laolu Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 Ah yes - the delights of transcoding digital files. Even if they sounded OK when they were first compressed, by the time they have gone from m4a to AAC to mp3 so much data has been lost that they sound terrible.I am completely with you here. When I download an MP3 track, it maybe 320k, but I don't know what it was before. If it had been ripped from CD to 320k-MP3, it may be quite good, but if it had been compressed into whaterver before it became the 320k-MP3, well... I had students bring me CDs they burnt, and they were surprised that they sounded as terrible as their (backup) MP3 files. What they did, they de-compressed the terrible sounding MP3 file into wav and thought the problem is solved. I ususally tell them to try with a picture, resize it to 10% of its original size and then blow it up to 100% again. :P Norbert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 I always smile when people with golden ears refuse to use an mp3 as the quality is rotten (often also tagged with unprofessional) when we talk about cassettes. At a recent International Magic show, one act presented a cassette - an elderly gentleman who clearly had been using the same cassette forever. Our cassette machines were junked years ago - and it was played via the headphone socket of a radio cassette found in the cleaners cupboard. A long time since I'd heard hiss like that - and not a single comment! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WiLL Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 My theatre was broken into about 2 years ago and they ripped my playbacks our of the back of the rack. They took 2 cd players and an MD player, but when they saw that they had spent valuable time also pulling out an old denon twin deck cassette player that I kept for emergencies... they just stamped on it and left it on the floor. But more fool them, it still works! Haha! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldradiohand Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 The Studer cassette decks could be tweaked so they out performed a 1/4" machine - but only for a particular cassette during line up! The combined record/replay head always gave a near perfect azumuth, but when you rewound the tape........ I seem to remember Philips launched the compact cassette as a mono format for portable use - pushing it to hifi stereo was always a bit of a stretch.My worst moment during a "talent day" was a performer bringing in his backing track on minidisc. We eventually found a player. Could have been worse, could have been on a Philips digital cassette! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timtheenchanteruk Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 I still got me one of these badboys somwhere.http://img0073.popscreencdn.com/129301591_-realistic-optimus-scp-31-stereo-cassette-tape-.jpg Used a playback only unit for, well, playback live, no chance of some numpty not popping the tabs, and me hitting record by mistake... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnybgoode Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 I used to get some great recording of my band's rehearsals, using a Tascam 242 mk2 porta-studio with TDK SAX90 tapes running at double speed/DBS.I still have the 4x track "master tapes" in a stack of metal storage cases that take 72 tapes and the machine, but they have not been touched for at least 15 years and the machine may not be restorable. I used to record the from a small mixer main outs (vocals) and 2 mics placed 1 either side of the drums, also picking up the back line. I was very pleased with the quality at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnybgoode Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 It is a Tascam 424 mk2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parky58 Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 I had 2 drawers full of compact cassettes until friday. I don't think I've listened to one in 5 years, preferring to buy the CD or download from itunes. They have now been given a decent burial in a landfill site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henny Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 Had one dance act turn up with a cassette last year , we had chucked the last deck some time back so I got one of the patents to sit in his car with a radio mic in the door pocket and cued him over 2 way radio whilst I dubbed it to wav Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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