Using VHS videotape stock for audio recording

Can someone please let me know which blank VHS tapes are (were) best?

I have a stack of more than 100 NOS Type II cassette tapes, probably 20 NOS Sony Betamax tapes, but no VHS. I see sealed VHS tapes all the time at various estate sales, etc., but have no idea what is worth picking up on-the-cheap.

Honest question, so input is appreciated.

 

I'm mesmerized by this thing.

More info here.

 

There are two available on eBay right now. One for $225 the other for $3000. Oh, eBay!

 

In the UK the good consumer stuff was the high end offerings from the big Japanese companies, TDK, Fuji, Maxell, Sony and JVC, even of you aren't familiar with the names the companies used for their best tapes they usually came in better cases, had better stickers supplied, just looked more expensive. As with other tape formats avoid what was coming out as the format was discontinued, lots of cheap tapes then. I think back in the mid-eighties I was paying around £6 for a high quality three hour VHS tape, one reason I didn't record enough.

 

I think if one has to cut back that much it might be time to just give up.

 

My first CD player was a vertical spinning model. Part of the early fascination with CDs was watching them spin. While horizontal players with trays that disappear inside the machine do the job just as well (if not better), they aren't as neat to watch.

Come to think of it, I also enjoy watching records spin too.

 

In 2014, I beg of you, plus don't record anything on VHS. Sound or picture. Stop now.

It's over, Johnny!

 

The tape is formulated for spinning helical heads not linear ones
The mag particles are in the wrong direction.
Dont bother

 

Nothing is over! Nothing!

 

If people want to record onto VHS, Betamax, DAT tape, Minidisc, audio cassette, wax cylinders or acetates we should at least tell them which products were best, even if we think it's an insane idea.

Actually I'm so used to similar requests on here that it didn't even strike me as mad, it's only when I read the post from Vidiot that I realised what the person was asking, I've become immune. I totally agree that there's no reason to record anything on VHS in 2014, unless you really want to downgrade the quality of something and don't have a computer.

 

What? Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!

And it ain't over now. 'Cause when the goin' gets tough . . . the tough get goin'! Who's with me? Let's go! C'mon!

 

The Germans didnt bomb Pearl Harbor or invent VHS
It was the Japanese Johnny

 

Clearly out of the loop...

 

If they're here, they're online and they have a computer. I can't imagine somebody believing it makes more sense to record audio on VHS compared to doing it on a computer. Heck, I don't understand anybody using VHS for video in 2014!

 

Back in '95 I used a Hi-Fi VCR as a mastering deck.

 

VHS tape. If I read that right, the O.P. wants to unspool it from a VHS cassette and use it in an open reel deck. You might get signal to and from it, but it'll sound improperly biased, and the tape will be prone to stretching and / or snapping because its a lot thinner (and more delicate) than "real" reel tapes...

Just a couple of years ago, I was participating in a pirate radio station filling hours and hours of airtime with live bootlegs and all sorts of strangeness. I recorded HiFi VHS 6 hour speed to keep my shows on file. Now I've got 4+ boxes of aircheck VHS tapes that I still listen to from time to time when I'm feeling nostalgic.... I'd set the timer at home, and tune in the station, and go off to do my show. When I came home, the tape of it would be waiting for me. I had a very open-ended long format show, so I never got an entire start to finish copy of any of my shows, but 6 hour chunks were better than nothing at the time. At one point, I brought a VHS deck to the "radio station" to set up to record my show. I also brought a really old video camera and a small monitor, and I would make video feedback loops for a picture to go with my radio shows. Think moving video versions of a tye-die phychedelic T-shirt! haha good times... HiFi VHS, the poor man's DAT deck!

But, yeah, breaking out tape from a cassette will "work" but the tape is very thin, and it's sort of short to do music with. You *could* splice multiple VHS spools together and wind them all up onto one big reel, I guess, but, geez, why? I mean, don't get me wrong, it's fun to be nostalgic and go old school on stuff, but, there's a reason new technology was invented to replace this old crap, ya know??!!!?!! hahaha

Good luck!

 

Horrible. Heck, the audible head-switching noise bugged the living hell outta me in 1985, let alone 1995. Horrible plasticky audio electronics. I've used $2000 VCRs that had 10-cent analogue audio sections, just total garbage. And VHS Hi-Fi had an undefeatable limiter in place all the time, along with a sharp 20kHz cutoff to prevent aliasing. Plus the noise companding system was very audible under certain conditions. It was a crap system.

I don't have a problem with using VHS or Beta tape for digital audio recording with something like a PCM-F1. That at least sounded OK... for its time. Lightyears different from Hi-Fi audio. But then, DAT was better than all of these, depending on the converters.

 

I thought VHS Hi-Fi sounded great compared to most cassette decks. And you could get a decent Hi-Fi deck for less than the cost of a good tape deck. Their compander was no worse than DBX from what I could tell.

The switching noise was an issue - my el-cheapo Sanyo actually had less of it than my uncle's expensive Sony, which I always found bizarre.

 

I remember a couple of neurotic dead heads using VCRs sometimes. They counted one of these transfers as a half generation.

 

Ah, I remember that 1980s Technics PCM VHS machine. Very cool for its time; a boat anchor today.

 

No they are not

 

Yes, you can often find a Sony PCM F1 on eBay for a good price

 

Obviously comes from a Betamax Universe. Though I must admit to having this Sharp in my history of ownership