Back to class with tape

 

Funny old week in a number of ways as the post F.A. business has resolved itself so things have gotten more to back to normal and I get ready to be away this weekend so i'll be sorting stuff out for that and obviously school returns which tugs at me never really have mentally at least left that.

Having fixed the power unit issue on my Sony portable stereo recorder I have been continuing with remaking a number of tapes that went around 1997-9 when MiniDisc moved in and pushed its predecessors and their tapes out, not least as I couldn't operate the Tandberg 62 stereo reel deck.

Back in the days you had a variety of tapes you could use and some could be difficult to use to their best because the coating wasn't what most Japanese tape manufacturers used and Japan set their machines based on what what they made. 

Many pre-recorded cassettes used Basf genuine chromedioxide tape as it not only sounded really good but it was really quiet and in the early to mid 80's I did use their domestic blank tape version as it least the machines I had then did a decent job of recording on them.

What did for that and lead me to switch to Maxell XLII  and TDK SA was changing machines to Japanese machines that sound bad on them and because of the impact of that, reduced availability in the high street.

In 1993 I did try one Basf Chrome type as an experiment and that didn't turn out well as the volume as a lot lower than what I recorded it at.

Recently though in a bundle of mainly Japanese tapes I found some late 90's early 2000's ones and I did experiment with them.

While these were mainly pure chrome they had added a small amount of  cobalt oxide japanese type II tapes used and actually they worked well straightaway on one of the Yamaha decks from the mid 1990's keeping much of the the low noise advantage I liked.

So with that I redid Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run and Darkness On The Edge of Town albums given I like listening to his albums rather a lot.

Oxide edition

Phew, what a hot weekend,eh? Not that I'd of missed any of it  for anything in the World you understand but you don't really want to resemble a well cooked Lobster!
I rested for a day and  a bit taking the trouble to ensure I got my sleep in as sometimes the things that may if I'm not paying sufficient attention put me at risk of accidents happen in part because I'm tired and it makes sense to deal with it.

 When you next raise yourself from your chair or propel your wheelchair, do look at this picture and check the year of your calendar, you know the one on your wall as it was taken in 2016, honest!
Two long playing records 30cm (or 12" to Brits and Americans) pictured next to a cassette and its case complete with filled out J-card (insert) that hold a recording of both records with a TDK tape from the period 1977 thru 1978!
It is my handwriting on it, really, I'm not just some internet blogger, I am very much for real and that tape is from my collection as are the records which are my originals from when I was younger at least officially!
I did actually record a few tapes from records this week from my new to me turntable that turned out well on some still sealed tapes from the late 90's as apart from a few most of my last cassettes from that period came from compact discs, sometimes rearranged a bit usually for playing on personal players as changing a tape was easier than a cd those days.

Music on the go Part II

You might remember the post about the new to me cassette machine, heard the 'clicks' in chat, and might of been thinking "Okay so you have this machine but just what are you going to do about listening to them on the go" especially as it's been 19 years since I had anything remotely portable that wasn't digital like a cd portable, a minidisc portable player or my beloved Fiio's that play stuff off Micro SD cards? I mean being stuck to a mains plug is rather limiting.

Well, you might just recall  how I write about the first cassette walkman, a portable battery player, I bought in the mid 80's and how that enabled you to play cassettes On The Go, well I bought a replacement to it after all that time!
It too is an Aiwa from the  late 80's - never again a Sony!!! - and although it doesn't reverse the tape for you, it does have Dolby for playing tapes you made with Dolby B correctly which that one didn't, a tape selector and a really handy thing called a stereo FM/AM  radio with presets no less so you can listen to broadcasts with a powerful output stage for good quality headphones.

 Living in the 80's!
Seriously younger persons reading this blog, we didn't have this downloading music from iTunes thing so you either made your own tapes up or you went to your local store - Sam The Man, HMV or for Brits Woolworths - and walked out with a ready done one with art work you slotted into the player and pressed Play!
Those three pre-recorded ones are my originals from the early 80's, UK Imports cos tapes in North America were not generally as good and they messed up the songs and tracks on UK bands albums for good measure.
The first one has just a square reduced version of the front lp jacket and merely lists the songs on the inside, the centre one extends the art concept of the to the rear of the inlay card and has a bit more information while the third has a redesign of the album cover and some of the lp sleeve notes printed.

Here's the spines of a few more-you spot what I was talking about on the spine of Rio - and that some used better quality tape and duplication techniques.

 Some on this group were the last pre-recorded cassettes in 1997 I bought being of particularly high quality sound, long playing times and extensive inlay notes about the music.

A return to tape

There's no  need recheck your calendars as this is not an entry from 1996 actually but this very year that I wasn't really expecting to make not least as I think I wrote some bits around that period as I'd moved over to a portable digital enclosed disc system called MiniDisc because of my inability during the 90's to use reel based recorders and physical trimming and joining of program on tape and finding cassette wasn't quite doing what I wanted for a one format for all recording needs.
That system came to the end of its road with the discontinuing of both home recorders first,followed by portables together with its re-recordable discs and so for just carrying portable music around, I copy it to Micro sd card and put in a portable audio player which is currently my Fiio X3.

Sometimes you do need a quick means of recording something and I do have a number of pre-recorded cassettes bought during the Nineteen eighties that have things that aren't easily found on cd or other digital forms never mind tapes of various chart shows with voices of DJ's some now dead like Tommy Vance of the BBC I like to listen to.

That's why given the issues around the reliability of my last home MiniDisc deck like it died a few weeks ago (!) it was a Yamaha KX-393 cassette deck  I've gotten that had it not been for falling in love with a Sony MiniDisc unit in February of 1997 I'd of considered buying new!

It's a simple model in some ways, in that it only has one head to record and playback with outside of another for wiping any previous recordings and only records and plays in one direction so you turn the two sided tape over by hand.

On the other hand it has a thing called Play Trim that helps tapes recorded on other machines keep their sparkle by making the high notes clearer when playing back and the ability to match individual blank tapes to the recorder for the best possible sound.

Like most home decks it has switchable Dolby B type noise reduction for reducing the noise on tapes played back and then  featured C type that is more effective at reducing hiss but sounds really bad on machines without it which some of my legacy tapes were made with unfortunately between 1985 and about 1990.

A girltastic  offering from the UK's Boots The Chemist bought and recorded in 1986 from my original 45's when I had better paws for writing with complete with the very stickers that festooned my original portable player in addition to every tape I made.
Just to keep Marmalade amused, I have a copy of the Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon  where at the last twenty or so seconds of the second side having had two minutes of silence I put the striking clocks from the start of 'Time' so it plays that and on a machine that reverses, will go to the first side again and start with the heartbeat intro to 'Breathe'!!!