 |
 |
At 07:58 PM 3/26/2004 -0500, Dave Bradley wrote: >I feel it's an appropriate discussion for this type of list. After all, >that's one of the things this list is about! I agree! > >Tape width is quarter-inch for open reel and cartridges > >and 0.150 for cassette. > >Shouldn't that be 0.125 for cassette? I'd always been of the impression >that cassette tape was 1/8".... Sorry, David, I have to agree with Mike here -- it is 0.150 or approx 1/7" >Regarding cassettes: > > >There is only one tape speed - 1 7/8 ips, one layout of tracks and > >one configuration of shell. > >Well, mono units don't use the same layout as stereo. In fact, if you play >a cassette that was recorded on a mono tape deck on a stereo playback unit, >the right channel will be softer because the single mono track doesn't >cover the full area used by the two stereo tracks. As for speed, there are >decks that do 3 3/4 ips as well, switchable to 1 7/8 ips obviously. I believe -- and I think the Tascam document at http://www.richardhess.com/tips.htm confirms -- that the stereo head splits the mono track--unlike reel tapes. The problem described above happens because alignments are never perfect. I see left-channel high, right-channel high, and balanced mono tapes playing back on my Dragons. >You can also have portastudio type units that have more than 4 tracks, some >as many as 8 tracks. Those 8 tracks are usually compressed with dbx noise >reduction to make them usable in a multitrack format and the tape speed on >such a unit is often 3 3/4 ips. I believe all of the Tascam "Portastudio" (TM) have dbx but do not force you to use it--at least the later models. I do have a Syncaset 238 (8-track) and it only runs at 3.75 in/s -- fortunately when I need it to do something with a standard cassette, I can record at 88.2 ks/s and halve it. By the way, the 238 records two groups of 4 channels and the two groups are NOT coincident in time...can we say stagger-head stereo all over again? As far as I know, cassettes were available at 15/16, 1-7/8, and 3-3/4 in/s. There was, apparently, one Nakamichi cassette with "long play" that went to 15kHz at 15/16. Don Ososke and I calculated that it probably had a 0.00002 inch gap - 20 micro inches...I hope I got the correct number of zeros in the first instance. Cheers, Richard