How would one go about determining what effect to add for each cassette type? I don't know much about cassettes, I'm curious if this was something that could be done by ear or if these are commonly held opinions about the sound of each tape.
Again knowing nothing about tape, if I were tasked with this I would probably try to record the same audio to each of the tapes and then compare it with the original.
This is interesting as I would assume multiple passes from each output would result in further multi generational loss akin to tape trading of band demos, soundclashes and dj mixes from pirate radio
I read that audio engineers actually use specialized and very expensive ripoff hardware in their signal processing chain to replicate the effect of the electromagnetics (hysteresis?) of tape systems on the audio.
To me, this seems like wasted effort. Any such filter can be implemented using DSP.
I’m wondering besides the hiss and wow/flutter, what is the frequency range of cassette tape? Is there an “eq” to tape where certain frequencies are rendered more strongly than others? And how does it compare with records?
Aha, there are later type TDK D90s, I wonder if they'll add mid-80s ones? Either way it may be possible to test an idea I've had for a long time that borders on "low stakes conspiracy theories".
All those albums you loved in the mid-to-late 80s, if you're about my age, like Appetite for Destruction, Master of Puppets, Somewhere in Time, First and Last and Always, Fear of a Black Planet, or even Pretty Hate Machine - these were all mastered not to sound best in a pristine recording but to sound best when pirated off your mate's big brother's CD of it onto a TDK D90 that had been rattling around in your schoolbag for months.
Because these are just some of the pirated tapes I have on hand from when I was 14 or 15 or so, and they definitely sound better than the bought-and-paid-for CDs I eventually bought once I had money to spend on such things.
In my opinion, nothing is quite the same as real analog cassette sounds. It's nice to play around and prototype, but if you really want a good cassette sound effect, you have to use real hardware, for now.
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[ 0.28 ms ] story [ 17.4 ms ] threadAgain knowing nothing about tape, if I were tasked with this I would probably try to record the same audio to each of the tapes and then compare it with the original.
I've been wanting to experiment with quantizing Dolby (or similar) encoded audio to 8 bits, and then unencoding to see how well it can sound.
To me, this seems like wasted effort. Any such filter can be implemented using DSP.
All those albums you loved in the mid-to-late 80s, if you're about my age, like Appetite for Destruction, Master of Puppets, Somewhere in Time, First and Last and Always, Fear of a Black Planet, or even Pretty Hate Machine - these were all mastered not to sound best in a pristine recording but to sound best when pirated off your mate's big brother's CD of it onto a TDK D90 that had been rattling around in your schoolbag for months.
Because these are just some of the pirated tapes I have on hand from when I was 14 or 15 or so, and they definitely sound better than the bought-and-paid-for CDs I eventually bought once I had money to spend on such things.