bossa by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Artist: www.twinmusicom.org/ - Наука та технологія
When I was growing up I thought that the metal setting on my cassette player was for playing Black Sabbath tapes.
LOL I remember looking at blank cassettes at Sound Warehouse, and a older lady asked me if Metal tapes were for recording rock or metal music.
you win
I thought so too, I'm glad to know I wasn't the only one.
Brutal
YES! I thought it was a custom equalizer setting that was tuned for "metal" music. This whole time....
Can we just appreciate the several minutes worth of audio comparison instead of a short 15 second listen?
EJ Tech I was really hoping it would be at least 30 seconds but I was so glad it was nearly the whole song (he cut the song up a bit)
Wich song it is?
This one open.spotify.com/track/1ByASri0XalqAKKjgtfhbB?si=wjvl_N5DQR2S7fJT5lmA-w
good job, dude!
It sounds like the BBC Video theme.
I love how perfectly the VU Meter shows the difference between the tape types. You can clearly see the Metal tape has a way signal on it.
I was born in 1958. And I knew every fact. The benefits you did not mention was that you had a recording studio on your desk. If you were a musician, any kid could be a stereo recording artist. Also you could make perfect recordings from lp records. I bought brand new records, played them once to record onto tape. Then my record collection stayed new forever. Also you could improve the recordings by running the music through a graphic equalizer in between the stereo and the recorder. I love your videos because I actually live through the times when these products were new and actually used all of them. Nice work..
No analog copy is ever perfect, but I'd agree it would be a pretty damn good copy.
It sure beats degrading the LP by playing it over and over eventualy.
@@diesistkeinname795 With a good external EQ I could find my very own version of perfection.
@@diesistkeinname795 True, but then no digital copy of an analog signal is ever perfect either.
@@DJ_Force I think he was referring to the fact that digital-to-digital copy (provided you didn't reencode with a lossy codec) is perfect.
@@TricksterRad Yeah, in theory (and usually in practice). My point is that even digital media has analog at both ends, and is not necessarily superior to analog.
The metal tape sounded dope AF.
It has a certain awesome sound quality. I remember cherishing my metal tapes. Not only because they sounded awesome but because they were expensive too.
Long play chromium dioxide (metal) tape is very hard to get and very expensive these days.
My dad had metal tapes sometimes to record stuff . Unfortunatly as far as I know Metal tapes were rarely used for pre recorded music .
I work for a DJ company and they had a case of 100 Metal Tapes they were going to just throw away Im like dude I want these and they let me take them all
@@whaduzitmatr Cassette tapes at least allot of standard ones tended to stop playing right after some years . Were metal tapes subject to this as well or was that just the cheaper Cassette tape types ?
It's amazing how much more pronounced the treble is with Type IV tape.
Much better frequency response and less hiss could be had due to the biasing.
I noticed this too. It is as much about the lower signal distortion as well. I loved the low end on type 4. Clear, deep and powerful. Not muddy like the other three tapes.
I've heard it called 'more present', and that sums it up for me.
Type I - Normal, Type II - Chrome, Type IV - Brütal!!!!
Type IV sounded much better, but I can't help to wonder if because it was simply louder. When gain corrected would it still sound better?
Me starting the tape: "Geez, it's a cassette tape, how hard can it be?"
Me two minutes later: *taking notes*
That long comparison part is easily one of your best moments. Regularly getting back here to just listen to that.
I would like to know the piece of music and see the composer credited
@@matt.willoughby It's in the video description.
12:05 It becomes easier to tell once the percussion and rhythm kick in. Full-spectrum sound really brings out the difference.
Yeah, the type I tape couldn't recreate it properly
Also, that was a master class in editing sir.
Most definitely!
Pretty blown away by the amount of time and effort that went into recording/editing that comparison sequence. Top tier content.
Me, buying a cassette deck on 2019:
“I just think they’re neat”
Me too. I'm so glad there are bands that still release on cassette
@@tjs2014 Cassette has always sounded better than cd, you just never noticed it.
@@war13death I'm going to have to disagree with that, and I'm one of those who prefers vinyl over CD's..
J. Az. Woods - Couldn’t help but think of that one too!
That's all that matters.
The quality of the type 2 and 4 tapes blew my mind, and so far I've only listened on my phone... I'm gonna rewatch this on my PC using reference monitors and an I/O.
I also appreciate how much effort went in to seamlessly making the A/B/C/D comparison between the four tapes, especially considering there was no (direct) digital timecode to go by!
"Do you use your dictaphone?"
"No, I use my finger like everybody else"
dear lord i feel like ive heard that quote before! where is it from?
i’ll be honest i don’t really get it.
Hi, dad.
@@ashtonyaklin6836 Go ask your mom.
Danielsan B you’re not helping
Cassettes were the music/audio format of my youth even though I was born in 2002, long after they became obsolete in the US. In China these things were insanely abundant, so I didn't have any reverence or care towards them, unlike vinyl. The main reason was that I only had crappy off-brand portable players and cheap Type 1 tapes, not quality Technics decks and Type II tapes. I even recorded over pre-recorded tapes with my own music - which now feels like a crime akin to sanding off the grooves of a record.
I grew up in Khabarovsk, far eastern Russia, we had the same thing. My sister bought then-new Rammstein album Rosenrot on a cassette, it was 2006 or so. And I know cassettes remained relevant for some time, pretty sure folks still record them for their old used japanese cars to play
Can relate. I was born in 92, so tapes were the way to go up to mid 2000s, when I got an used CD player and burned my CDs at a LAN house
We had lots of children's stories recorded on cassettes so even my little sister who was born in '03 still grew up with them.
I can relate to experiencing technology that was already obsolete in places like the US, Canada & Europe. Being born in South America in the late 90s, my childhood was fueled by VHS.
we all do dumb things! Don't regret MAKING YOUR OWN MUSIC! You MAY be the NEXT "American Idol"! Who REALLY KNOWS what is "awesome"?
not going to lie that song from youtube audio library actually dope af. so soothing but punchy.
Who else loved making mix tapes from the radio, but HATED when the DJs talked over the start and/or end of the songs?
I love how some bands made song intros that discouraged overtalking, like Kansas' Carry On Wayward Son or Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Both were genius!
I liked it. Kinda capturing radio history
Man that Maxell Type II really hit me in "the feels". So many 10 packs over the years. Thanks so much for this video! It was amazing!
I still have an unopened 8 pack in a moving box somewhere in my closet
As a child of the 80s I grew up in the cassette era but after this video I have newfound respect for the format.
God, I remember being a teen in the early 90's and listening to the local rock station on my boom box with a tape cued up and ready to record. As soon as a song I liked came on, I hit record...free music! I also remember setting my VCR to record "headbanger's ball" on MTV, which was on from like midnight to 2AM on a weeknight. Got some good 80s and 90s heavy metal gold off that. And I still have some of the tapes, and a working VCR from 1984 to boot!
I basically did the same thing.. I had a portable panasonic cassette recorder, in 1968..in my room, it was connected to a radio all ready to record... I still have that machine and most of those 'mixed tapes' from my early teen years... Listening to them is like a time machine... The tape player had a 'line in' jack.. The tapes came out pretty good.... Music from cklg 73 vancouver.. And ckvn.
I did that too. I dont have any of those old videotapes anymore, but I may have one or two mixtapes.
If you still have recordings of MTV when they actually played music, you should consider uploading them to the internet for all of us to enjoy!
I’m in my 40s and just bought a 80s JVC deck and a cheap Sanyo all in one stereo with dual tape decks. My young son loves making recordings on cassette tapes and I kinda of miss the sound as well. Long live tape 😄👍🏻 passed on to him the knowledge of how to manually rewind the tape with a pencil ✏️ as well.
Yes(!), the pencil trick! I'm 25 in october, but as a kid LOVED cassette's and i still do😌 📼 ♥️
I'm 54 and loved cassettes. I finally found a usable Walkman and fell back in love. Last Friday I bought a receiver and the next day I found a good Sony deck. It sounds really good after I cleaned the head and pinch roller. I can not wait for Seether's new cd to get here so I can record it to a good cassette to carry with me.
Cassette's are back in guys.
So bring out those older bad ass hi-fi systems.
Not the new crappy ones! I have a Sony ZX6 dual cassette.
I wish I had a cassette recorder
But pencils don't actally fit the spools, and never have done. The only writing implement that fits perfectly is the Bic Cristal ballpoint pen.
If you want to be a super hipster, make mixtapes with Hi-Fi VHS.
Exactly! I bought a Hi-Fi VCR with EP at the thrift store for this very purpose! Not as portable though, but there's nothing quite like up to 8 hours of uninterrupted near-CD quality music for listening while you do homework. I also bought 2 copies of The Phantom Menace so I could record over them.
Worth it. If you can find it, record over _Attack of the Clones._ That was *way* worse than _The Phantom Menace._
i got a philips dcc deck for the same purpose. cant find the tapes tho.
My wife had the Bible on cassette
Damn that's actually brilliant
Small correction: FeCr Type 3 tapes weren’t a combination of metal and chrome, but a combination of ferric and chrome.
Even the "crappy" one sounded good enough for me, started collecting tapes earlier last year and it's such a cool experience
Tapes were/are great! These were GREAT achievements!
the sound you can achieve with metal cassettes is pretty astounding. add to that the fact that these blank tapes may have been manufactured 10+ years ago...and wow.
aaaaaand now im bimge watching all your stuff lol.
*binge
10+? Try 25+ for the TDK metal one and nearly 20 for the Normal Sony and Chrome Maxell.
Feels so good
Super ferrics and good type 2 can sound really good as well.
I loved my old Technics M218. I remember buying it in 1982 at Pacific Stereo in Monterey Calif. The salesman stuck a metal cassette tape of John Klemmer to have me listen to the sound before buying. He boxed it up for me and sure enough when I got home, the cassette was still in the player.
I remember getting old VHS and audio tapes from Goodwill and cramming some paper in the write protection slot to tape over them because they were cheaper than blanks. Good times.
I used to use blue tack.
6:40 Press F to pay respects to all the poor secretaries tortured by cutthroat businessmen by that audio quality.
I remember when I discovered metal tapes, I was sold, blew me away how good they sounded, also remember when a tape was "high speed dubbed" it usually came out sounding better / more faithful to the origional.
It's so funny to witness people misjudging cassettes' sound clarity without any actual experience with them whilst listening to MP3 with cheap earbuds and not perceiving the quality loss of it.
Spotify + apple earbuds = them thinking they know what hi quality sounds is
This. I've used cheap earbuds and the sound quality is noticeable.
People who think that hi-fi equipment is a waste of money because their 128kb/s MP3 ripped from UA-cam sounds the same through $10 earbuds as through thousands of dollars in amps and speakers.
Back in the early mp3 days, I had a 28.8k modem connection to the ”information super highway" (remember that phrase, 90s kids?) I used to download mp3s encoded at 128kbps as a compromise between download time/quality. I thought they sounded pretty good. Now, when I play back my old mp3s they are almost unbearable.
@@tubadude45 I've found I don't enjoy listening to music over Bluetooth. I'm not an audio snob, but the quality loss is noticeable and slightly irritating.
A tape from TDK(Metal II) + a tape deck from Technics were the absolute dream couple.
Yes!
My dad had an onkyo tape deck, Pioneer Amp and speakers. Our neighbors had to call my parents at work many many times when I discovered Rush & Pink Floyd 😎
I saw this video in the past and I still come back to watch it again. There's something really captivating in looking at tape deck doing its stuff. Slowly spinning tape is soothing.
Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen once quipped, “I just love to watch the reels spinning”, make of that what u will but I love the format
Its nuts to think you can actually hear the differences between the tape types even through UA-cam.... But I know from experience the differences because I had some Audiophile family friends when I was growing up. And, I have in fact, seen one (and I do mean ONE) tape machine that had a type III setting. I believe it was my godfather that owned a machine with type I, type III and type IV settings. This was many years ago, but I am 90% sure he had a tape deck with a type III setting. He literally had a home theater/listening room set up in the basement of his house, and this was the late 1980s, early 1990s. I remember a giant rear projection TV, lots of speakers and tons of high end equipment. He likely had $50,000.00 to $70,000.00 worth of equipment he had collected over the years. I wish I had been old enough to understand more of what I was seeing then, I could be a lot more positive on what all he had.
So you can actually hear the difference? Because they legitimately sound the same to me.
@@theblackwidower Try listening with some headphones on.
T Duke Perry WOW the difference is insane bass treble fidelity and I'm not even using head phones
@@theblackwidower You sound like a candidate for the perfect 8 track customer ;) I can hear the diff!
You defenitely can hear the difference. UA-cam codecs are not THAT bad for this purpose, this video. Or is it that i'm worried about the hearing skills of the youth? The people replying here? I'm 48 years old and still can hear frequencies up to 18 kHz. The cassette format is a great one: despite all the shortcomings (low tape speed) all the efforts they thought of (better tape formula) to make a crappy format worthwile. Thumbs up.
The several minutes of audio and watching Bob Ross paint are the two most relaxing things I can think of. And I'm taking a relaxing hot soak rn
Thank you for switching the tape types back and forth multiple times to show the difference. So many examples I can think of in videos where they compare things once and you really don't get the feel of the difference...and extra kudos for switching them to the beat at one point lol
the difference in quality between each type of tape was surprising to me. Definitely perceptible at each step. and thanks for making such a thorough demonstration!
its also amazing how society has changed... kids making mix tapes at the house of whoever had the dual deck ghettoblaster was fine. Today however even without wide network file sharing if you give a friend a thumb drive with music the RIAA thinks you just robbed Fort Knox.
It's gotten even worse. Now they are complaining that people are "stealing" by recording from UA-cam. Copyright has gotten way out of hand, far too protective of even long-dead creators.
The crazy part to me is bands like Metallica got their start by people sharing recordings of their club shows and without that they may have never took off, now they want to sue for listening to their songs in the next car, lol.
The RIAA was hardly just "fine" with making mix tapes. They fought for a tax on each blank cassette sold after they failed in an effort to minimize the efficiency of music recording. The Brits had their own thing going, cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*0BP4ttnCAtEbKQ-BO_p3MQ.jpeg but as with the RIAA did not get a blank cassette tax though several European countries did create such a tax.
The RIAA have always been fighting music share, this is hardly new and their fight just moved to the next media and source of piracy.
It's also interesting how people equate sharing a few songs socially with sharing and distributing entire music libraries. While in both cases music is being recorded/copied but the intent and amount has changed greatly. There is a certain level of cognitive dissonance required.
In some music genres, like house, acid, and a few other EDM subgenres, "bootleg" mixes (and "mixtapes") are still a common thing, and are considered an honour by the artist when such a thing occurs. Still not the same as old-school mixtapes, but the same principle applies.
I could only hear a very small improvement from type I to type II, but from type II to type IV was a wow moment. I grew up in the tape to CD transition, did not know about metal tapes sounding so good. If you in for another shocker check out dbx on old school records, that was another wtf moment for me.
They also have DBX Tape decks I have a Technics with it built in. No hiss whatsoever,
macnerd93 RS-B100 sprung to mind. Ultimate RS-B series Technics deck. :-D
I had a friend that bought a Denon Metal tape in 1989. $10.00 for one blank cassette.
The jump from 1 to 2 is pretty significant too. It's like 1 didn't have any base, and then BAM! 2 hits you and you're like "Oh. This song has base?".
They sound even better than CDs specially those with dbx noise reduction
I still have a TON of CD's..AND who remembers"Is it live or is it Memorex"...(glass shatters)
I remember Memorex oxide flaking away. . . .
I used to be fascinated watching the tape reels spin and watching the interaction between the heads and tape. I remember marveling at how simple yet elegant the design and concept was.
5:46 "AC/DC BUILT IN" written on the cassette door, someone would think it has the Young brothers inside :)
7:56 Look there's a moth at the very right for a few seconds.
Also featured at 14:36 at the bottom left!
yes, at 7:59 from frames 28 to 33 there...looks the best on frame 31.
Tapes were fun, I had an odd fascination with the concept of recording things as a kid. Like recording TV shoes on VHS, or recording music off the radio, or even recording my own voice and making edits etc. I sorta still did it when we got our first computer and I would mess with the sound in sound recorder then record it back etc. Also had a Talk Boy which could do it. (like in Home Alone). I still have a tape recorder and some tapes somewhere in the basement, I should pull that stuff out one day to mess with it again for nostalgia. I remember having fun with VHS and video capture/edit/recording too. The idea of being able to edit something on computer and putting it on a tape to play on TV just seemed so cool at the time. Now days it's easier with digital media which we take for granted.
The nostalgia of seeing a tape run and hearing the music is enough in itself It's like when I opened up a case of floppy discs to upgrade my synth a few years ago. My entire body had a reaction to holding them. With that said... Type 4 tapes sound pretty good still ;)
Head alignment in auto reverse machines was always a problem with me, it got so bad once I refused to use the reverse mechanism one on of my cassette decks because of the drop off in high frequency. I think Nakamichi was bang on the money for refusing to use rotating heads.
Concern about head alignment is the reason that I purchased a single-direction cassette deck with three heads (erase, record, and playback), and ability to adjust the deck to the specific tape I was using. A little bit of preparation and a good source would give me very good results.
Solitaire001 what models like this u recommend?
That’s why you buy the Nakamichi RX-505, 3 head deck that auto reverses by flipping the entire tape...
It's hilarious to imagine a bunch of hot-shot, old timey business men being afraid that people will think they're unmanly for being able to type!
Reminds me of Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive, except men don’t read or write at all.
Not being unable to type, but viewing it as “beneath their station.” Like a Queen knowing how to repair trucks. Oh wait, there is one!
(As a young Princess during the war, she was one of the girls and women who staffed the army’s motor pool to free up men for fighting. Having the King’s daughters join in inspired many others.)
@@allanrichardson1468 Lol, was typing basically the same response when I noticed you saved me the trouble! ;)
Typing at the time was seen as making copies. The money was made in their business intelligence, relationships, finance abilities and negotiating skills. Typing something up was definitely not worth their time.
A big box of mechanical gadgets and buttons. And your company will give you one for asking.
I watch countless videos about technology but this is the first time I've rocked out to one.
Your videos are fantastic and utterly enjoyable.
i'm also a product of the 60's. i first used cassettes as a kid, around 1970, so i actually saw all of the developments you talked about. i even remember seeing the phrase "compact cassette" early on. in the late 80's, i went back to college (again) and got a degree in video and music business. in our first quarter audio tech class, the teacher explained how reel-to-reel tape recorders worked and how to properly use and maintain them for best results. i raised my hand and said "it's a wonder cassettes work at all." (he agreed with me.) the tape is both very narrow and very thin, and it travels at a very slow speed. you can't adjust the alignment of the tape heads (or anything), and although you can clean the transport and de-magnetize the heads, most people never do.
I never really had a problem with the sound quality of cassettes, it was the ever looming possibility of complete destruction any time I popped my favorite tape in the machine. That, and the stretching and warping and everything else that caused them to degrade the more you played them.
10072018 That shouldn’t happen if you regurarly clean your heads with isopropyl
yeah, i would never complain about sound quality on first play, but they were very easy to destroy. especially as a careless young child (who wouldn't even be allowed to touch the vinyl records)
That awefull sound when your favorite tape was being eaten.
@@xXcangjieXx
Yeah and rubbing alchohol can be bought almost anywhere.
type 3 were not a mixture of chrome and metal, they were a mixture of type 1 and type 2
You are correct! Not until after reading your comment did the word "ferrochrome" come to mind. Thank you, it has been addressed in an annotation.
they werent a mixture of anything FeCr tapes had their own formulation
They were a mix. The problem was that they had layers, and the top layer would start to wear off after repeated use.
J R
A lot of chromedioxide tapes are layered. Yes the layer pealed off in some occasions, but that wasn't the cause of it's obsolescence. The real problem was that the market never accepted type III (or way too slow) and manufacturers didn't implement proper bias settings for ferrochrome tapes...so it just never took off.
I recall type III tapes were recorded in the normal position but played back in the chrome position. There also were prerecorded chrome tapes that were played back on the normal position.
It seems that the two components of improved tape quality were noise and higher frequency response ability. The metal tapes didn’t seem to have any less noise the chromium dioxide, but they could definitely carry much higher frequency ranges with ease.
Out of all the cassette tapes I’ve seen since I started collecting them, I’d say at least 60% of them were ferric-oxide and 30% were chrome. I have seen a handful of metal tapes (maybe 5 or 6), but only one ferric-chromium tape. The latter two command high prices, at least $20 a pop, with the metal ones being sought after for there sound quality whereas the ferric-chrome tapes are more so collectors’ items.
Got a couple of BASF type III's. They stay here...
this video makes me want to get all my tapes out of storage....
My 2001 pickup truck had a tape deck in it. I had it until 2013 and still used the tape deck. My wife used to make fun of it. My newer truck of course doesn't have one. I kind of miss it, actually. I have old tapes from the 80's and 90's that were still fun to listen to, poor sound quality and all...with the exception of the few "metal" tapes I have, which actually still sound pretty good.
Your partner threw them away years ago.
I am almost 16 and I grew up on em and I will never stop using them as my favorite audio medium.
Now there's something I used extensively. Hours upon hours spent recording stuff from the radio, even when CDs became a thing.
Dammit Technology Connections, you're going to get me spending money on retro tech again. ;u;
I had a car-battery charger hooked up to a car stereo (bare) "tape deck" on the floor of my empty grandpa's house when I was in middle school (with fairly decent speakers, I guess). I had a key to go there after school and enjoy my mix tape of Thomas Dolby's "Golden Age of Wireless", where I had replaced any songs I could with extended versions from vinyl. I'd listen to that almost every day, after walking home from school. My house was next door so after I had gotten my fix, I'd finally go home. (My Dad would sometimes need the battery charger, but he would always put it back there, because he knew I loved that tape and knew my habit.)
Cool explanation on the bad rap for cassettes. I had way too many cassette decks. Nakamichi, Tandberg, Teac, Tascam, Marantz, JVC, Sony to name a few. I loved them. Hated them too sometimes. Hassle to bias them precisely so the Noise Reduction would track correctly. dbx type 2 was my Noise reduction of choice. Way more powerful than Dolby ever could be. It also meant any non linearity in the process was doubled up. My favorite cassette deck of all time would be the Tandberg TCD-3014. $4500.00 before it went bye bye. My Tandberg would slay a Nak Dragon anyday. The Teac V-3080s was crazy good. Revox B-710 was a contender, as was the Harman Kardon Cassette decks too of the day.
Please note that type 2 tape could also include the Maxell UD XL2 and TDK SA which were Chrome equivalents. TDK used Super Avilyn, and the Maxell was Cobalt Gamma Ferric Hematite. In other words basically hot rodded or Doped Ferric Oxide using the 70 microsecond equalization, same bias spec as Chrome did. Chrome was very abrasive. As a matter of fact. DAT Head Cleaner tapes were nothing more than Chrominium Dioxide tape to clean the rotary head drum head gaps.
So the Chrome Equivalents, and the Type 4 were my favorites. I loved the Maxell for type 2, and the TDK MAR, and the Scotch Metafine Metal particle tape too, though the drop out rate could be problematic.
I am a big fan of reel to reels too. Had allot of those too. My favorite to date was my Otari MX-5050 mk.2. Amazing machine. Thanks for your video.
I had a deck with built-in dbx noise reduction. While I liked the results, the main disadvantage of dbx is that you had to listen to the tapes with dbx. With Dolby B, you can listen to the tapes without the noise reduction and they are listenable. With dbx, when you listened to the dbx tape without dbx, it would sound like the audio was coming from the bottom of a metal can.
I had an Advent tape deck. I don't remember the model.
This guy cassette tapes, , ,
So, the cassette tape is the product of 60's hippies, and nowadays it's a product consumed by hipsters. Cool! lol
You should have done the video and you should have kept the Tandberg . Love for cass decks always comes back . I hated Marantz and Revox because of their looks , didn't care how good they were.. Loved Technics , Yamaha , Nakamichi, Sansui , Pioneer , Alpine and some Sony's . When cassettes were hidden and lamps inside disappeared , my interest faded untill 9 years ago ..
I had no idea there was such a difference between tape types and quality. One of the best demos I have seen. Have been watching for a few evenings now and I have to say I love the take taken in each subject and how clearly it's explained. Thanks!
As much as I loved the cassette tape growing up, putting music on it was a hassle. It was easier for my dad to burn a CD and use one of those cassette tape to AUX cable adapter to play music in the van while we were on the road. And the quality well it was good for the time.
The biggest problem with the cassette format was the slow speed causing severe dulling of the treble when going from one deck to another if the head azimuth was the slightest bit off. It was important to adjust the azimuth on all your playback decks to match the one you were making your recordings on. Dolby noise reduction (especially Dolby C) magnified the dulling of treble due to azimuth problems. Recording on a high-end deck and playing back on that same deck totally hid this problem.
3Cr15w311 That is why we have the Nakamichi Dragon's NAAC; to correct the alignment of all tapes.
That Type 4 tape sounds amazing. There was so much more in the music. Indistinguishable from modern formats.
I loved to record music from the radio on my cheap type I cassettes. We only had like six Type IV metal cassettes me and my sister recorded digital music from the old computer to those just for fun, back in the late 90's. Good times.
Love the old school MCS brand tape deck. My first component system was an MCS from JC Penny. Amplifier, turntable, cassette deck, and speakers.
As technology has changed, a lot of our tools and devices no longer have a "soul." Touch screens and menu-driven controls are infinitely useful, but it gives them an intagible quality. There is no satisfaction one gets when physically pressing buttons, turning knobs or adjusting sliders. Maybe it's because there is a stronger causal connection between action/reaction when you have to exhert energy to manipulate physical controls... Either way, I think the 70s through the 90s were the golden age of device controls.
You've put in words the feelings I had a hard time describing. Having a physical thing feels infinitely better, even if more cumbersome. The tactile feedback of the buttons and the mechanisms are more engaging. Heck even keyboards nowadays have far less tactile feedback (outside of the mechanical crowd)
Someone who says that cassette tapes sound terrible must've had a cassette deck with Dolby NR and listened non Dolby cassettes with Dolby NR on.
Or severely misaligned azimuth. That was always the main culprit when exchanging cassettes.
For me, it was extremely crappy type 1 tapes paired with a cheapo deck. Our Sony deck broke way back. Also, I had some perfectly mastered CDs to compare the sound quality to.
Even then, same of my best albums were remastered to cd from tape.
Or most likely is 12 years old and never really heard them back in the day and got his opinion from watching troll videos on youtube that play decayed ferro tapes on decks with filthy heads to prove their point. ;)
Meh, they were good enough. But Today’s low end consumer stuff blows anything that I could have obtained at 15 out of the water.
I remember in college many people would bring a tape recorder to class and either record the lecture from their desk or place the recorder on the professor's desk (and get it at the end of class). I occasionally would do this to help study by reading my notes and maybe in the car listen to the lecture again. I wished then how cool it would be if speech to text would have existed to play the recorded lecture to printed (and saved) notes.
This brings me back, to me a Chrome cassette was always more than good enough if you had a good deck
Nothing like hot synth lines on tape, thank you
That tape comparison was AMAZING
I love the fact that you changed your audio for a few seconds! It really helped demonstrate the quality!
When I was a kid I couldn't even tell the difference in sound quality from my tapes from my cd's. I just figured it was a convenience thing not sound. Mind you most of the tapes I used weren't very old but still.
I still use these on a regular basis. Love the sound and versatility. Still have dozens of blanks that are sealed.
I don't use my cassettes much anymore (Spotify rules). But I kept many of them, including a few who are unused blanks.
Tape technology improved greatly through the 70s and 80s. Most people don't realise that by the early to mid 80s, most cassette decks using metal tapes had higher fidelity than the most expensive turntables. The problem was that there were not many high quality pre recorded tapes and CDs had even better fidelity and were more convenient in use. It always seems odd to me that people who for whatever reason prefer "analog" media gravitated to the lower fidelity LP record rather than cassette tape or even HI FI VHS causing their ultimate demise. I suppose they don't have the large artwork which is the main attraction of vinyl records.
Hi TC!
I was just amazed by watching your videos!!! You brought back my childhood memories alive. As a 90s' kid in Sri Lanka, I was lucky to mess up with all sorts of cassette players, even though the technology is a luxury in my part of the world. Specially in 1995, my brother had a full logic control deck by Kenwood. I was staring at that machine for hours and hours just to see how it automatically change the side of the cassette and the very first LCD analyzer of my life. Thanks for bringing those good old memories back ☺️
I love the way each video has practical examples incorporated. I appreciate the extra editing time that takes, the ones used for humor are great too.
That was a very thorough comparison of the different cassettes available. Thanks for your hard work! I had no idea there was such a difference, and no idea a cassette could sound so good.
This is my favorite video so far :) Enjoyed the tape comparison, I don't think many people would spend the time editing the video so seamlessly as this!
Ah, I remember seeing some tapes with the center notches. Never knew what they were. The Type II notches were actually fairly common back in the day.
I have a JVC KD-A77 tape deck, which has the option to record on type III tapes. This feature was removed from all decks by 1983, so that helped me pinpoint its release to around 1979/80, though sources seem to vary. I have also seen one type III cassette out in the wild, but it was used and going for far more than I would personally pay for a tape.
Thanks Alec!
My school friends and I made awesome mixtapes. When auto-reverse became a big thing, we filled the entire cassette with music.
On some tapes, there might have been two minutes worth of blank tape left unused. Morally we would have FF’d to the end, flipped the cassette and pressed play.
Instead we filled those two minutes with a favourite track lasting three minutes, with a clever edit.
We would record the LP track on to the tape, then stop the recording at a predetermined location using the Pause button. It usually meant rewinding a little as we always overshot the stopping point.
Then we’d reset the track using the tone arm of the turntable and when the LP track reached the point where the track continued, we’d release the pause button and if all went well, there was a seamless transition cutting out several dozens of seconds from the track.
The very best edits were ones where the percussion continued at the same pace.
Now to get the same type of edit, you need software to load the track and get it queued up and then cut the portion you don’t want.
But then why do it? Modern music ‘players’ don’t have ‘two minutes of blank tape’ at the end. They have megabytes of space.
Same thing. Empty tape or MB. Still the same entropy defying shitbthat won't last long ( in the grand scheme of things )
Thanks for another great video. I use tape on a regular basis for multirack recording. Its incredible how Tascam was able to fit 8 tracks of mono audio on to a single piece of 1/4" tape while keeping the audio quality high
What a fantastic video !! I grew up reading and hearing these terms and never really understand their value until now. Thanks for taking the time to make this video , absolutely fascinating.
So much high quality content into each of your videos , thank you
Just found this channel recently. Keep up the good work!
BTW, music was still distributed on cassettes in India in 2000s, because lots of people couldn't afford CD player.
Videoman2000 Cassetes are making a comeback in the US with small bands releasing their albums on them.
Tiberiu Nicolae Eh, I don’t think they catched on.
You could still get a lot of new releases in the USA on cassette until around 2003. Those releases today can be fairly valuable since so few people were buying tapes by then.
The comparison section is beautifully edited. Its a work of art.
My parents bought me my first cassette tape recorder for Christmas in 1970. It was a Craig brand, all-plastic with a white and green molded-plastic case with a carrying handle at the top. It came with a 30-minute cassette (15 minutes each side). I used it to record everything: my family's voices, our pets barking and meowing, people telling jokes, my junior-high band concerts, sports (Mets/Knicks fan here), Top 40 radio, the comedians Bob and Ray off of WOR-AM, etc. One day I got an idea to record the Apollo moon mission off of the TV--my 12-year-old mind thought, these recordings could be worth money some day! So I recorded all the missions from Apollo 14 (Jan/Feb 1971) up through Apollo 17 (Dec 1972). Then Skylab and ASTP.
That little machine got so much use, eventually the motor began to wear out. I could tell because the playback sounds would get fast, then slow, then just right, and then fast, slow, etc. As soon as that machine was history I got another one, but for the life of me I can't remember what it looked like. I know I had a Panasonic "desktop" model at some point--that must have been it. But I'll always remember that Craig! (I've tried to find an image of it on the Internet with no luck.) And oh, BTW--I still have all the cassettes I've ever used--including that first C-30.
This is great thanks - I’ve loved cassettes since I got my first recorder for xmas in 1969. A lasting format and have playground interviews done in 1970. Still use them for recording voice including micro-cassettes, sound quality is better than any digital recorder I’ve tried.
I just picked up a nice vintage Akai deck. I'm really enjoying getting back into cassettes!
I dug up my dad's old Nakamichi CR-1A, bought some Joe Satriani cassettes, and sweet Christ, it sounds absolutely incredible. So much detail I couldn't hear on vinyl!
That tape comparison was amazing. I didn't even know that metal tape was a thing.
And THANK YOU for adding the link to where to find that song. It was quite catchy!
Actually, the Type III mixed Ferric and Chromium, and was actually pretty good as it combined the good bass response of Ferric with the good frequency response of Chromium. And although they were failed experiments, some high end machine did support them.
In the the early 80's I got tired short life of cassettes - tape stretch. So, I would buy records for a master and copy to cassettes. I wish I had the knowledge of this video back then.
Ah, blank cassette media. I remember the most common brands were Memorex, Maxell, and TDK. The TDK metal tapes were always the best, but very expensive! I still have a few of them. They were a cool opaque steel gray colour and looked super modern for the time.
I still have my old mixtapes sitting on my entertainment center, where they've been sitting since the 90s and early 2000s, and most of them were TDK, with a handful of Maxells. The TDKs were definitely a cut above, but worth the extra price. I played a few of my old ones earlier this year, and even the 20-year-old tapes still sounded just fine.
Nakamichi did, in fact, employ a 4 track head in their Dragon model in which two tracks were muted depending on the tape direction. The Dragon also incorporated the NAAC (Nakamichi Auto Azimuth Correction) system to compensate for alignment discrepancies - the playback head’s yaw was varied automatically by a motorized mechanism. The resultant audio was analyzed and the head’s final position was determined when the flattest frequency response was detected. Very expensive engineering indeed - especially for the early 80’s. As was mentioned, there were subsequent models (such as the RX-505) which physically flipped the tape around as this was deemed to be a less complex solution to the tape alignment problem.
First CD I ever owned...Faith No More "The Real Thing" (1989). First tape I ever owned...Phil Collins "No Jacket Required" (1985). First Vinyl lp ever owned, Soundtrack to the "Muppet Movie" (1979).
An interesting progression of music styles. And yes, I still own all 3 items and all are still functional.
I have no jacket required, it’s terrible
That was amazing to see how different the peak levels were between the 3 tapes. I still like to use a Tascam 4-track recorder, and although I can see that digital recording has all the advantages, I still love the way things come out on tape. One takes and little surprises all seem to add to a feel that gets sterilized in digital recording for me... At least when artists try to auto-tune everything off-key, and arrange the songs to final without having the skill to play it that way.
Just watched this a second time(many years seperated) I've dived deep down this rabbit hole since then and would love for you to revisit this topic. Thanks, as always!
Not to mention, we need to clean tape-heads with every 10 hours of playback or so. This would maintain sound quality and also would keep the tapes from gathering sound-smothering dirt in the long run.