No Dolby, no problem!

Presenting a few selections from a mix tape I recorded way back in December 1998 using an Optimus SCT-86 cassette deck. Despite it being recorded on regular Type I tape with no Dolby (or DBX) noise reduction, I think the quality is outstandingly good, thanks to the use of excellent clean and dynamic source material. For all intents and purposes, it sounds just as good as the original CD audio, except with some background hiss and the treble rolled off a bit. With manual level control and no HX Pro (which is essentially a peak limiter) the full dynamic range was preserved.

The first and third songs were recorded from the 1990 "Prime Cuts" sampler CD by Sheffield Lab, an audiophile disc that was recorded live to two-track with phenomenal quality and dynamic range. The second song was from a commercial compilation CD but also has very good quality and good use of dynamics.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• no
• dolby
• nr
• noise
• reduction
• type
• ii
• iv
• ferro
• chrome
• cro2
• metal
• normal
• bias
• analog
• cassette
• tape
• stereo
• recording
• hi-fi
• hifi
• dynamic
• range
• hq
• high
• quality
• sound
• sheffield
• lab
• labs
• audiophile
• sampler
• prime
• cuts
• 1990
• cd
• audio

[EADGBE54]

Got any more Larry McNeely?

[vwestlife]

No, unfortunately that is the only song I have by him.

[AnalogueJosh]

Dolby is only necessary if you are really bothered about tape hiss, I don't like using it, especially when making tapes for boom-boxes which don't have dolby NR, because if you use Dolby C the machines can't decode it and the output sounds terrible!. I have tapes from the early 80's recorded with no Dolby and they still sound great today, especially the BASF and TDK :)

[vwestlife]

Dolby C only sounds good on the same tape deck you used to record it. That was its main problem and the reason why no (or very few) commercially pre-recorded Dolby C cassettes were ever made. Dolby B also needs exact tape head alignment for good playback, but you can just turn it off and it sounds acceptable. Many newer music tapes (especially from Sony Music Entertainment) don't have the Dolby logo on them anymore but were still recorded with Dolby B.

[AccordionManiac]

That's amazing quality

[m134mr]

very nice warm tape sound!

[gamesDAMNED]

This was really terrific! I'm going to use this video as a reference, thanks for sharing.

[Press2Spicy]

super 

[MrDemilord]

Back in the days they cared!

[MrDemilord]

God thats a awesome tapedeck really good quality build!

[ThePhoneUpdate]

My huge stereos cassette Dolby sounds pretty weird to me, just keep it off and enjoy the analogue!

[hambone9119]

@metalicpsp i record my vinyl to cassette to use in my car, And hell cassettes sound good if you look after them, I love vinyl more but cassette have the best bass its so booming.

[hambone9119]

I still see New Tapes On Ebay From Sony and stuff, I wont ever buy another one new tape, but i buy decent second hand cassettes, Recently i picked up the offspring Conspiracy of one 2000 and Paul McCartney Memory Almost Full 2007 and Daft Punk Human After All 2004, All sound great got them new for 3 dollars. I recently bought a 1999 Ford and it has the original Stereo Tape Deck No CD, i use new tape to record my vinyl to, Sounds great has a great sound, If you the machines why waste them???.

[ChiefLeftenant]

I Have got to continue to love cassettes... Dolby or NO Dolby they still can sound like CD quality... I Got me a Onkyo Single Bay Dolby BC Recorder Deck about 6 years ago for 50 Bucks the thing retailed for 500. I still use it every now and then to record a mix tape and play it in my car... The Dolby player in the car makes it sound just as good as playing a CD in my home theater.

[KRF888HEI]

Nice example of a recording without Dolby. I am using an old Nakamichi LX-3 connected to an Intel Dual Core iMac to dub tapes. Still sounds good.

[DangerousBastard]

Sounds good!! I've never been bothered by tape hiss, myself...