I wonder where they got the tape from as no one has been producing that tape for a long time and both companies went out of the tape business and probably scrapped the tape line. I have been told that there is no one making chrome based slurry to put on tape backing for a long time now and so far all the normal stuff is just that- Normal Bias. There were some tape made with reels that were filled with BASF tape that was just horrible. These were the CRC series. There is a reason they called it limited edition and I bet it is not cheap either.
I wonder where they got the tape from as no one has been producing that tape for a long time and both companies went out of the tape business and probably scrapped the tape line.
That's a good question, but the article does suggest that this is a newly created formula with currently available materials: "The TASCAM 424 Type II cassette is a Type II High Bias cobalt formulation using currently available magnetic oxides to recreate the tape which Portastudios were designed to use."
I guess we'll have to wait for someone to seriously test this tape to see if it's any good.
That may be but I have been told by good tape people that making a chrome tape would not be possible being the slurry (oxide formula) was no longer produced. I can not see someone setting up a line to just make that tape but if they did it would have an explosive effect in sales as everyone would want fresh XL II tape rather than the regular stuff. I work on Porta Studios all the time and some guys bring them in with regular tape in them which then I say you must use chrome tape in these. They were never made for Normal tape.
I think a newly produced Cobalt Doped or Epitaxial formula like Maxells XL II is due but who is going to foot the bill? Some places around the world can not be trusted as they are good for selling lies- kind of like reliable products from China.
I think you would be the perfect tester for this new tape, @SkywaveTDR! Since you work with these machines all the time.. 'Expected to be available soon", let's wait and see.
Sometimes you can predict what is going to happen based on where it comes from. Now remember that a good amount of webs went to Korea from BASF due to the fact that sales for that tape was pretty dismal. Well the reason it was low sales as it was pretty crappy tape. This is what has been coming out of Korea so far. Now if something was set up that is new I would be surprised and this can happen but we might be seeing a the same old pig with a different costume on it. Companies are becoming desperate for money and selling all kinds of cheap chinese junk digital stuff that breaks down easy. What is going to be different about tape?
I would say that if someone would set up a line to make tape why make it limited? The limitation might be due to shells or the little reels. The reel did not do anything good for the use of tape but was more a gimmick for marketing. In the Studio 52 metal tape which was good tape was limited to 52 minutes as the reel things take up too much space. The Tape they should make again that blows away everything else and can be used on a Porta Studio was the Teac HXS tape also known as TDK HDX. This was metal weakened formula for Chrome deck use and as I tested it it was way ahead of the other tapes. I bought a few when at Teac when I should have bought cases of it.
I have had and do have a 799 here as provided by a customer- It is junk and records 4-5 dB lower than Maxell XL II tape. I have found with that very tape which is a low grade BASF that it can not even be adjusted in Tascam decks. That company as well as their poor treatment and deception to customers some of which are mine is growing all the time. They sold one client Normal tape for Chrome and I asked Don Morris a person in tape a long time if there were any brown colored chrome tape and he said there never was.
It should also be noted that the 799 is inferior to the 731 they used to sell which was equal to XL II but they ran out of it. The BASF tape they bought came from Don Morris.
The 799 was from Korea, however, the formula was changed 8-9 months ago by nac themselves (as per the original recipe banned or whatever), the current 799 are entirely cooked up in Springfield Missouri at nac.
The limited 799 format is simply the sku with Tascam j-card and little gold plastic spindles shaped like tiny reels. So, "limited" has to do with cosmetics only as I understand things.
I have a couple of brand new boxed 202mkvii machines for a rewire/redesign experiment.
Based on the nac info that I've been assimilating over the past weeks, I think I'll order a box of 10 of the non-fancy 799 and check them out.
madness for a product that got substantially worse after each play
why in this digital no loss age are people recording onto cassette tape? I know some producers only accept cassette demos, I would just avoid them altogether.
Hi Bazz, The thing is the good machines are not increasing in number but decreasing and I have 14 customers waiting for me to recondition to my standard a 122 Mk II and 122 Mk III deck. If a cassette is made in a good Nakamichi deck or a well corrected Tascam deck they sound good. They are not going to be the same as a 15 IPS 1/2 track but then if a person has that they can just get the tape reproduced or pressed themselves. Cassette are for demo only of in some cases are the end product- I think digital which was a fad has worn out it welcome and those that think it is good are fooling themselves. Same as FM HD. The Digital transmission was full of cut out far off and the coverage map closed in. How is this better? I know one FM station that spent 4 million to put that in and I was getting nothing but complaints- I was the complaints guy. The digital and analog delays had to be adjusted every day as they drifted. So the digital program if it switch out of HD would go back to Analog and that had to be delayed to match the Digital audio as Digital has latency longer than Analog.
