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Good cassetts for recording?

H

Honkycat

New Member
Hi guys,
I was thinking of recording some big band albums I have onto cassette. Can anyone recommend a decent cassette? I know they are getting harder and harder to find. Also, someone once told me that recording audio on VHS would sound better than cassette cos the heads are better quality as is the tape, any truth to this? Thanks all

George
 
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With current cassette media, choices are limited. VHS is unsuited for archival applications and tapes do a poor job of interchanging between decks. Tracking is very primitive on a VHS deck. If you are going to use a video deck for audio, use a Beta or 3/4 U-Matic deck with a Sony PCM F-1 or a PCM 1630 which is excellent sounding Digital. TDK SA is the best cassette tape you can presently buy new. Type II tape is almost out of production now.
 
I like Akai GX-90 tapes. You also could get tape on ebay. I've had good results on Maxell UR tapes. Older tapes on ebay can get pricey if you're not patient.
 
KentTeffeteller said:
With current cassette media, choices are limited. VHS is unsuited for archival applications and tapes do a poor job of interchanging between decks. Tracking is very primitive on a VHS deck. If you are going to use a video deck for audio, use a Beta or 3/4 U-Matic deck with a Sony PCM F-1 or a PCM 1630 which is excellent sounding Digital. TDK SA is the best cassette tape you can presently buy new. Type II tape is almost out of production now.
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Thanks. Who sells TDK SA new?
 
Way back in the 80's I used to use TDK SAX 90's cromoxide but I dont know if you can even get them any more........................
Using VHS for audio only is a bit extreme, I had a friend who used to do it back in the eighties, its a pain in the arse for audio if you want to cue things jump a track, to clunky i think for what its worth.............
 
TDK SA new?

I think that you pretty much have to check on the internet. Unless you're in a big city, it's almost impossible to find any kind of high bias tape in-store.

Surprisingly enough, the only place that I've found high bias tape locally has been in thrift stores. Sometimes I've found, mixed in with the commercial music cassettes, tapes recorded by a private person. If they're recorded on decent tape, I buy it just to erase and record on myself.

Also, I've scored at least a half dozen high bias -- even metal -- tapes still in the original wrappers. Average cost, 50 cents.

Check the net and check some thrift stores, you might get lucky!

Grant
 
I have had some excellent results recording to Hi-Fi VHS. That said, most of my cassette tapes come from thrifts these days. Still lots of unopened tapes out there.

+1 on the Akai GX-90 tapes. They seem to be every bit as good as any Maxell XL II that I have used. Maxell XL II-S, not that's another story!
 
I have tons of different normal bias tapes from the thrift store unopened, mostly sony. I'm recording old big band stuff from LP so I'm guessing normal bias should be ok or would high bias tapes still; make a difference?
 
I had pretty good luck finding several Maxell XLII Japan-made cassettes off that auction site for what I felt was a reasonable price. Have sometimes run across the normal bias stuff in the thrifts. I like TDK D. If you can afford it, justify the cost, etc., Denon HD8 is the shiznit IMHO. Even made my cheap deck (at the time) shine. Can't really go wrong with TDK SA. The fancy stuff is XLII-S and TDK SA-X.

But, you are talking about recording big band albums... are these old recordings lacking the high end? (all of mine seem to be--whether LP or CD releases) In which case any type I normal bias tape should be more than plenty.
 
At this point in time, your best bet is going to be thrifts, sorting through the home-recorded tapes for the good ones that were recorded and rarely played again. I found a cassette case with 10 nearly new tapes with exercise music in the dumpster... for some reason, they won't put home-made tapes out for sale.

IME Maxell XL-IIS are the TOTL, but the XL-II are pretty close, and easier to find.
 
Honkycat said:
Hi guys,
I was thinking of recording some big band albums I have onto cassette. Can anyone recommend a decent cassette? I know they are getting harder and harder to find. Also, someone once told me that recording audio on VHS would sound better than cassette cos the heads are better quality as is the tape, any truth to this? Thanks all

George
Click to expand...

HiFi VHS does indeed sound better but not because the heads are "better quality" per se, nor the tape. The sound is better because of the effective tape speed achieved by the rotating heads, which is necessary to record the kind of high frequencies, way above the audio spectrum, that are required for a video picture. The effective tape speed is over 200 ips which gives pretty much noise-free audio and flat frequency response right to the end of the spectrum. However, as Kent points out, the recordings are not suitable for archiving due to tracking issues and drop-outs -- everyone has seen how a picture stored on VHS degrades over time. It IS very handy for recording long radio shows though, especially if you don't have a digital recorder and don't want your PC tied up for the duration (and also timer functionality is built into every VCR).

I'm sure others may differ but, in my personal experience so far, a good cassette deck with Dolby-S and HX-Pro will make recordings on Type I cassettes that pretty much negate the benefits of Type II. That probably goes for Dolby-C too but my deck has S and I'm very happy with it so I don't bother with C. As said though, that's my personal experience so far and I may not have tested thoroughly enough (which I must get around to sooner rather than later before I can't get any Type II should I decide otherwise).
 
I needed something to pad out an order and bought some of those Akai cassette tapes and they sound very good and the cases seem well made. They may be the best new stock out there now.
 
jimbofish said:
At this point in time, your best bet is going to be thrifts, sorting through the home-recorded tapes for the good ones that were recorded and rarely played again. I found a cassette case with 10 nearly new tapes with exercise music in the dumpster... for some reason, they won't put home-made tapes out for sale.

IME Maxell XL-IIS are the TOTL, but the XL-II are pretty close, and easier to find.
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Many of the resale stores won't sell the previously home recorded tapes because of copyright laws. It seems a stretch to me that anyone would come after them legally.
 
Ghoulardi said:
Many of the resale stores won't sell the previously home recorded tapes because of copyright laws. It seems a stretch to me that anyone would come after them legally.
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Never thought of that... seems to be the big nationwide stores that do this . The indies still sell anything here.
 
I use TDK MA-110 type IV and SA-100 Type III, very nice! I know tapes are harder and harder to come by in the US; I travel to Central and South America where the cassette still lives and stock while there (:scratch2: maybe I should bring some extra to sell), anyways, I also own a SONY HF-300 HI-FI BETA (yes, B-E-T-A) VCR that has a set-up for music recording only were it uses the whole width of the tape to track the music and the sound it's very impressive, of course BETA tapes are even harder to find. Oh well ....
 
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