Master to cassette

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zamproject

Well-known member
Joined
May 11, 2010
Messages
1,502
Hi all

First project where client want to run cassette duplication.
I don't have rec/playback cassette system to print and anticipate a little what's going on...

Still I want to have some basic anticipation.
what about DAW playback with
-bit reduction like 10bit (60dB dyn) with dither for SNR emulation
-band pass about 40Hz/12kHz (6dB/oct ?)
-I don't find any LR crosstalk figure for cassette deck, any rough value like 30/40/50dB ? so I can also emulate the LR reinjection and see how narrow my stereo go.

I don't have yet info of the duplication plant used nor the cassette type my client want to use.

Any advice and feedback welcome !

Best
Zam
 
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The sound will change appreciably off tape , nothing really you can do about it unless you have a tape deck and compare before/after , even then it may not represent well what ends up happening in the dulpication process .
When I was preparing listening copies Id compare input to reproduce head output and sometimes add a little pre EQ to help compensate for the shortcomings of the tape .

I seriously doubt dithering to 10 bit will give any useful comparrison , maybe just get some real tape noise and add it in at the desired level to give the dynamic range you want ,
The compression of the tape adds its own colour depending on level ,
how would you propose to recreate that?
bandwidth and crosstalk ,by all means you could recreate digitally .

Id say just go out an find a fairly decent old cassette deck and make a few dubs across to see what happens ,
 
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So I probably need to consider this as a blind experience :rolleyes:
I wont buy a cassette deck just for this project, so I'll better stick to my usual chain for CD/digital master and print a DDP for the CD release and just export proper file structure/type according to what the plant ask for the cassette release...
 
Topping and tailing bandwidth is probably a good plan in terms of what you send them as 'Production master' for the tape version of the material ,
I can check sound recording practise for any peculiarities the tape duplication houses specify .
 
I submit masters for cassette duplication to labels with some regularity, they typically ask for 44.1 kHz 16 Bit files of each side, That's it, there is no other audio prep specifically for cassette at the mastering stage, they are based on the digital masters.
 
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