Silly, Silly Tape Recorder IV - Make a Cassette Timing Test Tape!

[thethirdq]

I can tell how much time and effort it took to make this video and channel. I hope you like mine and we can chat some time.

[RODALCO2007]

Excellent method. I have never checked cassette accuracy.

I have done it on a reel to reel.

Just used a reel of Scotch leader tape with the 7.5 IPS timing marks and ran it for 20 or 40 seconds. then counting the marks.

[clydesight]

@RODALCO2007 Thanks, I did not know about the Scotch leader tape having timing markers, but now that you mention it, it does make sense. I checked some cassette leaders, but the marking don't seem to correspond to timing.

[btown2011]

thanks!

[clydesight]

@btown2011

You're welcome!

[clydesight]

Ah,

Well, happy holidays to you, and all ClydeSight viewers too!

Thanks

[clydesight]

Thanks IRM783,

So who has more hair, your science teacher or me?

[Clepto202]

So thats what you look like. I dont mess around with cassettes anymore but when I was a teen I would tune my guitar to a cassette to learn the song, then when I would take the cassette to my friends, I would play in in their stereo and have to retune my guitar. I didnt know why untill a few years later that it was the speed of the motor effecting the key/pitch, I thought my guitar didnt hold a tune. Thats one reason digital audio is more superior.

[clydesight]

There are a lot of advantages to digital, for sure. A lot of people like the sound. Devices and storage are still expensive though.

[BadEditPro]

Great video!... This is a really great down and dirty method for checking tape speed. :) JC

[clydesight]

Thanks JC!

[Felix2417425]

0:27 You have mistake! 4.7625 ips, that's incorrect. The correct is 4.7625 cm/s, not IPS !

Regards :)

[clydesight]

Felix2417425,

Thanks for the pointer, posted an annotation on the video to explain this.

[Felix2417425]

Thanks for the correction video :)

Oh yes, and this is very interesting video and good simply method for adjusting speed. 5/5

Regards!

[clydesight]

Thanks for clarifying the ips- cm/s difference. Most US machines are not marked in metric.

[Felix2417425]

No problem! It was my pleasure! :)

This is the ratio for conversion:

1 inch = 2.54 centimeters

1 centimeter = 0.3937008

Best regards from Croatia! :)

[oviwolf]

That's a cool and interesting video!

Thanks for the explaining,and for the method!

[clydesight]

Thanks Oviwolf!

[coolbluelights]

Very cool Clydesight! I wonder what the normal speed for a microcassette is, because I have a bunch of microcassette recorders and a couple of them seem to have speed issues

[clydesight]

Thanks, Coolbluelights,

Microcassette machines typically run at 15/16ths ips (2.4 cm/s) and many have a 1/2 speed switch, dropping the speed even lower to 15/32 ips (1.2 cm/s)!

[vwestlife]

Luckily my Sony cassette deck has a pitch control, so I can compensate for the varying speeds of the previous decks I've used to make recordings. Recordings of radio broadcasts have a built-in pitch reference: either the 19 kHz FM Stereo pilot tone, or the 10 kHz adjacent carrier whistle of AM radio (if the receiver has a wide enough bandwidth to pick it up). I adjust the tape deck's pitch until these tones show up exactly at the correct frequency on an audio spectrum analyzer on my computer.

[clydesight]

Vwestlife,

Your method sounds very precise!

[CassetteMaster]

Nice! My way would be playing a tone from a reference machine and adjusting the other machine's motor until the sound sounds the same with as little beats as possible. Most of the time I just play music recordings and try to get it to sound as normal as possible.

[clydesight]

Thanks CassettteMaster,

I have used the tone matching trick, but, how would you know your reference machine is on speed?

[umajunkcollector]

PPS: If you make it per minute, it still is not an even number being 2820mmpm, or 2.820 meters per minute or 112.5ipm or 9.375fpm. That's 7&1/2 inches shy of 120 ipm or ten feet per minute. Such fun with numbers!

[clydesight]

Hi Umajunkcollector,

I have no idea how the engineers came up with the speeds for capstan machine that they did except maybe they started with 30 ips (broadcast) then lowered by half to 15 ips (still broadcast), then lowered to high end consumer (7.5 ips) and lowered again by half, and that's how they wound up with the numbers. Of course they could have started with 40 ips and avoided the problem, if it is a problem.

So what is 1-7/8 ips in miles per hour?

[umajunkcollector]

PS: ooops make that 47mm/sec, typo and forgetful. I think you had a mistake of 4.7ips, should be 47mmps. I'm still learning metric, stuck on the ASE.

[clydesight]

I'll let the metric folks explain about how they mark the speeds on their machines.

[umajunkcollector]

I think I'd prefer my cassettes to be a tick fast, like two inches per second, simply cuz I like typing 2"ips better than typing the 1&7/8ips. And it looks better on paper. How many mm/sec is that? 49, even 50 seems better too. Kooky engineers can't use even numbers?

[dmstealth]

You should've put a caution on that correction about the Q-tip "Do not use my kind of Q-tip on your ears!". Neat idea though and worth noting! 5/5.

[clydesight]

Hi dmstealth,

Thanks. I could also have posted a note, do not put a tape measure in your ear, as well. Or do not put as screwdriver in your ear, etc. at some point, people have to use their own common sense.

[dmstealth]

You'd think so, but I'm sure somewhere in the world somebody's in the ER after inserting a desktop cassette recorder in their ear.

[clydesight]

LOL!

[dmstealth]

"The volume control didn't work so I held it closer to hear it and then what do you know... it's stuck!"

[clydesight]

LOL! How about "I couldn't hear anything and saw a hole that said 'ear' so I stuck it to my head."

[dmstealth]

Nah that wouldn't work, where would one find a female ear to male 3.5mm plug adapter? XD

[ToastmachineIdiot]

That's pretty inventive!

I do have a tendency to use my sense of pitch to see if a machine's running at the right speed, but the marker trick seems to be much more reliable.

I do have perfect pitch.

[clydesight]

Thanks Toastmachine,

Having perfect pitch must drive you crazy with the wow and flutter issue.

[ToastmachineIdiot]

@clydesight Actually, yes! It does!

[CoolDudeClem]

I would never have thought of doing it that way. I need to readjust the speed on one of my cassette decks anyway, so this will be a great help.

[clydesight]

Thanks CoolDude,

Let us know how you fare with your speed adjustment!

[DrCassette]

That's a nice idea you had!

I would do it a little bit more extreme, I would just cut the tape at the 20 seconds markt and take out the rest of the tape and connect the tape at the 20 sec mark to the other leader tape. I would do the same with another cassette for 10 sec.

I'm sure the silver marker will come off after a couple of times of playing it.

Also it would be possible to record those time beep tones from the telephone onto a cassette using a cassette deck that has the right speed.

[clydesight]

HI Dr Cassette,

I was trying to make this as simple and cost effective as possible for people who aren't that comfortable with splicing cassette tape or don't want to buy any to do this experiment.

Your ideas will work just fine, but may not be quite so simple for some. As you well know, splicing a cassette can be an adventure -- that tape is so thin and loves to curl and crinkle!