What started you recording with cassettes again?

[NAD613]

For me, I was burning some CD's this past spring, I think in late March, & I had a couple of issues with the CD-R's that frustrated me. Mainly, it was that I couldn't edit the CD, go back & re-record a portion, & the whole finality of "burning". After goofing up on a CD-R on my computer I literally threw up my hands & said to myself "THAT'S IT! I'M GOING BACK TO CASSETTES!"

It made complete sense. I had a couple of pretty good cassette decks & I knew how to use them to get very good recordings. Now, I knew Target & Walmart no longer carried a decent selection of cassettes, but I figured for sure that I could go online & order some boxes of Sony UX-Pro, Maxell XLII-S, etc., from J&R Music World or some other site. Boy, was I ever wrong. Even Radio Shack no longer carried type II cassettes.

For the next several weeks, I spent countless hours online searching for decent tapes to purchase new. My searches turned up somewhat successful, as I did find the Batteries & Butter, A to Z Audio, & the Total Media websites, and, more recently, R&M Pro Audio. However, and forgive me if I'm repeating myself yet again, it's nothing like it was 15 years ago, when the good tapes were plentiful at Monty Wards, Target, Best, Musicland, etc... Nope, I never knew how good I had it.

[Web Police]

I don't recall the exact moment. A few years back I was selling off my decks and tapes and in the process I had to test them out to make sure they worked properly and in this process I just got hooked again.

About a year or more ago I bought some TDK 110 minute CD power tapes at Target thinking that some other stores would have a better selection of tapes. *eyepop*

[braxus]

I used my deck a couple times since the early 90s till I finally got another turntable again. After that I had reason to use tapes again. I always put my records onto cassettes to save the record from repeated plays. Now I decided to stick with tapes since the sound is much better. But if I want to make mix compilations from CDs, I will still burn CD-Rs since that is what it originated from.

[MacGyver]

honestly, i don't do much cassette recording at all anymore. however, i used to do it all the time up to around two/three years back. making what must've been over two hundred mixtapes on my first deck, a PIONEER CT-980W for me and my truck driver Ex-father. i may no longer use cassette very often, but, to me, a Hi-Fi system just isn't complete without a cassette deck, and i have been enamored of PIONEER's CT-W910R and CT-91/91a pretty much from the first day i got into Hi-Fi seven years ago. now, i finally have gotten my second to favorite deck in that CT-W910R. furthermore, thanks to STUWEE, i am very much *hypnot* by the remarkable TDK MA-XG!! thank you, Stuwster!!:-)<-o-o:-)



http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll310/shaorin-chan/147784792_o.jpg


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[Scorpion8]

I never stopped. But the opportunity to listen to music is like a wave in life: sometimes you can, and sometimes you can't. I had been in a long period of "I can't". Then I changed jobs, and took one that involves a whole lot of flying a desk and manning a PC writing permits and doing research. I was in a block of nine (count 'em -- NINE) cubicles where I was the only Engineer (actually only live human being, the rest were vacant) so I brought in a clock radio for some background noise to keep the sleepies away. My boss came over, saw that and said "You have to keep that down so you don't disturb people". Disturb WHO!?!? Oh my freaking gawd!

Circa~ 2006: So as I pondered that, I stumbled upon a mint Aiwa AD-R40 tape deck at a garage sale for $1. Mint. Auto-reverse. BPC, but Aiwa made some good stuff. And I thought of the shoebox of tapes I had at home, and the great headphones I had squirreled away ...... and in they went to work with me. At that point I joined AK looking for info on that deck, and got my "stereo" habit re-kindled. Man, like wildfire. 18 (or 19, I lose count somedays) tape decks later and resurrection of my original-since-college Dual turntable, Sansui amplifier/tuner setup, and soon (I hope) Akai reel, I decided that I'd tape all those CDs and bring them in to work to listen to. CD thru headphones sounds so harsh a lot of times.

I've always liked tape, and had brought up a large stock of 90's TDK and Maxell Type-II stuff when I got divorced and moved to Alaska (Circa ~ 1996), so as I spied that small stack, I decided I needed more. A few more. Many more. Nope, all of them. Of every kind. In lots of 10's and 50's preferrably. But all my favorites: Denon, Scotch, BASF, TDK, Maxell, ....

... and then it dawned on me. They were (almost) all gone. Finding tapes was harder than finding a new wife (pauses to look over his shoulder while typing to avoid the incoming brick) and the hunt has been on. I even <sniff, sniff> picked up some NOS TDK D-60's while in Anchorage yesterday because they're the older stuff while it was okay, and there just ain't a lot else out there. The only place I found selling cassettes in ALL of Anchorage was Office Depot, in the phone and office equipment section. Maxell UDXL-II-90's of the new variety, but every time I got there I grab a few 4-packs. What else are ya gonna do?

Anyway, that's my sad story in life as a dinosaur. But while they lived, dinosaurs ruled!

[niklasthedolphin]

I've been recording on R2R and Cassette tape since the 60's and the 70's.
Never stopped.

"dolph"

[ferriteman]

I've been recording on R2R and Cassette tape since the 60's and the 70's.
Never stopped.

"dolph"

Same Here...I have never stopped recording on cassette since the late 1960s (first small recorder) and mid-1970s (my first hifi deck). Just like LPs, I never gave it up. Now I have a new career of taping with R2R to deal with....

[clhboa]

I was never a big tape guy. Vinyl was my thing. I finally caved in and bought a cd player in 1994. It was around this time I took my cheap Sony TCFX-110 in for servicing. It never played right since (it's still in the closet). Around 2000 I bought another cheap Sony deck, a Sony TC-WE305 dual deck at Montgomery Wards. I continued to search the cutout bins and would grab cheap prerecorded cassettes all along. Well fast forward to about a few years ago, I got a performance bonus at work and decided to use the cash to buy a new receiver (my ancient MCS and my Nad just weren't cutting it anymore). I got a Denon DRA-685. Since then I have slowly been trying to upgrade my system. Even though I never was a huge tape guy I knew I'd want a quality cassette deck for my system. I started researching them on the web and found that the pickings were getting slim. About 6 months ago my mom was telling me the story about somebody making a joke about 8-tracks. When she replied that I still had them, the lady replied, "yeah,. but does he still listen to them?". Well that sent me off on 8-track mania. I decided that anybody could have 8-tracks but not everybody listened to them. So I would haul mine out of the closet and get it repaired. To my surprise I found a guy in AZ who specialized in fixing them. At the same time I came across the Onkyo TA 2090 cassette deck and decided I better get a cassette deck while I still could.

P.S. A few years ago I bought a nice Yamaha K-1000 from a guy at work. It needs some tweaking but I have been nervous to have it serviced after the repair debacle of my Sony deck.

[niklasthedolphin]

Same Here...I have never stopped recording on cassette since the late 1960s (first small recorder) and mid-1970s (my first hifi deck). Just like LPs, I never gave it up. Now I have a new career of taping with R2R to deal with....


LOL.
I never gave up LP's neither.
I didn't give up FM, MD, CD, R2R, Cassette or any media going with my HiFi.

Will try to keep it all to the day I die.

"dolph"

[Mr. Lin]

Nice thread topic NAD.

Scorpion8, your story's a little depressing. But you're right, things come in waves. I'm too young (27) to have been very seriously into recording back in the 80s and 90s, but I've always loved music, and my generation is probably one of the last to grow up with cassettes being a common medium. When I was younger I used to make mixed tapes from other tapes, record music that I played, and sometimes just recorded my friends and me playing around on a microcassette recorder. I had no clue about high quality tape decks, let alone all the different types of cassettes. I just bought what was available. Looking back at the tapes I used back then it seems I mostly used Maxell UR and TDK D, probably because they were the most readily available and the cheapest.

I've been a huge fan of vinyl for more than 10 years, but only in the last year and a half did I start to get very serious and focused about audio in general. For those of you who know me from AK, it's pretty obvious what an enormous influence that site and all its members have had on me.

Last fall a fellow AK member sold me my Nakamichi BX-1 for $20. It's the first good cassette deck I've ever owned. But I had to learn the hard way that the true joy with these things comes not from pre-recorded tapes but recording yourself. Just a couple months ago, I believe, I was talking with someone on AK (I think it was Braxus) about different types of tape. Someone recommend I start with the XLII, so I bought one. Then a box. Then three more boxes. Then I learned there are much better tapes available so I started buying those. I'm now surrounded by piles of sealed blank cassettes, I don't even know where to put them all.

I started by recording from records to tape, which worked well, but it's a major pain in the neck because the Nak is part of a headphone listening system on my desk (right next to the computer monitor) that's completely separate from my main system where the turntables are. One night I tried recording from my Rega Planet CDP to tape, and the result was quite good. Then I got an inexpensive tube preamp to use as a buffer, and the tapes sounded even better. Eventually I tried listening to one of my tapes through the speakers on my main system rather than headphones, and I couldn't believe I was listening to a cassette. And this was recorded with an entry-level Nak.

I love recording, I'm driven to do it. Right now I'm in a phase of testing the waters, recording CDs mostly, trying all the different tapes I have, different recording levels and different preamp levels. Soon I'm going to get a much nicer Nak, and that's when I'm going to start to really take it to the next level, using my best tapes, which include some good NOS ones and more than a few metal ones.

So, in short, you all got me back into recording. Thank you.

Dave

[braxus]

Good to hear your enjoying tapes and recording like we all do. I don't make as many mix tapes as others do, as most of my cassettes I've recorded are entire albums instead. But I too enjoy making a recording. Mr. Linn- if you keep watching Ebay and have the funds to do it- some really good tapes still come up on that site. You may not get as many as buying from a store would get you, but at least you'll have some top notch tapes to use for those special recordings. If anyone isn't sure of what the best tapes are out there, some of us on here can point the way for you.

[NAD613]

Good to hear your enjoying tapes and recording like we all do. I don't make as many mix tapes as others do, as most of my cassettes I've recorded are entire albums instead. But I too enjoy making a recording. Mr. Linn- if you keep watching Ebay and have the funds to do it- some really good tapes still come up on that site. You may not get as many as buying from a store would get you, but at least you'll have some top notch tapes to use for those special recordings. If anyone isn't sure of what the best tapes are out there, some of us on here can point the way for you.

Some blank tapes on Ebay are under categories such as "wholesale lots" & "Music; cassettes". I've run across some really great deals on some tapes, but didn't buy any because they weren't what I was looking for.

[Mr. Lin]

I have been watching ebay and buying NOS tapes. Just last night I won two NOS XLII from the late eighties and an XLII-S from the same time period as a lot for $6.50.

[todd33rpm]

For me, I was burning some CD's this past spring, I think in late March, & I had a couple of issues with the CD-R's that frustrated me. Mainly, it was that I couldn't edit the CD, go back & re-record a portion, & the whole finality of "burning". After goofing up on a CD-R on my computer I literally threw up my hands & said to myself "THAT'S IT! I'M GOING BACK TO CASSETTES!"

This. Definitely.

Add in getting a car with a decent cassette deck, a lack of satisfaction with the CD-R mixes I had been making, and the die was cast.

It's a philosophical thing with me. Around 1991/2, my ability to make mixtapes finally turned the corner, and I got much better at it. I'd work with C-90s and C-110s, mostly, and the internal logic of sequencing was a joy. By comparison, I could never do the same with CD-Rs - something about the time limitation crossed with a feeling of "lack of control" over the final result, and it felt like the poetry just wasn't there.

Oddly enough, I can do it with Hi-MDs, and could with standard MiniDiscs too, if they were at MDLP2 or mono. To borrow from Douglas Adams, there is an art, or rather a knack, to this. Which is to say that I couldn't do it so well with anything less than 80 minutes. (MDLP2 and mono formats gave something like 161 minutes and change.)

This is true of cassettes as well: I don't function in the 60-minute form at all, and mixtapes at that length have been singularly unsatisfying.

I think it's the inherent feeling that you've compiled a two-record set on one tape, when you work with a C-90. Like you've made one of those Warner Loss Leaders from the early 1970s, or you've conjured your own theme set, or a perfect set of songs you'd play in concert, if you could.

[stuwee]

Well thanks to all the YaHoos (:D *devil*) on TH I'm in another phase of recording starting this week. The first was in the 70's on the GE mono portable, quickly to a real Teac etc.... now my first Nakamichi, we'll see how this turns out for me, I'm sure I won't stop again for a long time. Enablers*headache*:D:D!!!
Craig

[Fast Forward]

I started back in the early 70,s with an old Akai GX-65D then Graduated to a Nakamici 600 slant panel which I still have ,,I did it to keep my Vinyl in pristine condition