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I listen to alot of tape media.. Cassettes,VHS and 8track tapes and I have noticed 2 differrent coloured tapes...
Like most of my cassettes and 8tracks have standard brown tape but in my Blind Faith 8track for example,the tape is dark (Almost black) like VHS tape..... (All of my VHS tapes have dark tape instead of brown) Those are usually Ampex cartridges that have the darker tape. Is this supposed to be better quality? (I have heard Ampex was a higher quality production company then so maybe) Its interesting because I have a "Rascals greatest hits" 8track which is ampex and its on standard brown tape and it sounds BETTER than some stuff on the darker tape!! Why do/did they use darker tape if Brown sounded better sometimes?? |
Re: Different tape colours
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Yea I guess so....... I havent ever seen a VHS tape on standard brown... I wonder what it would look like?
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Re: Different tape colours
I think there was a lot more ferric (brown tape) in the 70's and 80's. Even some looked almost grey.
From something I found on the web: Quote:
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Re: Different tape colours
Oh look, the internet:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compac...d_formulations Formulating technology improved over time. A basic ferric tape (light brown) made in the late 1980s would probably sound better than an early chrome (dark brown) tape from the 1970s. I used to record interviews for my local RNIB audio newspaper in the mid 1990s and always recorded onto metal particle tape (black) in a professional Marantz player/recorder. Always sounded brilliant, but then that’s what local radio journalists used so it would do. |
Re: Different tape colours
I picked up some cassettes in a London store in 73 and was surprised by their extreme weight. I saw the price, so put them down. I later learned that these were "metal" tapes which weren't around for long.
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Ahhh its too bad someone bought em :(
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Thanx Mate :) Listening to my "Best of Conway twitty" cartridge and its on darker brown...... |
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Re: Different tape colours
We pretty much always used a new reel of tape for measurements back in the day. Even though we had a bulk eraser, tapes never quite performed the same once they'd been used so when we did recycle them we had to be selective where and when we used them.
However, tape speed also had an impact on the quality of the recording.... queue the rest of the day lost to reminiscing about the 'good old days'. |
Re: Different tape colours
Problem with tapes is everytime you rewind or fast forward you'd often put stress on the tape when it stopped. Anything in contact with a surface will degrade the tape. That or it gets chewed up.
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Thankfully my VCR slows down as it gets to the end/beg so it doesnt pull on the connection @ either end....... (Im not sure how it does it but its better than slamming FULL SPEED (Like those tape rewinders do... They are aweful)) |
Re: Different tape colours
Yes that is one good thing about VCR's.
You should open a museum. You are probably the only person with one. |
Thank you for the nice comment buddy :)
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