C.Crane VersaCorder quarter-speed stereo cassette recorder
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- Опубліковано 23 бер 2019
- A cheap and versatile cassette recorder with surprisingly good audio quality, plus the option to run at quarter-speed (15/32 IPS) for lo-fi recording of up to four hours of audio per side of tape. It was also sold as the Roberts C9950 in the UK (in silver color) and the Sangean QSR-1 in Europe.
Additional technical notes for those who care:
* At normal speed, it sounds better when recording on standard Type I tape; recording on Type II tape sounds a bit tinny (lacking bass). But at quarter speed, Type II tape definitely sounds superior.
* Of all the brands and models of Type II tapes I tried, Maxell XL II gave the best overall performance, so C.Crane was correct to recommend it. TDK SA and Fuji DR-II had higher wow & flutter and more dropouts.
* Recording on Type IV metal tape is a no-go in the VersaCorder; it sounds very tinny at either speed and doesn't completely erase what was previously recorded on the tape (due to its permanent magnet erase head). Playback sounds fine, though.
* A direct connection between the CCRadio's line out to the VersaCorder's line in is fine for recording FM radio at normal speed or AM radio at quarter speed, but for recording FM at quarter speed you need to reduce the audio level, otherwise it will sound sibilant and distorted, as I mentioned. (This issue likely wasn't noticed by most of its users, because almost all of Art Bell's affiliates were on AM.)
* Rewinding and fast-forwarding stay at full speed even when it is switched to quarter-speed for recording and playback.
* C.Crane specifies its frequency response is 60 - 14,000 Hz at normal speed; at quarter speed, this gets reduced to around 5500 Hz.
* I tested the wow & flutter to be around 0.13% to 0.14% WRMS, which is pretty good for a portable cassette recorder.
* I measured the speed to be around 0.4% fast at either speed, which is very good accuracy for a portable cassette recorder.
* You need to remove the cassette door in order to access the azimuth adjustment screw on the tape head, which is not too difficult to do. But on mine the azimuth sounded fine on most of the pre-recorded cassettes I tried, so I left it alone.
* The included AC adapter causes some minor hum in the audio during playback, but does not affect the recording. - Наука та технологія
Additional technical notes for those who care:
* At normal speed, it sounds better when recording on standard Type I tape; recording on Type II tape sounds a bit tinny (lacking bass). But at quarter speed, Type II tape definitely sounds superior.
* Of all the brands and models of Type II tapes I tried, Maxell XL II gave the best overall performance, so C.Crane was correct to recommend it. TDK SA and Fuji DR-II had higher wow & flutter and more dropouts.
* Recording on Type IV metal tape is a no-go in the VersaCorder; it sounds very tinny at either speed and doesn't completely erase what was previously recorded on the tape (due to its permanent magnet erase head). Playback sounds fine, though.
* A direct connection between the CCRadio's line out to the VersaCorder's line in is fine for recording FM radio at normal speed or AM radio at quarter speed, but for recording FM at quarter speed you need to reduce the audio level, otherwise it will sound sibilant and distorted, as I mentioned. (This issue likely wasn't noticed by most of its users, because almost all of Art Bell's affiliates were on AM.)
* Rewinding and fast-forwarding stay at full speed even when it is switched to quarter-speed for recording and playback.
* C.Crane specifies its frequency response is 60 - 14,000 Hz at normal speed; at quarter speed, this gets reduced to around 5500 Hz.
* I tested the wow & flutter to be around 0.13% to 0.14% WRMS, which is pretty good for a portable cassette recorder.
* I measured the speed to be around 0.4% fast at either speed, which is very good accuracy for a portable cassette recorder.
* You need to remove the cassette door in order to access the azimuth adjustment screw on the tape head, which is not too difficult to do. But on mine the azimuth sounded fine on most of the pre-recorded cassettes I tried, so I left it alone.
* The included AC adapter causes some minor hum in the audio during playback, but does not affect the recording.
Those who care already read this in the description. ;)
Wished this have a proper AC erase head instead of a permanent magnet erase head, it will erase cleaner and completely as well as better fidelity.
That's the reason, why on VHS the normal sound sounds not really horrible.
Back in 2002 I had to work night shift and Art Bell Coast to coat AM was the closest thing to podcast today. It really helped pass the time while working that miserable shift. My dad actually introduced the show to me and said he heard the craziest people tell insane stories that had a high entertainment value to them. I tuned in every night for a year.
I never believed most of what Art, his guests, and his callers ever said, but he was certainly an entertaining radio personality.
Sounds like a low-bitrate MP3 stream from the early 2000’s. Except with hiss instead of compression artifacts.
I had dial up running 16kbps radio stations from Europe for days on end. I wish Web 1.0 still existed. There are a few webpages here and there but it's only a matter of time until they are taken down.
@@markm0000 I couldn't listen for days on end (couldn't tie up the phone line) but I remember using Windows Media Player on Windows ME to listen to the BBC World Service. I think you could even stream a tiny one minute pixelated postage stamp sized news bulletin.
Seeing that slow moving tape is truly beautiful, it's like a DAT.
BTW the fuse is not required for phone connection. In fact I've taken apart a lot of phone equipment and never seen one until now. I think it is more of a sign of the quality of the products C Crane sold. Their stuff in general was pretty top notch. Not sure what it is these days.
I'm quite surprised at the quality at quarter speed, sounds as good as a reel to reel going at 1/78!
Soundquality is really good at that low speed. Usually on such low speeds most cheap recorders would have terrible wow & flutter.
A good heavy fly wheel is the trick, so it was no surprise to see just that when it was opened up later in the video.
RIP Art Bell
@@klarusboy Unlike his successor, George (S)Noory. That hack has turned C2C into something completely unrecognizable from its former self.
@@QuadMochaMatti Actually, it's not all Noory's fault. He was Art's personal choice as successor. In its heyday, C2C was an independent show, broadcast from Bell's home studio outside of Pahrump, NV. When Art retired the first time, the show was taken over by its distributor, Premier Networks Radio, then based in Oregon. Since Premier's takeover by Clear Channel, now I
@@dougbrowning82 The company wasted no time in making far more commercials when he moved to the Phillipines after he married a girl from there.
Snoory, the only thing he is worried about is his commercials. Art was the finest. He never screened his callers.
What a great wow & flutter at that quarter speed! Imperceptible
Wow, if they only made all cassette deck belts that easily accessible!
I guess it would be a good idea to find rubber suppliers willing to make a batch for popular tape decks only to keep them around.
That's a nice unti looks like a sega genesis lmao
I know right... I was thinking this video was about a weird genesis clone!
Tales From The Lotus Podcast XD
Yeah, it also does look a bit like a MultiMega with a cassette drive instead CD :P
Didn’t even pickup on that, it does look like a sega CD (second model) I thought it looks like a 90s CD player...
Yes...It looks like a Sega CD!
Great to hear that both the recording and play quality's at all speeds sound so good! More then I expected. I always love to watch your videos of old/retro hardware and products! That chair advertisement at 12:15 made me laugh so hard😂 perfect timing! Keep it up with the awesome videos!
Thanks for posting this review. I actually just got my hands on one of these recorders. I plugged it in and was surprised at all of its features and how quickly the voice activation kicks in.
Thank you! You knocked another quest off of my bucket list, which was to hear 15/32 ips cassette with stereo music...that is no longer on my list of things to do before I die...
The quarter speed reminds me of non-HIFI VHS audio on EP/SLP speed.
I don't recall that the advertisements ever explained that this was possible... I used to have several timers and tape recorders in an elaborate setup to record so I could sleep at night and listen to the tape on the way to work in the morning. I always used to hear the ads and I never remember them talking about this recorder. Damn! This would have made life so much easier back when.
Man ... you always find the coolest stuff!!gonna pick up some reptar,, sounds badass
I wish more tape recorders had timers and slower speed settings, that would be infinitely convenient. I'm surprised it wasn't ever commonplace for a tape deck to have a timer, since timers were such a big thing with VCRs.
Yeah, something I just read suggested that people who wish to record late-night radio may wish to use a VCR for audio only recording due to them having the timer by default.
Good to see you've discovered bandcamp's lively cassette scene. I'm about 500 cassettes into a collection with no indication of slowing down :) Already gave up on trying to fit them all neatly into ikea spice racks on the wall for display.. Too many good tapes..
Great little cassette recorder. Handy format. I think you're probably partly responsible for all but 5 of them (as of commenting) disappearing from ebay :D Will pick one up when they return for cheap prices..
Thanks for that furniture ideal. Gotta look for them soon because i too have a lot of tapes to organize. Mostly self-recorded. :]
I used to have a recorder for the blind but it broke after years of use the same yellow one you showed wow brings back memories
I almost bought one of these back in the day but instead opted to record Art's show to the audio input of a VCR. The dual coil AM antenna CCrane sold worked very well. BTW I just looked him up and surprised to see that Art died about a year ago at age 72. He certainly was a leader in the technological movement of interactive media. His show would go out on AM radio and he'd give his website to get comments. His web site would often crash because he had such a tremendously big audience. My fav guest was Dr Michiu Kaku (whose videos are all over here on YT) because he is such a smart man.
@Big Boy Are there any shows worth listening to anymore? It's funny how the more things change the more they stay the same... like the younger generations listening to "talk radio" in the form of podcasts. I sometimes listen to Mad Money on stitcher.com but not very often anymore.
@Big Boy No, I was looking for some new shows. Not news, not really into news unless its stock-related news. You'd like Michael Savage of the Savage Nation. His son also owns/created the rockstar line of energy drinks. Man, he's wicked smart. I wish I could be that on the ball, verbally. When he destroys a liberal caller it just kills me. Is he even making new shows?
The way he made his voice jaded to say certain phrases was one of my favorite gimmicks of his. Was into Rush for a little bit. I didn't even know he was still making shows. So where do you go for it and what else is good out there?
John Dileberto and Echoes! I used to record cassette tapes of the show to hear at work on third shift. Great show.
Excellent recording quality at the slow speed. Fantastic! Much better than my Norwood 1012 XLP recorder.
Radio in the US is way more interesting than here in the UK. There's essentially no independent local radio, and nothing that isn't pop if you don't live in an area covered by Radio X. Everything is owned by either the BBC, Global Radio, or Bauer Media. If you live in some areas, you'll be covered by multiple Bauer stations and you'll hear the same song at the same time on them despite being "different" stations.
Similar story here in Germany. The exorbitant fees and need for tons of certifications and licenses have killed off any attempts at starting new independent stations, and the few that exist in some states only do because they've started out 30+ years ago (a lot of them sprung up in the east with the fall of the berlin wall and general lack of coordination during that transitional period). We have several "Lokalradio" stations aimed at specific larger towns here and similar to the Bauer stations you mentioned, depending on your location they can overlap and you can listen to 2, sometimes 3 stations from nearby cities playing the same thing (within 15secs of each other), often just with slightly different dialogue in between songs or different local ads. And they all play the same generic, non-exciting "all time favourites" "best of the [insert decade here]" kind of music. I should really record a video some day with 3 radios playing 3 of these "different" local stations playing the exact same thing with just a little delay, with the 3 moderators babbling down the same text with minor variations etc. ... Makes me wonder how many people have never noticed how non-unique the radio landscape actually is here
I’ve got one of those chairs. Best money I ever spent
Enjoyed the review upload! You get a lot of performance from this unit!! E
i want that and all the other cool hardware that you have...keeps me motivated to buy some of these things that i like
That's so funny, I bought the ccrane radio and versacorder back in 2000 or near abouts...they are both still in working condition...the quality is outstanding...If it wasn't for Art Bell's Coast to Coast radio broadcast I would had never known they existed... Great work, appreciate your time and effort...have a great day Cheers
Sooooo close to 100k subs, very surprised that you don't have more.
I enjoyed your video very much. I made a double speed cassette recorder in the 80s by re-routing belts in an Aiwa deck I had. The extra fidelity was noticeable, but I only copied two albums with the deck at double speed, figuring that when that broke, I would be stranded with a bunch of unplayable tapes!
You could just invent one again though,,, that was a great money idea.
Ideally if you want to make a machine that runs tape at multiple speeds, the bias and internal EQ would have to be adjusted correspondingly, because running it at different speeds produces different response characteristics.
I have a small Sangean AM/FM radio. It sounds great. Very impressed with the sound quality.
3:25 OMG! I have never seen a cassette spin so slow!
I agree with you and all the commenters.... the quality at slow speed is completely adequate!
Nice work. A lot of information 😊
Nice tape recorder, nice video! That would be great for making more aesthetic lo-fi videos in the future. Looks like they deserve to be matched with the CCrane radio that you have currently.
That was a nice outro of the video. wish all your videos had it 😀
Yes, I have a comment: I thank you for every video you posted, they make me know new and wonderful things like this tape recorder. although I have no condition to buy these things today, I dream of the day that I will get them. I trust God.
It's nice that they shipped this recorder with a Maxell XL-II tape. I loved using XL-II 90s like you used here, when I could afford them (and could find it locally in Bradlees or Caldor). I used to tune in often to Coast to Coast (after Michiu Kaku's "Science Fantastic" show).
I'm not all that surprised with the build quality. C. Crane may be on the pricier side, but you actually get what you pay for. Playback through the Line Out is pretty impressive for what is mostly designed for voice recording! The sensitivity adjustment for voice-activated-recording is a nice and unexpected feature, but exactly what one might expect from C. Crane.
16:32 - Whoa, THERE'S a name I haven't heard in a while...
15:06 - Would you please stop raiding my box of mix tapes? LOL
I remember Art Bell on Coast to Coast Am, advertising this thing. He loved C.Crane products. He advertised many of their products and the Catalog you could order. C.Crane still exists.
As the unfortunate successor to the late Art Bell, does snorey George Noory even promote C. Crane at all? He just seems to have that old fart quack veterinarian, promoting overpriced supplements.
Great cassette player. The CCradio my mom's mom has one but it's colored black and it's with the TV part [which doesn't work anymore a digital TV].
The days before podcasting! I remember the ads. I long ago realized you could output your radio to your VCR and set the timer on it. Plus, it sounded much better.
5Rounds Rapid yeah I was doing that back in the 90s
VHS Hi-Fi was probably by far the highest fidelity analog audio format commonly used. Even on EP, effective tape speed was very high.
Too bad VHS is just not a good longterm tape medium for Audio as the HIFI track usually dies first if the tape recording ages, because it is stored in the vertical track. Not as a linear track. The Linear track is just hissy Mono and usually the only thing you are left with, once the tape has aged too much. Ever noticed when a VHS recording switches a lot between HiFI stereo and Mono? That's a sign when the HIFI audio is fading.
davek12 I recently found a like new Sony Hi-Fi Stereo VCR at Goodwill, and connected it to my 5.1 system. The audio is much better than the video!
I am very impressed with both the video and the quality of this machine! Great job, I always enjoy your videos!
I looked this up on e-bay and was annoyed by some stupid seller practices. They offer the machine at a relatively low price, but they UP the shipping to an insane level. One seller wanted $50 to ship this thing!
This is why I am very shy of buying vintage stuff from E-Bay. The sellers are getting more and more unethical. There is more to buying and selling than "whatever the market will bear".
I saw one guy selling a vintage Panasonic cassette tape recorder for which he wanted $85!
It originally sold for $25 in the 1970's. Anyway, he also wanted $45 to ship it.
So he's asking a buyer to shell out over $100 for a used cassette tape recorder that wasn't that good to begin with.
And ON TOP OF THAT, he said "This is untested rare vintage equipment. I don't have batteries or a cassette for it. NO RETURNS! My pictures are my description!"
REALLY?
He wants so much but can't be bothered to even TEST the machine?
Of course, there were plenty of other "rare" models available at a reasonable price, with reasonable shipping and were honestly tested and said "works" or "Not working". These are the ones that sold.
But this bad listing, like a bad penny, keeps on being renewed with no takers (for obvious reasons).
This type of thing is driving me off of E-Bay.
Sorry for the rant!
I'll just stick to buying used stuff from thrift stores, there much cheaper than ebay. (most of the time)
Sweet. Reminds me of the half-speed feature of the Marantz PMD 201 which too sounded still ok for 2,4cm/s speed. However with a noticable drop in the heights of course.
As well as Nakamichi's half speed decks like 680ZX and 680. They only go up to 15khz which is adequate for FM radio.
I'm losing my mind listening to Slugbug now. Thank you!! 😁😁😁
what a cool machine 😊
i could've used one of these back in the 90's to record KPWR's PowerTools show on Saturday nights!
perfect for vaporwave recordings
I agree, surprisingly good at low speed. I have music I play on the "hifi" that sounds worse because it is a one off performance on BBC radio that sounds like it was recorded on a toy.
😂 Yep, sounds just like the BBC recording ‘standards’ of nowadays! 👍🏻🏴
Suddenly hearing the 8-Bit-Keys theme by Anders Jensen made me laugh! What a nice thing heh
same it's like "what? 8 bit keys vid in this? cool" made me think he was going to apper and say 2hello and welcome to an 8 bit keys vid"
I bought a C.Crane FM Transmitter for $89 back in 2005 and I still have it and use it regularly. It's pretty damn good. It let's you transmit anywhere from 88.3 to 107.7 and adjustments are done in increments of 0.5Mhz at a time which I really like. It has a input gain control and if you take it apart it has a variable resistor for adjusting the signal quality. It operates off either a 100mA @3-6v DC (negative pole) adapter or 2 AA batteries and has excellent battery life, in my opinion of course. I wonder if other C.Crane devices are made of the same quality as this.
I found the VersaCorder manual online, as I was curious about the specs, specifically S/N ratio and Wow and Flutter at 1/4 speed, but couldn't find this data. It makes sense that Type II cassettes would provide better performance at the slower speeds. I own a Tascam 424 multi-track. It cannot record at 1/4 speed, but it can record at half speed (and double speed) with +/- 12% variable pitch. Half speed with a high bias tape sounds better than expected. The biggest disappoint in your review of the VersaCorder is that it records hot at line level. It would be nice to have a manual level control and VU meter, and perhaps some noise reduction circuitry, but this would add to cost and complexity on a unit that was marketed for it's simplicity. Nice review of an interesting tape deck!
A direct connection between the CCRadio's line out to the VersaCorder's line in is fine for recording FM radio at normal speed or AM radio at quarter speed, but for recording FM at quarter speed you need to reduce the audio level, otherwise it will sound sibilant and distorted, as I mentioned. This issue likely wasn't noticed by most of its users, because almost all of Art Bell's affiliates were on AM.
Seems like a quality made recorder, and doesn't sound half bad either.
Good video! Definitely another format I've never seen or heard of.... I thought I'd be seeing it on Techmoan's channel first! Thanks for sharing it. Now you can do a "Benny Hill" imitation video! (or maybe Techmoan could....)
These were used by people who were big into talk radio who listened to art Bell for instance and I remember on art Bell they had ads for this specific recorder to sell it through his show and you could put a 120 tape in these and that would give you an hour at regular speed and you could set this for quarter speed and you could get 4 hours the entire show on one tape so you could set this up run the headphone out into the mic in on this and set it to quarter speed and record and go to work or go to sleep and then the next day you'd be able to play the whole show and it was even better because the show was only about 36 minutes per hour so instead of 4 hours you could actually listen to the whole show in 2 hours and you could do the same thing for the Stern Show because they use the same 18 minute show 12-minute commercial format
This was pretty cool back then in the days before podcasts and digital recordings that you could just jump around easily
I've tried recording audio to a VCR as well. I also have a RadioShack DX-392 shortwave/LW/MW/FM radio/cassette recorder that can use the "standby" (alarm) function to timer record. Unfortunately you're limited to one side of a tape, so probably a C-120 (60 min/side) is the best you can do.
Interestingly enough, the DX-392 is also a rebadged Sangean.
Now I kind of want to hear a 33 RPM record played at 78 RPM - recorded on this at quarter speed, played back at normal speed. :-D Could listen to an album in 1/9th the time!
The output jacks on the recorder remind me of a sound card😊
good old 2019.
Nice cassette recorder.
The original VersaCotder was more of a tower design with a built-in (oops, sorry, "bill-in"). AM/FM radio. I bought it specifically because I was an Art Bell addict weekly overnight and Saryrdays. Excited to receive it, I was extremely disappointed at the terrible sound quality and cheap construction. I tried it for several days. The "bill-in" antenns weren't sensitive to satisfactorily pull in any station, including with an external. Disappointed I paid for the return. In a few days, I received a nicely written letter of apology addressing my dissatisfaction. The letter, surprisingly, included a crisp new one dollar bill as a thank you for my feedback, and trying their product. Now THAT'S great P.R.!
Love WXPN!
I like that the clock has seconds. Same reason why I like how MacOS X clock has seconds. I use it to queue up music on youtube (using several tabs) when playing my own DJ at home.
I remember wanting to record The Grand Ole Opry once but the only way my brother and I could figure to do it was with a VCR. I suspect that the quality was much better but it was way less convenient.
I am glad I wasn't the only one doing that. Luckily I had a nice panasonic stereo vcr to do that with. It came in handy, when needed.
There is one company still making cassette transport mechanisms these days but what is lacking is a company that will still make the surrounding company’s and case with your brand on it so you have a working cassette recorder. Maybe if the trend of retro cassette adopters continues to increase then will see more companies making new cassette recorders like we see with record players, so long as it’s not companies like Crosley offering retro looking crap decks.
Now for anyone wanting to record four hours or more of a radio show or a telephone conversation then I would recommend simply using a Raspberry Pi with a some digital recording software. You could easily program a timer for recording, use a low nitrate for mono voice recording, and record it all into a SD/micro-SD card. You can get a cheap analog to usb digital audio adaptors adaptor and an cheap in-line volume control that plugs between you audio line in cable and the Adaptor to control the input level. I believe there are also ways to use the digital open source audio recording program Audacity to simulate analog cassette hiss with digital audio just as you can make digital video look like it came from a VHS tape. You could also do something similar using an Android or IOS phone or tablet with an external audio in adaptor and apps available from IOS or Android app stores. It won’t be exactly like using a strictly analog cassette if that what you really want but it will be close enough for most younger listeners who never experienced audio cassettes.
Decent used cassette decks of all sorts can still be found on eBay if you really want the old school cassette experience in all its aspects, so maybe not having many options for newly manufactured decks may not be that big of a deal for many wanting to get into audio cassettes.
I could do with something like this today. There are plenty of radio programmes that I would like to timeshift.
I remember Art talking about these. Good times
Nice machine, of course Sangean is a quality manufacturer,although I once returned a DAB radio because the power brick also caused humming noise
CCrane also offered a Walkman type cassette player modified to play the quarter speed recorded tapes.
C.Crane is not only high end radio's, but you can tape your radio stations. Do a video on the twin coil ferrite bar antenna.
I wish I could find my old ccrane catalog...
@Dixie Paste Yes, You can plug it in to a HD radio tuner, and record HD radio.
@Dixie Paste You can record of the radio with any other recorder, All you need is an AUX cable, and plug it in to the MIC jack.
The cassette devices offered to the blind from the library actually don't record, even though there is an input plug on the side. That device can actually play normal 1 and 7/8 speed tape because it has a speed selector as well as a pitch control. The selecter changes what the normal speed is and the slider for pitch changes it relative to that so you could listen to a book faster or slower. I'm not sure what format the device will play in terms of stereo and mono, because it has the normal side 1 and side 2 terms in the usage instructions but also talks about side 3 and side 4 that you access with a switch.
Some microcassette recorders too offered that extreme low tape speed. Like the Sony M-830V which goes as low as 1,2cm/s. However it's really something else to have that speed for regular compact cassettes of course.
Yes, a microcassette normally runs at half the speed of a standard cassette, so half-speed on a microcassette (1.2 cm/s) is equal to quarter-speed on a normal cassette.
@@vwestlife You might wanna take a look at the Panasonic RQ-L31 :) It takes normal compact cassettes as well and comes with 2 speeds. 1x and "3x" which gives you 3x the recording time. Sounds like it's quarter speed as well. It's a really cute little voice recorder "walkman".
perfect for **Vaporwave** tracks! wow, flutter, hiss for free! just needs a large a speed fine tune adjust.
yes，larger flywheel does work!
Quarterspeed reduces the frequency range to about 5 kHz, but this can be used for recording AM radio.
Wow. I haven't heard ECHOES in years.
Just set a pocket digital recorder on VOR and set your clock radio timer and put it on top. It will start recording when it hears the first sound and stop when the radio turns off. The batteries should last while in standby and not drain much since it would be digital. That how I recorded my programs. The Sony ICD8X022 was the best less power consuming recorder and would stay on recording standby for days if it heard nothing with VOR.
I love the VersaCorder and I've bought many through the years. The only gripe is that they wore out too fast. Also, there's a low pitch noise on regular speed recordings. Other than that, I got many hours of recordings of my computer and scanner with this machine.
That thing is actually kind of impressive. From my experience, cassette style DC motors have more of a problem sustaining a stable speed at lower speeds compared to higher speeds. For example, from a wow and flutter perspective I have made better dubs of cassettes using high speed dubbing compared to normal speed, and the wow and flutter on this thing at quarter speed is truly remarkable. I would definitely have thought that this would have been audible - to me it wasn't.
The reel movement is almost comically slow, reminds me of seeing a PAL VHS VCR in SLP speed, they are almost stationary - though PAL SLP is even more incredible than that if you look at the reels. And that gives you full HiFi VHS sound plus a kind of usable video track.
I love that it's basically "Longplay" on audio cassette :P Makes you wonder how well AM Stereo would sound on that thing at the quarterspeed setting? Are there still stations transmitting AM Stereo in the US? It never was really used here in Europe & Germany. Also THANKS for playing something of Slugbug again. I just love this dude's stuff :D (edit: fixed a typo)
AM Stereo can easily exceed the audio quality of the quarter-speed recording -- AM radio stations in the USA can have up to 10 kHz audio bandwidth, while the bandwidth of a quarter-speed recording on the VersaCorder is around 5 to 6 kHz.
AM radio is still popular in North America because the broadcast reaches further without the need for a repeater in large flat regions, which exist all over the US.
seems like a nice lil unit, i know my tape player is slowly dying, maybe spray poundland oil isn't good but it seems to work just have to stop or have first few tracks play bad then it fixes itself sorry its a bodge but if its working i'm happy,
I had mine for about 15 yrs , recorded hundreds of Art Bell shows , 1 show per side of tape.It still sounds great but the TIMER LEDs dimmed to nothing. Could you do a video on how to repair? Thanks .great show as always. Bill
They also sold a modified walkman with the same speeds
Nice video thank you! Nice product
VWestlife you should add a list of the songs on PRI public radio NYC.
RIP Art Bell :(
Sangean usually makes radios. This is the first Sangean cassette I've seen.
Does this unit have the Better tape head of the two types available? I think it’s called an AC type? It’s been so long I can’t remember which is better
As I mentioned in the video, it has AC bias recording with permanent magnet erase. Ideally it would use an AC electromagnet for the erase, but this isn't bad either. (DC bias recording is the worst kind.)
World Cafe WXPN 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽. My dear old Penn.
Ahh yes, the cassette players by the library of congress. Had me one of those when I was a kid and receiving talking books via cassette. Think I might still have a few of those cassettes. Not sure if I have the player, though. I eventually switched over to the digital format the library offers.
I kind of like the sound quality of the 1/4 speed. :/
Also. We have one of those massage chairs at work. I've only used it once... I would not recommended it for people having issues with claustrophobia. Because, man... It does not mess around!
Would this be better for recording music on to ferric tape or chrome tape vs a modern Sony boombox?
I wonder if there would be any sound improvements in a standard speed recording by having a source played back at 1/4 speed and record to the tape on 1/4 speed, then played back at normal speed.
No, because due to the entire audio spectrum being shifted downward during that process, you would lose a lot of the low end bass response.
@@vwestlife Couldn't some equalization fix that? Similar to the RIAA curve that was used on records?
No, because when you slow down the input audio, the lowest frequencies will end up below the range that it can even record.
Never seen this one before. It has two speeds. I never tried the slow speed, because it wasn’t that good and it will not play on any personal cassette recorder that has a normal speed only. The one I have is a Concord 220T that has 1 7/8 IPS where you can record up to 2 hours on 1200 ft. reel tape, 3 hours on 1800 ft. and 4 hours on 2400 ft. on each side where you can record radio programs on there. I have my Concord 220T and it’s 2-track reel-to-reel tape recorder, and it will not play 4-track stereo reel tapes, because will mess it up like crazy where you hear crosstalk between forward while it plays backwards which was a complete mess. My Concord 200T will record and plays tapes in mono.
I had a feeling these recorders were made by Sangean, I know I saw one on the Internet a few years ago but I don't remember why, it probably was on the CCrane websites. I had one of those talking book cassette players, I never liked them very much as they broke easily in my experience, I had some really odd issues with the ones I had. I believe Sangean made a few portable short wave radios with built in tape recorders, I think Dick Smith sold them in the 90s, I don't know how easy they are to find now. You'd think Sangean would make a digital version of this recorder that has all the same features but records to a memory card, the only Sangean product I'm aware of that does that is a portable radio called the PR-D8 I think. I believe Ccrane had a portable radio with recording called the CCrane Witness, but I think it may have been AM/FM only, no shortwave. If you record using the internal microphone and the telephone beep switch is on, do you hear a beep, or do you only hear a beep when something is connected to the telephone socket?
The VersaCorder was also sold in Europe as the Sangean QSR-1. I see some of them with the Sangean logo on the front and handle, and others (like mine) only mention Sangean on the sticker on the bottom.
i got one of these from goodwill, unfortunately the sheet metal bits of the tape mechanism were deformed from misuse and couldn't be repaired
9:54 is where it's at.
7:52 the "warehouse-Track" at organonomy.bandcamp.com/album/renovation
Does the VersaCorder use a Tanashin mechanism (or a Tanashin clone)? Does it detect whether the cassette is Type I or Type II?
Yes, it is a Tanashin-derived mechanism. It is a fixed-bias recorder, but they adjusted it so that it sounds better when using Type II tapes at quarter speed and Type I tapes at normal speed.
1:05 Seen this thing on an episode of LGR Thrifts.
I think they might not be wrong when saying that there are no manufacturers for a tape mechnism anmyore that is up to the task. You need a really high quality motor to drive the capstan steadily at so slow of a speed and then a head agle to magnetize a high BIAS tape properly. This thing is more high quality than it might seem at first glance.
Tanashin, the company who made the mechanism used in the VersaCorder, is still making the same basic mechanism today. Like I said, if somebody made a cassette recorder similar to this today, minus the extra frills like the quarter-speed mode, I believe there would be a market for it.
I had one of these, I used it to record Art Bell and night and Howard Stern during the day. It worked great for years and still worked when I stopped recording the shows. The only problem I found with it was the tapes were only good for one or 2 shows before the sound quality became unlistenable. They had a warble effect. Otherwise the recorder itself was great..
I had three of them and they never done that with tdk tapes🧸🦋🙋📻👍
@@marvingreenough2344 maybe that was the problem. I was buying blank cassettes from Radio Shack back then.
@@arnieslab I like that store they were in idaho also and I wore out three versa corder's taping old radio shows and the coast to coast am radio show then listen to them at work.
@@marvingreenough2344 I miss Radio Shack.