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The first Chrome 120 μs pre-recorded cassette

L

Late Boomer

Super Member
In another thread Wilhem said, "I convinced A&M Records to try the 120-microsecond playback standard on the Police's Synchronicity". This is a 1983 album. But Police's 1981 album Ghost in the Machine was also released on BASF chrome tape for 120 μs EQ, also by A&M.

So the question beckons: what was the first Chrome 120 μs pre-recorded cassette?

I know there is a 1980 French release of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark on chrome cassette, but I believe it was mastered for 70 μs EQ.
 
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Ghost in the Machine using 120-microsecond EQ is probably a reissue. Supertramp's Famous Last Words was the first A&M release on BASF chrome tape, and it was recorded for 70-microsecond playback. We introduced the band at an AES (Audio Engineering Society) convention that November when we had a press conference introducing the cassette release. Synchronicity on BASF chrome tape for 120-microsecond playback was introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago in early June of 1983--BEFORE the album was publicly released later that month. I remember crowds of conventioneers gathered around our booth to listen to "Every Breathe You Take" for the first time, and I knew it was going to be a huge hit. Most listeners identified the band as the Police, but I could not tell them any more than that because A&M had not officially released the album yet. Marv Bornstein took a big chance on getting that album out to us without the marketing people knowing.
 
Wilhem said:
Ghost in the Machine using 120-microsecond EQ is probably a reissue.
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The J-card says 1981 and has the "A&M on BASF - CHROME - Music That Shines" label and just below it "120 μs EQ", the cassette has label "CHROME 120 μs EQ". Are you saying a re-issue can re-use the date of older release?

Interesting that there are no explicit instructions to play this cassette as a regular Type I tape, apparently the public in those times understood what 120 μs EQ meant ;-)

police-ghostinthemachine.png
 
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Are you saying a re-issue can re-use the date of older release?
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Yes. The date on the A&M albums is the date of the first issue of the album. All subsequent releases use the original release date unless the issue is a remastered version.
 
Oh, ok, thanks for clearing the matters up. Seems that both the cassette on Discogs and the one that I have are re-issues. But I am happy to have one with chrome tape.
 
Late Boomer said:
The J-card says 1981 and has the "A&M on BASF - CHROME - Music That Shines" label and just below it "120 μs EQ", the cassette has label "CHROME 120 μs EQ". Are you saying a re-issue can re-use the date of older release?
Click to expand...
That's just the copyright date for the album (both the music and actual sound recording).
 
CBS Masterworks released Chrome in the late 70s early 80s. I worked there from 76' to 80'. There were a lot of classical titles and a few rock. I specifically remember Guilty (Striesand/Gibb) doing very well. After-hours we used to run our own Masterworks titles. We'd find a master we liked, put it on the playback unit and run a pancake of tape. If we liked the results we'd de-spool it into cassettes. We used them mostly for testing playback on QC line players. It was fun.
 
Ah, didn’t know they were at 70uS. So just like the MoFi & Nautilus series (which were around the same time, but pre 1983) & the Sound of Nakamichi series, (which were on TypeIV) but I’ve never checked their release dates. Never realized that 120uS Chrome was really just a later prerecord improvement.
 
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