[Vintage-Audio] Cassette Audio Quirk?

Mon Jun 1 20:27:56 EDT 2009

Hi There My Friend,

Great to hear from you!

Oddly enough, I was thinking about you some yesterday and most of today. I 
know that part of it today was because I played an album on my primary 
stereo and that Nashville sound reminded me of the wonderful moments of 
music that you so lovingly injected into my life Bob.

I generally do not use the SBM - Super Bit Map, on my Sony CDRW deck. I do 
not recall if it has any 'limiters' on it. There are no EQ adjustments on 
it. Does your CDRW deck have adjustable EQ controls?

The cassette tapes I was trying to remaster were those from the 1983 Dayton 
Hamvention. Someone, Dr. Max De Henseler, HB9RS, I suspect, recorded the 
tapes using an ordinary portable cassette unit. It was just sitting on a 
table recording whatever its built-in mike could detect. A lot of racket! 
But it did add to the "historic" flavor, audio quality and mood!

I spent about one hundred hours trying to get a good Master CD for two of 
those cassette tapes. If they had not been of historical value, I would have 
pitched them into the trash after about five minutes! However, since they 
were live, authentic and possibly important recordings of Bill Halligan, 
Sr., Fritz Franke, Chuck Dachis, the Hallicrafters produced 45 rpm single 
"The Amazing World Of Short-Wave" etc. I decided to preserve them if at all 
possible.

Did I ever send you the four HHRP packages (Halligan's Hallicrafters Radio 
Project)? If not, and you would like copies, just let me know.

You can check out the contents of the two DVD and six CD's at:
http://hhrp.w9wze.net

Whatever is causing this sudden distortion is baffling me. The DAT Master 
shows absolutely no signs of any audio problem. If I plug the headphones 
into the CDRW deck and monitor the audio from the DAT source to the CDRW 
unit, I do not hear anything wrong. So I suspect that there is some noise on 
the cassette that is transfered to the DAT and then picked up by the 
electronics of the CDRW.

I have noticed in the past when I was remastering vinyl albums to CD's, that 
sometimes this same distortion would happen. However, in these instances, I 
could hear a sudden "pop", like a stylus hitting some fragment of a snack 
that had dried and stuck to a groove!

The amount of time between tracks is also critical! The DAT to CDRW likes 
exactly three seconds, not 3.1 seconds! Oh well, I'll probably never figure 
it out and even if I do, who else will care?

How are you doing Bob? Have the issues in your life that were troubling you 
the last we corresponded still present or have you been able to tame, slay 
or modify them?

It seems that everyone that I know who was employed, no longer is. One lost 
list job as the head computer engineer at NBC Universal after seventeen 
years. Another lost his job when Chrysler closed their automotive parts 
facilities in the Fort Lauderdale, FL area. On and On.

I have Social Security reviewing my disability. The Flint office is so 
screwed up that it frightens me. Last week I got a call from them, the 
"only" call I have gotten from them since I received the notification by 
mail that my elgibility for benefits as a disabled person was being reviewed 
on April 20th. My termination date was May 7th. I got a call on May 27th to 
do a telephone review! The woman was nobody I had received any letters from. 
Now Bob, this was twenty days after my case was to be closed if this review 
had not been done! This woman had no idea that I had gotten that review done 
by phone on May 7th already! My paperwork had already been sent to Lansing, 
MI for the medical part to be done!

All I know is that I won't know for from ninety to one hundred and twenty 
days as to whether or not I am still disabled and elgible for benefits!

Talk with you soon Bob. Stay well.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "wolfbob" <wolfbob at csnsys.com>
To: "Vintage home and professional audio equipment from 1975 back" 
<vintage-audio at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, June 01, 2009 7:50 PM
Subject: Re: [Vintage-Audio] Cassette Audio Quirk?

> My Sony CDRW does cassettes good. I set it on SBM/LIMITER/EQ off, usually,
> but run SBM somethines.Never noticed any distortion related to hiccups.
> Don't like limiters or eq in any form.
>
> Bob
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Duane Fischer, W8DBF" <dfischer at usol.com>
> To: <vintage-audio at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Monday, June 01, 2009 3:22 PM
> Subject: [Vintage-Audio] Cassette Audio Quirk?
>
>
>>
>>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> I keep encountering a problem every time that I remaster the audio on a
>> cassette tape to a CD format.
>>
>> Yes, for those of you who may remember this, I have also recorded the
>> cassette audio to my Sony DAT deck and converted the mono on the cassette
>> to
>> stereo on the DAT.
>>
>> The Master DAT is perfect, at least to my finely tuned ears. However, 
>> when
>> I
>> feed the DAT to the Sony CDRW deck to create a CD, things go a bit crazy.
>>
>> The CDRW apparently hears a snap or a crackle or a pop or ...? When it
>> hears
>> this noise, not audible to me, it causes distortion in the CD recording.
>>
>> I have changed all input/output cables from the amplifier to the DAT, 
>> from
>> the DAT to the amplifier, from the CDRW to the amp etc. All are the Gold
>> plated heavy audio cables six feet in length.
>>
>> I have tripled checked the Yamaha cassette deck and all of the other
>> hardware that is involved.
>>
>> I can not find anything wrong with anything.
>>
>> This only happens when I am trying to convert an audio cassette to CD,
>> makes
>> no difference if the cassette is in mono or stereo or identical mono on
>> both
>> stereo tracks.
>>
>> Have any of you encountered any issue like this one involving a cassette
>> tape?
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Duane Fischer, W8DBF - WPE8CXO
>> E-Mail: dfischer at usol.com
>> Hallicrafters web site: www.w9wze.net
>> HHRP web site: hhrp.w9wze.net
>>
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>
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