Cassette Bias Adjustment. Can you hear the difference it makes?
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 10 фев 2025
- This is the ultimate test for all those who insist tapes need tuning to the deck they are being used in.
Join me as we try to hear the differences in bias. You can see it in this video but can you hear it? #records #highfidelity #audiophile #hifi #teacw1200 #teac #garykeepitsimple #cassetteplayer #cassettetape #cassetteculture #cassette
----- AFFILIATED LINKS/ADVERTISING NOTICE ------
All links are Affiliated where possible.
When you click on links to various merchants posted here and make a purchase, this can result in me earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, Amazon. amzn.to/3MlAdRV
I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to AMAZON Sites (including, but not limited to Amazon US/UK/DE/ES/FR/NL/IT/CAN)
I did hear the sound get duller with increased bias and brighter with reduced bias, but the standard bias and auto-tuning sounded about the same to me. That's the expected result with any good-quality tape which was manufactured close to the IEC standards -- it shouldn't need that much bias adjustment to sound good.
what?which standart, there´s no such thing each tape it´s diferent and it isn´t dull but acurate if it´s dull the deck isn´t working correctelly as the bias increased is to manage high quality chrome tapes or cobalt allthough i have a lot made of real chrome particules tapes in cassettes. The SA-X (which isn´t chrome)from TDK you almost have to turn the bias knob almost all to the right a litle less than maximum, if not sounding perfect , or the maintenance isn´t done or it needs a repair, IEC standarts?some sentences i don´t even understand what are they meaning, the adjustment is needed always depending on the tape if almost not needing adjust maybe a big problem with your deck and must sound really bad
@@RUfromthe40s Adjustment is needed because the formulations aren't precisely hitting the required IEC standards per tape type. Ideally, bias trim should never be used as a treble control. The widely accepted correct way to set bias level is for maximum output level at 400Hz as that coincides very closely with minimum distortion. It's then the job of adjustable recording EQ to correct high frequency response. That's why Pioneer's Super Auto BLE was one of the most successful auto-calibration systems for correctly calibrating tapes as it adjusted bias level first, then sensitivity level, then recording EQ. Any other approach is a compromise.
@ treble?i don´t get what this as related with my coment , about what i said there is a only situation where almost or no correction is needed which is when you use the tape that the deck was calibrated witth, 400hertz are what i call mid lows , but here we were about calibration and being made at 400HERTZ makes it easier for the deck not as in sound audible when one records music
As usual, great informative video.
Learning to do a good bias adjustment is a very important skill to learn for good recordings. I hear a huge difference. The last one was the balanced one, second to last was treble boosted.
I adjust bias by recording pink noise into audacity from the deck. Source pink noise to tape pink noise, I match volumes with the gain and solo back and forth to compare. I want my source in audacity to come from the deck to audacity during recording the tape, not the original source. I even go as far to split them to mono and compare left source channel to left tape channel, right source channel to right tape channel. I go by ear and listen for the highest frequency hiss I can hear, very quiet in the background against the roar of lower frequencies. I want them to sound pretty much identical, but when in doubt a very small amount of under bias is always preferable to the smallest amount of over bias. Not only is a loss of treble not acceptable, the tape hiss (I do not like NR at all) contributes slightly to what I hear in the test and I want to account for it.
You are right about making sure not to over drive the recording volume, I have learned that before you start to hear any distortion, you start to lose a little treble, cymbals and what not get a tad quieter just as you start to over saturate the tape. Easy to miss and I bet this mistake happened a lot in the day. I can usually push a type 1 to +1 db, only allowing it to barely bump +2 from time to time, this is after listening out for treble loss. Some types of music (heavy electronics like carpenter brut) need to be driven to either 0db or barely touching +1db in order to have no treble loss.
That sounds like you have got it sorted.
So which one is the one w the 150hz and 7k setup? @@GaryKeepItSimple
@@musicstevecom This was done on a different machine. The effect would be the same as autotuned if you did this way ruclips.net/video/TOEEJRHLy-w/видео.html. get back to me if I have misunderstood. cheers
i would avoid this video if wanting to learn something
Doing cassettes in the digital era is all for nostalgia. Once you've learned the nitty gritty things that makes them work so well, you'll never want to settle for less. And knowing that you've squeezed every drop of performance from your deck and cassettes, gives enjoyment while you relax and listen to your music.
Really true. The satisfaction you can when you nailed the recording is really special.
yeh! we all have 100.000€ recorders we all live in lalalaland, if using professional equipment at home you must know that the regular user doesn´t have it, it seems you never learned nothing that´s ridiculous and your taste in music is only synthesized sound , you don´t like guitars or drums or even electronic keyboards they are being used a lot like the mog , melotron or juno, digital as a lot to evolve allthough it is already better than some decades ago but for home use the 80´s dat is the best released and cassette decks are still the best to have a more clear sound or a open reel deck , even better, digital era, PFFFF!!!maybe in a hundred years at this speed
learn first talk after
The third one is definitely different, the high-end of the drums, etc. ,seems much brighter, I guess. I'm not an audiophile, so I don't have the vocabulary to say exactly how it's different, but the third one is very noticeable.
The others, I'd need to pay close attention to to see if I can find anything.
Definitely can hear it. I always do test recordings to make sure the bias control is working properly on a used deck
You can really hear the difference between under bias and over bias? My ears are not good enough. for the small change the adjuster gives. Obviously, I do not mean big changes like tape type.
@@GaryKeepItSimple I try and eek out every little bit of high frequency as I can. My ears are getting older as well. I use a decent pair of headphones to get the best out of the tape. If a tape gets too under biased it will start to distort and become brittle. Too much bias and you lose high frequency and the bass becomes more muddy. It's more nostalgia and tinkering with a tape deck that makes me happy. Tape is just fun to record on. It's not the best sounding format but it can still sound pretty darn good. It adds the analog back in from the digital format for me but with one cavioyot, compression. That said, It can tame some brighter recordings if you like to flavor the sound a little. That's been my experience. Happy listening ✌️🙂
Oh yes there's a difference when you turn that knob - I akin to a 'granular' type sound some peaks rising some lowering but not too extreme - to my ears.. kind of like more sugar on the top or not .. - but on some decks some crazy stuff can happen. It's not changing the sound in an emphasizing manner .. but it's optimizing it for the tape
Automatic tape calibration comes in a number of forms and I can't think of any that adjust bias only as it's the worst possible way to calibrate a tape. In the case of Pioneer's Super Auto BLE, it adjusts the bias level first for maximum output level at 400Hz which coincides very closely with minimum distortion. It then sets the sensitivity level. It then adjusts recording EQ for a flat frequency response at 10kHz. That's the least you can do to get the most out any tape formulation. Anything less is a compromise in one way or another. There have only ever been a handful of tapes that don't improve noticeably from tuning. Those were BASF and TDK reference formulations from many moons ago.
The importance of operating tape at the correct biasing point should never be underestimated, as adjusting bias level alone is likely to increase recording distortion and reduce headroom. Under-biasing also makes the recording process more susceptible to dropouts caused by poor tape-to-head contact and can exacerbate problems with tapes that are poorly calendered leading to increased modulation noise. If you've ever looked at the output of a cassette deck on an oscilloscope playing back a 15kHz sinewave and wondered why the amplitude is so unstable, unless the deck is poorly, you may be looking at the results of under-biasing. It really can be a killer in terms of recording quality.
Thank you for sharing .
Great video ! The most controversial comments in this video , would have to be ; I can't hear a difference. I can hear the difference on the phone speaker.
I have got old😔
@@GaryKeepItSimple ☹️
Incredibly interesting video. I watched with great interest. Thank you so much.
Thank you too
The last 2 sound brightest but, to me at least, there's not much difference between those 2. Big difference with the first 2, that also sound similar to each other
it is only 1 db difference., and well out of my old ears frequency range.
Yes the min manual bias and the Auto tune tracks are more clearer with added treble response interesting that the manual bias does do a good job cleaning up a recording..gives auto tune a run for it's money
That was actually a bad music sample for this. You need music with high splash or crash cymbals, and deep bass (Tom Sawyer by Rush). On my 3 head decks I simply start a test recording and switch between source and tape while turning the Bias up or down until they are perfectly matched and no way to tell between source and tape. Then rewind and start your recording. I can still hear to 17,000 Hz so Bias changes on a tape are very audible to me. Less Bias means more treble range, More bias cuts the highs making the tape sound muddy.
This tune is the best I can find on RUclips music library . I would love to give a mix of commercial recordings showing the best or worst but copyright means I cannot.
I can definitely hear the difference, switching back and forth with the monitor button, using my old hearing with significant high frequency loss. This is using the static of the FM radio or Billie Jean's alternating snare, kick drum and maracas. On my JVC TD-V531, a '94 TDK D needed little to no negative bias. A '93 Memorex dB (Cassette Comeback called it an overperforming super ferric), needed the lowest bias setting on the dial to bring out the highs. FYI, white noise is just fine for bias adjustment as you're matching a frequency response, not balancing out the curve for equal energy perception.
well if you have hearing problems you don´t notice it, in each type there are diferencies for each brand or model and noticeable like in the first seconds of sound but now you´re seeing not hearing , and a fraction at top level makes a lot of diference, maybe you don´t know much about tape recording i do it since 1970 at a professional level, but at home is where one notice huge diferencies because of the tape size and decks diferencies in recording
The question is not if there is a difference, it is if it is a hearable difference. Also no two peoples ears are the same in fact most peoples ears are different left and right. But I think you know that. Thanks for you input.
@@GaryKeepItSimple you´re right
Could not hear the difference, I have mentioned before I use TDK SA TDK AD TDKAR just peaking at plus 3 I check the treble and bass the high end no roll of and no distortion in the bass that I can hear 😊
4 sounds best to me.
Everyone hears something different.
Well, first recording have some distortion in higher frequencies.
The bias has an effect, but it appears that the only way to get a proper recording is to try it first. Record level has more effect on a recording than bias adjustment.(Assuming the deck is set correctly in the first instance) and the tape has not deteriorated. I have seen some reports of tapes that have slipped from type 2 settings to type 1 with max adjustment + to get them to record but that is not a normal thing. I would not record anything I wanted to keep on a tape like that, no matter how good it sounded when recorded.
What's the name of the song?
The song is "Where We Wanna Go " by Patrick Porticos. it is in the RUclips Audio Library. It is one of a few tunes that sound impressive in the library with good dynamics and sound quality. It sounds good from the get-go. Most yt library tunes are OK for background or mood settings but suffer from wow,fllutter phasing and other effects musicians like to add.
listening on quite cheap earbuds and i couldn’t hear any difference