Cassette culture: know & choose the best audio cassettes and tape decks!
Summary
TLDRThe video discusses the resurgence of audio cassettes, explaining the different cassette tape types and their sound quality tradeoffs. It advises on buying a quality tape deck, looking for key features like 3 heads, dual capstan, and auto calibration. Overall it aims to spark interest in analog and cassette culture.
Takeaways
- 😀 Cassette tapes are making a comeback which is leading more people to experience analog formats
- 👍 There are 4 main types of cassette tapes, with Type 1 being the most common but lower quality
- 🎧 Chrome and metal tapes offer better frequency response and dynamics vs standard ferric cassettes
- 🔧 Bias current is important for recording and playback to compensate for the non-linear magnetization of tape
- 📼 Most commercially released cassettes used cheaper Type 1 tape instead of higher quality options
- 🚀 Type 4 metal tape was the pinnacle of cassette technology with excellent dynamic range
- 💰 High quality pre-recorded chrome and metal tapes were very expensive to produce
- 🎸 The cassette revival has allowed independent artists to release tapes cheaply
- ⚙️ Important features to look for in a high quality tape deck include 3 separate heads and dual capstan
- 👍🏻 Overall, with the right equipment, cassettes can provide very satisfying audio reproduction
Q & A
オーディオカセットが再び人気を集めている理由は何ですか?
-オーディオカセットはアナログメディアとしての魅力と、ビニールレコードに続くアナログ復興の流れにより、温かみのあるサウンドや色彩豊かな音質が評価され再び人気を集めています。
オーディオカセットの音質はどのように発展してきましたか?
-オーディオカセットは長年にわたる開発を経て、非常に優れた品質のメディアとなりました。これには、サウンドの彩りやサチュレーションなど、特有の音質特性が含まれます。
なぜ新品のオーディオカセットを見つけるのが難しいのですか?
-ほとんどの製造業者がオーディオカセットの生産を停止しているため、新品の在庫を見つけることは難しくなっています。しかし、中古市場での需要は高まっています。
CDが市場に登場した際、オーディオカセットに対する人々の反応はどうでしたか?
-CDが登場したとき、多くの人々はその明瞭な音質と便利さから、オーディオカセットを低品質なメディアとみなし、CDに移行しました。
オーディオカセットのタイプはどのように分類されますか?
-オーディオカセットは、タイプ1(フェローまたは酸化鉄)、タイプ2(クロム)、タイプ3(フェロクロム)、そしてタイプ4(メタル)の4つの主要なタイプに分類されます。
タイプ1カセットの主な欠点は何ですか?
-タイプ1カセットは最も一般的でコストが低いですが、高域の音質が劣るという欠点があります。
クロム(タイプ2)カセットの特徴は何ですか?
-クロムカセットは、高域の音質を改善するために開発されましたが、低域の再生には欠点があります。
メタル(タイプ4)カセットの利点と欠点は何ですか?
-メタルカセットは動的な範囲が広く、高域も低域も優れていますが、非常に高価であり、テープヘッドの摩耗を早める可能性があります。
カセットデッキを購入する際に重要な機能は何ですか?
-良質なカセットデッキを選ぶ際には、3つの独立したヘッド(消去、再生、録音用)、デュアルカプスタン、自動デマグネタイゼーションシステム、およびドルビーBとCのノイズリダクションが重要です。
現代の「カセットカルチャー」とは何ですか?
-現代の「カセットカルチャー」は、独立したアーティストやバンドが自らの音楽をオーディオカセットに録音し、手頃な価格で配布する文化です。これはアナログメディアの魅力と個性を活かした動きとなっています。
Outlines
📼 オーディオカセットの復活
このセグメントでは、アナログ音楽再生に関する対話として、「アナダイアログ」が紹介されます。オーディオカセットが再び人気を集めている現象に焦点を当て、ビニールレコードに続くアナログメディアへの関心の高まりを説明しています。オーディオカセットは優れた音楽再生メディアであると主張し、その魅力として音の飽和や暖かみを挙げています。さらに、高品質のカセットを見つけるための挑戦、特に新旧の在庫を探す必要性についても触れています。
🔍 カセットの種類と特性
オーディオカセットの主なタイプについて詳細に説明しており、タイプ1(フェローまたは酸化鉄)が最も一般的なタイプであり、多くのプレ記録されたカセットに使用されていることを指摘しています。しかし、このタイプは音質が最も低いため、音楽業界がクロム(タイプ2)、フェロークロム(タイプ3)、そして最終的にメタル(タイプ4)というより高品質のカセットを開発した経緯を説明しています。各タイプの特性、利点、欠点について詳しく解説し、特にメタルカセットが音質において最も優れているが、コストが高く生産量が少ないことを強調しています。
🎵 高品質カセットの探求
タイプ3カセットの希少性と、市場でのタイプ4(メタル)カセットの位置づけについて説明します。メタルカセットは非常に高い音質を提供するが、その高価格と希少性がネックであることを指摘。また、これらのカセットが主にデモ録音やジャーナリズム用途で使われ、一般的な音楽リリースにはほとんど用いられなかったことを説明しています。高品質な録音を求める消費者にとって、メタルカセットが理想的な選択肢であるが、コストと入手の難しさが課題であることを強調しています。
🛠 カセットデッキの選び方
高品質な音楽再生を実現するためのカセットデッキの選び方についてアドバイスを提供しています。単一デッキの選択、オートリバース機能の避け方、三つのヘッドを持つデッキの重要性、デュアルキャプスタンの利点、自動デマグネタイズ機能の有用性など、購入時に考慮すべき主要な機能について解説しています。また、Dolbyノイズリダクションシステムの必要性と、オートキャリブレーション機能があるデッキのメリットについても触れています。
🎤 カセット文化とインディーズ音楽
カセット文化の復活と、インディーズバンドによるカセットを使用した音楽リリースの増加について語っています。低コストで音楽をリリースできるため、多くの独立系アーティストがこのメディアを選択していること、そしてそれがリスナーにとって新たな発見と魅力的な経験を提供していることを強調しています。一方で、市場には質の低いカセットも多く、質の高い音楽体験を求めるリスナーは選択に注意が必要であるとアドバイスしています。
Mindmap
Keywords
💡audio cassettes
💡cassette culture
💡chrome cassettes
💡metal cassettes
💡bias
💡Dolby Noise Reduction
💡tape heads
💡auto-reverse
💡high bias
💡new old stock
Highlights
Audio cassettes are making a comeback, leading consumers towards analog formats
Cassettes have excellent saturation, coloration and warmth comparable to higher resolution formats
Cassette quality depends greatly on the deck, tapes and other hardware - optimizing these can yield great results
Chrome and metal cassettes offered improved treble and overall frequency response over basic ferric cassettes
Bias current is crucial for proper recording and reproduction, needing to match between recording and playback
Type 1 ferric tapes lacked treble, type 2 chrome tapes lacked bass, leading to development of further tape formulations
Metal cassette formulation allowed extremely wide dynamic range and frequency response exceeding reel-to-reel tape
Cassette culture sees independent bands releasing albums on cassette for low cost and added experience
Key tape deck features: single deck, 3 separate heads, dual capstan, auto demagnetization, Dolby B/C
Avoid auto-reverse decks which can cause azimuth issues
Auto calibration optimizes bias and EQ for different tape formulations prior to recording
High quality metal cassettes can achieve excellent recordings rivaling reel-to-reel tape
Links provided to sources for buying cassettes and finding independent cassette artists
Please provide feedback, suggestions and ask questions to further the discussion
Stay tuned for future videos on this audio dialogue series
Transcripts
hi everyone and welcome to Ana dialogue
the dialogue on analog music
reproduction today we're going to talk
about audio cassettes I know it's
something covered in a variety of videos
on YouTube articles because tapes are
coming back audio cassette tapes compact
cassettes
are coming back which is a good thing I
think because it'll lead the the public
consumers towards an analog domain the
process are a started with vinyl records
and now it's getting bigger
touching media such as compact cassettes
which is after all I must say an
excellent media why do I say after all
well let's take a look so as I was
saying nevertheless I must say I must
admit personally that this after all is
a good typology of media of platform for
music reproduction I over all love tape
I love the saturation that it gives the
coloration the warmth which you can find
also obviously in a higher resolution
but we must remember that audio
cassettes had a very long development so
that's why we can have a very excellent
typology of quality in of them of the
support of the tape obviously we have to
we have to find new old stock because
almost and nobody else is producing
cassettes hopefully not for long
hopefully they'll come back but again
are they're gonna be of high quality
probably not so might as well just dive
in the in the used market although on
eBay the prices going are going
higher and higher unfortunately so
what's the the big difference I must
admit and I'm talking about my
experience back in 80's and 90's and my
experience now well when we were using
cassettes in that period 20 30 years ago
at least in my situation as I assume for
the majority of kids or teens and also
grown-ups was using bad quality supports
was using bad quality cables ultimately
was using bad quality or normal quantum
quality tape decks
which is why as soon as CDs finally hit
the market everyone cried that's a
miracle fantastic grade cassettes are
crap come on let's go on with CDs forget
the rest well actually in that moment it
was probably right because if you bought
a CD with a normal disc man or a normal
CD reader and player you could have a
decent result probably in most cases
surpassing what was what was that of a
cassette layer of an audio cassette but
turning back now I must admit that um if
you find the proper tools the proper
gear the quality of the sound
reproduction actually is kind of magical
I must admit and the same thing regards
walkman we will come back to that in
another video in the future but a far
apart from that I just want to take a
look now at the main type ologies of
cassettes and after that then we'll also
take a look at my tape deck which will
give us a few points to discuss on the
main aspects you need to look for a good
quality tape day so let's go on okay
then let's explore the main type ologies
of audio cassettes this
tapes um first of all it's important to
know that the cassette tapes are
subdivided four types and that there are
mainly realized in polyester cassettes
were invented practically by Philips in
the early 60s and after that we have
development of a very important
development of this technology which
produced in the end four topologies of
cassettes the most common cassettes the
most common topology is type 1 the
so-called federal or ferric oxide which
reveals the composition of the compound
which is and the polyester which is on
the film of the tape and this typology
is at the base of all the music
cassettes of the pre-recorded cassettes
that we have bought owned listened to in
the past
in fact unfortunately most of the early
cassettes like these you can see he can
recognize these in there from the 70s of
this orange back all these cassettes
which in some cases are our excellent
recordings are all mainly record I would
say 90% are mainly record on type 1 type
ology 1 of cassettes which is the
Pharaoh or ferric oxide typology why
this is well mainly I would say because
of the cost of the are the typology well
obviously in the beginning we only had
this the only have type 1 them as we
will see there are other technologies
there are good examples of albums I
would say like this one
Arsen parsons but um unfortunately you
you keep on thinking how could these how
do these albums could would have been
good on a better typology of support of
media of tape so remember then when you
go to buy pre-recorded cassettes as I
said the almost all of them are recorded
produced on low quality type one pharoah
cassettes unfortunately which i think is
it's a ritual pretty pity a true shame
because if only the industry would have
invested a little more like for example
mobile fidelity did at a certain point
we would have had great recordings
obviously this was very expensive as you
can see this is a very high quality
cassette it's Chrome and a a chrome
dioxide which we will see is a type to a
source from original master tapes and
the sound of these was incredible
obviously as you can imagine but they
were very very expensive because they
were produced in low numbers of copies
people does not want do not didn't want
and does not want to spend that much
money and the supports so unfortunately
only high quality audio file high five
ex-military and stuff is produced and it
has absurd prices
unfortunately otherwise you gotta stick
with this which as I said isn't it it's
not that bad it's not even that good
unfortunately but let's proceed so as we
say type one pharaoh or ferric oxide
cassettes type number two
are the chrome cassettes sukhothai
so-called chrome cassettes or chromium
dioxide which again reveals the compound
the main compound in this technology of
cassettes
which is chrome and sometimes also
called out and things like that this was
a great a huge leap in the technology of
audio cassettes and I must say that here
we finally have a good pump compromise
in quality although we must say that um
coming what was the problem with the
first type the problem is here in this
typology of cassettes here is that we
have a very bad treble the high
frequencies weren't that good weren't
that good that's why the industry
developed the Krone cassettes which had
excellent treble excellent high
frequencies why is this because of the
higher bias now the bias is a key aspect
of all these type ologies of cassettes
that the different topologies go
accordingly following the composition
but also the bias what is bias bias is a
very difficult concept to explain let's
just say that um when you record a music
signal using a magnetization of the tape
map hence a magnetic field the signal is
not linear unfortunately it's not
proportional to what you have just
recorded but since there is this strong
magnetic field hence you need a very
high frequency in current which is
somehow added to the magnetization along
with that which corrects the somehow
somehow compensate the the mistake
introduced
the magnetic field and you have to have
that same or similar bias in the rocker
in Durham the recording phase and
obviously in the reproduction phase bias
is very important important type indeed
reproduction the higher the bias the
higher the frequency response what is
the downside though of this typology of
cassettes of chrome cassettes the
downside unfortunately due to the
composition is the lack of bass the
lower frequencies that does not are not
correctly reproduced unfortunately
obviously after time chrome dioxide
gathered much more success and the
composition got better over the years
but in the beginning we must say that we
had these miss typology of issues in the
lower frequencies which is why was
developed technology number three and
what was the problem of these these
there are very difficult to find type
three cassettes unfortunately if you
check your cassette deck you're not
gonna find type three settings you're
gonna find type 1 type 2 or type 4 but
type 3 wears type 3 well it's very
simple
type 3 was the combination of pharaoh
ferric oxide cassette with chrome
dioxide compound we were both put
together to create a mix and hopefully
obtained good treble in growth in good
bass what was the problem though the
bias again because unfortunately if this
has a low bias this has a very high bias
compared to tune up to number 1 so again
you need to have defined a compromise in
that sense which makes useless that the
production of take-up tapes number 3 and
in fact only a few years there were in
production and rapid
Tuukka taken out of the of the market so
after that problem what was the final
response of the market in music assets
in in order to have to surpass all these
issues tied to the different parts of
the frequencies well the answer was
something like this metal cassettes type
four cassettes this is the top of the
top of music cassette production
well type four cassettes unfortunately
have one big issue and at the end I
would say which is cost these are very
very very very expensive unfortunately
and one of the main problems that
started at the beginning of this of the
production was the composition so with
the introduction of type 4 cassettes
also known as metal cassettes in fact we
have a new formulation the tape film
which is pure metal particles this
composition allowed to have a very high
bias allowing hence an extreme dynamic
range with excellent low frequencies and
very high frequencies you know in for a
frequency response which I absolutely
blow out of the water all the other
topologies the problem is that these are
very expensive they were very expensive
at the time and there are very expensive
now since they are kind of rare and
unfortunately the no pre-recorded
cassettes will it be I'm sure there are
a few but it's not a standard procedure
I mean this was not used to do something
commercial it was used for your voice
for
to record your band for demos for
journalism and things like that so
unfortunately this very high quality
media which surpasses somehow I in my
opinion what is a reel-to-reel tape in
proportion
since this typology of cassette is the
result of over 30 years of wool even
less actually many years of development
and let's just say because mill
cassettes came around actually pretty
pretty early there were already
introduced at the end of the 70s but
this doesn't matter I mean they never
they never were broadly distributed and
due to this to this problem of the costs
another problem that arises immediately
was that this metal composition
unfortunately was wearing the cassette
heads the tapered ex heads or recorders
which was it's a very bad issue because
obviously if you start using these
constantly in your in your cassette tape
in your tape neck
you're gonna wear out your your heads in
no time at least this was happening in
the first part of the production then
after some years we must say that the
different labels the different houses
found much better solutions and the last
productions during the 80s and 90s we're
much better and we're probably found the
right compromise in terms of wear out of
the heads and sonic quality so what is
another feature that can distinguish all
these technologies of cassettes well
something else interesting I think to to
notice is how they appear on top as you
can see a type 1 cassette has just these
little squares which can be popped down
in order to preserve what is recording
the tape otherwise you need these in
order to give access to the tape deck to
record under on the medium while chrome
dioxide typology of cassettes had a
different type of construction of
geometry as you can see they have a
double space with little squares here on
the external parts plus an empty little
square on the lot on the side of these
so this is type 1 this is tape - I don't
have type 3 as I said there are they're
very rare it means we don't need to want
to mess around with those and while type
4 cassettes are also very easily
identifiable because there are identical
to the chrome cassettes under two
external parts but they also have these
two squares in the middle so they're
easily recognizable so apart from that
what is a good reason to go ahead and
follow this cassette culture well an
excellent reason apart from from buying
old media for very very cheap I mean
less than a dollar in some cases and I
think after all if you had a good tape
deck as we will see in the following
part of the video you do take on you you
you can have some rewarding listening
sessions I think but apart from that the
good part is it's taking place now with
the cassette the so-called cassette
culture where independent bands are
creating their own albums for just a few
dollars on this technology of media now
you have to be careful I picked up these
on Bandcamp there are hundreds of bands
issuing their own cassettes now because
obviously it's cool but at the same time
I think it adds something to the
listening experience this example of
Ocean Beach I think it's an excellent
album
very well recorded very well recorded
excellent product in my opinion so you
can also find high quality stuff around
in this in this context instead I'm
sorry to say but something like this
which came along with the vinyl or
record vinyl this was very very poor
quality unfortunately you can also
recognize these are very simple and
cheap with colors and um these
technology of cassettes do not give
justice to this media and unfortunate
you will find yourself throwing these
out of the way but instead your grade
you're gonna miss some excellent
products as this one and for example
other issues of albums which probably
something like this I would say this
probably was one of the main actors and
starting this cassette culture I'm not
gonna even tell you what this is
Whoville early if you don't know but I
can tell you that this was one of the
reasons why assets are coming back yes
this is awesome ok then now that we know
a little bit more on the composition of
bias and the typology of tapes and how
good they can be
already in the topology of the media
let's take a look at as an example my
tape deck but also the main features
that you're supposed to look for if
you're about to buy a tape deck which i
think is the right moment now actually a
few years ago was even better because
now the demand is growing so obviously
even the prices are but again the go for
it because just for a few hundred
dollars euros or whatever you're gonna
get an excellent product a high-quality
or probably even a professional tape
deck which will have astounding results
in a hi-fi music reproduction let's take
a look okay
so if we decide to buy a tape deck which
I must admit that now is the correct
time to do that because actually a few
years ago it was even better because you
can find a lot of professional tape
decks or high quality tape decks like
this one you can see here for a very
reasonable play price I pick up picked
up this a few months ago for 200 euro
and I had it serviced for a another 50
euro so that the toll the total expense
is around 250 euro in this this machine
I don't know the exact price in 80s but
it was very very expensive
I absolutely could not afford something
like that back in the 80s so good stuff
guys I mean if you're interesting
cassette culture now is a good moment I
think there are four main aspects you
need to look out for when you're hunting
for a good tape deck um let's take a
look well first of all you should avoid
those tape decks that have double decks
to two parts where you can put two
cassettes usually the motors and the
components are not as good as one
dedicated tape deck so go for that for a
single typology another thing to avoid
in terms of avoiding aspects we don't we
don't absolutely want is a auto reverse
you do not want that because
unfortunately with our auto reverse the
bottom azimuth of the of them the heads
of the tape deck will go out of out of
line unfortunately so the best thing to
do is to look for something simple a
very simple tape deck thick but the
features that this tape deck has to have
in my opinion at least are mainly for
first of all it has to have three heads
I mean the three heads have to be
separated one for erasing obviously one
for playback and one for recording but
these have to be separated it has to
have a dual capstan which allows the
motor to be to work much more easily and
with precision in terms also a while and
flutter and and reading reading back the
the media on the film of the tape so
it's important to have a dual capstan
and I would add to this a third point is
a demagnetization system you can do this
by hand if you want you can do
magnetized your heads but for example
this model does have an automatic
demanding then demagnetization system
which is very which is very cool because
every time you have the perfect um
setting for a reproduction you have to
do that every once in a while again as I
said you can do it by hand if your tape
deck does not have that so it's not
fundamental a good element that a tape
deck should have is obviously also Dolby
Dolby B and C if you have Dolby s is one
of the latest tape decks so it should be
all in and there should be all three of
them and it should be a high quality
tape deck because Dolby s was a very it
was are out for only a few years but it
was a really high typology of culinary
high quality typology of global
component and a resolution I'm not a big
fan of Dolby although a lot of people
say that when Dolby is correctly used in
recording and reproduction the sound
quality of recordings should be much
better in any case we need they'll be B
and C in order to reproduce for example
pre-recorded recordings so we need that
you have to look for that so another
good thing I would say that at least
this deck has and that not many decks
have although high quality
or professional decks do have is is an
auto calibration which allows to example
we put a metal cassette allows to have
an auto calibration of the whole system
of all the parameters in order to have a
perfect setting before starting to
record like work for instance it's
calibrating the correct bias v is
finalizing the calibration and the
equalization and as you can see at this
point it says ready in fact the tape
deck recorder is ready now to record in
metal type for mode for example instead
we have a chrome dioxide cassette say
thing which as I said in order to
perfectly record your music your voice
or anything and this is a very very
helpful feature in my opinion as Tobias
calibrates finds the credit equalization
and the tape is ready in just a few
seconds very cool very cool and if you
have this feature obviously at that
point you're going to have excellent
recordings like something like this I
think high quality type for metal
cassettes it's here
[Music]
I've got 13 cards blues I'm not a bad
name okay guys um I will put in the
video description here below a few links
to whom is still producing cassettes a
few artists were to find independent
artists a useful set of contacts to to
start moving around I hope you liked
this video please give leave me your
comments please leave your suggestions
here below because remember this is a
dialogue it's not a monologue so I'm
interesting in what you're writing and
as you can see for now at least I'm
trying to reply to every comment or a
question well thank you for following
guys and stay tuned bye
関連動画をさらに表示
What is the BEST TAPE SIMULATION PLUGIN?
Battle Of The Earbuds: Airpods 4 Vs Galaxy Buds 3 - The Ultimate Showdown
Вам НЕ нужен ЦАП для наушников. Разбор мифов и заблуждений.
The Science of Sound in Film — Film Sound Recording for Beginners
Hip Hop Drums Tips & Tricks - Hip-Hop Production Masterclass on Slate Academy
My PS5 Pulse Elite Arrived with a Big Fault!
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)