Tape Bias - What Is It?
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- Опубликовано: 10 май 2020
- This video talks about the technology that allowed us to use tape to record audio. Without "bias", we would have had much trouble getting tape recordings to sound good. Many are familiar with bias because they used cassette decks to record their records, and there were buttons that changed the bias, depending on what kind of tape was being used. It's not very understood by most people, so I decided to share the technology. It's why music on tape has sounded so good since the 60s and even before.
Wiki about tape bias: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tape_bias
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Maxell Hight Bias 90 minute cassette were my fave back in the 80s and 90s
The better of TDK was Also very good.
broke out my old Tascam Portastudio and was curious about the different types of tapes - thank you! the way transducers work at all is mind blowing, movingly beautiful and so sad humans are so smart but often use it for destruction
normally are happy if sad they would stay home looking to a wall
My experience is that good tapes from agfa, basf, ampex, Scotts, maxell etc.are good!
Cassette tapes have always been my favourite media and although I have embraced digital and moved over to it. I Still wouldn't be without my cassettes and many tape decks, seven, so far. I hope there will always be people like you around to talk about the compact cassette and the cassette players used to play them. Though I do think the format, along with records,reel to reel, CDs and all kinds media, is dead, as far as the mass market is concerned. For me cassettes, records, CDs, mini-disks, FM radio, will never die.
That was a great presentation...the visuals helped too.
Thanks a lot for your time to explain bias
I would recommend finding a tape deck with adjustable bias. It made things so much easier for me. I was able to use tapes that didn't sound quite right on my other deck.
I bought my first RT-707 around 1980. Never understood what bias actually accomplished until watching your video. Well done, and thank you!
Hey Craig, your longer hair looks cool don't sweat it! maybe sometime when you have a chance show us just where you sit and how you experience your music listening. I'm always interested in seeing how people who make RUclips videos about music actually listen to it. Like where they sit, lighting they use, do they have some alcohol next to them or just a cup of tea etc.
Palosrob .MaKaElectric Rebuttal Channel . Amused with your question . Nostalgic. I very much like the right setup of an ambience for listening pleasure.
@@muthuvelayuthamvelayutham5159
Exactly! Either do it right or don't do it at all!
Records & tapes win the format war in my eyes .
They LAST !!!
Thank-you for this very good explanation. After so many years of using my cassette deck when I was a teenager and calibrating it each time I would record, I finally get a chance to understand what the bias setting was actually doing ! Back then, I had no clue, I just followed the procedure described in the manual.
I loved Maxell XLIIS too, they sounded fantastic... just by looking at them ;-) (I loved Sony UX-S and TDK SA-X too)
Very informative video. I used to record my records on tape in the 70s and early 80s. I did it so I could get an entire album on one side and have the ability to play them in the car! Now that I have much better equipment at home, I prefer to do my listening on records and occasionally CDs... but mostly records! Never judging on the hair! Keep it long! I'm 66 and I've decided to go full Gandalf! I get compliments on my beard. Remember that line from Ricky Nelson? You can't please everyone so you gotta please yourself!
I did a lot of recording in the 80’s and 90’s not for the reasons you mentioned. I was always borrowing records from friends, girlfriend’s particularly in the 80’s. I was a good doobie
And always returned them🤗
fascinating history and makes me more appreciative of my little cassette player. Thanks!
Love you dude. Your videos are awesome, educational, and oddly relaxing. You seem really easy to talk to, and you know your stuff. You’ve helped me a lot. Hope you’re staying safe!
That was the very best explanation ever of what the Bias does for cassettes I ever heard in my life! Thank you so much and hat off on you,
sir.
Excellent video and explanation. I want to tell you that I used to record my vinyls to cassettes only to listen through my Walkman or through my car cassette player. Not because my vinyls would deteriorate by too much playing on my old turntables. In my opinion, my old Thorens or Empire were as good or even better than any other TT of similar price purchased today. I still have some vinyls purchased some 60 years ago in perfect condition and after thousands of plays. Best wishes!!
Keep those graphs coming. This is truly one of best intro tutorial videos on tape bias. I like it.
Hi Craig! I enjoy your videos and look forward to more. This one about cassettes was very informative. Thanks for taking the time to make them.
That was a REALLY good explanation!
I teach people how to program industrial optical measuring devices and it is very important to make it easy and relatable to the people.
You did a really great job at that.
Hats off to you Sir 👍
I've been trying to learn about Bias for a little while. You nailed it for me. Nice and simple to understand. Thank you for your time to explain.
Same here.
Really nice video dude :) Got a better understanding of bias and your way of explaining is easy to understand yet avoids being superficial. I frequently calibrate bias on my machines, but when a mate asked me yesterday what it actually was I kindda struggled to explain. However there's just one thing you got kind of wrong which is that 30 IPS are better than 15 in all regards. 30 IPS have better treble and typically around 3 DB less noise, but its lowend is inferiour to that of 15 IPS. At least on most standard formats the roll off at 30 IPS start around 40 HZ, while at 15 its mostly around 30. For rock music I prefer 15 IPS on my Otari for the same reasons. Only a well setup really wide format like 1/2" two track it can be better for sure. 30 IPS didn't truly take off for multitracks till the late 70's as it took a while to make it not eat up too much lows unless you could do with 16 tracks 2".
They used to have reel to reel tape decks that run at 60 inches per second !
Love your video's...something to look forward to in these troubled times !
A really good explanation. Thank you, Craig!
Great class!!! Thank you very much. Cheers from Brazil.
Those two black Maxwell tapes (from the picture) were most frequently used in my home, because my father would get them from work. :D
Thank you for the explanation, Craig!
Thanks Craig for making these videos. Yes you are right about how we used to record our records onto tape. I mostly used the TDK normal bias ones. I think I have only one chromium tape.
Recently I bought one of those Pro-ject Debut carbon recordmaster hi-res turntables so I could start archiving my records again.
I watch all the videos & they are very helpful. Cheers & take care!
absolutely amazing explanation!! Thanks for sharing!!
Good work. It is so nice when someone spread his knowledge.
EXCELLENT presentation. I learned something new. Thank you!
I needed a little refresher on this before I talk to a student. Thanks!
That was a very nice explanation of bias. I'm moving after 20 years in my present house and discovered my old analog equipment, along with all my vinyl still in like new condition! I stored them properly many years ago I guess. lol So, I've been enjoying those beautiful songs all over again. Anyways, your hair look fine! Mine is not quite as long but I'm thinking all old guys should let our hair grow out like the old days to show our solidarity! Looking forward to more videos!
I came from a video that explain this with fancy graphics and very good samples, but certainly I'd had understanding more clearly with your very clever explanation and your simplified graphics. Thanks for take the time.
Craig, great video and clearly explained, it brought back some memories of back in the days when I used tape at home and repaired them at work. As for your hair, don't fuss, I wish mine grew as quick. Regards Bob
I recently got back into cassette. As a teenager I always had a decent deck. Now I own a few 3 head deck love them.
Thank you for this video Craig, cassette tapes were way before my time so this topic is incredibly interesting to me.
Love your videos Craig. Keep up the good content.
👍👍👍
That was a great presentation! Excellent, clear and helpful explanation!
Great video and good analogies. Thanks.
Excellent explanation, thanks.
Glad you were not biased about the bias.
Cheers! 👍🏻
Thank you for your great tutorial. Very easy to understand.
Me has enseñado mucho. Me encanta la manera de explicar que tienes. Muchas gracias.
Watching you from Brazil..may 22. Good content !
Sony once made cassette decks with automatic biasing, all you had to do was press the calibration button and it really made a difference. Even the low noise normal bias tapes sounded really quite good :)
I have one, sony tc-rx311. Its a lower end deck so the flutter is kinda high but as far as bias calibration its perfect.
That was an AWESOME explanation ... !!!
Thanks for the clear info on bias.
That is great information, thanks for sharing!
Thank you uncle...your explanations are very clear and helpful....people might not agree,but the depth and originality comes only from analog music.....love from India.
this was amazingly helpful, thanks!
Great informative video Craig , thnx. Stay safe and regards to you and your family. Keep those videos coming to us :) 17.
Long awaited and worth it. Nice job.
Love to see you come back on this channel !
Btw still waiting for "VC archiving your vinyl records part 2" !!!
Part 1 was very useful for me when i started digitalizing my rare LPs !
By digitazing you mean recording them to CD?
@@SDsailor7 nope put it on FLAC files ;)
So Flac files have better sound than reel to reel?
@@SDsailor7 no rtr in a car 😎
@@PataPoufFrance true
Wonderful lecture with the help of sketches..
hey! thank you, very simple explanation of a complex theme
Great video Craig and great channel! I've just watched a few of your videos and have subscribed.
Like you, I cut my engineering teeth on multitrack tape (mostly Ampex 456). I've recently gotten back into cassettes and records too. I still have all my cassettes going back to the mid 70s and some of my records.
I have decks now that I dreamed of back in the day which is a real nostalgia trip for me. I have two Nakamichi decks (a 582 and a 582Z) and a Harman Kardon CD491. I've fully restored and calibrated these decks and they sound incredible even on type 1 tapes! They're all three head, closed loop, dual capstan decks and the CD491 has a direct drive motor for the capstans.
I also recently purchased an Audio Technica LP140X and am planning to buy a VM540ML cart for it. I'm living it so far!
Keep up the great work with the channel.
Oh, we're very close age wise too. I'll be 50 in June.
Living it was supposed to be loving it. Stupid spell corrector strikes again!
Excellent explanation, I wish I knew this back in the 80's when I was in high school. Boy, did I screw up some tapes!!
Love your videos, very honest.
Thanks for the good explanation!
Nice info Craig..ty
thanks...very cool video...like your explanation, drawings...never knew what this Bias thing is....
thank U ,
that was best explanation about BIAS and how it is related to
different types of tapes and what it dose to improve audio signal. :-))))))))
thanks for the video and the explanations
I liked your presentation.
Thank you for this video, learned a lot! Hope you're gonna make more tape related :)
Nice video. Well explained. And you have a bit of a laugh with it which is always good!
I'm not at all tech savvy but you make its easier to understand. Thank you! Thumbs up!
Excellent, as usual.
Keep up the great work I am learning a lot.
Your videos are awesome, educational Thanks
I really do enjoy your video presentations - your self deprecating sense of humour, your knowledge, and friendly demeanor makes for time well spent (PLUS you are a fellow Rush fan!). Thanks for the time that you take to make these videos. Your timing couldn't be better - I just got my Nakamichi CR7 back from my technician and it sounds so good (except when I play the music that I recorded on that Nak on my $200 Technics, which sounds awful - but that's another story). I use the Nak now to get most of the fidelity of my audiophile 2 LP, 45 rpm pressings - most of the sound, and a small fraction of the "flipping over." Anyway, thanks for your presentation - you didn't actually state an opinion as to which "type" of tape that you prefer - I am still experimenting, but the Type II, which are the most popular, seem to cut off some of the low end (maybe it's the age of the cassette).
Thanks! Ya, type II tapes are known for lacking low end. That's why they came out with Ferric-chrome, which were a hybrid of type I and type II, but they never lasted far for some reason. They were my favorite tape type (type III) I remember having Supertramp - Breakfast in America on one, and boy did it sound good.
Thanks for the response, Craig. I have zero chance of finding reasonably priced Type III, so I won’t even try. What would be worse than not finding any is finding one!! Breakfast in America is a brilliant sounding record so that tape must have sounded incredible. I look forward to your next post! Thanks again! By the way, the hair looks great!
awesome lesson!!! thanks so much
You’re awesome , Sir.
Thank you so muchh for explaining!
the cassettes were desined for music by philips in early 60´s but yet to be the favorite way of recording music, the 8-track was more used but since mid 70´s it started to grow on people, allthough i only bought a cassette deck after having a car that came with cassette player, and because i had a reel deck from akai with exceptional sound i went for the GX something in horizontal position ,after i bought a pioneer CT-F4141 that seemed better but was only recording good not as great as the older akai ,i remenber buying a CT-200 from pioner and made very good recordings allthough i had bought a second hand philips that was kind of more dynamic in sound, but the pioneer was already very good and well built but the lower reference in the catalogue from 79 pioneer, later that year i received from my father is top system from 76 pioneer catalogue ,that´s when i started to use the CT-F1000, which i recorded there lot´s of maxell and sony cassettes not because it was my choice but because i had them for free at home(my parents home)but having a job with more money each month i bought paid in 3 monthes a SA-9700 and a CT-F1250 all in the same year ,i almost forget i also bought a PL-560 turntable ,still in use and with the 76 system came a PLC-590 turntable but i wanted 3 systems at home, that´s when i started my colection of hi-fi components
*GREAT INFORMATION... Thanks!!!*
Thank you for this lovely explanation, wish they taught so simple in college.
You deserve a ton of likes
as i've said before, your video's are amazing i'm alway's looking forward to new ones keep it up mate. CHEERS.
YAY...Craig is back!!!...WOOT!!!....I still use my Reel to Reel....love it...XD....I have a Technics RS-B78R Cass deck that has DBX...I find that works really nice.
The cassette that you use there was in fact designed for music. Philips made it specifically for that and its original name was musicasette for pre recorded tapes and compact cassette for blank tapes. They did not have their origins in dictating and answering machines they came later. Also it is almost impossible to wear them out if you have a reputable brand, there are instances of people testing them by playing them over and over automatically for years and testing the output at intervals and finding nothing significant.
In my hand at the moment I have a Joan Baez 5 from fontana CFF5000 dated 1964, it still works and still sounds good, also an original Philips compact cassette C60 that has been recorded on many many times and still works fine. Although the original Philips stereo cassette recorder I bought in 1963 or 64 has not been used for about 20 years now and had no bias adjustment as there were only standard tapes. The biggest killer of tapes was the car player, there are very few people who had one of these that did not develop a taste for chewing them, even the best brands.
Don't forget that the studio tape units were a 1 inch tape vastly different to the 4 track 1/4 inch of the reel to reel retail tapes of which I still have a couple going back to the mid 1960s, Martin Denny and instrumental golden giants, but nothing to play them on, and the tiny 1/8 of an inch 4 track cassettes.
Keef of The Stones, in his biography mentions using their own cassette recordings as part of their on disk music from time to time. He must have kept one in the Bently.
I like you avoided metal tapes because of head wear. I have seen heads that have grooves worn in them after continual metal tape use. You also mentioned the air gap area in the head that allows for the creation of the magnetic flux that was something that needed cleaning in some recorders quite frequently and of course the capstans and drive all round.
Craig!!! You’ve back!!!!!!
Thank you So much for posting such an excellent and really well explained video! Well, I thought your drawings were brilliant! 😀👍
great video. best all week.
Loved this
My Maxell XL II's sounded very good ,recorded on my 'new' Denon DRM800A deck..back in 1990 :)
Maxell XL & XLll , were my choice of recording tape and the price was reasonable. Also the Dennon chrome were very nice and actually performed better than Dennon metal tape , but we're costly at $7.50 a pop in those days. At one time I owned an Onkyo deck with a bias control & where to set the bias control according to the instruction manual , depending on the type of tape used & manufacturer.
Ohh u good man! Really, love your calm speak and your explanation. I've always had a hard time to grasp BIAS but after this its just an added tone like an added divemask! Great! I would though love a demonstration on your deck where u show how its done in a few steps. Would that be possible?
Thank you for sharing this great information. You're the guru 👍👍👍😂😂😂
thank you for another great video! i learn a lot from you! i just cant wait for the next video... and if you have real to real to show as and make a sound test
Excellent, well presented, clear, easy to understand, informative and very interesting video. Keep up the great work. Quick question though, is this also known as AC bias, or is that something different?
Very well explained 😀👍🏻
'Thats FX' are great tapes on a good recorder. Take your time setting up the bias and cassette tapes still sound amazing. I've tried all types but 'Thats' are certainly my favourite.
I literally havd every single one of those tapes in that photo you show. Those darker colored cassettes had great sound compared. They were more expensive though compared to the transparent ones though
Enjoyed this video. The only other thing would have been showing how to adjust bias and level on some decks. But yes pictures were helpful and analogies.thanks
thx for your understandable explanation
I always liked Maxell XLII, and XLII-S because you can get very high notes if you use BIAS on cassete deck during recordings...BASF I didn`t like at at...but that was 35 years ago...nowadays I don`t use cassette decks anymore...
Cool stuff, nice explanation. Can you maybe explain the Dolby NR system and the even more interesting NR System called DBX that relied upon compression and decompression to mitigate common tape background noise? Thank you
Thanks , Thanks , and Thank you.
Great explanation, I think I get it now
Thanks. Very interesting
Quite enjoy the topics you pick and talk about! Don't worry about the hair, I usually only cut mine once a year :P