I have a JVC, Nakamichi and Yamaha deck. When I record on a Type II tape you cant tell the difference from the source no hiss, source being Tidal or Spotify. And digital files save on drives do degrade over time, as the components degrade like anything else. I have tapes from the early 60's that still play, 60+ yrs old.
I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to do this! It was extremely informative, and very helpful. I love tape and find it forgiving regarding harsh frequencies like hi-hats and great for subtle mix glue. I also like a bit of hiss, I think it adds a hint of subtle character.
Fantastic video, thank you for creating and sharing. I was completely wrapped up in the comparisons, especially the tape vs tape examples. I'm a huge fan of Tony's videos from C.C. - Your contribution to the sound and use of cassettes is very commendable - you should have at least 20k more views on this video.
Well done. That's a fair test. I have also 2 metal tapes (Maxell MX90). Those surprised me as well just how good they sound. Nothing wrong with tapes if you record or play them in the right deck.
Found so many new old stock SAs at the flea market (mid 90s ones) that I've now filled a couple of shoe boxes!!! Cassettes integrate so many of my early life memories that they'll never go away!!! Thank you for the excellent video... Tape recording is here to stay!!
I know this is an old video, but this is the best way to compare tapes- I really haven''t seen anything comparable to date (even with Cassette Comeback or TechMoan). I would look forward to a revisit with properly calibrated recordings (3 head deck or auto calibrate), Dolby B, Dolby C, Digital NR and dbx comparisons, and maybe a spectrum from the very low to the very high (20Hz-20Khz) as a source. In any case, thank you for proving cassette tapes can sound as good as digital!
Agreed. Any hi-fi cassette deck worth buying had Dolby C. The spectral skewing technique it employed was revolutionary when it first escaped into the wild in 1981 and could give better than Type IV tape performance from Type I tapes. I still have two 3-head hi-fi cassette decks from the 1990s that can record almost flat from 20Hz to 20kHz on a cheap TDK FE Type I tape with a signal-to-noise ratio approaching 80dB in Dolby C. Neither of them were massively expensive at the time.
This is an excellent video and it's great to hear a direct, tangible comparison between multiple brands/types. I still use tapes all the times - for me it's a very practical way to record music. There's a lot of stuff on Tidal that I wouldn't be able to afford on CD (because it's expensive or has only been released on vinyl) so I just connect the laptop to the ampli through a simple audio interface and record the albums I need through an Aiwa tape deck, so I can listen to them without the PC. I found out I can achieve quite remarkable recordings with five minutes of work, adjusting the bias, the sensitivity and the other levels correctly. For me it's a great way to "save" your music in a way that actually does the music justice, both visually and sonically. Good job, cheers!
Thanks for taking the time to comment, and I'm glad you found the video interesting. As you say, if you spend a bit of time getting the bias and other adjustments right, you really would be very hard-pressed to tell the difference between a good tape recording and CD. Particularly when just listening in a home environment on a hifi system.
I'm afraid that the people who listen to music (any music, and analogue recording in particular) are an outgoing breed. The young generation that I see around is completely indifferent to music. It's not part of their world. They think it's an unnecessary nuisance spread by the media. And, having listened to modern commercial tops-of-the-pops, I'd rather agree.
I'm sorry, but that is absolute nonsense. Young people listen to just as much music as any other generation. What's changed is the way they consume it. The 'top of the pops' music you refer to is in fact the last remnants of the old obsolete music system which was highly restrictive and had a chokehold on artists' creativity. That IS dying, and good riddance to it. These days people don't need to listen to the radio or buy what record companies think you should hear. We have Spotify, Bandcamp, RUclips and SoundCloud, where independent artists can make their own platforms to publish their music. That is where you'll find the real talent. There is more variety and innovation in music today than at almost any point in history, but you have to go looking for it, you can't just wait to have it served up to you by music corporations. What you hear on the radio is not representative of modern music anymore.
@@TheOrphicCreative I'm sorry, I don't hear anything on the radio - the last decent radio station in my city was shut down a year ago. The few remaining FM stations cater mostly to 40+ generations.
@@TheOrphicCreative Hey there if you really want to spot the differences invert either the digital track or all the tape recordings and then play them both at the sametime. You will have to ensure EXACT synchronization of the two files or it won't work. If the files are EXACTLY the same then they will cancel each other out. Fun to tinker with if you want enjoy the music whatever your format is. One of the other posters was reffering to older music before digital equipment became popular and even though it was redistributed on CD it was originally recorded on studio analog equipment. I'm sure a lot of record labels reprocessed (digitally remastered) the original analog tape recordings. That's all the other poster was saying we're talking just after compact disc was released. I have some of those early CDs and I can hear the hiss from the originals recorded on the studio analog equipment.
Remember that a cassette is not a cassette without its own distinctive hiss. 👌 There were a few portable vinyl player models manufactured back then, however these were quite bulky and heavy to carry around ! 👍
your nostalgia and tactile interaction assumption is not the main reason for the resurgence of cassette. tape recording actually started to become popular again by the people who are back into records and analog who wanted way to record and play their music without wearing out their records, and keeping the music in the analog realm. it makes no sense to transfer an album to digital, when streaming and cds better suit that purpose
My Pioneer CT-W604RS handles true chrome tapes very well for playback. I've never been able to test recording, since I don't have any type 2 tapes that have such a formulation (aside from my factory recorded ones, which I'm not going to erase). That Pioneer deck is a real champ at faking hifi performance from what's really a budget player under the hood. It's a testament to how a bit of late 90s computerization made some lower end tape decks outperform very high end ones from a few decades ago (as far as playback goes, at least). That deck blew my mind at how good a prerecorded cheapo type 1 from the 80s can sound.
That's because they're cool, the nostalgic factor is 💯 % and sound fantastic with the bias and equalization set correctly. Tape hiss can be completely eliminated with dbx and there's no longer digital ultra high definition ear fatigue to wreck the 🥳 party.
Good job. Great comparison. Thank you very much for your efforts. At first, I missed the annotation of the individual tracks (which corresponds to which tape), but I was able to cope that. So, congratulations.
Great Video, Can you do a video of the new cobalt chrome tapes? its not real chrome and I think theirs 3- Mfg.? TASCAM, National Audio Company and more
I’ve got 100s of cassettes all multitracks coz I’ve got an old Amstrad studio 100 I used years ago to record songs, I might dig them out and have an old school nostalgic mix about 😂
1. This was a good video. 2. A really good cassette deck (pitch control, bias, level, azimuth, low wow & flutter) can take even type 0 tapes and make a decent recording. The key is having a good deck. 3. Secondly get good quality tapes, based on what type of recording you intend to do. Use type IV metal only for master recording or high end recordings, otherwise good type II tapes should suffice. Good type II tapes are those tapes that have a blend of Chrome , cobalt and iron 3 oxide. These tapes give a full 20hz - 20,000 hz response. 4. Tapes are very versatile. You can boost the left or right channel, mix the equalizer on the master or left/right channel and make the original song/music/sound, completely different and better especially 70's disco, 80's pop/rock, heavy & glam metal music. Modern (1991-2021) are all mixed for digital format and will probably sound better on a CD, but older music were originally mixed for analog Vinyl records and reel to reel tapes.
who cares all that FLAC or SACD and digitised stuff. I just tape off of RUclips… anything above 480p sounds good 👍 I’ve made many mixed tapes good sound all round…
There are some new tapes still being made, yep. The Fox C60 that I tested in the video is one of them. But the TDK and other tapes I tested are not made anymore today unfortunately
The Maxell UR90 seem decent for the price. I have quite a few of them. If you were near me, I won't mind spotting you a few 😊 Greetings from Trinidad & Tobago
What is interesting about Type II Pure Chromium Dioxide cassettes, DuPont gave the license to produce Crhromium Dioxide tapes to the Soviet Union in about 1980, so SVEMA factory in the USSR was producing 60-minute MK60-4 cassettes. I have two of these, recording quality is pretty good, but it loses some level. I have 1988 Soviet-made RAPRI-102 two-head deck, which has Japanese sendust head and manual bias adjustment control on board. By the way, somehow BASF Chrome Maxima (or even Chrome Extra) do not lose level on this deck. But cobalt TDK SA tape give me even more level on playback that I had set on nrecording. Also ORWO factories in German Democratic Republic were making pure chromium dioxide tapes, which were used in ORWO cassettes and Soviet TASMA MK60-7 cassettes. I have several TASMA MK60-7, it also loses a bit of level.
Very good work, especially comparing the hiss. I always wanted to conduct such test. Could you perform the test of single frequencies recording, and during playback to see harmonics? Believe me there they are, and they are significant. For monitoring, you could use "Sound analyzer basic" for android.
How do you not have hundreds of thousands of subscribers?! You're videos are brilliant. Plus, you know... bit of alright too. 😉 lol. Hope you keep posting.
Ah thank you ☺️ Pretty new still so still working on growing my subscriber base, and fitting it in with my paid work. But plenty more in the pipeline, don't worry 🙂
Everyone talks about the importance of sources such as CD players and how much they can affect the sound but no one wants to talk about cassette players and how could they affect sound too. They play a cassette on an early 2000's CD player and think that all of them must sound the same. No one wants to give cassettes a chance, it's kinda bizarre on why.
Absolutely agree. I think maybe it's because people just expect tapes to sound a bit crap, so they don't consider that playing and recording them on a high quality deck would make a difference.
I was scared away from a fan group of my favorite band because I was piled on and rationed when I asked for a cassette release. To them, I was truly stupid for suggesting a release on a format that sounds so "bad". People that I used to respect applauded bullying and spread misinformation without even bothering to seek out data. They pulled the age card too, as if that was relevant (I'm under the age of 30, yet have much more experience with cassettes than most people twice my age). Why humans put so much effort into wanting to believe that the world is worse than it is baffles me. To be clear, it's the bigotry that baffles me, not the igonance. Most people using cassette instead of CD (as opposed to cassette and CD) probably are cynical about inflated prices for hifi (that's not really a bad thing, either) and are therfore biased to be irresponsibly skeptical about the idea that paying much more money actually does get you much better sound.
Does your cassette deck not have a skip track feature? It only works if detecting silence between tracks, but while the tape is playing in either direction, I press fast forward and it'll stop fast forwarding upon reaching the next song.
Yes good point, my deck does have that. I was thinking more in terms of portable Walkman type players, but actually many of the later ones had that feature too 👍
Very cool experiment. I've mastered an album entitled 'Glittering Wheels' much in the way you've done in this video. I think that it certainly adds a touch of pleasant compression. You touched on this in your video, but I've been using used tapes lately on my portastudios as I see no difference between a used tape and an unopened tape, if they're stored in the same way. It's not like the 'sealed' ones are hermetically sealed or anything. Sometimes you'll get a dud used tape but for the most part they're fine. I think that the real difference in sound comes from recording a song entirely to cassette (on a portastudio) as opposed to into a DAW and then mixing that master down to a cassette. Very cool video though and thanks so much for taking the time to make it.
Yeah definitely agree, most of the tapes I use have been used several times at least. I seem to recall that VWestlife did an experiment where he recorded/played a cassette over a hundred times and it still sounded exactly the same. I also have tapes which I used and abused as a kid and didn't take care of at all well, and they mostly still sound great. Tapes are surprisingly resilient! Not sure if you've seen my other video on the Portastudio I restored, but I really like the pleasant tape saturation it adds to tracks recorded on it, and I often incorporate that into my productions.
I think you're more liable to hear the slight differences in the music than the average listener since it's your creation. I was honestly pretty satisfied with all of the tapes.
4:15 "cheap tape is a recipe for..." - strongly disagree. Yes, once we believed that pricier tapes are the holy grail... and then I rediscovered the cheap ferrics. A good cheap ferric, like late 1990s Maxell UDI (yes, Japanese-market UDI is still quite affordable) can sound excellent when played on a decent transport. It's not as much about the quality of biasing and recording, as it is about the playback transport.
Yeah totally, the right cheap tapes can still sound fantastic, I agree. The point I was getting at was more about the average consumer using cheap supermarket tape on a crappy stereo and then wondering why the recordings sounded rubbish. But yes, even very basic tape on a good system can still sound remarkably good, if it's recorded well.
6:48. LET EVERONE KNOW. The Headphone Jack On All Decks Is Amplified By A Basic low power headphone amp And Shouldnt Be Used When Listing To The Decks Output. ITS TO Refrence tapes ONLY.
Not quite sure why you feel it shouldn't be used for listening. The amp on this deck is very high quality and provides an excellent clean output, without needing to add a separate additional amplifier which could colour the sound further. Perhaps your logic would apply on a cheaper deck, but definitely not in this case.
In fact YOU CAN skip between tracks on proper cassette decks. When you are lucky enough to have an high end deck with a proper way to bias and calibrate, you get amazing results with a great cassette (not even a new sealed one 😉). Not to mention that little compression right... Love that format!
As long as electronics manufacturers don't put on the market new high quality tape decks with all available settings for playback and recording a high quality tape, there's no point in using cassettes. You have to scavage for vintage tape decks, because they were built really wel,l and then you have to service them and pray that you find spare parts anymore. So, for the compact cassette to really make a comeback, manufacturers have to revive their good tape decks production lines. It is fun, beautiful and a really intimate experience to listen to cassettes and reel to reel, but the market have to convince the electronics manufacturers to release them again.
Yes, I agree, most people don't have the time or interest to keep old decks working, and the new stuff is all cheap rubbish. Probably the Tascam deck is the best you can buy but even that is just a knock-off Tanashin mechanism which wasn't even thT great in the first place
@@TheOrphicCreative When a pretty serious manufacturer puts Tanashin mechanics inside its products, there must be something wrong with the concept and the intent. Present Tascam decks cannot even be called semiprofessional equipment. They are just simple cassettes players that look like a proper deck.
Can Cassettes sound as good as digital? As long as you have a premium quality cassette tape, a premium quality tape deck, and the sort of music and SPEAKERS which can easily demonstrate the differences in a comparison, then the answer is ... almost. Yes, cassettes can sound almost as good as digital. Kinda / sorta. Shall we put a percentage on it just to be silly? Then it's 80% as good as digital.
I did consider doing some dolby recordings, but I decided I wanted to show the raw characteristics of the tapes without modifying their response. I think the Fox C60 in particular would definitely benefit from some dolby NR.
@@TheOrphicCreative a properly calibrated tape would theoretically sound the same (ie. Same frequency response) with perfect azimuth and bias, haha. Just without hiss at specific points based on their companding algorithms. I think your deck would make a good test case for something like that. Does it have fine bias control?
Thats true, although the NR algorithm does introduce some artifacts, particularly on transients. My deck does have bias adjustment and calibration so I could adjust for it. Perhaps a good subject for a follow up video 🙂
I have all the modern digital systems i.e. DAC'S and streaming plus CD players and all that stuff but they are all so boring to look at, I have an old 90's vintage tape deck as well because I love to watch those old tape meters dance I just love it and I don't care if the sound isn't quite as good as modern digital.
I assume that just like vynyl records..tapes are exclusivly analog signal so they depend solely on the quality of the magnetic read write head. And technicaly writing heads should be more bulky then just reading heads. Have them do both means compromise..we cant really expect to fully get the best out of tapes unless these can be modified.
I think that's definitely true. Especially since the cassette standard was a compromise to begin with - it was the narrowest tape at the slowest speed they thought they could get away with. Even just doubling the tape speed like in some 4-track cassette machines makes a pretty impressive difference to the sound quality
Buy a nakamichi zx9 or cr7 or a Yamaha kx960 you’ll be impressed mate cassettes are great if you have a good deck good tapes and know how to bias and calibrate
If you want to get (back) into cassettes, here is an important tip: Buy tapes! Whenever you see a good deal, hit it. Unopened type IV tapes got for 30 - 150€ per tape nowadays. Used cassettes are a (necessary) alternative. Yes, you can get net UX type I tapes for 2€ a piece, but for the good stuff, you want type IV.
YES very good points in your video here note i don't buy makes of cassette's i buy pancake and body's note it's now alot easyer to buy cassettes to the size you need now and color of them as well i have a otari DP2700 x 2 and i can take the 1/8 tape out and move the tape on to basf 1/8 reels alot of the used tapes on ebay are not that great i love to say i was working on a betacam sp sony 75p decks yes 12 of them at once saved from a skip WOW they sound ace 45min of audio no hiss at all it was liner audio because the audio tape speed is so fast 6x of betamax liner and no drop out's ADAT is good as well
Cassette tape are back from the dead just need a good tape deck players I got a revox 215 they sound nice on that deck but is one of the best tape deck in the world made on Germany they got some low end tape deck that sound good too like denon tape deck n nakamichi low end are pretty good too oh could buy a old tape deck that is repair from the 90s on ebay because they don't make good tape deck anymore for what I know so far good video let keep the cassette tape alive back they so cool n some deck look cool too so many out there
Great comparison. Maxell made some great type 2 cassettes. Sony Minidisc combined the convenience and flexibility of cassette with a digital recording...and made editing a breeze but it's days were numbered 😞💽
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
It’s worth it just to watch the reels slowly hypnotically spinning around……..mmmmmm, lovely
Can't get enough of it 🙂
I have a JVC, Nakamichi and Yamaha deck. When I record on a Type II tape you cant tell the difference from the source no hiss, source being Tidal or Spotify. And digital files save on drives do degrade over time, as the components degrade like anything else. I have tapes from the early 60's that still play, 60+ yrs old.
I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to do this! It was extremely informative, and very helpful. I love tape and find it forgiving regarding harsh frequencies like hi-hats and great for subtle mix glue. I also like a bit of hiss, I think it adds a hint of subtle character.
Yes, I totally agree on the hiss! Its the same reason I don't mind a few pops or crackles on an old LP. Glad you enjoyed the vid 😊
Fantastic video, thank you for creating and sharing. I was completely wrapped up in the comparisons, especially the tape vs tape examples. I'm a huge fan of Tony's videos from C.C. - Your contribution to the sound and use of cassettes is very commendable - you should have at least 20k more views on this video.
Thanks very much, I appreciate that!
I just love cassetes, they are so tactile. It’s an amazing experience even with the hisss.
Absolutely agree. I've loved playing with them since I was a kid. They still continue to surprise me with how good they actually are.
I like the soft sound of cassette,thats why i still litening them !
Great video mate !
Thanks !
Well done. That's a fair test. I have also 2 metal tapes (Maxell MX90). Those surprised me as well just how good they sound.
Nothing wrong with tapes if you record or play them in the right deck.
Found so many new old stock SAs at the flea market (mid 90s ones) that I've now filled a couple of shoe boxes!!! Cassettes integrate so many of my early life memories that they'll never go away!!! Thank you for the excellent video... Tape recording is here to stay!!
I know this is an old video, but this is the best way to compare tapes- I really haven''t seen anything comparable to date (even with Cassette Comeback or TechMoan). I would look forward to a revisit with properly calibrated recordings (3 head deck or auto calibrate), Dolby B, Dolby C, Digital NR and dbx comparisons, and maybe a spectrum from the very low to the very high (20Hz-20Khz) as a source. In any case, thank you for proving cassette tapes can sound as good as digital!
Agreed. Any hi-fi cassette deck worth buying had Dolby C. The spectral skewing technique it employed was revolutionary when it first escaped into the wild in 1981 and could give better than Type IV tape performance from Type I tapes. I still have two 3-head hi-fi cassette decks from the 1990s that can record almost flat from 20Hz to 20kHz on a cheap TDK FE Type I tape with a signal-to-noise ratio approaching 80dB in Dolby C. Neither of them were massively expensive at the time.
This is an excellent video and it's great to hear a direct, tangible comparison between multiple brands/types. I still use tapes all the times - for me it's a very practical way to record music. There's a lot of stuff on Tidal that I wouldn't be able to afford on CD (because it's expensive or has only been released on vinyl) so I just connect the laptop to the ampli through a simple audio interface and record the albums I need through an Aiwa tape deck, so I can listen to them without the PC. I found out I can achieve quite remarkable recordings with five minutes of work, adjusting the bias, the sensitivity and the other levels correctly. For me it's a great way to "save" your music in a way that actually does the music justice, both visually and sonically. Good job, cheers!
Thanks for taking the time to comment, and I'm glad you found the video interesting. As you say, if you spend a bit of time getting the bias and other adjustments right, you really would be very hard-pressed to tell the difference between a good tape recording and CD. Particularly when just listening in a home environment on a hifi system.
Just imagine that 90% of all music we are listening to today as a "digital" has been recorded with Reel to Reel tapes 🤪
I'm afraid that the people who listen to music (any music, and analogue recording in particular) are an outgoing breed. The young generation that I see around is completely indifferent to music. It's not part of their world. They think it's an unnecessary nuisance spread by the media. And, having listened to modern commercial tops-of-the-pops, I'd rather agree.
I'm sorry, but that is absolute nonsense. Young people listen to just as much music as any other generation. What's changed is the way they consume it. The 'top of the pops' music you refer to is in fact the last remnants of the old obsolete music system which was highly restrictive and had a chokehold on artists' creativity. That IS dying, and good riddance to it.
These days people don't need to listen to the radio or buy what record companies think you should hear. We have Spotify, Bandcamp, RUclips and SoundCloud, where independent artists can make their own platforms to publish their music. That is where you'll find the real talent. There is more variety and innovation in music today than at almost any point in history, but you have to go looking for it, you can't just wait to have it served up to you by music corporations.
What you hear on the radio is not representative of modern music anymore.
@@TheOrphicCreative I'm sorry, I don't hear anything on the radio - the last decent radio station in my city was shut down a year ago. The few remaining FM stations cater mostly to 40+ generations.
@@TheOrphicCreative Hey there if you really want to spot the differences invert either the digital track or all the tape recordings and then play them both at the sametime. You will have to ensure EXACT synchronization of the two files or it won't work. If the files are EXACTLY the same then they will cancel each other out.
Fun to tinker with if you want enjoy the music whatever your format is.
One of the other posters was reffering to older music before digital equipment became popular and even though it was redistributed on CD it was originally recorded on studio analog equipment.
I'm sure a lot of record labels reprocessed (digitally remastered) the original analog tape recordings. That's all the other poster was saying we're talking just after compact disc was released. I have some of those early CDs and I can hear the hiss from the originals recorded on the studio analog equipment.
I did actually try this off-camera, but because there are micro-fluctuations in the tape speed, the recordings aren't close enough for this to work.
Remember that a cassette is not a cassette without its own distinctive hiss. 👌 There were a few portable vinyl player models manufactured back then, however these were quite bulky and heavy to carry around ! 👍
your nostalgia and tactile interaction assumption is not the main reason for the resurgence of cassette.
tape recording actually started to become popular again by the people who are back into records and analog who wanted way to record and play their music without wearing out their records, and keeping the music in the analog realm.
it makes no sense to transfer an album to digital, when streaming and cds better suit that purpose
And the original reason many of us copied albums from records onto tape back in the day
My Pioneer CT-W604RS handles true chrome tapes very well for playback. I've never been able to test recording, since I don't have any type 2 tapes that have such a formulation (aside from my factory recorded ones, which I'm not going to erase). That Pioneer deck is a real champ at faking hifi performance from what's really a budget player under the hood. It's a testament to how a bit of late 90s computerization made some lower end tape decks outperform very high end ones from a few decades ago (as far as playback goes, at least). That deck blew my mind at how good a prerecorded cheapo type 1 from the 80s can sound.
26:58. YEAH. YOUR GETTING INTO IT NOW. YOU DO GET IT. YOU REALLY DO😉
Great review using a great deck! One small note, the SA isn't a "true chrome", as it uses a ferro-cobalt, or "super avilyn" coating.
Its still a type 2 though, and a very good one.
Well done comparison!
That's because they're cool, the nostalgic factor is 💯 % and sound fantastic with the bias and equalization set correctly. Tape hiss can be completely eliminated with dbx and there's no longer digital ultra high definition ear fatigue to wreck the 🥳 party.
I listen to vinyl records, cassette tapes and CDs only I hate streaming music
Cassette tapes are gorgeous through modern amps and speakers!
And wonderful through 70's amps/receivers as well.
@@DarrenJohnston-su6ck definitely yes
Good job. Great comparison. Thank you very much for your efforts. At first, I missed the annotation of the individual tracks (which corresponds to which tape), but I was able to cope that. So, congratulations.
Fun video and nice sample of tapes. Cassettes are fun, which is what matters to me.
Great Video, Can you do a video of the new cobalt chrome tapes? its not real chrome and I think theirs 3- Mfg.? TASCAM, National Audio Company and more
Interesting! Will look into this 🙂
I’ve got 100s of cassettes all multitracks coz I’ve got an old Amstrad studio 100 I used years ago to record songs, I might dig them out and have an old school nostalgic mix about 😂
On paper? No.
In real life: You'll have a very hard time telling the difference if you do everything right.
@@westelaudio943 Exactly!
1. This was a good video.
2. A really good cassette deck (pitch control, bias, level, azimuth, low wow & flutter) can take even type 0 tapes and make a decent recording. The key is having a good deck.
3. Secondly get good quality tapes, based on what type of recording you intend to do. Use type IV metal only for master recording or high end recordings, otherwise good type II tapes should suffice. Good type II tapes are those tapes that have a blend of Chrome , cobalt and iron 3 oxide. These tapes give a full 20hz - 20,000 hz response.
4. Tapes are very versatile. You can boost the left or right channel, mix the equalizer on the master or left/right channel and make the original song/music/sound, completely different and better especially 70's disco, 80's pop/rock, heavy & glam metal music. Modern (1991-2021) are all mixed for digital format and will probably sound better on a CD, but older music were originally mixed for analog Vinyl records and reel to reel tapes.
Having a good audio source is important too. When I record FLAC files to good type II tapes it sounds as good if not better than mp3.
who cares all that FLAC or SACD and digitised stuff. I just tape off of RUclips… anything above 480p sounds good 👍
I’ve made many mixed tapes good sound all round…
They make new blanks not just old stock
There are some new tapes still being made, yep. The Fox C60 that I tested in the video is one of them. But the TDK and other tapes I tested are not made anymore today unfortunately
The Maxell UR90 seem decent for the price. I have quite a few of them. If you were near me, I won't mind spotting you a few 😊
Greetings from Trinidad & Tobago
What is interesting about Type II Pure Chromium Dioxide cassettes, DuPont gave the license to produce Crhromium Dioxide tapes to the Soviet Union in about 1980, so SVEMA factory in the USSR was producing 60-minute MK60-4 cassettes. I have two of these, recording quality is pretty good, but it loses some level. I have 1988 Soviet-made RAPRI-102 two-head deck, which has Japanese sendust head and manual bias adjustment control on board. By the way, somehow BASF Chrome Maxima (or even Chrome Extra) do not lose level on this deck. But cobalt TDK SA tape give me even more level on playback that I had set on nrecording. Also ORWO factories in German Democratic Republic were making pure chromium dioxide tapes, which were used in ORWO cassettes and Soviet TASMA MK60-7 cassettes. I have several TASMA MK60-7, it also loses a bit of level.
Very good work, especially comparing the hiss. I always wanted to conduct such test. Could you perform the test of single frequencies recording, and during playback to see harmonics? Believe me there they are, and they are significant. For monitoring, you could use "Sound analyzer basic" for android.
How do you not have hundreds of thousands of subscribers?! You're videos are brilliant. Plus, you know... bit of alright too. 😉 lol. Hope you keep posting.
Ah thank you ☺️ Pretty new still so still working on growing my subscriber base, and fitting it in with my paid work. But plenty more in the pipeline, don't worry 🙂
Everyone talks about the importance of sources such as CD players and how much they can affect the sound but no one wants to talk about cassette players and how could they affect sound too. They play a cassette on an early 2000's CD player and think that all of them must sound the same. No one wants to give cassettes a chance, it's kinda bizarre on why.
Absolutely agree. I think maybe it's because people just expect tapes to sound a bit crap, so they don't consider that playing and recording them on a high quality deck would make a difference.
I was scared away from a fan group of my favorite band because I was piled on and rationed when I asked for a cassette release. To them, I was truly stupid for suggesting a release on a format that sounds so "bad". People that I used to respect applauded bullying and spread misinformation without even bothering to seek out data. They pulled the age card too, as if that was relevant (I'm under the age of 30, yet have much more experience with cassettes than most people twice my age). Why humans put so much effort into wanting to believe that the world is worse than it is baffles me. To be clear, it's the bigotry that baffles me, not the igonance. Most people using cassette instead of CD (as opposed to cassette and CD) probably are cynical about inflated prices for hifi (that's not really a bad thing, either) and are therfore biased to be irresponsibly skeptical about the idea that paying much more money actually does get you much better sound.
Does your cassette deck not have a skip track feature? It only works if detecting silence between tracks, but while the tape is playing in either direction, I press fast forward and it'll stop fast forwarding upon reaching the next song.
Yes good point, my deck does have that. I was thinking more in terms of portable Walkman type players, but actually many of the later ones had that feature too 👍
Very cool experiment. I've mastered an album entitled 'Glittering Wheels' much in the way you've done in this video. I think that it certainly adds a touch of pleasant compression. You touched on this in your video, but I've been using used tapes lately on my portastudios as I see no difference between a used tape and an unopened tape, if they're stored in the same way. It's not like the 'sealed' ones are hermetically sealed or anything. Sometimes you'll get a dud used tape but for the most part they're fine. I think that the real difference in sound comes from recording a song entirely to cassette (on a portastudio) as opposed to into a DAW and then mixing that master down to a cassette. Very cool video though and thanks so much for taking the time to make it.
Yeah definitely agree, most of the tapes I use have been used several times at least. I seem to recall that VWestlife did an experiment where he recorded/played a cassette over a hundred times and it still sounded exactly the same. I also have tapes which I used and abused as a kid and didn't take care of at all well, and they mostly still sound great. Tapes are surprisingly resilient!
Not sure if you've seen my other video on the Portastudio I restored, but I really like the pleasant tape saturation it adds to tracks recorded on it, and I often incorporate that into my productions.
I think you're more liable to hear the slight differences in the music than the average listener since it's your creation. I was honestly pretty satisfied with all of the tapes.
Yes, that's true. I also think they all sounded pretty amazing to be honest, even the bog standard ferric ones
just got this video suggested to me love it
Casettes are cool like good casette decks…. very relaxing to record something to tape (controlling VU-meters) and finally listen how you succeed 👍👌🎵
all sounded the same to me
4:15 "cheap tape is a recipe for..." - strongly disagree. Yes, once we believed that pricier tapes are the holy grail... and then I rediscovered the cheap ferrics. A good cheap ferric, like late 1990s Maxell UDI (yes, Japanese-market UDI is still quite affordable) can sound excellent when played on a decent transport. It's not as much about the quality of biasing and recording, as it is about the playback transport.
Yeah totally, the right cheap tapes can still sound fantastic, I agree. The point I was getting at was more about the average consumer using cheap supermarket tape on a crappy stereo and then wondering why the recordings sounded rubbish. But yes, even very basic tape on a good system can still sound remarkably good, if it's recorded well.
what headphones are you using?
Sennheiser HD650. They're my workhorse studio headphones
6:48. LET EVERONE KNOW. The Headphone Jack On All Decks Is Amplified By A Basic low power headphone amp And Shouldnt Be Used When Listing To The Decks Output. ITS TO Refrence tapes ONLY.
Not quite sure why you feel it shouldn't be used for listening. The amp on this deck is very high quality and provides an excellent clean output, without needing to add a separate additional amplifier which could colour the sound further. Perhaps your logic would apply on a cheaper deck, but definitely not in this case.
Interesting clip mr. Orphic.
Thank you sir!
In fact YOU CAN skip between tracks on proper cassette decks.
When you are lucky enough to have an high end deck with a proper way to bias and calibrate, you get amazing results with a great cassette (not even a new sealed one 😉).
Not to mention that little compression right...
Love that format!
were they recorded for the first time in the video? cheers
Yep, they were all new old stock tapes which had not been recorded to previously
@@TheOrphicCreative amazing sound, thumbs up for the recording quality too, great job on that!
I guess time has come to sell off a few hundred of my vintage Maxell XL-II and TDK (all well kept) C-90... Thanks for the info!
With the proper magnetics heads and nifty metal tape...you could travel with portable casette players that have raw dsd512 recorded on them..
As long as electronics manufacturers don't put on the market new high quality tape decks with all available settings for playback and recording a high quality tape, there's no point in using cassettes. You have to scavage for vintage tape decks, because they were built really wel,l and then you have to service them and pray that you find spare parts anymore.
So, for the compact cassette to really make a comeback, manufacturers have to revive their good tape decks production lines.
It is fun, beautiful and a really intimate experience to listen to cassettes and reel to reel, but the market have to convince the electronics manufacturers to release them again.
Yes, I agree, most people don't have the time or interest to keep old decks working, and the new stuff is all cheap rubbish. Probably the Tascam deck is the best you can buy but even that is just a knock-off Tanashin mechanism which wasn't even thT great in the first place
@@TheOrphicCreative When a pretty serious manufacturer puts Tanashin mechanics inside its products, there must be something wrong with the concept and the intent. Present Tascam decks cannot even be called semiprofessional equipment.
They are just simple cassettes players that look like a proper deck.
Yes, its a shame, particularly from a company like Tascam that used to have an excellent reputation.
A great deck with a good Type IV cassette will give a DAT a run for its money.
Yes metal type like a digital sound. I like type 2 record
Can Cassettes sound as good as digital? As long as you have a premium quality cassette tape, a premium quality tape deck, and the sort of music and SPEAKERS which can easily demonstrate the differences in a comparison, then the answer is ... almost. Yes, cassettes can sound almost as good as digital. Kinda / sorta. Shall we put a percentage on it just to be silly? Then it's 80% as good as digital.
Yep, absolutely agree. Definitely needs the best equipment to make them shine
I would've loved some Dolby C on these bad boys
I did consider doing some dolby recordings, but I decided I wanted to show the raw characteristics of the tapes without modifying their response. I think the Fox C60 in particular would definitely benefit from some dolby NR.
@@TheOrphicCreative a properly calibrated tape would theoretically sound the same (ie. Same frequency response) with perfect azimuth and bias, haha. Just without hiss at specific points based on their companding algorithms. I think your deck would make a good test case for something like that. Does it have fine bias control?
Thats true, although the NR algorithm does introduce some artifacts, particularly on transients. My deck does have bias adjustment and calibration so I could adjust for it. Perhaps a good subject for a follow up video 🙂
I have all the modern digital systems i.e. DAC'S and streaming plus CD players and all that stuff but they are all so boring to look at, I have an old 90's vintage tape deck as well because I love to watch those old tape meters dance I just love it and I don't care if the sound isn't quite as good as modern digital.
I have a 22 component Hifi-setup. Nothing is younger then 1988. I adore the vintage sound quality.
I assume that just like vynyl records..tapes are exclusivly analog signal so they depend solely on the quality of the magnetic read write head.
And technicaly writing heads should be more bulky then just reading heads.
Have them do both means compromise..we cant really expect to fully get the best out of tapes unless these can be modified.
I think that's definitely true. Especially since the cassette standard was a compromise to begin with - it was the narrowest tape at the slowest speed they thought they could get away with. Even just doubling the tape speed like in some 4-track cassette machines makes a pretty impressive difference to the sound quality
Buy a nakamichi zx9 or cr7 or a Yamaha kx960 you’ll be impressed mate cassettes are great if you have a good deck good tapes and know how to bias and calibrate
If you want to get (back) into cassettes, here is an important tip: Buy tapes! Whenever you see a good deal, hit it. Unopened type IV tapes got for 30 - 150€ per tape nowadays. Used cassettes are a (necessary) alternative. Yes, you can get net UX type I tapes for 2€ a piece, but for the good stuff, you want type IV.
YES very good points in your video here note i don't buy makes of cassette's
i buy pancake and body's
note it's now alot easyer to buy cassettes to the size you need now and color of them
as well
i have a otari DP2700 x 2 and i can take the 1/8 tape out and move the tape on to basf
1/8 reels alot of the used tapes on ebay are not that great
i love to say i was working on a betacam sp sony 75p decks yes 12 of them at once
saved from a skip
WOW they sound ace 45min of audio no hiss at all it was liner audio because the audio
tape speed is so fast 6x of betamax liner and no drop out's
ADAT is good as well
Cassette tape are back from the dead just need a good tape deck players I got a revox 215 they sound nice on that deck but is one of the best tape deck in the world made on Germany they got some low end tape deck that sound good too like denon tape deck n nakamichi low end are pretty good too oh could buy a old tape deck that is repair from the 90s on ebay because they don't make good tape deck anymore for what I know so far good video let keep the cassette tape alive back they so cool n some deck look cool too so many out there
in everyway but.....analog is the best why? let me hear what you think.........
You are missing the point of the tape. It's not the nostalgia and not the quality.
Right, ok. So what is the point then?
The question is can digital ever sound as good as analog, no it can’t , if the correct equipment is used . Digital just brings on a headache.
😢 good system & proper tuning of the system easily eradicates that.😊
Great comparison. Maxell made some great type 2 cassettes. Sony Minidisc combined the convenience and flexibility of cassette with a digital recording...and made editing a breeze but it's days were numbered 😞💽
Sad but true. I still use them. Heck I even used my player today lol