Cassette Tapes: A Worthy Comeback? Use, repair and cleaning...
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- Опубліковано 11 лип 2024
- **time stamps below**
The cassette tape was invented in 1963. This era still saw the use of steam trains, horrible underpowered cars, and some homes still had no internal bathroom.
This was the future of music sharing and convenience: a tough package and a cheap way of consuming music without the bulk of a record player, and the ability to record. You could record anything, from bootlegging concerts to the local church service. Music could be smuggled into countries where pop was banned, and secret agents could send messages using them..
We had hundreds of tapes when we were kids, and I still have a few of jam sessions I recorded over 30 years ago. The tapes still play perfectly...
0:00 introduction
0:44 a brief explanation of cassette history and versus other formats
3:28 the cassette and the machine
4:35 recording a WAV file onto a cassette, and playback. A normal recording level set.
6:47 recording onto the cassette with a level that is too high. Distortion, fuzziness. Lovely!
7:46 recording onto the cassette with a level that is too low. Hiss....
8:44 Dolby NR - noise reduction, types B and C. Recording lower levels with Dolby C. Play back with and without Dolby.
10:12 the different types of tape: Normal (Type I), Chrome (Type II) and Metal (Type IV)
11:20 A broken tape, and taking the cassette apart and fixing the tape.
17:56 Playing the broken (and now fixed) cassette
18:40 The Machine and its parts. Cleaning the heads and pinch roller.
Enjoy and Share!
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iPods can play days of music on digital formats like MP3 etc But it is rather dull, lifeless bodiless digitalised compressed sound encoded on chips. I have many cassettes tapes from the 1970s to 1990s. I listen to them on a vintage cassette player cleaned, demagnetised and lubed and calibrated with Dolby NR OFF. They sound amazing like being in a concert hall or a studio with realistic punchy low frequencies.
I still have well over 500 cassettes I recorded back in the 80s - so many different brands but my preferred choice was typically TDK-SAX90 which I'd buy in boxes of 10. The bulk of them were recorded on a Luxman K-112 deck...usually from vinyl. And they still sound great today. They've been stored in a dry cedar-lined room for decades with low humidity. The oldest tape I still own that I recorded goes back to 1972 (recorded on a Phillips cassette)...and it'll still play! We've sure come a long way, tho. My current vehicle doesn't even have a CD player - just a USB slot for a memory stick. I'm 58.
So easy and the most economic way of handing out our music to the fans at our gigs, along with the homemade silk screen T shirts 😄
I love watching videos on tape etc. Thanks for this interesting upload.
Amazing review! 🤩Thanx!
I like blank cassette tapes. I still use them.
There was no comeback as far as I am concerned as they never went away.
Cassettes are great.
You make really great videos my friend, thanks for doing this
Great stuff Dan, cheers --
I have fixed these tapes in a similar fashion, back in the day.. what a fiddly process,
This video brought back all sorts of bad memories 🤣
I remember all the hype when CDs were coming out 🤔
UA-cam just recommended this video after two years. Great info and well presented. I just got back into cassettes after playing CDs and my iPod. I still use records as well. They all have their advantages. Just a couple of things about the video. Use splicing tape. It won’t turn yellow, ooze adhesive or dry up and fall off. You also put it on the wrong side unless you did it right and I missed it. Cut each end on an angle and tape goes on the side away from the head (inside). Also, skip using Dolby. After decades, the circuitry probably needs to be adjusted to work well. B is roughly universal but a bit less effective. C needs to be played back on the same deck it was recorded on or sounds lousy and S is the best but few decks had it and the ones that did were expensive. Instead, get a 3 head deck with bias and record level calibration knobs and monitor the recording on the fly. It’ll sound as close to the source if you get the adjustments just right and run the level a bit higher with Dolby off to reduce hiss. Get a good tape like that SA and distortion will be low.
Cassettes are actually really robust and can be replayed many, many times before any noticeable degradation occurs. (I think VWestlife did a video about that recently.) I have ordinary ferric cassettes from 40 years ago that still sound superb, despite their age and frequent use.
Most people's woes with cassettes would ultimately have been their own fault, for the reasons highlighted in this video - poorly maintained equipment, use of cheap cassettes and bad recording techniques the chief culprits. In the hands of a skilled operator they sound fantastic and can even enhance the source material.
I remember as a young child jamming a bit of tissue underneath the spring of the cassette to get better contact with the heads! Yes I still listen to cassettes I had 30+ years ago and I’ve never transferred them to digital as I love the experience of using the machine to listen to them...
I even have several pirated cassettes that my parents would buy in Mexico and unlike many pirated cds we bought in Mexico the cassettes still work while the cds are rotted
Compact Cassette is crap! was crap and will always be crap
why you need crap?
normally ferric tapes are more reliable and endure more the passage of time ,as an example first 5 years of the 80´s the UR and UL from Maxell the BASF LH-EXTRA-I with window, Sony HF, TDK D and AD also AD-X all sound good today and don´t get the heads dirty, as it happens with BASF Maxima I or LH-SUPER I or PHILIPS of any kind or AGFA´s or SCOTCH, etc.
"These CDs 💿 will self-destruct in ten years!"
I wonder if the newer Mission Impossible movies have moved onto CDs 💿
Amazing little pieces of technology.. robust too.. still have boxes of ideas, rehearsals, jams, gigs waiting to be rediscovered.. luckily I’ve still got 2 tape decks tucked away that I know will play them on first press.. it’s a blast to plug one in + hit play + not really know what’s coming.. pleasant surprises galore.. 😁 Some things just sound “right” when played back from a cassette.. Wish I still had my Fostex X-15 4-track.. 😞 ☹️
Great video Dan…like a lesson from the History Channel 👍🏼
Cheers for watching!
Sounds pretty warm and I like the mid range ...
Nice video
nice videos, it´s subscribed mr.Dan Backer
Just listening SKC CD Cassette , Pure Chrome. Recorded Al Jarrau tonight. It sounds so sweet. You have to be carefull , because pure chrome tapes are so delicate with level. But when you manage to get level sensitivity and bias correct, it is so special.
once i knew a much older guy than i and he had a incredible record colection and i didn´t had enough money at the time to buy good cassettes i tried some SKC chrome with golden stickers ,my surprise that after 38 years they sound perfect and are well assembled not destroying the decks, i bought 40 C90 SKC chrome and later in late 80´s i bought some more modern ones and still sound perfect today
I still have a whole box of tapes. I'm glad I didn't throw them away. Chrome tapes, even the SA blanks, are really expensive now. I prefer a more bassy Sony HF for pop and hiphop tracks, but for a more subtle music SA chromes are far better. Tape material acts as a realy cool eq.
There are numerous artists releasing albums on cassettes by the way. Also, many of the 80s bands are re-releasing as well.
Every CD I ever owned ended up with a scratch. EVERY ONE. I don't have CDs any more, but I do have cassettes. Hopefully the return of physical media will pressure streaming companies to start actual paying artists fairly. Digital is convenient and can sound good, but there have been negatives for sure.
And cassettes we’re on the way out in mass by the mid-1990s.
As far as setting recording levels is concerned, you demonstrated it as I experienced it.
Bring back the deck & cassette play
Tascam announced that they are planning to produce chrome cassettes again. This is because the Porta studio's are becoming very popular at the moment.
Totally. Audio quality is of course much lower than computer, but the workflow is reminiscent of the good old days of working on a tune and making decisions along the way...
also maybe because 30 to 40 years old chrome cassettes are being sold for more money than a recorded original cd ,but pre-recorded cassettes are bad ,have around 16 pre-recorded all sounded good but today after a few seconds they dirt the heads, this because in the past the cost was the same as a vinil record wich you can copy to a better cassette and enjoy the record at home or keep it till one can aford a good turntable and record to cassette at a friends house like i did for so many friends of mine that only had a portable cassette player with one speaker(boomy boxy)
Still the best and easiest way to record radio programmes. I also still have my mint condition Tascam 244 four track Portastudio.
I also recall having to de-magnetize the playing heads (magnets) it was a tedious process --
Did high end studios back in the day do anything or record differently to compensate for the possible listening public who were to potentially buy the cassette ? I wonder ...
Nice demo and explanation Dan! Almost funny, if you grew up with these devices, this was second nature, but have to realize a couple of generations have never seen this LOL
Back in the day, had a TEAC model, with those fascinating lighted, analog, real VU METERS!! Haha And conservation-wise? How about the cassette that spews the broken tape out your dashboard in the car LOL Repair them??? Nah, toss out the mess onto the highway........ just sayin'
Great information! I have to admit that playing around with cassettes, related gear and the decks is a lot of fun and could be a lot of fun for many people. However.......you can't beat the convenience and overall great sound quality of modern digital music whether its streaming from somewhere or stored on a device. I would bet that for the average person today, they wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a digital file and a cassette recording. They would also soon be fed up with all the idiosyncrasies of dealing with recording and playing cassettes. And as soon as one of their tapes were "eaten" by their cassette deck, game over.
Its a shame today that most people listen to music over tiny headphones with tiny speakers or in their vehicle where the listening environment is less than ideal. Bring back the days of where your stereo system took up half of a wall somewhere in your house.
Thanks!
never knew a digital format with better sound excluding the DAT tapes
I still have probably hundreds of these things but with only an old Sony Walkman to play them on (Remember the yellow sports Walkman? Yup, that one - still works!)
Ahh yes, the waterproof one. You were definitely a ladies man with one of those bad boys.
@@bpedleyjazzguitarist Oh yeah, those big ugly yellow things were a real chick magnet. Just not the right ones.
And if it stops to work, you can still get replacement belts for it.
I saw one of those yellow sports Walkmans in a recent music video.
One tip for repairing a minor scratch or two (not deep) on a CD is to spread a dabble of toothpaste on the affected area, rub it in lightly with a lint free or cotton fibre cloth, and let it dry. Once the paste has dried, clean your CD with either a lightly dampened cloth or one with cleaning fluid (going from edge to edge while turning the disk slowly by hand), making sure all traces of toothpaste are removed, then let it dry for 30 seconds. If done correctly, some of the toothpaste will have been absorbed into the scratch(es) and the laser on the CD player will read the surface of the disk as though it was never scratched. How do I know this technique works? I've used it myself on about 7 CD's so far (in as many years).
Excellent and very thorough video, Dan. And of course ABBA released a new album after 40 years and guess what, it came out on cassette too and Elvis Costello's latest album too. Have been enjoying popping them into my Walkman along with audio books. Listening to spotify depends on signal and data and for bus journeys I love to pop in a tape and head out
I've never heard a commercial pre-recorded cassette that sounded good, especially with classical music.
awesome
Dear Dan,
Totally enjoyed every moment of your brilliant tutorial. All the music I listen to is on cassette tapes. I have a large collection of pre recorded tapes that I record over with what I like to listen to. Sometimes I can still hear the original faintly sound ruining my fresh recording. Does that mean the tape is damaged from time or something else, and it cannot be salvaged? Any advice appreciated. Many thanks from across the pond in New Rochelle N.Y. All the best Bruce the swimmer.
The sound in the background is a natural limitation of analogue tape recording technology, but if it’s quite bad, then your erase head may not be working properly. If you disconnect the erase head altogether, you can actually record sound in addition to what was there before.
@@DanBakerMusic I believe it was the tape. Recorded over other cassetts and did not get backround sounds from original recording. Thank you for your reply, and all the best Bruce.
One no-no when cleaning the rubber pinch wheel is you must not use any cleaning fluid that contains alcohol, alcohol degrade this rubber material. The safest method of cleaning the rubber oinch wheel is to use a mildly warm solution of water plus a very small and weak addition of washing-up liquid. Then clean off this solution using clean water, afterwards, then allow to dry. Alcohol cleaning products are OK to clean the metal pinch parts though.
I thought this too originally, but when I worked for EMI and cleaning their 2” Studer machines, it was always the case that the pinch roller was cleaned with alcohol...
@@DanBakerMusic Oooooow, the days of EMI does bring back memories, I did my apprenticeship with them back in the early 1970's. Personally I keep well clear of using alcohol on any rubberised component with reference to tape machines. It would be an interesting exercise to carryout by placing an old rubber pinch wheel in a small air tight container, containing IPA, just to see if the IPA changes colour by going dark, yes, an interesting exercise to carry out....have you got an old pinch wheel ?
blank tapes, brand new cassettes - Yes !
gotta come back, -
Wait that music you recorded is my own theme song, how did you get that, joking great video my friend
NOT true . Cassettes are not necessarily inferior to CD's . Especially if you record them on a good tape deck using metal bias cassettes. Back in the day I used to record vinyl and CD's into tapes using Technics and NEC gear . When I used TDK metal tapes for recording , the sound was equal to or superior to the source . I still have many tapes that were recorded back in the 1980's and they still sound amazing .
I suppose it comes down to what you like. Yes, CDs for me become utterly useless with one large scratch, whereas cassettes last for years! There is however a consideration with type IV cassettes in that the tape heads can wear out more quickly. I agree though with the sentiment that they can sound great.
this guys using some cheap dual cassette deck, my NAK goes higher then a cd in freq response and doesn't have wow and flutter lol most of my friends can't tell I'm playing a tape when it's type 2
@@DanBakerMusic tape heads wearing out more quickly with Type IV formulations is a thing of the past. That myth formed when Type IVs first hit the market in the late 70s. These were more like fine-grit sand paper that were shaving off the omnipresent (and sonically inferior) soft ferrite heads of the era in no time. With tape formulations improving and the dawn of sendust or amorphous heads in the early-to-mid 80s, increased wear was a thing of the past. Remember: R-DAT used the very same Type IV base material and had head drums usually rotating at 2000 RPM and premature wear on their heads only occured in dusty environments with dirty heads and/or with a back-tension that was too high.
There was one similar thing that could prematurely damage tape heads, though: closed-loop dual capstan machines that were dirty or had worn-out pinch rollers. The higher tension in the closed loop could press the tape harder against the head so higher wear would occur.
@@owenjbrady Yeah, I have a Sony 909ES Dolby S machine. Properly calibrated with a good Type IV and recording levels not too high to avoid THD, this thing can give my DAT decks a run for their money.
@@DanBakerMusic i also think that cassettes as the metal master from sony or the old ES and the tdk-ma-xg ,also have 3 MX from maxell when they had a black casing were very good but the first two ,i think they are the best, but they do wear out more rapidly the heads ,i know guys that have the considered best decks in the world and only use type I cassettes but as all there are type I cassettes that sound maybe better than some chrome cassettes like the HF-ES from sony and till 86 the maxell UR. from TDK ,the AD or AD-X or AR, but i mostly use TDK sa-x and sony UX-pro this in a pioneer CT-939mkII and the CT-959, 979 also in the NAKAMICHI the CR-7 or ZX-9(older model-1982) but i own several other decks like the DENON DRM-800a or 700a wich are both great the diference is one using amourphous heads and other not ,like the first and last models i refer from pioneer, the sound especially good the ones i refer ,i made the blind test to several friends with the cassette or the cd and all choose the cassette as being the cd sound, regards
Hey, I really like that music with the drum machine and guitar. It's your original? Where can I listen to it? Nice video by the way!
i do jam a lot with a guitar and a drum machine when my friends are not available to play
Had the same Sony metal tape broken a few days ago and it took some time to get it out of its sealed housing and put it in a new housing while the only possibility was to destroy the housing, it was a hell of a job, connected both parts with a piece of tape aswell. The new housing had to be adapted with some holes also.
Audiocassettes can sound marvelous if you have a good machine and a good tape, my pioneer CT-W606DR from 1997 with its calibration possibility does a very good job.
Some problems with old tapes from another deck (the heights) caused by aging? or wrong headalignment? or both? Aging is worst with the Scotch high energy tapes....only takes 20 seconds to make the heads dirty. The grey ones from Scotch,the chromes don't have that problem but aren't that good.
Cassette tape is back I got my own collection from hip hop rap mad tape I use to buy had it on my closet for years yazz salsa n rock n roll classical music I just took out my revox tape deck it sound beautiful had it on my closet for years too I started using tape back I got recording tape too I use to mix when I use to DJ hip hop rap recoding a lots of mix tape it sound good too still got my denon too I love those tape deck 👍😎
fail english class ?
I have scratched cds and they still play fine
It does depend on the machine: portable ones will often play scratched discs where a hifi deck won’t: the error correction circuits in a portable machine have to be much better to cope with being moved while the disc is playing. One big scratch and the disc is knackered though. Scratches on the label side are worse...
Still got a twin cassette deck somewhere... 🤪
There are many current artists that release their music on cassette tape.
Have you not been keeping up?
It's always been about the machinery. A great deck could make a cheap house brand tape sound way better than it deserves. But most people didn't own top of the line equipment. Top of the line tape decks were something you might find in a boutique hifi shop. Otherwise what you'd find in big box stores was low to mid range quality, who's quality was quite dependent on the quality of the blank tape. Back in the day, that could easily have been remedied with high quality blanks; something that is no longer available other than new-old stock that goes for 'collector money'. So, as you can see, this is not a an inexpensive hobby. Unless you're talking about high-end blank cassettes or high-end tape decks, or both, your not going to replicate the sound quality demonstrated on many YT videos. And this is coming from a guy who once had a great tape deck and used high end blanks. I ditched tapes, switched to CD-Rs and never looked back.
Inferior or not, I still like this format - hiss and all. Tape hiss, much like vinyl crackle, adds a bit of nostalgia.
three heads ,you can monitor the recording or hear the recording while it´s being done and if necessary correct what might sound better if calibrated better
but there are dual capstan decks that aren´t auto-reverse ,mention that and why ,it would stay fine if you wanted to describe the use of cassette and why didn´t you show more of the song in the repaired SA from tdk ,it would give the feeling that it as an excelent sound?
the ipod it was a success when released i have only one friend that had the ipod completelly organised but after a few years it become forgoten and cassettes no matter the size they can have a very good sound and compared with reels was a more handy format , the only problem with cassettes is that almost no one took care of them with the minimum attention to it´s limits regarding it´s phisical limitations but it was a very good format and had success more than any other format , today one can record a cd and sometimes the cassette sounds more dynamic than the cd it was recorded from, but pre-recorded cassettes are in my opinion not worth to be re-released
the physical format (in this case the cassette) has some advantages over streaming.
1) When you buy a cassette, you contribute to the artist's production chain.
2) the cassettes come with special sleeves, the exclusive lyrics or images of the band.
3) when you buy a cassette, the music belongs to you (not copyright) because you can play it whenever you want without commercials or interruptions.
4) Cassettes can sound almost indistinguishable from a record, as long as the media is in good condition or you have a good player.
5) the cassettes resist more than one would believe, I have cassettes that are more than 40 years old, that were collecting dust, near humidity, that have been dropped or played multiple times, and even so, they continue to sound impeccable.
6) the added value of the physical format is associated with touch, to materialize the abstract of music, the sound waves are recorded on an electromagnetic tape, and for some, that is magical.
7) in cassette format you can find music or records that are not in digital format.
8) tape type 1 cuts the treble, which (personally) strains the ear less, that is to say that when I listen to music in "better resolution" it tires my ear, I can rarely listen to more than two records a day (in digital), while on cassette I can listen all day.
9) for the mere fact of collecting and "hunting" cassettes + aesthetics.
10) YOU MUST LISTEN TO THE WHOLE CASSETTE, lately we are very lazy when listening to music, we look for an artist's hit, and we listen to it once, we get bored and jump to another song (basically, we are treating the music as an instagram post, degrading the effort and work of the artist to record an album) therefore, when you listen to an entire album forcefully, you realize hidden gems that, by staying with the hit, go unnoticed.
11) As a founder of a band, there is no comparison between selling a CASSETTE and handing it to a fan, than an album that sounds the same as on spotify, or simply showing a QR to direct them to streaming.
12) and best of all, YOU DON'T NEED INTERNET, A SPOTIFY OR APPLEMUSIC ACCOUNT. you take out the cassette, put it in the walkman or the deck and that's it, press play and enjoy.
Totally!
never notice type I cassettes cutting the treble, i think the reverse is more acurate ,they have a limit of frequencies compared tchrome cassettes and highs disguise that, also depends on the player and the use one gives to it
That is good thing because with that the cassettes can't be included in the Loudness wars like CDs can.
the numbers are there for a reason but in a good deck even with low volume no hiss without dolby,and recorded with dolby and play it without dolby it increases the hiss but also the high-frequencies, but the metal tape you show are bad ,for one reason they were sold cheaper than the UX-S chrome cassette from Sony, the type IV XR and XS. in the repair of the tape you need to cut the destroyd part before joining them or will dirt the heads each time you play it
I want to repair a tape but it don't have the screw is glue I would like to know how to take it out without messing up the tape n put it in one of those tape that got the screw
To open a glued cassette shell, knock out the record tabs, insert a suitable size flat head screw driver into the lug, hold the shell and twist the screw driver gently until the glue breaks. Repeat in the other lug. You should get a clean break this way.
@@christopherchadwick480 thank you 👍😎
If grandma wants to record the church service she can use her iPhone.
My pre recorded cassettes sound great
Minidisc should make the comeback over cassette, but that's my opinion... better quality, can record over and over with no quality lose.... and about the same time as a CD. I just found a cassette from 1985 when I was in 5th grade concert we did, wish I had a better quality recording back then. but I guess today a parent just might use their cellphone to record a children's concert....
Totally - today’s cell phones still aren’t up to the task. A cassette recorder with good mics and placement would still have the edge. I do agree that Minidisc was a missed opportunity - the CD should have been made like that - a protective case with album details on it..
And you’re mistaken about the longevity of the cassette tape, a format I was purchasing in the 1970s. If it is played continuously (every day) it will not survive 40 years, not even close. If you record on it, and store it in the proper temperature range, and do not play it every day, it might last 40 years. Maaaaybeee.
I’ve still got tapes that play after 40 years. They don’t sound as good quite possibly but they do work. Although it would be foolish to say they stand up in sound quality to CDs or LPs, the convenience and portability make it a design classic…
It's Azimuth adjustment that was the big problem with cassette. Back in the day I would keep my machine in alignment using reference adjustment tapes from Philips and Sony that had an 8Kz test tone on both stereo channels and you could adjust the azimuth until it produced even output on both stereo channels. The problem was that most other people's decks weren't in alignment. You would turn up to play your latest masterpiece to a friend only to have it sound like there was a blanket over one or both speakers. I think Minidisc was a great format and it should have been much more successful than it was - you could re-order and edit mix 'tapes', replace tracks that became tiresome and the sound quality was better than mp3. If it had a drawback it was that the editing menus on the decks was usually fiddley and complex. Nonetheless it was a great format that was a whole bunch better than cassettes and even better than written CDs in some ways. I still have three MD machines and they all still work great some twenty years on.
Too true about azimuth. I use my deck for playback only and get the screwdriver out to make it play in phase. I just use the phase meter in DAW (plus my ears!)
I know there where some Nakamichi decks, that could do the job with azimuth, with automatic system or by manual adjustment.
That TDK SA is NOT a chrome cassette it is a COBALT DOPED FERRIC cassette designed to work at the type two setting with 70 micro seconds equalisation!
I have the same machine as you, it a duplicator by Denon. If you want music search all you have to do is hold the play button while pressing either FF or RWD. Also these decks run HOT! NEVER record above +1 or it will sound like shit! It doesn't matter if it a normal, chrome, or metal tape, it will sound distorted. I've had this deck for close to 30 years and made 100s of tapes on it during high school and university (I had a side hustle).
i have 3 denon decks and they are good but not as you define them , above+1 reduces the hiss but i think i never had hiss on a denon deck, i own a DRM-700a , a DRM-800a also a 44 something MH maybe the source wasn´t good enough, the DRM-800a and the 44 something recorded hundreds of cassettes ,the only problem today is the letters on the keys vanished, i started to colect cassette decks in the 90´s first because lot´s of my friends gave them to me after starting to appear the first digital home recordings and also because i was in some periods of my life ,poor(with a porshe 928s in front of my door) and when finding them atractive some were impossible to get and with internet i could buy them all .In 2017 i had 47 cassette decks(all working perfect)there is a Tandberg i never saw one again but with less money i could buy a BMW 2002(second hand)in mint condition(had 7 ,all diferent types)
I saved all of mine.
Most scratches on CDs can be easily repaired.
I thought you might have trimmed a few millimeters of the damaged tape. Then that could have caused a skip in the recording.
It’s never going to end well whatever the break is!
Some good information, for those not in the know. My only criticisms are that (A) you used a plastic bodied cotton bud and (B) you seem to be extolling the virtues of plastics long term durability in that of the cassettes plastic case. Come on Dan, we have all got to help the planet! Otherwise a great explanation of old school consumer recording.
I haven’t bought a cassette for about 25 years. Not buying new ones is a good thing of course. The fact that you can use, re-use and the lifespan of a cassette is also a good thing.
The pack of cotton buds was bought in about 2003. As you can probably gather, I’m not a big user of things like this, but I understand and share your concern about the environment. The fact that we’re able to type on a device is down to the fact that African children pick lithium out of hillsides so we can use devices and buy electric cars that are then charged by burning coal.
Dan Baker Hi Dan, thank you for your positive response to my comment. I whole heartedly agree with you on the terrible African child labour point that you make. Yes we are all guilty too some degree of fuelling this terrible situation but it has become a global crime against our brothers. Hope that you understand, that I wasn't making a comment directly against you.
Carry on making your great informative videos and informing those that weren't around at the time, when these old school devices were!
Wel come ..cassates ....
From ..india...
By mistake Original song was erased and new song recorded. Now I wished to get back Original Song again?
Unfortunately there’s no way of undoing that!
Bring tapes back easy record method
I'm glad i've brought the Sony PCM M10 digital recorder. Which is way better than the Ipod.
Yes-the Sony stuff has always been good: used to have a DTC-1000 DAT recorder...
@@DanBakerMusic Back then i use to wanted to own a a Dat machine but it cost a arm and a leg. I guess having the M 10 is the make up for what i've missed out on back then.
Just don't use dolby. I know it's enticing, but no matter how close it is, there's always something missing. And it probably won't sound as good on another machine either. Dolby is the dark side.
On the same machine for record and playback, it works ok, but certainly not across machines…
@@DanBakerMusic I don't even think it should be used if you're going to playback on the same deck. Even with well calibrated levels with the record and playback being as even as you can get them. Some people don't seem to hear it, it can be very subtle, it can be very dependent on the music being played, but it does something bad to the sound. It closes it in, and it lowers the the volume in some of the high frequencies, especially if there is a lot else going on in the lows and mids. It makes the sound less "crispy", especially with very abrasive electronic sounds. Record a sawtooth tone with and without dolby, you'll see.
I gave up on dolby.
You need a BIC pen... How could you forget it??
I think you're mistaken its called dobbily 😀
Ya nevva recawd evvy metawl in Dubly
hi them edit blocks cost big money i made a video about the cassette decks the otari dp2700 did very well i putted it from here
would have been a big hit was the emails alot of them i worked with cassette just for a small time find out there 2 kind of tape SP LP 1/8 pancake tapes for cassette
to fill body of the cassette with i am a tapeline man and don't buy makes of tapes i buy the kond of pancakes and fill all my cassettes my self to size i need
and did you know you can have 7 1/2 ips inside a cassette deck i was service a deck and fond the unit would work alot faster the tascam 238
can do 7 1/2 ips easy o was taking out the old servo motor and went back to just a belt drive YES IT CAN BE DONE servo was allways playing up
after the new cap's in nice video
Es kommt nie wieder etwas zurück. Jetzt haben wir halt diesen Mp3 schrott. Es gibt Super Hifi. Aber die Masse mag halt diesen Klangschrott.
Record from iPad? On the tape? 😂 We use a turntable a good deck, Normal tape the king Tdk c90
Without any Dolby
The sound? We throw away the cd and the ipod
Not good ! Selotejp not outside !!!cassette ! Head 🤔. INside cassette 🙏
The sellotape is on the inside, so that it doesn’t come into contact with the heads...
On one hand, the limitations of cassettes have to be acknowledged. Yeah, they could sound decent under ideal circumstances, but those circumstances were rare and generally required expensive equipment to reproduce, which the average 80s-90s consumer wouldn't have bothered with. And even then, the best cassette wasn't quite as good as CD quality audio.
On the other hand, the cassette was transformative for portable music, music sharing, and customized listening experiences. The cassette was the most approachable mainstream format when it came to home recording. Push button DC Bias recorders maybe didn't produce the best result, but they did work. If you could play a song, you could copy it, lay out songs in whatever order you want, or even record your own. A 5 year old could figure it out.
For me, the spirit of the cassette lives on in modern digital field recorders like the Zoom H1N. These can do anything a cassette recorder can (and more) on paper, but do admittedly lose some of the charm.
sorry but in 63 there were much better cars than the new ones sold today ,check a classic cars site but in 63 it didn´t catch the attention of people,only in mid 70´s people start to use cassettes before there was the 8-track cartridges and the reels ,that is still a very good recording format, and the ipod output sound is very inferior to another format output, and that denon is not an example of a good deck even from denon and cd´s in the 80´s were made from a more resistant material and were more expensive ,i have 80´s cds that don´t even are bright of so many times it were cleaned ,than they start to make them of a cheaper material and prices came down to an half of what they cost in the 80´s but if one litle scratch and done ,if in the table of contents of the cd not one song you can play but i don´t understand guitars sound much better on cassettes than cds or any other digital format and i don´t use dolby because it is not a miracle but it cut the parts that have more hiss but in a good deck hiss doesn´t exist if the source is also clean of hiss, you should have tried to record from cd ,ipod is not good to record in a deck of cassettes and metal is for some the best tape ,in my opinion are not , and to brake a tape on a cassette it needs to be played on a non working cassette player ,at least not 100% good also the bad treatment some give to cassettes make them brake, a digital format like the ipod even an upgrade can destroy all music you own in a ipod, cassette it´s a much better format and i have cassettes since late 70´s that play perfect today but not all were perfect some cassettes were bad even when new, i totally don´t agree with you ,you seem to have hate against cassettes ,i myself don´t like pre-recorded cassettes, but to record are great maybe the best, regards
This is what bugs me about all these cassette naysayers.. Using crappy tape on a crappy deck- what did you expect? Invest in a high quality deck along with higher quality tape and the recording will be indecipherable from the original.
It’s nostalgic. Other than that, they are useless. I’ll take my minidisc recorder over any cassette deck with any tape bias formulation. No contest.
this is the worst cassete tape repair i ever see
When a cassette is broken, one has very little to work with!
Not a fan of cassette tapes. Glad they're gone and I'll never buy another. I have never had a cd fail but I couldn't count how many albums I lost to a stupid tape getting wound out inside a player and breaking. The sound quality is mediocre at best.
Yes - cheap machines will wreck tapes, but I still have tapes I made 30+ years ago. Yes - sound quality is not up to modern methods, but for me it’s the listening experience of effectively having to listen to a full album...
Mate it is crime to repair the tape using sellotape.
Next time use nail polish for god's sake.
It still works!
@@DanBakerMusic Im sure it works mate, but the proper way to fix this is to put the one part of the broken tape above the other (to join them covering one another for about 5-8mm) and before you do this to apply a very fine layer of nail polish on the one part of the tape (in-between the joinment) and just press them joinment lightly. After a minute or so this 'll give you a flexible fix, that ll never break again and ll never harm the heads. You just need to be a little careful the nail polish to remain only in-between the joinment (it's easy, just apply a fine layer of nail polish).
It's a very fast fix.
Cassettes were garbage in he in 1970 and still are
I think it’s the way that music was consumed rather than the quality. With a cassette, you had to listen to the whole album, unless you really wanted to try and search for a track. I bet cassette was very much welcomed back in the 1960s...