Leaderless tape: What's the point?

[Mr. Lin]

I ask because I got another box of what was supposed to be TDK AM Pro type I tapes in the mail, but when I opened them up the wrapper was different. It says AL instead of AM, and the oval on the front is orange instead of red as it is with the AM. They appear totally identical other than that, and the difference between the two is apparently that these AL tapes are "leaderless," meaning, of course, there's no leader tape, just tape right from the start.

I guess this is not really a problem, I'll still let the tape run about 10 seconds before I start recording onto it. But I wonder, what's the purpose of leaderless tape?

Picture below of the AM and AL.

Dave

[MacGyver]

one reason i know for sure is for computer programs. the old home computers from the '70s and early 80's, such as the VIC-20, COMMODORE 64, and rat-shack's "TRS-80" all used cassette recorders and leaderless tapes for backing up the programs that you just loaded onto your computer via laboriously typing out the pages of code out of a computer magazine on to your computer's screen. my mother's hubby has several of these tapes, with programs he recorded upon them many moons ago. just for kicks, i put one in my CT-W910R, and you've got to believe me, IT TOTALLY ROCKED!!!! i mean, it was like, BEEEEEEEEP!! BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP and so on. the computer records the program code to the tape as a series of varied acoustical pulses that it can read...

[Scorpion8]

Instant start recording, since there's no run-in time to get to the tape.

[braxus]

Don't forget answering machines which need the tape available right away.

[Mr. Lin]

I guess this makes sense, but why not just cue the tape, so to speak? Not like this is an important topic, but getting these tapes made me think.

Incidentally, I recorded onto one of the AL's last night to make sure they're good, and after listening to the first two songs they seem just as good as the AM, which obviously they should be. These are great type I tapes.

[Web Police]

Straight from the NAC website:

Instant record oxide leaders eliminate lost program material due to irregular leader length. Used by professionals for years in dictation, hearings and as duplication copy tapes, this option is a "must have" for all vital recordings.

[Mr. Lin]

Straight from the NAC website:

Neat, thanks for pointing that out. They're pretty nice type I tapes, whatever the case.

[Web Police]

Yeah my guess would have been court reporting on back in the old days reporters would use them to record on. :-?

[Mr. Lin]

Yeah my guess would have been court reporting on back in the old days reporters would use them to record on. :-?

Surprisingly these tapes hold their own with dynamic music and recording levels set pretty high.

[Web Police]

That is the important part as long as the tapes sound good . that's all that matters.

[USR]

Some/many cassette tape decks* use an optical sensor requiring clear leader to reverse the deck to stop the mechanism before the tape gets to the very end. If you have leaderless tape in these decks they *could* just keep running and running... at the same end spot because the deck is looking for clear leader. That's why they leader the tape.

* Other less sophisticated decks just wait until the tape runs out and the deck senses the much higher tension at the end to stop the deck. These decks tend to wear out belts and pinch rollers as well as the tape. *yikes*

[qubeular]

id also mention leaderless tape has more of a chance of snapping in certain decks.

i have to ask, is the tape itself attached to the spools?

[todd33rpm]

That's been my experience. Capitol Records cassettes were like that, as were (IIRC) the Audio Magnetics 60s I had as a kid. On tapes with an ultrasonic weld holding the tape together instead of screws, at least you knew that you wouldn't have to deal with splice breaks between the leader and the tape...pick which demon you'd rather deal with, I suppose. (As for me, I solved that problem by ONLY buying blank tapes that had a screw assembly and learned how to redo my own splices.)