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Tape and Dolby



 
 
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  #1 (permalink)  
Old September 7th 08, 11:31 AM posted to uk.rec.audio
The Legend Returns
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 5
Default Tape and Dolby

About a two years ago, I posted here about tapes. I messed about with my
tape deck for a couple of evenings, then stuck it back in the box and forgot
about it.

Three days ago, I set it up and once again, have just spent two thoughrougly
enjoyable nights putting some music back on tape and I'm now left scratching
my head, why the format has virtually died out?

Using the very cheap but extremely good TDK SA tapes purchased from Richer
Sounds last week and replacing the 99p RCA leads with some much better but
also inexpensive leads http://tinyurl.com/5zzmq5 I fired up the old Pioneer
CT-740S.
Pushing the Super Auto BLE button and watching the machine work out the
chareristics of the tape was such fun. Wondering whether to use Dolby B, C
or S ...ah nostalgia

Selecting the tracks I wanted to record and then using the Peak Search on my
on my ancient Sony CDP-990 to set the recording levels... Marvellous. The
results, excellent!

Anyone care to discuss what type of Dolby setting (B, C or S) they used, the
brand/type of tape they used or indeed, still use when tape recording, or if
they think tape could ever make a comeback?

Cheers all
tox


  #2 (permalink)  
Old September 7th 08, 12:00 PM posted to uk.rec.audio
David Looser
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,883
Default Tape and Dolby

"The Legend Returns" trabant owners club@Nicks place.comco wrote in
message news
About a two years ago, I posted here about tapes. I messed about with my
tape deck for a couple of evenings, then stuck it back in the box and
forgot about it.

Three days ago, I set it up and once again, have just spent two
thoughrougly enjoyable nights putting some music back on tape and I'm now
left scratching my head, why the format has virtually died out?

Using the very cheap but extremely good TDK SA tapes purchased from Richer
Sounds last week and replacing the 99p RCA leads with some much better but
also inexpensive leads http://tinyurl.com/5zzmq5


I'm scratching my head as to why someone who is satisfied with cassette tape
is bothering about leads?


Anyone care to discuss what type of Dolby setting (B, C or S) they used,
the brand/type of tape they used or indeed, still use when tape recording,
or if they think tape could ever make a comeback?


I usually had Dolby switched out. Even with the most expensive cassette
decks there always seemed to be problems with mistracking between the Dolby
encode and decode processes. And with later tape formulations tape hiss
wasn't intrusive.

David.


  #3 (permalink)  
Old September 7th 08, 01:48 PM posted to uk.rec.audio
Serge Auckland[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 154
Default Tape and Dolby


"David Looser" wrote in message
...
"The Legend Returns" trabant owners club@Nicks place.comco wrote in
message news
About a two years ago, I posted here about tapes. I messed about with my
tape deck for a couple of evenings, then stuck it back in the box and
forgot about it.

Three days ago, I set it up and once again, have just spent two
thoughrougly enjoyable nights putting some music back on tape and I'm now
left scratching my head, why the format has virtually died out?

Using the very cheap but extremely good TDK SA tapes purchased from
Richer Sounds last week and replacing the 99p RCA leads with some much
better but also inexpensive leads http://tinyurl.com/5zzmq5


I'm scratching my head as to why someone who is satisfied with cassette
tape is bothering about leads?


Anyone care to discuss what type of Dolby setting (B, C or S) they used,
the brand/type of tape they used or indeed, still use when tape
recording, or if they think tape could ever make a comeback?


I usually had Dolby switched out. Even with the most expensive cassette
decks there always seemed to be problems with mistracking between the
Dolby encode and decode processes. And with later tape formulations tape
hiss wasn't intrusive.

David.


I used Dolby C, but it was extremely critical of line-up. I can well
understand why anyone without access to test equipment would prefer cassette
without Dolby, even B. However, if the machine was properly lined-up, it
could give truly excellent results, comparable with R-R without Dolby. Tape
saturation wasn't that much of a problem if you kept record levels down, as
Dolby C would take care of the noise.
Of course R-R with Dolby A was a lot better, and a LOT more expensive on
tape costs.
Interesting how it all went away with recording on Hard-Disc.

S.
--
http://audiopages.googlepages.com

  #4 (permalink)  
Old September 7th 08, 02:09 PM posted to uk.rec.audio
Don Pearce
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,822
Default Tape and Dolby

Serge Auckland wrote:

"David Looser" wrote in message
...
"The Legend Returns" trabant owners club@Nicks place.comco wrote in
message news
About a two years ago, I posted here about tapes. I messed about with
my tape deck for a couple of evenings, then stuck it back in the box
and forgot about it.

Three days ago, I set it up and once again, have just spent two
thoughrougly enjoyable nights putting some music back on tape and I'm
now left scratching my head, why the format has virtually died out?

Using the very cheap but extremely good TDK SA tapes purchased from
Richer Sounds last week and replacing the 99p RCA leads with some
much better but also inexpensive leads http://tinyurl.com/5zzmq5


I'm scratching my head as to why someone who is satisfied with
cassette tape is bothering about leads?


Anyone care to discuss what type of Dolby setting (B, C or S) they
used, the brand/type of tape they used or indeed, still use when tape
recording, or if they think tape could ever make a comeback?


I usually had Dolby switched out. Even with the most expensive
cassette decks there always seemed to be problems with mistracking
between the Dolby encode and decode processes. And with later tape
formulations tape hiss wasn't intrusive.

David.


I used Dolby C, but it was extremely critical of line-up. I can well
understand why anyone without access to test equipment would prefer
cassette without Dolby, even B. However, if the machine was properly
lined-up, it could give truly excellent results, comparable with R-R
without Dolby. Tape saturation wasn't that much of a problem if you kept
record levels down, as Dolby C would take care of the noise.
Of course R-R with Dolby A was a lot better, and a LOT more expensive on
tape costs.
Interesting how it all went away with recording on Hard-Disc.

S.


I've posted this before, but I think it is useful here - it is a plot of
the frequency response and noise levels of my Sony Walkman Pro. There
are three noise plots, normal, Dolby B and Dolby C

http://81.174.169.10/odds/dolby.gif

It isn't a pretty sight with any of them.

d
  #5 (permalink)  
Old September 7th 08, 05:54 PM posted to uk.rec.audio
Serge Auckland[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 154
Default Tape and Dolby


"Don Pearce" wrote in message
et...
Serge Auckland wrote:

"David Looser" wrote in message
...
"The Legend Returns" trabant owners club@Nicks place.comco wrote in
message news About a two years ago, I posted here about tapes. I messed about with
my tape deck for a couple of evenings, then stuck it back in the box
and forgot about it.

Three days ago, I set it up and once again, have just spent two
thoughrougly enjoyable nights putting some music back on tape and I'm
now left scratching my head, why the format has virtually died out?

Using the very cheap but extremely good TDK SA tapes purchased from
Richer Sounds last week and replacing the 99p RCA leads with some much
better but also inexpensive leads http://tinyurl.com/5zzmq5

I'm scratching my head as to why someone who is satisfied with cassette
tape is bothering about leads?


Anyone care to discuss what type of Dolby setting (B, C or S) they
used, the brand/type of tape they used or indeed, still use when tape
recording, or if they think tape could ever make a comeback?


I usually had Dolby switched out. Even with the most expensive cassette
decks there always seemed to be problems with mistracking between the
Dolby encode and decode processes. And with later tape formulations tape
hiss wasn't intrusive.

David.


I used Dolby C, but it was extremely critical of line-up. I can well
understand why anyone without access to test equipment would prefer
cassette without Dolby, even B. However, if the machine was properly
lined-up, it could give truly excellent results, comparable with R-R
without Dolby. Tape saturation wasn't that much of a problem if you kept
record levels down, as Dolby C would take care of the noise.
Of course R-R with Dolby A was a lot better, and a LOT more expensive on
tape costs.
Interesting how it all went away with recording on Hard-Disc.

S.


I've posted this before, but I think it is useful here - it is a plot of
the frequency response and noise levels of my Sony Walkman Pro. There are
three noise plots, normal, Dolby B and Dolby C

http://81.174.169.10/odds/dolby.gif

It isn't a pretty sight with any of them.

d


I no longer have it, but my old Nakamichi 482Z had much better frequency
response than that. At 0dB record level (200mM/mm) it was flat (-1dB) to
20k. Noise curves look about similar, typically broadband noise about -60dB,
Dolby tracking within 1dB. It did need a lot of tweaking to get it like
that, and it did rather vary tape to tape, even within the same manufacturer
and formulation. I wasn't sorry to give up on cassettes and go to hard-disk.
S.
--
http://audiopages.googlepages.com

  #6 (permalink)  
Old September 7th 08, 09:59 PM posted to uk.rec.audio
Don Pearce
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,822
Default Tape and Dolby

Serge Auckland wrote:

"Don Pearce" wrote in message
et...
Serge Auckland wrote:

"David Looser" wrote in message
...
"The Legend Returns" trabant owners club@Nicks place.comco wrote
in message news About a two years ago, I posted here about tapes. I messed about
with my tape deck for a couple of evenings, then stuck it back in
the box and forgot about it.

Three days ago, I set it up and once again, have just spent two
thoughrougly enjoyable nights putting some music back on tape and
I'm now left scratching my head, why the format has virtually died
out?

Using the very cheap but extremely good TDK SA tapes purchased from
Richer Sounds last week and replacing the 99p RCA leads with some
much better but also inexpensive leads http://tinyurl.com/5zzmq5

I'm scratching my head as to why someone who is satisfied with
cassette tape is bothering about leads?


Anyone care to discuss what type of Dolby setting (B, C or S) they
used, the brand/type of tape they used or indeed, still use when
tape recording, or if they think tape could ever make a comeback?


I usually had Dolby switched out. Even with the most expensive
cassette decks there always seemed to be problems with mistracking
between the Dolby encode and decode processes. And with later tape
formulations tape hiss wasn't intrusive.

David.


I used Dolby C, but it was extremely critical of line-up. I can well
understand why anyone without access to test equipment would prefer
cassette without Dolby, even B. However, if the machine was properly
lined-up, it could give truly excellent results, comparable with R-R
without Dolby. Tape saturation wasn't that much of a problem if you
kept record levels down, as Dolby C would take care of the noise.
Of course R-R with Dolby A was a lot better, and a LOT more expensive
on tape costs.
Interesting how it all went away with recording on Hard-Disc.

S.


I've posted this before, but I think it is useful here - it is a plot
of the frequency response and noise levels of my Sony Walkman Pro.
There are three noise plots, normal, Dolby B and Dolby C

http://81.174.169.10/odds/dolby.gif

It isn't a pretty sight with any of them.

d


I no longer have it, but my old Nakamichi 482Z had much better frequency
response than that. At 0dB record level (200mM/mm) it was flat (-1dB) to
20k. Noise curves look about similar, typically broadband noise about
-60dB, Dolby tracking within 1dB. It did need a lot of tweaking to get
it like that, and it did rather vary tape to tape, even within the same
manufacturer and formulation. I wasn't sorry to give up on cassettes and
go to hard-disk.
S.


I have a three head Denon machine here with variable bias - I'll give
that a test soon using the same method and post the results.

d
  #7 (permalink)  
Old September 12th 08, 04:14 AM
car_audio11 car_audio11 is offline
Junior Member
 
First recorded activity by AudioBanter: Sep 2008
Posts: 1
Default

hi Guys Really Interested Topic i am New to The Forum thankx
  #8 (permalink)  
Old September 7th 08, 10:27 PM posted to uk.rec.audio
Graham.
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10
Default Tape and Dolby


I'm scratching my head as to why someone who is satisfied with cassette
tape
is bothering about leads?



Ah yes, the Compact Cassette.
Did for sound recording what Disk Film and the 110 cartridge did for still
photography.

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%


  #9 (permalink)  
Old September 7th 08, 01:03 PM posted to uk.rec.audio
Dave Plowman (News)
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 5,872
Default Tape and Dolby

In article ,
The Legend Returns trabant owners club@Nicks place.comco wrote:
Anyone care to discuss what type of Dolby setting (B, C or S) they used,


Dolby A or SR.

the brand/type of tape they used or indeed, still use when tape
recording,


AGFA

or if they think tape could ever make a comeback?


It's never gone away. Or at least in certain ways. It still tends to get
used for TV production as it's cheaper to keep than any other storage
medium - at least currently.

But if you mean compact cassette - I, for one, was glad to see the back
of it.

--
*Therapy is expensive, poppin' bubble wrap is cheap! You choose.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.
  #10 (permalink)  
Old September 7th 08, 03:56 PM posted to uk.rec.audio
Eeyore
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,415
Default Tape and Dolby



"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:

The Legend Returns trabant owners club@Nicks place.comco wrote:
Anyone care to discuss what type of Dolby setting (B, C or S) they used,


Dolby A or SR.


LOL !

Graham

 




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