LOL. And another reason some pro machines use the same head for the repro and record heads is because when you do punches you want the sound from the record head, which is acting as a play head for the already recorded tracks, to sound as good as the play head. This is especially true if you're doing bounces. In that case you have to use the record head for playback, or the bounced track would be out of sync. That's why many pro machines have sync outputs, which is basically playback electronics for the record head.
Also, and rather back to cassette, all the little "Portastudio" 4-track cassette recorder/mixers had only a single rec/play head, to stay in sync and to do bounces (with careful track selections), and sounded fine (for cassette) at pure playback. A fair number of commercial releases, or parts, were recorded on those.
I like the idea of a super VHS machine being able to mix/edit music. Because it's tape and because it's analog. I'm much less interested in VHS machines for the video aspect. I, for some good or bad reason...still think that analog recording/mixing hasn't breathed its last gasp. Yet, few know how to do it the "old" way, like George Martin and team did it in the Sixties. And reel to reel is expensive and cutting/splicing tape is a dying art. So, that's out of my league. I bought the following products recently...toward the goal of mixing/recording...analog music. I'm not sure if this will ever amount to anything.
I used my Sony HI FI VHS VCR with flying erase head for some audio taping, but I was never blown away by the audio results so I stopped and went back to my high end cassette decks.
As an aside, my brother, who was always broke, somehow ponied up enough money for JVC's very best S-VHS deck back in the day. Well, sadly it was plagued by issues and was more often than not in for repair. I think it had issues with failing micro switches. I was interested to use it for audio taping, but I never got my hands on it to try as it was always in the shop.
I'm still dreaming...that there could someday be an all in one analog unit like this one (modernized and updated compared to the one below) that could record/mix/master analog tape, producing great analog results. Or a comparable cassette mixer/master recorder. But maybe that time has passed.
what I would dream for would be a new top of the line 3 head cassette deck with Dolby S HX PRO, mic inputs, pitch control, auto bias/azimuth, double speed recording/playback ability with 4 track ability and pan fades for the 4 channels. Any have it come in under $1400 MSRP.
Yes to multi-track and panning capability. With an analog mixer and analog effects/compression, etc...it would really be something.
The Dragon nwas always regarded as the Rolls Royce of cassette players, back in the day. It had a price to match -- retail around £1500, in the 1980s.
Actually a surprising amount of production was done on S-VHS. Lots of industrial video, weddings, smaller TV stations, etc. A lot of schools shot their football game "film" on S-VHS as real 16mm film was phased out. There was a relatively robust market for it. dan c
But would people on an S-VHS budget have the money for a high-end S-VHS VCR like that edit deck? Maybe it was designed for services where people would rent an edit bay by the hour...
I have one, and many folks, reviewers, testers and such actually claim it to be THE best ever cassette deck. After all the decks I've used, owned and been able to listen to and do direct comparisons with, I would have to agree, it is THE benchmark in a Dolby S cassette deck, and arguably the last greatest deck ever sold. Check out those massive back mounted power transformers!
They made what you want. Problem is for you, it's not HiFi audio in analog. It's digital. It's called an Alesis ADAT. PITA format and high maintenance. Forget about parts support, and service support is getting nearly non existent. Easier to keep an old real pro studio machine running than one of these, a lot more reliable.
Had one of these bad boys in the late 1990's....stunning sound with TDK Type IV cassettes and Dolby HX Pro S NR
I may be able to shed light on lack of comparability with other decks , The heads, Nakamichi,s heads can take higher levels than most decks whose cheaper heads saturate quicker , The result is a congested sound, If recorded lower it would be OK
Only posting here because I’m actually looking for a Beocord 5500 in case anyone has one laying around...I have the 5000 which is great but won’t work with my remote and no auto reverse.
Nakamichi was the OEM for tape heads used by a number of cassette and open-reel deck manufacturers since 1948 but did not get into the cassette deck manufacturing until around 1973 ...
