... and with a high speed digital bin loop master, the quality got
even better. I used to work at the company which finally convinced
demanding labels like Telarc & Sheffield Labs they could indeed make
great cassettes. Most inconsistencies & other sonic problems were
introduced by playback and the fact that there were very wide
tolerances in the manufacture of decks - no industry standards.
Jeff Carroll, Mastering Engineer
Bluefield Mastering Inc. - Raleigh, NC USA
www.BluefieldMastering.com
Phone 919.859.0102
On Jan 13, 2011, at 9:32 PM, Scott wrote:
I had the good fortune (miss fortune?) of having to get factory
trained on
servicing high speed bin-fed cassette duplicators for large
facilities. They
were absolutely built like tanks with very, very good heads, both
playback
and record heads. They were also very, very trying to set up perfectly.
Controlling azimuth, tape path, and bias among other things took quite
literally forever to get right, particularly in a room full of
cassette tape
on 14" pancakes in 40 record-only decks. That said, if the tape was good
quality, and you did everything right (including set up the air-
driven bin
loop platter) the frequency response was quite remarkable. I always
ran my
QC of the adjustments after the test recordings made it to a shell
for final
insurance. Needless to say, I do NOT look fondly back on those
experiences.
Who knows what happened 10 minutes after I left the places..!
Scott
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