Have you ever rebuilt a cassette? By rebuilding, I refer to the act of purchasing a 'real' cassette produced by a major record label, taking out the old tape within, replacing with fresh blank cassette tape medium, then recording digital music onto that new tape medium? Also, replacing the felt pad that applies pressure to the tape head if necessary? I was wondering if doing so is (has been) worth the effort. Seems like it could be, if I were to purchase a used cassette off of eBay for its casing and packaging, but the tape medium itself is worn out. Please let me know if you've ever done what I am describing above, and how it worked out for you. Thanks!!
I've rebuilt lots of cassettes that failed during their day, eg. jammed, twisted, etc. put into new cases, replaced felt pads that have fallen off, untwisted spaghetti tape, etc. I was never a purchaser of pre-recorded tapes new, with the exception of a handful that had material not available on LP. However, I did acquire a few pre-owned. And whenever I had the opportunity to re-record the LP onto the cassette, I would always do it. Even though most of the time the quality of the mass-duplication tape was quite poor, my re-recording (on a good but not spectacular hifi system) was always vastly superior to the original tape recording.
Thanks for responding! I am going to try to make some myself and was hoping the results would be worth the effort. Seemed like they could be.
I once replaced a drop out laden cassette of Pink Floyd's Relics by a home made chrome dioxide edition from the UK lp, breaking the original tape case open and fitting some new tape then resealing it plastic modelling cement. I was crazy like that in my late teens.
You bring up a good point I hadn't thought of. A lot of cassettes (most?) released by the major labels do not have screws that can be loosened, so you have to break the cassette casing. I'll have to rethink my plans now.
Purchase a lot of used prerecorded cassettes and sometimes the tape breaks at the leader/tape connection. When this happens, you can pry/break open the old case and transfer the tape inside into a new, blank cassette that has screw connections. Do this a lot and it is a pain because the case information has to be copied onto the new case and this requires a Brother print maker with some white print tape on a clear background. The case is split most easily by putting it into a vise sideways and tightening the vice until you hear the crack. Not difficult but time consuming and I have gotten to the point of only redoing cassettes that have genuine music value.
This is a good topic. Ive done in my early days only a very few of them because I began to realize besides transferring the new medium, some of the parts like the felt wouldn't fit in the old casing so stopped reviving the old ones and just continually making new recording tapes and labeling it my own. Now I probably have 40 of those pre-recorded tapes that mostly felts came off. This hardly or doesn't happen a blank cassettes like TDK son and so forth. Never the less, and just like the previous post here, I don't know if I will have time to fix the remaining ones.... The tile needs to be change to "Rebuilding Cassette Tapes"
I have done what you are describing many times. I've had pretty good results too. It is time consuming, meticulous work though. Here's what I do when it comes to pre recorded cassette restoration: You will need some precise tweezers, mini screw drivers, masking tape, q tips, super glue and isopropyl alcohol. If the felt pad has come off and you still have it, a small drop of super glue where the felt pad sits works. If the felt pad is missing, you can make a new one from furniture leg felt pads. The felt pad is there but the tape is dragging while played or slow. If the shell has screws simply remove the screws and carefully take the top half off. Next get your masking (I use blue painters tape) and place tape across the main spool. The goal is to keep it from coming unwound. If it does, in my experience at least, you are screwed. Carefully lift the main spool and the empty reel from the shell and set aside. With the q tip and ispropyl alcohol clean where ever the tape travels past including the felt pad. Make sure the two tiny guide wheels on each side spin freely and smooth. Clean the tiny metal posts they sit on. After that is done, take the tape and carefully put it back in place. Now here is what can be tricky and takes some practice. If needed use the tweezers to assist in getting the tape back in place. After the tape is in place, take the tape off the main spool. Place the top cover back on and put the screws in. Make sure the tape moves easily. Test play it. Does it play? Yes? Hooray! No. Ok next step shortly. We're going to pause a bit and go back a few steps. Your tape shell doesn't have screws, it's glued together. This is not easy, but it can be done. Take the shell and with both hands on each side slowly twist the shell till you hear a pop or crack. Then take a small knife or a thin mini flat head screw driver and carefully go through where the two shells are glued together prying them apart. Once they are apart follow the same steps as above. For reassembly you have two options, use the super glue and glue them back together. Or take some clear scotch tape and tape the edges. I do this because it works quite well and it will be easier to open again if the need arises. Now the tape just won't play. You can transfer the tape to higher quality shell and see if that makes it playable. Or you can replace the tape in the original shell. To replace the tape do the sane steps as above except instead of putting the new tape back, replace it with a different spool of blank tape. Reassemble as described above. Ok now decide what source material you want to use and record. I run my source through a small mixer and do some "additional mastering" to get the sound I want. I've had some that afterwards I've thought wow that's better than the original and others that I've gone omg that's awful. That is part of the fun though. So is it worth the hassle? Probably not but I've had a lot fun doing it and found it pretty rewarding when it turns out. There are videos on youtube that show some of the things I described. Good luck!
If you're careful, you can crack open a sealed cassette shell and then glue it shut when you're done repairing the tape inside:
The only way I can see doing this on my end is not really doing anything or having extra time. (im not sure if I got the right word). Or maybe along trip not enjoying the sceneries... I got so spoiled in recording hi fidelity with quality 90 minute tapes and they don't just fall apart. Plus theyre easy to catalog even by the thousands.
I do it all the time if there’s enough bad drop outs and/or loss of high frequencies. Just be careful when cracking the shell open, there’s always a chance you’ll wreck it.
Why does it have to be a digital source? Vinyl recorded on a cassette does sound amazing but in that case you may have to carefully choose what kind of blank tape to use to get the most out of the medium. Choose wisely and you’ll get rewarded with an amazing sounding cassette tape recording. Lots of people bash the cassette tape medium, the problem is that they haven’t heard how good a cassette tape can sound when recorded on a high quality 3 head cassette deck.
The transition of the cassette sound from noisy to high fidelity went overnight back in 1980 when the super avilyn came out. Lots of people already left the cassettes and some didn't had the chance to own an excellent sounding cassette deck so that's what they remember. PS there are "some" digital source that "you might wanna try" to copy in cassette. See what you think about it. I did a few on SACD and some others, the transformation sounds incredible!
Yes, hi-res definitely sounds wonderful on good tape. I did a few of the Van Halen 2015 remaster onto tape and they sound delightful. Also, no one said vinyl was out of the picture either for this purpose. I’ve used it as long as I know my copy is very quiet and pops and clicks are mostly non existent. In fact, when I bought Greta Van Fleet’s new album last year, it went straight to a TDK chrome tape first play.
I was using a usb connected interface/soundcard them RCA to cassette. Some of them came out really good. Really well close to my previous settings which is a fresh vinyl or 2nd master reel copy to cassette. That digital transfer sometimes blows my mind. what kind? here are a few... NAC RTM
Good to see I'm not the only crazy cassette freak on this forum. Like most of you, I want to keep my cassette in its original shell with factory labels if possible. When you have a factory cassette that has some dropouts, try re-recording it (with a high res streaming source of course) before you tear it apart. This works sometimes, but if it doesn't and the cassette doesn't have screws, then you have to split the case (see above posts). If you have a 3 head dolby hx pro deck you will be surprised as to the improvement you will get by recording over the original tape. If the original tape is bad and recording over it doesn't work, then look for a chrome casssette in the thrift shop that is approx. the same program length. Common tapes I've had good luck with recording over are police synchronicity, any supertramp, amy grant etc which are all recorded on chrome tape. Of course you can use a maxell xl 2 or equivalent and cut the tape to the right length, but I like using original leaders that are factory attatched. When you record over your new tape make sure you set the bias to chrome. Some of these tapes are chrome but the shell doesn't have a chrome bias hole in the top so it wont record properly.If this is the case, you have to either drill a chrome slot in the top (next to the hole that you have to cover with tape to record over it) or take the tape out and record it in a shell that has the chrome position in place. Now just replace the newly recorded tape in the original shell. The tricky part is splitting an original shell then super gluing it back together. The result is an incredible sounding cassette you can use to "wow" your friends (but don't tell them what you did to make it sound so good). You could actually record over every factory cassette you have that doesn't sound very good with a high res stream and make a noticeable improvement in the way they sound.
I usually make sure I get the times of each side written down so I’ll record it, take the side that’s longer first and cut the tape about 20 seconds or so after the last song is recorded, then reattach to leader. Also, are you sure you have to set the deck for chrome tape to 70us? I thought the factory tapes that used chrome tape were all recorded with 120us setting? I know my Def Leppard hysteria tape says chrome tape 120us on it.
Granted, my decks have auto tape type selection switches in them so I don’t have to worry about that being an issue unless I put chrome into a type I tape. Isn’t the assumption that factory chrome tapes were recorded with 70us and played back at 120us?
I always thought factory cassettes on chrome were recorded at 70 but play back at 120 for that extra high end sizzle. Any one know if this is accurate? If memory serves, I've tried recording these factory chromes in the shell drilled for normal bias and not had good results
No, they're recorded with 120 µS for compatibility with low-end players that don't have a normal/chrome EQ switch. There were some pre-recorded chrome tapes which used 70 µS equalization and had the extra cutouts in the shell for decks with automatic tape type detection, especially RCA Victor's Red Seal classical tapes, but those were pretty rare. Otherwise, if a chrome tape says to use 120 µS equalization, you should heed that advice. If it sounds too bright, don't forget to engage Dolby B NR, as virtually all pre-recorded chrome tapes were encoded with it.
