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I swore by Maxell tapes, which had a low drop-out rate and seemed to last forever.
TDKs didn't last as long for me, while the few BASF tapes I tried left a lot of oxide residue on my heads. Hated Memorex tapes which I thought were cheaply made. Scotch tapes were the worst (despite the commercials where Ray Charles was paid God-knows-how-many millions to sing a song about them)!
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Posted: |
Jun 27, 2011 - 12:43 AM
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By: |
MusicMad
(Member)
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Like others, I grew up on cassettes ... my first (Decca) portable player, a Phillips cassette deck (internal amp) + speakers, a Pioneer hi-fi deck ... followed by another (similar) for my girlfriend's apartment ... then a much better 3-head Pioneer deck ...
I suppose cassettes were part of my life from mid-70s through to early -00s and it was only a few years ago that I finally decided to junk them. I still have a few cassettes for playing in my wife's car.
In the early days they were trouble-some, running slow, chewing up, etc. but the last machine was a beaut and it rewarded me with many hours of listening pleasure. I created dozens/hundreds of cassettes - mostly recorded from my own vinyl/CD collection - and whilst the format (play in order, limited time) was restrictive, so what? We worked within those restrictions and programmed our recordings accordingly.
E.g. I found that I could record the whole of Coma and ST-TMP plus the four tracks from Poltergeist that I liked on one C90 ... perfect timing ... original vinyl albums, of course.
My tape of choice was TDK SA though I did use others; I wasn't struck on the Metal tapes, partly due to cost and partly because I read that metal tapes could damage tape heads not designed for them ... such as car stereos.
I bought a few musicassettes but I never found their quality worth the cost. I think I still have Big Epic film Themes in a box in the garage ... a UA compilation of OSTs (and others) many of which I now have as CD scores.
In just the same way that VHS was easier to use than DVRs so cassettes were easier than CDRs ... within the restrictions. But no going back ...
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You're all bringing back a lot of warm memories for me. I, too, started with LPs before discovering cassettes. As a kid, I didn't exactly have the best audio equipment. The first actual stereo I had was Sears store brand. It was a turntable with dual cassette and receiver all in one. It was $129 and it stank on ice. But I could make tapes of my LPs for awhile. I say "for awhile" because before long, the recordings sounded muffled and no amount of cleaning corrected it. But I still got to preserve the LPs which tended to get scratched and poppy, especially since the needles on the Sears tone arm were craptacular and probably murdered them.
I was thrilled to find scores on cassette and preferred them to LP because of the "no scratches" feature. The Empire Strikes Back was, I think, my first cassette purchase and I played that to death. When I upgraded my sound system and included an early CD player, I taped a lot of CD scores for my daily walks. I remember playing a tape of the TNG score Best of Both Worlds as I did laps around the local school track and when I reached the and of the album, I knew I walked three miles. That was certainly easier than counting laps.
Like Zap Brannigan, I taped a lot of stuff off the TV and that's how I fell in love with TV show themes. It was also how I memorized so many Star Trek episodes (albeit they were all missing random scenes for syndication). I still have some tapes lying around, which I really should transfer to CD or mp3.
It was a huge part of my youth and I'm glad I spent the time and money on them.
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Still have 'em, still use 'em.
I love puting on a compliation tape i made years ago and waiting to hear what is on it.
Its like listebning to Cinemagic!
I still record stuff too, esp. end title music from dvd - most recently "this Bitter earth" from SHUTER ISLAND
BRM
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I think I'm the same generation as Thor. I fondly remember cassette as the format of choice for those coming of age in the mid-80s, especially for families like mine who weren't tech-savvy and needed original copies of our albums available for the car stereo – necessary for a trip of any distance with small kids, of course.
I also enjoy knowing my generation was unique, in that (to my memory) cassette had an intense but short-lived lifespan that effectively served to bridge the gap between LP and CD. Film credits seem to support this recollection, as albums were "available on LP and cassette," then "LP, cassette and compact disc" and finally "CD and cassette."
I have no fond memories of tape hiss, however.
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I have about 1000 TDK 90s. Cost me a small fortune.
If you've the time or the patience, transfer them to CDR, master them as much or as little as you prefer. Easy with Audition or Cool Edit Pro. The clean up much better than LPs.
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Posted: |
Jun 28, 2011 - 2:31 AM
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By: |
MusicMad
(Member)
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How about the art of making compilation tapes (& it was an art).
It was an art indeed. You had to pause it at the exact time, press down the record and play putton pressed down simultaneously, and then releasing the pause to record. And of course, you also needed to press play on the CD (or put the LP needle down) exactly at the right time.
Don't forget the challenge of leaving as little tape unrecorded as possible.
It was an art, indeed, to get a balanced compilation tape or not to under/over-run the length of the tape but practice made perfect ... helped, no end, by a decent tape deck!
I knew that the TDK SA C90 tape lasted approx. 47'20" and so would start the tape at 0'00" and do my best not to terminate a recording session (else I'd make a note to keep for the continuation); allow 15" or so from pressing start to commence recording (to allow for the leader tape) and allow up to 30" at the end (again: leader tape). I also learnt early on that you should avoid the first and last few seconds of the recording tape - same with BetaMax and VHS tapes - as these sections had the worst drop-outs.
The cassette deck I used had a pause when commencing to record, so press play/record together automatically put the machine into pause mode ... press the pause button to release and start recording. Line up your source ... if need, start a few seconds in the previous track and wait for the break.
If adding tracks to fill a tape then allow a few seconds after the end of the (say) OST rather than minimise the blank tape ... just as in classical recordings where there is a few seconds' break between pieces. It made the world of difference.
Easy ... after several hundred hours of practice! 
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