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Re: [ARSCLIST] The worst cassette tape years
I, too, had good luck with BASF cassettes. In fact I think the first cassette I ever recorded, on
the tank-like Panasonic recorder my father gave me for my 9th birthday, was a BASF. I probably have
it somewhere to this day ...
Studio-made -- do you mean generic standard-housing cassettes that some studios used in their
client-dupe rooms, like what came from Polyline? If so, yes, they did not stand the test of time.
When I summer-worked at Sigma NYC, including doing most client-duping one summer, we used Maxell UD
and UDXL cassettes. For what we'd charge the client (something like $20 per duped side), we could
afford to use really good tapes. We actually made great dupes because we used Tascam 122 decks and
the duping buss was a true and well-designed distribution amp with plenty of headroom and a nice
patching system and little duping/mastering mixer. You could source just about any format and feed
all the cassette decks plus any of several Revox reel to reels (a couple quarter-track and at least
one 2-track) and I think could even patch it so a cassette could be source and the Ampex ATR-100
could be the destination instead of the main source. I don't know who designed that room but it was
extremely flexible, well-thought-out and made very good dupes. As the economic model for that sort
of thing collapsed, I think a lot of studios bought those awful Telex duplicators and started doing
bad high-speed dupes on bad media.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Lewis" <davlew@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, June 04, 2007 5:18 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] The worst cassette tape years
Indeed, I was lucky in that I recorded many of my first gigs on 30 Certrons
that I bought at one time - for $10. They don't sound terrific, but they
don't sound significantly different from the way they did in 1980 and are
not prone to dropouts like some others.
My worst
Memorex: any year, but especially around 1980-84 and 1988. On the earlier
ones the pad that presses down is glued to a metal plate, and they dry out.
So I've had to replace EVERY pad on every Memorex cassette I have from these
years.
Computron: horrible, cheap tapes that sounded terrible to start with and yet
worse later.
Tonemaster: The Yellow labeled ones aren't bad, and the red labeled ones
were pretty good. But the grey label Tonemasters are prone to dropouts and
the pad insert comes loose - a lot. Thank goodness they also came with
screws.
CBS: The pre-Sony Sony tapes are particularly poor - most that I've seen are
unplayable now, including the one that I have.
Maxell in the 90s: As Tom mentioned, Maxell experience a slip in quality
around 1990, especially in longer lengths like 100, 110 etc.
Scotch: already covered
"Maxwell": Didn't use this brand, but I've found one. It is a cheap knockoff
of a Maxell with a design meant to fool the consumer! The one I have is
unplayable.
Studio made blanks: I guess what you got depended on where your studio
bought their blanks from. Yet I've never bought, owned or found a studio
made cassette that was of any count.
Metal, C120s or 180s: What a bad idea! These formats were useless.
My best:
TDK
Maxell in the 80s
Denon: Although I've experienced some problems long term with Denons, those
from 1988-89 are really pretty good.
BASF: very good circa 1980 and in 1986-87.
I'd like to contribute more, but I'd have to look at my cassette holdings
for more brands. Practically all of the recording I did of my own groups and
original music, except for studio sessions, were captured on cassette
between 1978-1998. So this is of high concern to me.
David N. Lewis
Assistant Classical Editor, All Music Guide
"Never treat an audience as customers-always treat them as partners." - Ted
Healy
-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tom Fine
Sent: Monday, June 04, 2007 4:48 PM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] The worst cassette tape years
Yes, those were terrible but my father used those to tape his lectures for a
course he taught at NYU
(super-tough Panasonic tape recorder on the table in front of him -- plenty
of table resonance to
tune out for better audibility). They sat for about 15 years in a box in
semi-damp basement before
my brother decided to copy them to CD. They have all played just fine so
far, and he's about halfway
through the box.
So, bad quality on Day 1 for sure, but they seem to be durably bad.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "Miriam Meislik" <miriam+@xxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, June 04, 2007 4:12 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] The worst cassette tape years
Hmmm, Certron comes to mind. Three noisy rattling tapes for a buck. I
used to use them to tape
things off the radio in the 1970s.
Terry, Kopana wrote:
The 70's and 80's had a few years that weren't very kind in the world of
cassette tape manufacturing. Those crappy years have come back to haunt
more than one of us as time has gone on. If you had to pick the year(s)
that saw the most poorly manufactured cassette tape, what would it
(they) be? In scouring the ARSC archives I've seen two brands mentioned
in
particular that seem to be more prone to crappiness than others: 3M and
Scotch. Is one worse than the other? Are there other brands that are
even worse? Many thanks for your opinions,
Kopana
Kopana Terry
Sr Image Management Specialist
Preservation & Digital Programs
University of Kentucky
M.I. King Library, rm 105
Lexington, KY 40506-0039
office (859) 257-3210; fax (859) 257-6311
klterr0@xxxxxxx ; http://kdl.kyvl.org
--
Miriam Meislik
Media Curator
Archives of Industrial Society
University of Pittsburgh
7500 Thomas Blvd.
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
(412)244-7075 voice
(412)244-7077 fax
miriam@xxxxxxxx
http://www.library.pitt.edu/libraries/archives/archives.html
http://digital.library.pitt.edu/pittsburgh/index.html
http://images.library.pitt.edu/pghphotos
When your mouth drops open, click the shutter.
--Harold Feinstein, November 11, 2001