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Re: New Kid on the Block. compact cassette

Subject: Re: New Kid on the Block. compact cassette
From: Dan Dugan <>
Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2003 12:48:43 -0700
Vicki Powys wrote,

>Without getting technical, the main thing that I've found a problem with
>compact cassettes is that the sound quality of each recorded tape
>deteriorates over time, e.g. you get print-through and other problems.  The
>way you store the tapes has some influence, cool and dry is the best way to
>go.  But if you plan to transfer your recordings to CD, then storage of
>recorded cassettes will be less of an issue.  Probably best just to transfer
>the entire cassette to CD.  You can extract any sequences that you want,
>later.

Getting technical, the problems with cassettes are legion. They -are- 
more reliable than DAT, but the quality difference with DAT is so 
great that we're seduced into going out on a limb. No shame in 
carrying a cassette back-up machine.

Compared to any digital medium, a cassette recording -at best- has 
unreliable speed, wow and flutter, higher noise (hiss), reduced low 
frequency response, higher distortion, modulation noise, and limited 
high-frequency headroom.

It's difficult to match alignment between different cassette 
machines. When I copy cassettes into my workstation, I adjust the 
alignment of the playback machine to match the tape as well as I can. 
Noise reduction (Dolby) helps a lot but good performance depends on 
record-playback alignment being matched.

Just a few reasons why I'm so happy recording on MDs!

-Dan Dugan


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