Music on cassette tape made easy

[Guest]

I've never heard my music on cassette tape before.
Is it possible that there is someone out there that can make me a cassette tape of my music,
so that I don't have to buy all the equipment to make a tape?
Obviously I'd pay for the tape and shipping it to me.
I know this seems infantile but the reality is don't kid me,
I know the facts about CD quality versus tape and how tape is inferior to all other mediums,
still,...
I've never heard my music on cassette tape.

[resistorman]

What is interesting about linear formats like tape and vinyl is that it's not easy to skip around through it. This gave birth to albums and then concept albums. It takes a commitment of time to listen to the whole thing, and when it was well done it was a great experience. The medium itself imparted no magic, we learned to work around it and listen past it.

If you're interested in what the actual cassette medium would do to your music as far as sound quality goes; add a fair amount of noise, roll off the high end, smear the low mids, blobularize the bass, modulate the pitch, and slowly vary the phase between left and right channels. Enjoy.

[Tim Gillett]

It really depends on how well the recording is made, on what equipment, tape, in what condition etc. There is no definitive "cassette sound". Done well, the cassette playback will probably be indistinguishable from the original for most listeners.

The sound here I recorded off TV to cassette in 1976. I wasnt aiming for super quality, just as a record of the TV show's music. Its main problem is probably tape hiss and saturation (distortion) towards the end when the band gets louder. BTW no restoration/enhancement done here.

https://youtu.be/KYFVx4gpe9c

[HomerJSimpsson]

Beware of old tapes and cassettes. Through time, moisture from the air settles on the tape makeing it sticky almost like glue. Therfore its usualy much 'harder' to rewind old cassettes. Playing them put heavy load on the motor and mechanics, it can overheat and get damaged. You may even hear the music slowed down from the tape.

There's supposed to be a trick using a microwave to boil off the moisture, but I never tried that.

[resistorman]

Surely somebody has made a cassette tape simulator vst...

[Arpangel]

My advice would be to buy a cassette deck, there’s plenty around, I love them, treat them just like an effects unit.

[ef37a]

My advice would be to buy a cassette deck, there’s plenty around, I love them, treat them just like an effects unit.

Agreed. Presumably OP has the ability to play cassettes but not record them? Replay only systems, by and large are of inferior performance compared to a good Sony say, hi fi deck.

Dave.

[Arpangel]

Yeah, one of the Tascam semi-pro decks would be cool, I’ve got a Tascam 3 head job, very reliable. Or grab yourself a Nakamichi...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NAKAMICHI-BX-2-Dolby-B-C-2-Head-Cassette-Deck-Working-Good-Condition/154032680436?hash=item23dd102df4:g:-6kAAOSw-OpfKH9K

[ef37a]

Yeah, one of the Tascam semi-pro decks would be cool, I’ve got a Tascam 3 head job, very reliable. Or grab yourself a Nakamichi...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NAKAMICHI-BX-2-Dolby-B-C-2-Head-Cassette-Deck-Working-Good-Condition/154032680436?hash=item23dd102df4:g:-6kAAOSw-OpfKH9K

Yes, nice. But the problem with buying a second(?) hand deck privately is that you have no idea of its state of wear. Cassette decks rely on precision head structures and alignment. Drive belts can stretch or go hard and lead to wow and flutter and accurate Dolby* replay depends critically on a flat frequency response and aligned levels.

Buying from a 'hi fi' dealer might get you a well serviced deck but of course you will pay extra for it. All that said, if a deck SEEMS ok and you clean the heads and trim the replay azimuth alignment for each cassette you will probably not be far out. Cassette was only ever 'jeeeust hi fi' and some would say not even that!

*If getting cassettes made I would ask for them NOT to be Dolby B encoded. With a modern(!) high output, low noise typell cassette, noise should not be a problem unless the music was of vast dynamic range.

Dave.

[ef37a]

Beware of old tapes and cassettes. Through time, moisture from the air settles on the tape makeing it sticky almost like glue. Therfore its usualy much 'harder' to rewind old cassettes. Playing them put heavy load on the motor and mechanics, it can overheat and get damaged. You may even hear the music slowed down from the tape.

There's supposed to be a trick using a microwave to boil off the moisture, but I never tried that.

I think this MIGHT be a confusion with "Sticky Tape Syndrome" as it affected certain brands of OR tape?
I must have over 200 cassettes recorded some 40-50 years ago and whenever I pull one out to check it is always fine. These are a range of makes, TDK, Maxell, Philips, BASF, 3M, and a many strangers!

Dave.

[CS70]

I've never heard my music on cassette tape before.
Is it possible that there is someone out there that can make me a cassette tape of my music,
so that I don't have to buy all the equipment to make a tape?
Obviously I'd pay for the tape and shipping it to me.
I know this seems infantile but the reality is don't kid me,
I know the facts about CD quality versus tape and how tape is inferior to all other mediums,
still,...
I've never heard my music on cassette tape.

Just FYI, we did a small run a few years back to sell at concerts. Used a printing plan someplace in the UK for a "two single" tape and pro sleeve printing and the costs were nothing crazy at all, some £150 equiv I guess. Super pro admin also, great guys. Can try and dig the plant name if useful.

I did have to buy an old walkman to listen to it tough - after a while I was given an old boombox.

As of how it sounds... it sounds just the same - at least on non-hifi stuff. To my lead ears, of course

Yeah the medium is far less capable but so it's the playback system and the point of well mixed and mastered music is that it survives pretty much intact. The two songs we put in were, so they did. I don't think there is such a thing as a "cassette" experience (other than the physicality of the thing). Nevertheless, they sell as hot cakes because of the novelty and physicality - bit like vinyl.

On the other side, I grew up listening to badly duplicated cassettes so probably I have no idea.

[ef37a]

Yes CS70, well recorded/reproduced cassette is very good and not at all 'niche' sounding.

When I first got my Sony Dolby S machine I carefully biased and calibrated some TDK SA and duped some CDs. I really could not tell the difference on my Tannoy 5A monitors.

Now that I no longer have a car with a cassette player in it I don't know what to do with my vast tape collection and two pretty good tape decks?

Seems such shame but "All things pass."

Dave.

[Dr Huge Longjohns]

Surely somebody has made a cassette tape simulator vst..

Of course. I have one and it's really good...https://aberrantdsp.com/plugins/sketchcassette/ I bought this because the UI was such fun to be honest, but it sounds fab too. There are free ones out there too which a quick Google will supply.

[ef37a]

Surely somebody has made a cassette tape simulator vst..

Of course. I have one and it's really good...https://aberrantdsp.com/plugins/sketchcassette/ I bought this because the UI was such fun to be honest, but it sounds fab too. There are free ones out there too which a quick Google will supply.

So, what does it DO? Add hiss, W&F and some harmonic distortion?

But then I am a cynical old sod...

Dave.

[Dr Huge Longjohns]

So, what does it DO? Add hiss, W&F and some harmonic distortion?

Yes. And it doesn't unravel all over the floor of your car.

[ef37a]

So, what does it DO? Add hiss, W&F and some harmonic distortion?

Yes. And it doesn't unravel all over the floor of your car.

Joo know! I have never had one do that! But then I never bought ***t cassettes!

Ok, sorry, it is just that I come from the era when there was great competition between just a few top companies to make THE best cassette decks and a few diehard reviewers like J L Hood kept the buggers on their toes!
Now! We have a recording system that is all but perfect and the ability to store zillions of albums on something the size of my little finger nail but we hanker after a technology that was basically imperfect to start with (dictating machine) and only by supreme effort was made about as good as a top FM broadcast! Except the latter did not have W&F if live!

Dave.

[Dr Huge Longjohns]

Yes it's a funny old world but I don't believe it's all hype when people bat on about old analogue gear and distortion and the rest of it.

Character and atmosphere can transform a boring, perfectly recorded performance and give it an extra something for your ear and emotions to latch on to. The same way a slightly out of tune upright piano in an echoey church hall can sometimes sound sadder and more evocative than a perfect Steinway recorded in a perfect studio with mics costing as much as my car!

I think the hiphop innovators recognised this early on, when sampling old records was all they had. There's something about a gritty old LP and limited bandwidth sounds that are intrinsically atmospheric perhaps?

[nathanscribe]

Can't remember who said this or where I read it, but the conversation was about vinyl, and on being asked "why would you want to listen to something with all that surface noise", the response was "life has surface noise".

I'm on board with that. I think there's value in imperfection, and especially at a time when recording clarity is easy to achieve, compared to say the 90s or the 70s or the 50s, embracing some of the imperfection and instability and noise is part of the character of the experience.

Horses for courses, mind. I wouldn't go back to loading software from a C15 shoved in my Dixons cassette recorder. But I did buy an album on cassette from someone on Bandcamp a while back, and played it on an early 80s Technics component, and... it sounded, really, really good.

[James Perrett]

Yeah, one of the Tascam semi-pro decks would be cool, I’ve got a Tascam 3 head job, very reliable. Or grab yourself a Nakamichi...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NAKAMICHI-BX-2-Dolby-B-C-2-Head-Cassette-Deck-Working-Good-Condition/154032680436?hash=item23dd102df4:g:-6kAAOSw-OpfKH9K

Yes, nice. But the problem with buying a second(?) hand deck privately is that you have no idea of its state of wear. Cassette decks rely on precision head structures and alignment. Drive belts can stretch or go hard and lead to wow and flutter and accurate Dolby* replay depends critically on a flat frequency response and aligned levels.

The seller of that one strikes me as someone who knows what they're on about. The rubber idlers are a weak point of the cheaper Nakamichis with the Sankyo mechanisms and are a bit of a pain to replace (I need to do it on mine by haven't plucked up enough courage to take everything apart) so it is good to know that they've been replaced.

Normally I'd echo the suggestion to buy something used but many cassette deck drive belts seem to have a lifetime of only 15-20 years so you may well need to be prepared to replace the drive belts if it hasn't been done already.

[muzines]

Surely somebody has made a cassette tape simulator vst..

Of course. I have one and it's really good...https://aberrantdsp.com/plugins/sketchcassette/ I bought this because the UI was such fun to be honest, but it sounds fab too. There are free ones out there too which a quick Google will supply.

There's quite a few tape/cassette simulation plugins in various flavours. u-he's Satin will do it, and this one is quite nice:
https://www.wavesfactory.com/cassette