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Topic: Is Cassette The New Vinyl? (Read 3073 times) previous topic - next topic
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Re: Is Cassette The New Vinyl?

Reply #25 –
Quote from: DVDdoug on
To me, the whole "vinyl comeback" or "cassette comeback" is just silly.   And personally, I'm not "going back"!   

Buying new album with modern production on vinyl is certainly silly. I can see a benefit from having larger cover art, but that's about it, and the prices are way too high for a lot of albums. I have a small collection of second-hand albums from back when vinyl was THE format, because it's the original format of a lot of my all-time favorite albums. I also have a small amount of newer albums on vinyl, specifically artists that use old-fashioned recording and production methods and play music in 60/70s style. I think the limitations of vinyl are a good fit for the vibe their music is going for.

As for tape, I don't think it's getting a real proper comeback. Firstly because a good tape deck is significantly more complicated than a turntable, and secondly because for a lot of people they never really went away. DIY scenes such as underground punk kept distributing their works on tape and still do it today, as have various underground metal labels.

The only reason I could see myself using cassette tapes again, is if I got a classic car with a tape deck. In that case, it would feel wrong to use a modern digital media player.

Re: Is Cassette The New Vinyl?

Reply #26 –
Is there any reason they couldn't use high bias or metal bias tapes for commercial release? 

I liked Denon blanks!
Daniel L Newhouse

Re: Is Cassette The New Vinyl?

Reply #27 –
Quote from: dnewhous on
Is there any reason they couldn't use high bias or metal bias tapes for commercial release?
IIRC, this was sometimes the case for premium-priced offerings by the likes of Mobile Fidelity, Sheffield Labs, et al.

Re: Is Cassette The New Vinyl?

Reply #28 –
Quote from: dnewhous on
Is there any reason they couldn't use high bias or metal bias tapes for commercial release? 

Not everyone had tape decks capable of handling metal or even chrome tapes, not to mention different levels of noise reduction. A tape deck capable of handling metal tapes and Dolby S is a rare beast.

As a consequence, these fancy tapes would have sounded *worse* than bog-standard ferric tape on basic decks.

Lowest common denominator won the market.

Re: Is Cassette The New Vinyl?

Reply #29 –
Quote from: KozmoNaut on
Quote from: dnewhous on
Is there any reason they couldn't use high bias or metal bias tapes for commercial release? 

Not everyone had tape decks capable of handling metal or even chrome tapes, not to mention different levels of noise reduction. A tape deck capable of handling metal tapes and Dolby S is a rare beast.

As a consequence, these fancy tapes would have sounded *worse* than bog-standard ferric tape on basic decks.

Lowest common denominator won the market.

Not to mention better tape came out at the end of tapes life time. With CD around the corner why bother with metal versions when CD could handle treble heavy content without a custom master.
Got locked out on a password i didn't remember. :/

Re: Is Cassette The New Vinyl?

Reply #30 –
Quote
OK, so basically the adjustment is pretty much just the amplitude of the DC biasing signal?
NO!!!   Tape bias is ultrasonic AC.


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This is kind-of obvious, but one advantage over vinyl is that anybody can record a cassette at home.    I would have assumed it's VERY expensive to have a small batch of records pressed but I Googled and this site says it's only a few-thousand dollars.     It wouldn't be economical or profitable for most independent or "local" artists, but it's not impossible.

But, I'm not going to be making or buying any cassettes or vinyl until...   Never!

Re: Is Cassette The New Vinyl?

Reply #31 –
These are a couple of pictures of the model of tape deck I have, the Yamaha KX-W952 Natural Sound double-deck, which was about as top of the line as you could get for a double-carriage deck in the late 1990s/early 2000s. (These are not pictures of my own unit, but both are the 'black' finish, and one is exactly the same as mine (no 'Power On' red eye light).)





I've always been a lover and player of cassettes; having a KX-W952 (probably the only deck I've ever had that I'd have called high-end) was a bit of a dream, and one day I found myself a W952 on eBay from a seller here in Canada (across the Provincial Border in Quebec to the east, in Gatineau) for $150 Canadian funds and $25 shipping post; having recently needed to put my Sony TC-K530 in retirement for the time being (both bad belts, capstan/head/transport issues and some electrical problems; can be fixed, but it'll be a bit pricey), I gave myself the treat.

I haven't regretted it in the least, mind you. It's a tremendously good piece of equipment, and came to me in well-loved but otherwise pristine condition; the only things 'wrong' with it is a bit of paint on the power cable (courtesy, I assume, of someone doing some fresh painting of a new wall nearby where it once called home), and the lack of the remote control. But she's right by my desk (above my Sony digital receiver, which is below my Pioneer PD-4700SR single-disc CD player), so a remote control, while a wonderful gadget to have, is not strictly necessary. Besides being a reliable and easy-to-service deck, each of the two tape carriages has its own 2 x 2 RCA outputs and inputs, and separate full-logic transport controls; in effect, it can function as two separate one-deck units in a single cassette deck with two carriages as well as two sympathetic and meshed decks.

I've never owned a Metal (Type IV) cassette, so I can't tell you how well a home-recorded Type IV recording will sound in it, but it beats the heck out of anything I've ever had for Type I (Normal) and Type II (Chrome) recordings; whether a dub from my record player, my computer (via my receiver), from one deck to the other, or from the radio or CD player.

-Gozer.

Re: Is Cassette The New Vinyl?

Reply #32 –
Quote from: dnewhous on
Is there any reason they couldn't use high bias or metal bias tapes for commercial release? 

I liked Denon blanks!

I have three of those, two 60-minute and one 90-minute (C60 and C90 equivalents), all Chrome (Type II), which I have not used for recording yet. I couldn't tell you where to find them now (aside from a lucky find at a contents sale, which has happened a couple of times to me yet! ^_^).

-Gozer.

Re: Is Cassette The New Vinyl?

Reply #33 –
Quote from: DVDdoug on
Quote
OK, so basically the adjustment is pretty much just the amplitude of the DC biasing signal?
NO!!!   Tape bias is ultrasonic AC.
I meant AC; honest typo, hence I said "amplitude of...", so the knob adjusts the amplitude of the AC signal?

Re: Is Cassette The New Vinyl?

Reply #34 –
Quote from: KozmoNaut on
The only reason I could see myself using cassette tapes again, is if I got a classic car with a tape deck. In that case, it would feel wrong to use a modern digital media player.
If you mean it would be wrong to rip the original tape player out of the classic car, then yes I agree.
But you could buy one of those cassette shell type devices that is fed a line level input signal from an iPod/whatever.
I has one some years ago, and it worked surprisingly well - the sound quality of a MP3 player through it was better than a decent quality cassette tape.

(OTOH if you mean driving a classic car and listening to anything other than tapes would be wrong, then that's how your own boat floats, of course)

Re: Is Cassette The New Vinyl?

Reply #35 –
Quote from: cliveb on
(OTOH if you mean driving a classic car and listening to anything other than tapes would be wrong, then that's how your own boat floats, of course)

This is what I meant, it's all about the nostalgia factor :-)

One of my friends has a 1976 Opel Kadett, with the original radio/tape player. He's adding a modern digital media player in the glove compartment, and probably adding a line-in to the old radio, so he can keep the original look of the dash. The best of both worlds.

Re: Is Cassette The New Vinyl?

Reply #36 –
Quote from: KozmoNaut on
One of my friends has a 1976 Opel Kadett,
Wow. There's something wrong with the world when a 1976 Opel Kadett is regarded as a "classic car" - unless it's a Kadett GT/E.

The standard Kadett of that era was pretty much the same as the Vauxhall Chevette in the UK (frequently known as the "Shove-It") - an absolutely horrendous piece of automobile so-called engineering.

Re: Is Cassette The New Vinyl?

Reply #37 –
Quote from: cliveb on
Quote from: KozmoNaut on
One of my friends has a 1976 Opel Kadett,
Wow. There's something wrong with the world when a 1976 Opel Kadett is regarded as a "classic car" - unless it's a Kadett GT/E.

The standard Kadett of that era was pretty much the same as the Vauxhall Chevette in the UK (frequently known as the "Shove-It") - an absolutely horrendous piece of automobile so-called engineering.

It's the same platform, but a significantly better car, and much loved here and in Germany. Unlike the Chevette, it was put together by people who cared.

It's an orange 1.2 N, so around 54hp IIRC and 4 gears. It's a wonderful driving experience :-)

Personally, I find the everyday cars of the past a lot more interesting than the sports cars.

Re: Is Cassette The New Vinyl?

Reply #38 –
Quote from: DVDdoug on
I would have assumed it's VERY expensive to have a small batch of records pressed but I Googled and this site says it's only a few-thousand dollars.     It wouldn't be economical or profitable for most independent or "local" artists, but it's not impossible.

Even though they cut only one piece it's less expensive here: https://vinylify.com/

I've thought about ordering one, filling it up with test signals just to know how it'll end up once it's analyzed. But so many others before me have already done that over the decade so I won't bother.
marlene-d.blogspot.com

Re: Is Cassette The New Vinyl?

Reply #39 –
It has zero advantages over digital (like all analog audio storage solutions), but at least it has less disadvantages in comparison to vinyl (at least to my taste; for example tape less often causes loud clicks and harsh nonlinear distortion in comparison to vinyl)
Ofc why anyone would want this over digital (which represents stuff pretty much *exactly* and doesn't wear and tear) is something I can't understand.

Re: Is Cassette The New Vinyl?

Reply #40 –
Quote from: magicgoose on
It has zero advantages over digital (like all analog audio storage solutions), but at least it has less disadvantages in comparison to vinyl (at least to my taste; for example tape less often causes loud clicks and harsh nonlinear distortion in comparison to vinyl)
Ofc why anyone would want this over digital (which represents stuff pretty much *exactly* and doesn't wear and tear) is something I can't understand.

As a dictation or cheap recording machine it's actually a lot easier for someone who doesn't understand modern tech to operate.
 The type that can't turn on a computer to save their life, struggles with operating a DVD player.  There's a few of those kind of people around.

On the flip side, you could have someone who can turn on a computer and write excellent programs for it, but may struggle with a tape recorder or tape player.  It does go both ways.

Re: Is Cassette The New Vinyl?

Reply #42 –
well they based test on some unknown old tape records, that's enough to invalidate any conclusions
 
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