Recovering Old Cassette Tapes

[ejr]

So, I found some old cassette tapes of music that I wrote and recorded in college (back in the 1970s). They were originally recorded on a TEAC four-track reel-to-reel borrowed from an instructor and dubbed down to cassettes. They've never been played before. All are copies of the reel-to-reel master. I no longer have any type of cassette deck or player. I don't even know if any of the cassettes are playable (and I don't know what happened to the reel-to-reel tape).

I'm thinking about buying a cheap cassette player that outputs to USB and trying to copy the music to a computer. I don't want to spend a lot of money on this because it may sound like crap, or the tape may pull appart, or who-knows-what after all these years. Since I have multiple copies on cassette, I can afford to destroy one to see if the music is worth preserving and buy a better cassette deck and do a better job of recording it and then seeing what can be done to digitally clean up the result. (I think TEAC is the only company of note still making these.)

Any ideas on a cheap (and probably portable) cassette player for the initial attempt? Looking at what's on Amazon theses days, the only name I have heard of is Fiio, but the reviews are pretty mixed. I saw a youtube video that claims a brand called "grasioso" or something like that is actually made by Philips (in China!) but no idea how that would compare. Just posting here in case anyone has had experience with any of these or could recommend an alternative.

I know this is a longshot, but what the hell, I thought I'd give it a try.

Thanks.

 

[staticV3]

Here's a summary of portable cassette mechanisms sold today, what to look out for quality playback, and a debunking of common myths surrounding cassettes:

TL;DR:
-Cassette is inherently Lo-Fi. Don't expect miracles.
-No, Tanashin is not the only mechanism still sold today.
-for good playback quality, look for a Stereo head, low noise well grounded motor, and well balanced flywheels.

 

[egellings]

My understanding about cassettes is the they were intended for use in dictation reorders, not music reproduction, so fidelity much above landline quality's not a goal or requirement for them.

 

[Chrispy]

Might look for a transcription service perhaps? A friend of mine used to operate one but more for transcribing vhs but similar concept....

 

[Mr. Swordfish]

I'm not sure I follow you. If the originals were reel to reel 4 track, how were they transferred to cassette? Two ways come to mind:

1. The four tracks were mixed to stereo and recorded on cassette.
2. The four tracks were transferred individually to a Porta studioI

If the former, pretty much any cassette player will work, but don't expect high fidelity. If the latter, you'll need to get a portastudio or deal with the fact that two of the four tracks will be backwards if you play them on a normal cassette deck.

Since there are budgetary concerns, I'd say buy something used for $100 or so and give the tapes a listen. ADCs that take the analog output and convert it to USB are readily available for not too much. Audacity or Waveshop are two free software alternatives for digitizing to .wav. There are stand-alone units that output USB directly but I have no experience with them.

Denon, Sony, NAD, Nakamichi, Panasonic/Technics, and even Tascam made decent decks. The cassettes themselves should still play unless they have been stored in a way that damaged them.

If the recordings are worth salvaging, you can upgrade your gear later - getting the most out of old cassettes is somewhat of an art and even skilled pros will only be able to do so much.

 

[aikofan]

As Mr. Swordfish mentioned, first you have to find out if the 4 tracks from the reel-to-reel were copied as 4 tracks onto the cassette or if they were mixed down to stereo onto the cassette. One clue might be if the cassette has different content on the front and back based on what was written on the label, then you know it's probably stereo. You need different playback hardware based on the 2 different scenarios. And you're probably better off taking the analog output from the cassette player and converting it to digital with a different device that has an ADC (such as an interface).

Also, contrary to what many believe, cassette tapes can sound surprisingly good, depending on the quality of the tape and the recording chain. In my experience, commercial prerecorded classical recordings on cassette sounded just as or almost as good as their LP equivalents. They're a little more vulnerable to wearing out and degrading though.

 

[Joe Smith]

Lots of decent used decks on eBay for less than a hundred. JVC, Technics, Hartman/Kardon etc.

 

[ejr]

We definitely dubbed the original to two tracks. It's not a four-track cassette tape (I didn't get one of those until the 1980s and I gave it away when I went digital). This is defintely lo-fi. But I don't have any other record of these songs, so it's worth a try.

 

[pinger]

Sounds at least like a fun project. Let us know how it turns out!

 

[Haflermichi]

Unless I missed it I haven't seen a mention of how many tapes you have or an average number of hours of material. Also, of note do you know the tape formation ie: Normal, Chrome or Metal? Each of these requires appropriate bias settings on the deck. And if noise reduction (Dolby, likely B if in the 1970s) was applied during the dubbing to cassette?
These are factors to know about if you're serious about salvaging your material. There are physical ways to determine tape type (notches on the back spine). Playing back tape on a cheap player without appropriate capabilities to adjust for type, let alone NR may yield a very poor and inaccurate representation of your material and put you off the project.

As has been mentioned, properly recorded tape can sound very good, much better than most might think. But it's a physical format and the quality of the playback deck is a real factor.

My suggestion would be to find a transcription service and pay to get one example properly transferred. Ask them about the deck they use, proper tape type bias, noise reduction. If they you show you a cheap ass portable run away. A proper service should use very good and full featured deck which is regularly serviced ie: heads aligned, cleaned and demagnetized, wow&flutter checked and adjusted etc.

Then you can judge if you want to get a good, used, full featured honest-to-god cassette deck and DIY the rest. You should be able to plug it in to any good quality AD interface to make digital files.

 

[Mr. Swordfish]

Also, contrary to what many believe, cassette tapes can sound surprisingly good, depending on the quality of the tape and the recording chain.

Yes, they can.

But they usually don't for various reasons.

I've got about 4 milk crates of cassettes that I'm going to digitize at some point. Well, probably not all of them, but a few. First step is to just get the tapes to play and into the digital domain. If the material is worth repeated listening, then I'll take further steps. Othewise, what's the point?

If dolby B was used, hopefully it was indicated on the tape. If you're not sure, then pick the setting that sounds better. (dolby C never caught on, dolby A was a reel-to-reel thing)

Bias is a record thing, not a playback thing, so don't worry about that.

EQ is a record/playback thing so you will want to set that correctly, but CO2 vs Normal vs Metal is indicated by the notches on the back of the cassette and many decks adjust that automatically.

As for azimuth, which plays an important role in reproducing high frequencies, you'll need to set it like the deck it was recorded on - good luck with that.

Once in the digital domain, there are options for fixing things, but better to get a good transfer first. Again, do some triage and see if any of this is worth the time and effort to make it sound better.

BTW, my assessment is that most transcription services are staffed by a minimum wage teenager who is transferring a dozen or more tapes at once and not doing much more than putting the cassettes into the machine and hitting play/record. Doubtful that they are doing much more than that, and unlikely that they are listening.

Yes, there are serious professional services, but figure $100/hr for a real pro.

 

[EJ3]

Yes, they can.

But they usually don't for various reasons.

I've got about 4 milk crates of cassettes that I'm going to digitize at some point. Well, probably not all of them, but a few. First step is to just get the tapes to play and into the digital domain. If the material is worth repeated listening, then I'll take further steps. Othewise, what's the point?

If dolby B was used, hopefully it was indicated on the tape. If you're not sure, then pick the setting that sounds better. (dolby C never caught on, dolby A was a reel-to-reel thing)

Bias is a record thing, not a playback thing, so don't worry about that.

EQ is a record/playback thing so you will want to set that correctly, but CO2 vs Normal vs Metal is indicated by the notches on the back of the cassette and many decks adjust that automatically.

As for azimuth, which plays an important role in reproducing high frequencies, you'll need to set it like the deck it was recorded on - good luck with that.

Once in the digital domain, there are options for fixing things, but better to get a good transfer first. Again, do some triage and see if any of this is worth the time and effort to make it sound better.

BTW, my assessment is that most transcription services are staffed by a minimum wage teenager who is transferring a dozen or more tapes at once and not doing much more than putting the cassettes into the machine and hitting play/record. Doubtful that they are doing much more than that, and unlikely that they are listening.

Yes, there are serious professional services, but figure $100/hr for a real pro.

There are also "programs" (I guess) that clam to do "Dolby" whatever variation via the computer. I cannot verify that.
The Dolby variations in my couple of cassette decks works fine, so I have not tried any of the computer versions.

 

[Chrispy]

Personally got rid of all cassettes many many years ago. Too many issues.

 

[ejr]

The purpose of this project is to help me remember the tunes and the lyrics that I wrote almost 50 years ago. If they're worth preserving, I can re-record them using a modern DAW.

 

[krabapple]

For your purpose (just hearing the old music and lyrics again), most any player will do, right off the shelf.

But if highest audio quality is what you seek:

First, set the new deck to play the right tape type (ferric, chrome, metal) to match your cassette.

Second, azimuth adjustment to match the head angle of your old cassette deck, to get the best frequency response-- if the playback head on your new deck doesn't align with the old one, the tape will sound 'dull'. There's always a little screw next to the playback head that lets you make this adjustment. Roughly speaking , adjust it until your tape playback sounds the most 'trebly' in both channels.

Then there's matching whatever Dolby NR was used, if any... a real mess.

There could also been speed/pitch issues, depending on how well calibarted the old and new decks were. But those can be fixed once you've digitized.