Look what the cat dragged out! (Again)
Seriously? ... you may be wondering who on earth would need blank cassette tapes these days, let alone a USED tape?
Go way back in time, the early 1990's, although it still just seems like yesterday!
Our audio post production studios were buzzing with all sorts of exciting activity and the engineer just had to have a play around with "those Metal cassette tapes". In those days we were heavily involved in R2R magnetic tape of all sizes, alongside DAT, and a bit of hard disk recording thrown in for good measure but a lot of 4 track source material from bands was supplied to us on "ordinary" Type I cassette tape.
This metal tape is a remnant from those days, the early 1990's. It has been in amongst all the other gear which I safely stored away and today it has seen the light of day (actually it has been rubbing shoulders with some mag heads in a tape machine today, once again coming to life "It's alive, It's alive"! Frankenstein 1931 motion picture)
Many analog audio enthusiasts still run cassette tape, many "audio folk" also appreciate vinyl and some even still run R2R systems. It's not really about "living in the past" (Jethro Tull) but obtaining that sweet sound only analog provides.
The primary reason for offering this tape to someone else is because of (drum roll) ... the tape or more specifically, the formulation and to a lesser extent the history behind this brand.
These THAT'S metal cassette tapes were made in Japan by Taiyo Yuden, later to become well known for their blank CDr products, we used thousands of the latter in our short run CD production facilities. But I digress ... metal tapes use pure metal particles (usually iron) rather than oxide coatings, providing superior high-frequency response, lower hiss, and wider dynamic range. To achieve the best possible results in the analog audio cassette format, metal was a "must have" and some even said the performance rivalled that of R2R although we would dispute that because so much depends upon the rest of the audio chain, such as the quality of equipment being used and not just the tape.
These metal tapes from THAT'S are becoming increasingly difficult to find (it has been over 30 years after all) but are still very highly regarded amongst the high end cassette machine community.
Only one "down side" to this tape ... great audio media product but who was the "clever Richard" in Taiyo Yuden marketing that decided to call it THAT'S - what a meaningless trade name!
Ok, so it's used ... how do you know it still "works?"
Well, I have not recorded to the tape myself, that is true but this tape has musical material already recorded onto it by our sound engineer and I have played the ENTIRE cassette, one end to the other and back again!
Sure, these commercial recordings are illegal to copy like this ... they were made by our engineer for testing and evaluation of the metal formulation media and the audio recording serves as a useful test reference (although classical, especially piano would have been better!)
If nothing else ... you may even enjoy the music!
Oh, you may think ... Geez that's a bit moralistic regarding the illegal angle.
It should be understood that most musicians love their world of musical creativity, they live and breath music, but they need to pay the bills as well (and eat sometimes!). If no-one buys their music, they lose out on their royalty payments, and the whole chain in the production of the music (songwriters, agents, labels, session or support musicians, production houses etc) lose income - it's a chain reaction (John Farnham).
If no-one actually paid for the artist's music, it would be like the song Don McLean once sung "the day the music died" although he was talking about the death of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the "Big Bopper".
No income, no music ... it's that simple.
Enough of this preamble ramble ... let me tell you in detail what this tape is all about
THAT'S - Cassette Tape
Manufactured by Taiyo Yuden Japan
Made in Japan
Type: CD/MH 100
Formulation: Chrome-II
Tape capacity: 100 minutes (50 minutes each side/set of tracks)
Circa early 1990's
Notice the lack of Type IV holes at the rear edge around the centre ... this tape is one of the first generation that did not have the sensor holes (usually located around the central area) and the user had to manually select Metal or Type IV on their cassette deck front panel.
Tape colour: Black
Protect tabs are unbroken i.e the tape can be recorded onto in it's present form
USED
Contains commercial music material ...
Side A: THE SISTERS OF MERCY - Some Girls Wander By Mistake (Darkwave Electro Rock) released in 1992
Side B: SPIRITUALIZED - Lazer Guided Melodies (Psychedelic Space Rock) released in 1992
TESTING:
First I ran this up on a Nakamichi I have available at the moment, cycled the tape FF & RW a couple of times to even up the tape packing and tension because the tape has been sitting idle for yonks.
Set up the machine for metal tape playback (different equalisation is used (70uS), if you do not change your machine settings you will experience higher Treble and increased tape hiss)
I then played both sides of the tape completely (and enjoyed!), the audio quality is good and no drop outs heard ... although there was one "punch in punch out" during a song on Side A that was created by the engineer when recording, no audio flaws with the tape at all. In fact the engineer has "stuffed" the tape full of material end to end, meaning that when an album recording finished he just goes back a while on the source material and continues recording, so creating a recording that is "One plus a bit" on each side - he wasn't looking to create a bootleg but instead just wanted the entire tape length full of material.
Mechanical travel through the tape path was without any issues at all.
Nice! after 30+ years that analog sound is still punchy and yet warm, we always preferred the analog domain in those days but digital does have significant advantages!
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
Both the cassette shell and outer hinged Smokey Grey case are in very good condition - actually the outer case is a TDK (Made in Japan) case, not the original.
NO cracks or other damage to the tape clamshell or case.
Based on the successful mechanical test run above, the lubricant still seems to be fine and the tape pressure pad is secure and in good condition.
The tape has been identified by the engineer using two thin White paper strips, these would be easy to remove if the tape was being re-recorded with other material (likely).
I have now packed this tape into a sealed clear plastic packet to protect it from the environment while it awaits a new "purpose in life"
