Does Hi-Fi VHS tape have that warm "analog sound", IYHO?

It should, right? VHS tape is an analog medium, after all.

I've been doing a little experimenting with an old Toshiba Hi-Fi VCR. What I've been doing is recording some of my CDs to VHS tape (in SP mode), and playing the tape back through my stereo system. I'm not sure if it's all in my mind, but by doing this, there seems to be a more pleasing "punch" coming from the VHS tape transfer than there is when listening to the actual CD. Bright CDs seem to sound smoother. Flabby low-end seems to sound tighter. Even overly-compressed CDs sound much better when transferring them to VHS tape.

What are your opinions on using VHS tape for audio purposes?

 

i have not used this baby for audio purposes as yet, but it does such a STELLAR job on dubbing Anime on DVD onto VHS, in terms of both AUDIO as well as VIDEO, that i'll be fully expecting dubs from any audio format to be positively SUPERB...


JVC HR-S8000U (1988)

 

I used to record concerts off the radio in the 80's (Westwood One, KBFH, etc) onto my hi-fi VCR. I'd set the timer and leave the receiver on. It was great because you could record for up to 6 hours and didn't have to be home to monitor the recording (ie. flipping a cassette).
I still have many of these tapes but one big problem I've found is getting perfect tracking during playback. I've found that using the same machine to play back as was used to record will get the best results but most of my older VCR's are dead or have various problems (and most VCR's sold today are poor quality).
I was also happy with the sound quality - I don't know if it improved the sound any but it sounded very close to the source.

 

Thats a great looking deck. They just don't make them like that anymore!

 

Yes I used to do the same with my VCR years back. I still remember the stress of trying to judge the best time to swap the tape over on a concert. Real heart pumping stuff. Having it on VHS enabled you to select the edits for tape or just leave the whole thing on VHS.

I remember once a mate asked me to tape a radio concert and he looked a little shocked when I handed him a VHS tape a few days later.

He was pleasantly surprised though when he tried it.

 

I never tried recording music onto a VHS tape (other than MTV videos back in the day), but I did have REALLY good success (believe it or not) test recording vinyl onto a BETAMAX tape. The sound was actually quite stunning!

 

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oh, and the video quality is pretty damned fine, as well: (OLD PIC, BEFORE I GOT A FAR SUPERIOR T.V. STAND AT A THRIFT)

 

It may depend on which tracks you use, the pair that goes down like normal tape or the pair that are encoded with the picture. I'm really rusty on this stuff. There are issues with both as I guess there is with any recording format.

 

Warm analog sound = distortion?

 

I tried it back in the 80s with decks of that era using the then-new VHS Hi-Fi tracking system grafted onto the original 2-track analog tracks spec'd with VHS.

The problem was that you could hear the head-switching as the flying-head design for video record/playback was applied to the audio tracks. Some vendors models were worse than others but a really high quality audio playback system would expose that switching noise.

I went back to cassette and my trusty Crown tape deck at the time.

Cheers,

David

 

I remember doing it back in the mid to late 80's because I'd read about it in Stereo Review or Audio. I think I did it primarily to record stuff off the radio or TV at the time. It never occurred to me transfer a cd to a video tape because I was in High School and CDs were the last word in High Fidelity.
It makes sense because VCRs had a better transport than the average tape deck. It would probably help to have a really nice Beta machine or an S-VHS like Macgyver.
It would be interesting for someone to do a comparison with a high end Beta machine, A high end tap deck like a Nak Dragon and a Reel to Reel and maybe analog out to a cd recorder and share the results. I'm sure that someone on this board could probably do it, maybe even without moving any equipment around.

 

Sound recording on Hifi VHS recorders had it's own technical problems. It was a great medium for long duration recordings.

I wouldn't think for a minute about using one today, especially not if the recordings are meant to be played in the further future.

If you want the best recording sound, get a semi-pro sound card for your PC and record in hi-rez PCM. If you need "warm sound", get a suitable plugin

http://repairfaq.cis.upenn.edu/sam/icets/vcr.htm

 

One thing to keep in mind, you can't control the record level on many VHS-HiFi decks.

I suspect that the dynamic range will be compressed when you copy music onto a deck with automatic record level.

 

I recorded the Grateful Dead's '87-'88 new year's show off the radio on a now dead, no pun intended, stereo VHS deck. The results were really great, so great as a matter of fact that that same radio station wanted to use of couple of songs from it for a Grateful Dead hour that they used to have. Why they didn't record the show, I have no idea. I haven't played that VHS tape in years, but I bet it would still sound good. Of course that show has been released on DVD so it really doesn't matter now.

 

I used to use one for audio recording & it had a level control. The sound was pretty good, especially compared to the only cheap alternative: cassette.

The main problem, as has been said, is the age of decent decks & the rubbish that's available new. I gave up on it after buying a new player that didn't like my old tapes. DAT suffers from the same problem. The BBC would copy DATs onto analogue tape for broadcasts in some studios to avoid glitches for this reason.

 

I dunno, but my band's demo recorded in 1988 was eight-track digital and recorded on a VHS tape...so the medium is not exclusively analog!

 

This has been discussed here before. Maybe try a search?
I think I remember some discussion here about Hi-Fi VCRs and most having an auto volume control, or limiter, or something that cannot be defeated.

Anyway, I used to use a nice Sony Hi-Fi VCR for a stereo mixdown master from my 4-track. Then, I would make cassette dubs from the VCR. It worked just fine and sounded good.

 

Folks,

VHS Hi-Fi sounds decent on a good setup. Compatibility is a problem as well as tracking being consistent from deck to deck. VHS and Beta Hi-Fi do use companding schemes and occasionally pumping and breathing can be an issue. Most newer decks also lack manual audio gain controls. Just some things you need to consider. Not archival as a medium nor dependable for heavy use.

 

I've never personally recorded music to VHS but a number of movies I have sound quite good in VHS Hi-Fi. Probably as nin said via a euphonic distortion. The midrange is definitely overemphasized on my old Mitsubishi player and is 'warm' and pleasing for the kind of older action/horror/sci-fi movies that are played.

 

My experience is that a good VHS audio recording sounds worse than a moderately priced cassette deck.

There is nothing inherently "warm" about an analog recording. I can make an analog recording sound harsh, brittle, you name it!

I wouldn't waste time with VHS.

 

Oh, you!

 

i love my MITSUBISHI HS-U70, it's the very first high-end VCR i ever saw, ind it was love at first sight. while it is a VERY competent machine, it has a weird audio output section that, while sounding very good, tends to go into clipping on many tapes VERY easily. the JVC HR-S8000U, on the other hand, is a SOLID performer in every respect...

 

In this case, apparently so, along with some compression and EQ. A little compressor/EQ would do a better job for the same effectprobably.

That said, I knew people wanting to get a 1/2" tape machine (a regular pro audio transport) to record on videotape, since 1/2" videotape is still readily to be had. They had obtained an Ampex transport whose original electronics were carted off by the simians that use them as mic pre's (I've never heard a vocal recorded that way that wasn't terrible, but this practice persists) and used some Inovonics replacement electronics that are now cheap. I don't know how well they did with this, or if the heads were the limiting factor. Be an interesting avenue to pursue, I suppose.

 

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