Pre-recorded tapes are dubbed at high speed. This, in principle, makes things easier, not harder. (MHz amplifiers are trivial, and the heads need fewer turns.)
But mass production is always DOWN to a price. When the LP companies contracted-out for tape, they did not bother to specify quality even as minimally as they watched LP pressing quality.
While mass music cassettes were (mostly) better than speech quality (or at least stereo), none rose to Nakamichi's Best-- who would pay for that?
But mass production is always DOWN to a price. When the LP companies contracted-out for tape, they did not bother to specify quality even as minimally as they watched LP pressing quality.
While mass music cassettes were (mostly) better than speech quality (or at least stereo), none rose to Nakamichi's Best-- who would pay for that?
Pre-recorded cassettes are made on a special contact dubbing machine. It does not work like a cassette recorder. The source "tape" is a special high magnetic flux tape, and it is made in contact with the destination tape at very high speed. The source flux magnetizes the destination tape, which in turn will be provided with lead and runout tape, cut and mounted in the cassette shell. The original recording usually has Dolby B emphasis. It is quite difficult to achieve that quality with a home cassette recorder.
giving a 500 a service- probably to move on- i like to learn as much as possible
did not realise naks are not the top of the tree-whats better
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I don't have any details, but I have seen it once working, and they explained me.
Yes, I understand the process, in theory and in practice.
It does not care that playback speed is different from record speed, as long as everything is scaled correctly. (One dubber I worked on took shortcuts, which is why I know more than I ever wanted.) (And most dubbers don't care, which is why we have crappy dubs.)
Contact printing is "a thing" but not AFAIK used in the mass music cassette industry. It may have a niche in speech cassettes.
Thanks for info PRR.
Even this is not my thread, i find it interesting. Pre-recorded tapes were always junk. For numerous reasons.
Last week i was down with flu, at home, so i worked on some onkyo tape decks. Both 3 head models, one lower in the line, mechanical counter, pot for bias...one much higher in the line, with auto bias with memory, digital counter with all sorts bells, like remaining time, you got the point.
After some cleaning, some new lamps, i adjusted recording and playback levels on both...few days later, time to compare.
Both records on type II tape almost undistinguishable from incoming signal. I may even like the lover line deck more.
Not bad for 30+ years old cassette decks.
Its amazing how much development went into this format. (Format originally designed as Dictaphone. )
And its pity that pre-recorded tapes never did justice to the capabilities of this media.
Even this is not my thread, i find it interesting. Pre-recorded tapes were always junk. For numerous reasons.
Last week i was down with flu, at home, so i worked on some onkyo tape decks. Both 3 head models, one lower in the line, mechanical counter, pot for bias...one much higher in the line, with auto bias with memory, digital counter with all sorts bells, like remaining time, you got the point.
After some cleaning, some new lamps, i adjusted recording and playback levels on both...few days later, time to compare.
Both records on type II tape almost undistinguishable from incoming signal. I may even like the lover line deck more.
Not bad for 30+ years old cassette decks.
Its amazing how much development went into this format. (Format originally designed as Dictaphone. )
And its pity that pre-recorded tapes never did justice to the capabilities of this media.
Some pre-recorded cassettes do sound very good but many are recorded on cheap poor quality tape to maximize profit's, which is a shame. I do love the sound of a good quality cassette recording but I gave up on the format in the end because cassette players have complicated fragile mechanics liable to failure and constant maintenance, ie, head,capstan and pinch roller cleaning, belt replacement, idler tyre replacement, azimuth adjustment etc, etc, etc.......
I don't understand that, unless you mean poor quality.
With a high quality cassette deck one can make rather good recordings - as Adason has just mentioned. Pre-recorded cassettes were generally junk. That goes directly to the original question.I made some beautiful field recordings with a Sony Walkman Pro back in the 80s. The medium is fragile and quirky, tho.
I never heard a pre-recorded cassette that didn't sound terrible. I made much better dubs with a consumer grade Sony dual cassette deck and type II tape. Everybody liked cassettes and everybody either dubbed their own or knew someone that could dub for them.
I think the real reason they got rid of the cassette format is because of music copyrights. There was talk about adding a hefty tax to blank cassette tape which would have more than doubled the price. Then it abruptly disappeared from the market shortly after that.
The morons that run the music industry have nobody but themselves to blame for the blatant copyright violations. If they would have taken two seconds to listen to consumers wishes, we would have happily bought their pre-recorded cassettes. But the fidelity was so low that they were worthless for music. So they saved a tenth of a penny and destroyed the whole market.
I think the real reason they got rid of the cassette format is because of music copyrights. There was talk about adding a hefty tax to blank cassette tape which would have more than doubled the price. Then it abruptly disappeared from the market shortly after that.
The morons that run the music industry have nobody but themselves to blame for the blatant copyright violations. If they would have taken two seconds to listen to consumers wishes, we would have happily bought their pre-recorded cassettes. But the fidelity was so low that they were worthless for music. So they saved a tenth of a penny and destroyed the whole market.
This thread I started on the Tapeheads.net forum may make interesting reading Which record label/studio made the best quality pre-recorded cassettes? - Tapeheads Tape, Audio and Music Forums
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