• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

XDR tapes

calman46

calman46

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
I have some Beatles tapes (Rubber Soul, Revolver and Help) all XDR Capital but they sound mono, is this possible? They all have only the original 1965 copyrights no mention of stereo or the date of manufacturing or release. All 3 labels printed on them, Apple, Capital, Parlophone. They're from 1987 I believe
 
Register to hide this ad
Here's what Google has to say. Some were released in Stereo with an artificial mixing to simulate stereo.
1728916741196.png
 
I looked on Discogs and there are two XDR tapes (Rubber Soul) from 1987 the one I have and a Stereo mix one using some British master tapes. So, the kind I have I believe them to be mono. 1728930680894.png 1728930856487.png
 
I have/had a bunch of those, some are mono iirc. Oddly enough, those Beatles XDR tapes mostly all failed over time for me, the only cassettes I owned that did so. They will not play on any cassette deck despite being easy to spool with a finger. Sticky 1/8th" tape? Dunno, it was a cassette so never mattered enough to investigate I guess, but it wasn't an exception, it was all of the XDR Beatles that I owned.
 
I asked Copilot, this is the reply
  • The Master Source: Rather than using Capitol's vintage 1960s American EQ-altered or shortened master tapes, EMI standardizing the global Beatles catalog in 1987 forced Capitol to adopt the official British track listings and running orders. EMI generated new digital transfers (Sony PCM-1610 digital master tapes) from the original UK EMI master tapes.
  • Mix Differences on Rubber Soul: For the 1987 digital reissue project, George Martin went back to the 1965 original 4-track session tapes and completely remixed Rubber Soul (along with Help!) into stereo, adding digital reverb and fixing centering issues present on the original 1965 UK stereo mix. Your XDR tape contains this 1987 stereo remix rather than the original 1965 mix.
  • XDR & HX Pro Duplication: Capitol duplicated these cassettes on high-speed bins fed directly from digital bin loop sources (or high-resolution digital playback units) using Dolby HX Pro headroom extension and tone-burst quality control (the distinctive sweep tones you hear at the start or end of the tape).

    So that maybe why they sounded mono to me .
 
XDR & HX Pro Duplication: Capitol duplicated these cassettes on high-speed bins fed directly from digital bin loop sources (or high-resolution digital playback units) using Dolby HX Pro headroom extension and tone-burst quality control (the distinctive sweep tones you hear at the start or end of the tape).
Click to expand...
More AI misinformation. Capitol's XDR system was a quality control measure used for their 1-inch running bin masters feeding duplication slave units recording Capitol cassette tape that was either GS-1 (referred to internally as "good ****") or CS-1 ("crap ****"). These tapes were so unreliable that the QC group decided to include a tone sweep at the start of every program so that loaders with playback heads would stop when the signal output fell below a certain limit. Pancakes that stopped the loaders were discarded. When Capitol decided to get out of the tape manufacturing business and switched to a combination of Aurex and SKC cassette pancakes, the XDR ("extended range," meaning high frequencies were not too far below low frequencies) system was no longer needed.

Eventually Capitol also eliminated the obsolete 1-inch tape bins for digital bins and modified the duplication slave units for Dolby HX Pro. Dolby HX Pro dynamically controlled bias levels depending on the musical content: slightly reducing bias for content with lots of high frequency energy to improve SOL and increasing bias when there was little high frequency energy to improve MOL. Dolby HX Pro was only for recording. In almost ever case, Dolby B noise reduction was used to encode the digital masters so that decoding Dolby B reduced noise on playback.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom