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VHS for audio recording

mcdan

mcdan

Well-Known Member
If anyone still has a VHS HI-FI video recorder, they make great audio recorders. Anyone using one for that purpose? If you check the specs on some of those sets they 20 to 20k no matter what speed and give you plenty of time. Depth multiplexing and helical heads did the trick!
 
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mcdan said:
If anyone still has a VHS HI-FI video recorder, they make great audio recorders. Anyone using one for that purpose? If you check the specs on some of those sets they 20 to 20k no matter what speed and give you plenty of time. Depth multiplexing and helical heads did the trick!
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Decades ago, VHS hifi (and Beta HiFi, though a little more buzzy) was the ONLY way a consumer coiuld record uninterrupted concerts from the radio, or timeshift radio etc. I used to use VHS HiFi to record an oldies show which was then posted on UseNet (The Big Broadcast.)
 
I used to record radio shows off of Beta Hi-Fi and VHS Hi-Fi. It worked quite well when I edit out the commercials when I transferred to cassettes. Now I use a music server for that purpose.
 
Yes!

In the 80's and 90's, I occasionally used a hi-fi VCR to record my band's gigs. The results were always good. JVC made one in the late '80's that was a killer recorder. I wish I still had it.
 
I use it all the time for radio recording. Even in EP mode (3x tape length), it gives superb audio quality and gives me 9 hours on an E180. That plus the VCR's timer makes it a winner. However, I don't put any faith in the archival qualities of video tape so I digitise them once they're full and then re-use them. The VCR keeps my computer free while recording takes place and the digitising process takes place while I sleep. Since I end up digitising anyway, I should probably just use a DVD recorder. For now, the simple answer is I don't have one, the VCR works great, if it packed in I could probably get another one for free since nobody wants them anymore and if I do get a DVD recorder it will likely be permanently connected to the TV.

Since there are no level controls on most VCRs, I'm sure they use some type of limiter and that probably ends up compressing the sound. I can't tell for sure because also most VCRs don't allow you to monitor from tape so I can't A/B with the source. I'm planning to experiment using a cassette deck with monitor set to source to control the sound level before it goes to the VCR and see if a lower level makes any difference to dynamic range.
 
I also used a HiFi VCR back then for long recordings.. And I also felt that the sound it made (actually mine was a fisher 6 head, quite heavy thingie .. more metal than plastic inside that'un) was VERY nice! It was nice to have 4 hrs Great quality sound (or 8 almost as good.. (back then I felt "LP" was just AS good as "SP" :), I dunno if I would agree now, but I`m not ruling it out :) )..
 
I used to record on VHS Hifi in the 90s from CDs. Haven't really done that since. I use cassettes too much for that. Anyway TOTL decks are recommended (from the 80s to early 90s) since they usually have level controls manually. The only problem I noticed is when the tape has dropouts, the hifi kicks out or you hear a staticy kind of sound for a second. They say you can also hear the video head switching noise, but I don't know what that sounds like. All I can hear is the heads spinning against the tape itself.
 
Don't like this medium. Too incompatible from deck to deck. The head switching can sometimes be audible. The companders used in this system can sometimes be audible. Too many variables. I would rather use a PCM adapter with the VCR for audio recording (they worked better with Beta and U-Matic decks).
 
If you like big giant cassettes (VHS Style), shop for an old Elcaset deck. Those sounded great. Good blank tapes are hard to get though.

Looking for a nice one myself since they're quite an oddity.
 
When I forgot to buy a dat tape before going to a recording studio for a mixdown session of one of my songs, back in the early 90s, I suggested out of desperation that hte engineer grab his hifi vhs deck and a new tape. He said basically that it was unlikely to work. He grabbed it, we mixed to vhs hifi audio.

However, either his deck or the setup was crap - you could hear bad noises and stuff in the distant background (electrical noises). Still it helped us out in a pinch.

However after trying this myself several times I gave up. VHS is very very unreliable (as far as solid quality through the tape goes). one little tracking error, something that might not bug you when watching a tape of a hockey game you missed earlier in the day, and your track is shot (tiny tracking issue for a split second = hifi stereo dies for a second and falls back to mono linear = crap).
 
I'm sure a really good vhs deck with premium tape would be better though, but kind of defeating the purpose. But then you're getting into spending big bucks on obsolete tech.
 
I had an NEC in the 80's with level controls for audio and later a Sony ES with the same. You definitely would need a vintage machine for high quality recordings. The Sony still works but relegated to the closet these days. lol
 
In 1986 I bought new an RCA VLP-950HF which was their "convertible" unit, for use with a separate video camera(mine was the Small Wonder CKC-020, still works as new in 1984 but a light hog with its first-generation solid state chip.). This hi-fi VCR DID have manual audio levels, and in 1990 I tried using it for FM timer recordings and to archive my 78rpm records to VHS tape. I was using TDK high-grade tape at the 4 hour speed feeding a Newcomb phonograph thru my receiver-no EQ at all. But the results were really quite good, and I could gets a lot more 78 sides onto the VHS tape than with cassettes.

I felt the frequency response was flat & more than what I needed for this project, better than I could do with chrome type II cassettes at the time. I didn't have any access to a good reel-to-reel then, or the results might have been comparable. I DID have a Sony TC-600 c.1964 vintage, but it had a tube preamp that occasionally would crackle in the right channel and it wasn't really up to the job. I never did finish the 78s project then, but the tape sounded good. Later, I reused the tape for an old movie recorded from Turner Classic Movies.

To-day I use an entirely different set-up for transfers of 78 records: Numark TT-100 direct drive turntable, Stanton 500 cartridge with 2.7mil stylus, Optimus 10-band EQ, all going into a Sony RCR-W500 CD recorder. Much better transfer quality, as the old Newcomb(still got it, bought it new in 1980) has a ceramic cartridge vs. the magnetic Stanton and the proper EQing of the old 78s makes for a much more pleasant listening experience.
 
VHS HiFi has great specs. I think unmeasurable W&F flutter, etc. BUT, VHS tapes go through a tape stretch every time they're played. There's even a bar in the tape path called a "tape stretcher". All the video calibration tapes I've used have check off boxes. Guaranteed within spec for 20 plays. We used them longer than that, but they are a consumable item. More so than cassette.
 
I made a few back in the '80s, such as the Beatles White Album. Kinda lost interest in it once my CD collection grew. Did have great sound though.
 
As I recall Technics and possibly others had an audio deck that recorded on VHS tapes. They also had a digital processor (SC-110) that was geared for using your regular VHS recorder.

Stan
 
I recorded quite a few live classical and opera performances off the air onto VHS hifi, but now I will have to transfer them to something else while they are still playable. I do still have open reel that I could use for transfer or could digitize them, but I fear that I will no longer be able to play them when my VHS equipment dies.
 
is vhs-hifi digital ? or is it pure analog recording and playback ?
does it use a different bias frequency and level ?
how much of a deck to deck incompatibility would exist (like azimuth for cassette recording on one deck and playing back on another) ?
 
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