My thoughts too Pete , it’s only a matter of time before the Frankenstein creation of a Techmoan/Parlogram monster is birthed for us to enjoy , oh man what a collab that would be. Andy and Matt together in Electric Dreams
Wow!! Very emotional video Andrew! Cassettes are still in our hearts, for us guys of the pre-digital era...sigh! Great job... Beatles for Ever!!! Cheers!
Amazing Andrew! Dolby off makes it more alive. Wider, Clearer, Brighter. Made thousands of cassettecompilations for lovers and friends through the 80´s and 90´s always with a selfdesigned inlay. That shaped me into a top DJ and designer. Cheers!
These videos paired with licensed Beatles sound would be Netflix series stream worthy. So so SO good. I don’t won’t to own any of these, but learning about them is just so great. Thank you again!
I record cassettes constantly, Andrew. When recording I always keep the Dolby B on. When playing back however, I treat both the Dolby switch and the tape selector switch (normal/chrome/metal) like tone controls. I set them to whatever position sounds best for me at the moment, especially when listening to the cassette deck through headphones. Having watched this video I realized that I do not have a Beatles cassette mixtape! I'm off now to fire up the cassette deck and make one.
Like you, I had very few pre-recorded cassettes in my collection. I also preferred making my own (and I, too, used to tape the Top 40 from the radio 😁). I never was a fan of Dolby NR either. My Dad had an equalizer that I would use for noise reduction. It is interesting that we've gone from "eliminate all noise" to "some noise is good." Fascinating video. Thanks!
Very enjoyable video! I collected cassettes back in the 1980s . My first copy of the white album was a double cassette. To this day, one of the best sounding Beatles cassettes I have heard was an early 1980s cassette of Please Please Me which I bought as an import. It did feature the Dolby noise reduction. I owned a Teac tape deck which did have Dolby function but I never played cassettes with it turned on because it made it sound dull and canned. Seeing you do that demonstration brought back memories of that! While I don’t think I will go back to collecting cassettes I did purchase Paul’s newest release on cassette in addition to CD and vinyl but the cassette was more of a novelty to me. Thanks again for sharing!
The best way to tell how the Dolby NR process is works is to compare the Dolby On/Off recordings to the original at the start of the video. The ON Dolby version keeps the bottom end of the original recording solid (with added tape compression) while losing some top end air that would have occupied the same frequencies as the tape hiss. The Dolby OFF version is a little bass shy compared to the original and has some additional sweeten top end not found on the original recording at the start. This is because of how Dolby NR works. The principal of Dolby NR is to boost the top end frequencies onto the recording. When the tape is played back with Dolby NR on, not only will the Dolby NR bring down the frequencies hiss, but because the recorded music has been top end boosted, the added top end of the playback will be reduced to the same level as it was before being encoded. The idea being that playback is now “neutral”. When a Dolby encoded cassette is played with Dolby NR, you will hear more treble than the original recording, because Dolby has given the recording a treble boost. With a Dolby B encoded, its a choose your poison deal: ON - its overall closer to the original recording, but you lose top end sparkle. OFF - you have artificially added top end imprinted on the recording AND tape hiss. If tape hiss doesn’t bother you, just use good quality tapes and record with Dolby off.
When I got my first all-in-one stereo system in 1990, it had a Dolby B feature which I didn't know what it was. I soon realised that if I had it "on", the recordings sounded much more detailed when played back on portable cassette players or other players altogether! For many many years, I thought Dolby meant clearer recordings and I've recorded hundreds of cassettes that way!! Even today, 30 years later, they still sound terrific!!! Great video, as always!!! P. S. German (Warner) cassettes from the late 80s - early 90s sound great, even with the Dolby on! Great Job those Germans!!!
I only ever bought one cassette with Beatles music. And that was in 1976, a cheap anonymous cover versions one bought from a motorway service station on the M6, that I bought with my meagre pocket money. I don't have it now, but I think it might have been from Pickwick Records. I still remember the day, we were travelling from Bristol to Liverpool to see grandma, and my sister bought a similar cheap cassette with ABBA songs. And we were playing them on a mono battery operated cassette recorder, because the car didn't have a cassette player in it.
@@Parlogram Yeh it was great times. :) Like I still remember in 1977 me and my sister borrowed the neighbour's Beatles Red and Blue double album records, and we recorded them onto C90 cassettes, using my dad's music centre.
"Only The Beatles" was the first album (compilation) I remember of The Beatles in my life, as my mother (whose beer of choice was Heineken) sent off for it. I was 6 years old but listening to it on holiday that year in 1986 brings back great memories. Especially the featuring of "This Boy" and Yes, It Is". It was probably the first time I had ever heard 3 part harmonies in pop music. To this day, I always see them as "twin" songs. Oh and also, you are totally right about Dolby. OK. It would cut off the hiss but made the top (especially the drums) sound lifeless.
Yeah... I always recorded with Dolby on, and then played with it off - made it come alive! And I have a copy of that "Only The Beatles" tape too...sounds OK, but sometimes struggles to play through properly!
You nailed the Dolby conundrum right on the head. Record with it on, off for playback. It worked very well, until I found myself in a cassette recording marathon and realized that I didn't turn it back on to record. This would lead to wasted hours of dubbing time. CD dubbing removes that headache. Thanks for posting this.
I recall discovering the method of recording music with Dolby ‘on’ and then playing it back with Dolby ‘off’ and your demonstration here brought in all back. Some Labels started putting two back catalogue albums onto one cassette. Rock band ‘Rainbow’ did that and quite a few others too. Great for long car journeys but their was always a danger of the cassette getting chewed up. Not good if you were changing lanes on the motorway. A front passenger was helpful in such circumstances. I recall my friend’s Datsun 240Z which he had a graphic equalizer.. memories come flooding back!
Fantastic once again Andrew! Cassettes bring back so many memories for me too especially Beatles ones, many of my blank cassettes where made up of radio documentary's, In my life Lennon remembered, Mccartney on Mccartney, Beatles at the beeb and many more, now I've watched your video I'm going to have to dig them out. Superb Andrew and thanks for sharing....
Interestingly, when the UK albums finally came out here stateside on tape, they used the dusty gold/brown covers for Please, Please Me through Revolver.
Great video! I recall when Rush's Moving Picture first came out on cassette. They were trying to mimic the album format in a beautiful box. My regret is that I did not get a copy and save it for posterity...
I wish I had held on to my Beatles cassettes now - had Sgt Pepper, Hard Days Night, Rock and Roll, Blue album. Fond memories of playing them over and over. Great video Andrew, fascinating information about this format!
Your the ultimate pro Andrew. I remember playing my Beatles cassettes through Dolby B & C after a while I just left it off as they sounded brighter without it. Still have the same Denon deck.
I purchased a vintage french copy of "Ringo" on cassette for 50 cents the other day, and it's in good shape, it plays very well. The cassette is blue and there's an advertisement for (non music related) a primitive device of slides and matching audio cassettes inside, one of these experimental formats that never went anywhere. Very 1973! :) As for cassingles, I'll never understand how France was so late on the format, as pre-recorded cassettes pf albums were a big market here too. They only appeared in the early 90s here and were, understandably, short-lived. I'm 100% they would have been successful had they been marketed in the 80s, the way they were in the US and the UK.
I never got on with cassettes but they were useful when I left home and to University. I always found that putting the Dolby on would muffle the sound. As for tapes being eaten. . . I obviously had a very hungry player! Making compilation tapes was a fantastic way to spend a spare afternoon. As you said, a real art!
Some fascinating releases there, cheers old chap. That Heineken one was funny, and the ring pulls. Ah the good ole days when you could rip your skin off when quenching ones' thirst.
My parents bought the Technics SC-2020D Package system in 1982 2 years before I came along It has the SL-D212 Direct drive Turn table (fitted with Technics EPC-U25 Cartridge) SU-V16 Stereo Integrated Amplifier RS-M16 Quartz Radio Tuner and RS-M16 Cassette Player (Something not included in the SD-2020 Package system only included in the D version of the box) All stored in an SH-523 Audio rack and connected to SB-2020 Speakers When my parents "Upgraded" to a smaller system that just did CD and Digital in the mid 2000's I got to take this off their hands and use it for all my music needs.
Great clip as usual! I prefered the non dolby version of the theme song. It had more clarity and almost has a beautiful harpsichord sound coming from the guitars.
Hi Andrew Heard the White Album on the issued double cassette first.Sure that all the fast forwarding and rewinding locating my favourite tracks hastened it's demise a few years on.Great Video again Ian
Wore out (from new) a 90s Sony deck that had Dolby B C & S, bias calibration, 3-motor transport, 3-head "playback during recording", tape time counter, just to name a few features... With both Dolby settings, tape saturation made your theme sound much nicer coming from my phone.
I still make mix tapes. I use an Onkyo I bought brand new in 1998 and have babied all my life. The first Beatles solo album was George Harrison's Wonderwall Music in 1968. A full 2 years before Ringo.
Really enjoyed this video, I still collect cassettes and they may not be as hi-fi as vinyl, they are a lot warmer than some CDs I own. Keep up the good work.
I bought the 20th Anniversary 3X Cassette BoxSet Version of Derek And The Dominoes Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs last week and Oh My God it's sound is Astounding. Much Much Better, clearer brighter, Warner than ANY of the CDs. I don't know about any of the vinyl versions because I don't have them. But man is that cassette box good.
Oh wow Andrew thank you so much for this awesome video. I started buying blank cassette tapes I do not like the 90 minute ones because you don’t have any room to put more music on I still love doing mixed tapes and my own compilation that’s why I love the longer cut the text I recently bought the max sales 120 minute blank tapes I loved hearing that will be sound switched off it sounds great. I love all recorded formats 78 4533’s cassette tapes of yet to see and hear wax cylinders but I still love them. I’ll be buying more because that type so I can get my own mixes including the Beatles. I would also listen to cassettes with the music played forwards and backwards I still love listening to music backwards and forwards.
Hi Andrew, once again, this was another very interesting and informative video from you! Like you, I was more into vinyl over the years and never paid too much attention to pre-recorded tapes by the Beatles. I also was more or less a mixed tape maker during the late 70's and early to late 80''s. So , with a history like this, pre-recorded Beatles cassettes from Germany only recently cought my interest, because I found out, unlike with the U.K. or the tapes from the U.S. , there isn't very much information about them to be found anywhere on the net. About a year and a half I began to make a collection of mostly german made early Beatles cassettes, beginning with the first two ever to be released over here back by EMI back in 1969, which were "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" on the Hör Zu label (cat. # 89 077) & "Abbey Road" on Apple (cat. # 89 101) inside a grey/white cassette shell and with orange paper labels, housed in standard black and clear Norelco plastic boxes. Although they are both now over 50 years old, they still sound superb and pristine like new, with just very little tape hiss, that adds to their charming character. Even though most of them were manufactured without DOLBY B, most of the german cassette tapes from the late 60's and the first half of the 70's all sound great. I now have most of the first releases together, including the the two bookclub releases you've shown. The only thing that has to be fixed from time to time are the missing or damaged pressure felt-pads of the cassettes.
I’m your age Andrew but unlike you, I only bought vinyl in the 70s abs 80s, but like you made loads of mix tapes of which 90% were Beatles. It was great fun trying to fit everything onto the cassette to time nicely with the end of the tape and not cut short or have too much empty tape. I used a music centre which always made the first second extra load, which was usually the vinyl noise. I bought another from my uncle only to discover it played cassettes a boy too slow which meant cassettes recorded on it played back a bit too fast in the car. One of the reasons we never bought pre recorded cassettes was the car: if you left one in the car the heat and moisture killed it. Much better to buy vinyl and copy it to cassette.
My grandfather used to own a cassette manufacturing facility. He manufactured cassette shells to ship to EMI. I have lots of brand new cassettes from EMI in storage, including plenty of Beatles ones.
Great video; hugely informative as usual. Like you I was a vinyl fan and rarely bought pre-recorded cassettes, but often made mixtapes for myself and others, etc. I only moved to Cd in 1993. Although no expert, I suspect the key variables for superior sounding German and Dutch tapes was probably higher quality tape. There was a story, possibly an urban myth, that pre-recorded tapes often used low grade, recycled computer tape. They looked pale brown I remember that, and nothing like the high quality chrome tapes that could be bought. EMI may have used low grade source material in their copying factory. Who knows?
Fantastic video, and thanks for making it! I've got myself a smashing Gold Inlay Beatle cassette collection and often enjoy listening to them (including their strange running orders) via my high quality digital transfers. Take care and all the best from the UK.
As a BX-300 owner I waa pleased to see that was your deck of choice. In addition to the idler tyre, keep an eye on the back tension belt on the supply reel. If that goes, it will eat tapes. However if you want to see what this deck will do, record some tapes in it.
Thanks for another great video (yeah, I know I'm a year late to the party...). Listening to the Dolby on/off demo through my old and admittedly damaged hearing I found that turning off the noise reduction made the bass very slightly muddier and the highs "bigger" (if that makes sense). So little, though, that I probably wouldn't have noticed if I weren't actually listening for it.
I have managed to gather all the first UK Beatles cassette prints, including the white album (impossible to find) as well as the first Beatles cassette released in the UK (Sgt. Pepper green label) which incredibly includes an advertising brochure. After in perfect condition. Very proud... 😊
Yeah, really interesting, Andrew. Absolutely, re making a compilation for someone you liked and wanted to impress. I too have recently become interested in tapes again. I never bought pre recorded much. Only if I wanted something to play in the car while on holiday somewhere and couldn't do my own tape version. Tape stretch was my biggest irritation with pre rec tapes. I usually bought tapes for recording my own music on 4 track recorders like Tascams Porta 1&2 or 244 machines. TDK SA90 being my default cassette of choice. New Type IV tapes, especially the best quality ones, are fetching very high prices. In the hundreds of dollars for TDK MA-R, MA-XG and Metal Masters from Sony. Kinda crazy given they were mass produced for only a few dollars back in the day! Anyway, I'm really just collecting a few still in their wrappers for the fun of it, not so much for recording onto. Re play back machines...the Teac's aren't too bad. After trying to pick up a reasonably priced second hand machine for my aging mother, so she could hear her music, I gave up after 4 duds arrived. As you said, often the descriptions on auction sites leave a lot to be desired re their truthfulness. Repairing can be more costly than it's worth. She bought one (Teac W1200) and is very happy with it. At the very least it is reliable, and sounds fine to her ears. I'm feeling that I'm near the end of my Beatles vinyl collecting journey, so tapes could be something to get enthusiastic about. I like finding rare suff from 80's bands that only made a few hundred/thousand copies. Tapes... could be the next format revival. This will never happen with streaming.
HI Andrew, in the early 2000s, I owned a high speed audio cassette manufacturing plant in Sydney, we had the contract for the background store music for most of the retail chains in Aust. Every Friday we delivered 6500+ music cassettes to a mailing house. We only used German BASF cassette tape, it never varied in quality, shipment to shipment. We didn’t master with Dolby B because the music was played through the store roof speakers, but for albums we did. Today all the stores music comes via a satellite dish on the store roof. In your demo I Iiked the Dolby B on, for me, the off version plays overdone high frequencies, eg: the splash in the end cymbal. Not saying yours are, but I know worn cassette heads can mis-track Dolby B.
Wow that's an amazing cassette collection. Lots of stuff from the collectable pink Island years and the progressive subsidiary labels - even rarer to find in cassette format!
Thanks for the video! I got back into tape when Paul released Egypt Station in the format in 2018.. and then proceeded to collect his entire catalog on cassette (US/UK/CA releases). The only studio album not to be released on tape is 2013's 'NEW" as far as I can tell. The major labels stopped releasing on tape in 2003 in the US/UK but EMI continued to release albums on cassette at least until 2007 in some Asian countries and Russia. I have a (long sought after) copy of that OG 1970 UK 'McCarney' tape, yet mine was manufactured in the USA (printed in England) and has an open, single window. After buying a lot of the UK tapes in large lots, sometimes to get an elusive tape, I wound up with a lot of duplicates. From 1970 to 1976 (basically the paper label era) the actual cassettes themselves could be either tan, black or white with three different window configurations and sometimes different typeset on the labels themselves. Trying to figure out what was what and what was released when has been a bit of an adventure. Does anyone know if 'Wild Life' was re-released in the UK with the dusky gold J-card?
At 0.07 seconds - George Harrison's " All Things Must Pass ". We got that on pre-recorded cassette in 1975. I got to playing both cassettes quite often. That image of it there looks exactly like it. I quite liked that triple album. And next to it is McCartney's " Red Rose Speedway. . I bought that on vinyl the year before that for $ 6.25 Australian. I held that for 4 years, played it a few times, before trading it off to a kid in my year seriously wanting that. Whilst not regretting that at all, its probably worth 50 bucks or more now with the glossy lift out and all, but I'm not into the market thing.
Fascinating as always, Andrew. Always excited to see a new video from you. Maybe a video on the Beatles on 8-Track might be forthcoming? ;) I used to have the red and blue albums on 8-Track. While they can sound good, I found you really needed a lot of stars to align for that to happen, so I no longer have 8-Tracks.
Nice Nakamichi Cassette Player. So hard to believe that the Teac Deck available for around £400.00 new uses the same cheap mechanism as all other new players. Thankfully, I have a Technics from around 91/92 that works fine. Never used Dolby because of the dullness. Loved making compilations in the day. Remember the slogan "Home Taping is Killing Music".
I remember buying John and Yoko, s STINYC on double cass in the early 70s(. Playing it on a mono Record /Play little Sony beast) After the last track had finished, faintly in the background I could here some The Supremes songs! All so was the original cass cover of 'The concert for Bangla Desh' white?
Brilliant as always Andrew, concise and coherent as always! Would it be possible to have some solo Beatles vinyl videos too please. No doubt you have a copy Rotogravure with magnifying glass!
It's of course Beatles cassettes that educated me throughout my young life as to the likely timeline of EMI cassette styles. Like many, I spent all my teenage years thinking that the earliest EMI cassettes of any artist were the "all gold" style. I used to think an all-gold copy of Please Please Me was one that was actually manufactured in 1963! Of course this belief was corrected before not too long, especially having realised when 'direct print' ink on cassettes started (November 1977) and that what I thought were 60s copies were really late 70s or early 80s ones. It wasn't until 1993 when I discovered, languishing in a wire bin just inside the front door of "Records & Relics" in Blackpool, copies of Pepper and Oldies, in a style I wasn't familiar with, that I picked up for a quid each. I thought they were probably foreign copies or counterfeits. However a few years later I started to see other examples of the "white top" cassettes and reasoned they must have come before the gold ones because gold were all that had been seen afterwards until the XDR re-issues. Also I put two-and-two together with the label styles when I recollected the old Musicway cassettes my dad used to have in the 70s when I was small that had the same black shell, yellow labels and block-printed text. I particularly remembered the curvy, narrow number '2' on Side 2 and the 'single stilt' number 1 on Side 1 (but it was the shape of the 2 that intrigued me most). Of course throughout the 2000s I finally got to see nearly all of the white-top Beatles cassettes and in time got them all (except the White Album). I used to contribute to a website called "The Beatles UK Tape Cassettes" (since closed) to which I had previously promised any Beatles scans I could provide. Any non-Beatles ones (and eventually, Beatles 8-Tracks), I kept for my own website, "Soundhog" (since also closed). From that point on I began my hunt for as many early EMI cassettes as possible, both white-top and the hallowed "spot colour" 66-69 issues manufactured by Philips (all of which, I have found so far, have amazing sound quality). And once having a goodly selection of those, moving on to early Philips cassettes (which they made not just for EMI on their behalf but also for Pye, Reprise, Warner Brothers, plus their own range of labels like Fontana and Mercury - and more) for which I've managed to get quite a few firsts - and again, the sound quality of them is astonishing. One surprise that I discovered whilst undertaking all this collecting is that Pink Floyd's "Meddle", in its October 1971 cassette incarnation (white top) came in both Dolby and non-Dolby. Unusual for EMI at that time, as Dolby wasn't standard for their cassettes until August 1973.
My eye was immediately drawn to that Fotheringay cassette on the Island label. That has to be a real rarity, as it wasn’t exactly a huge seller on LP. A quick look at Discogs shows no record of one having been sold on that site… and none are currently available for sale either. Some of those late 60s and early 70s Island titles by Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, Sandy Denny, etc are among my personal favorites.
Great Video as always! Any plans to do a video on the Saudi import’747’ import cassettes? I picked up a lot of these during the 80’s on markets etc.. I know they’re not strictly official releases though
I have a rare cassette I bought in the early 2000s. It’s Elliott Smiths “Air Check”. It predates at least his self titled album.. I think they made 500? It’s mentioned it a biography I bought later but I can’t find any pricing information. Any insights?
I used to buy tapes back in the day. I still own plenty of them. I don't play them though. I switched to CD's many years ago. It's a matter of quality. Also the tape tends to get stuck in the mechanism or around the main rubber roller. The tape may be even destroyed or partially destroyed by the mechanism. You pay good money play the tape once and it happens. The good thing about the stardard cassette tape is, that it's analogue. In a CD player laser sometimes loses track, it's impossible to happen in a cassette player.
Dee-liteful! And always informative! I loved the Capitol cassettes. I did transfer them to cd years ago using a pro Tascam cassette deck and they transferred wonderfully. Will you do a show on them perchance?
@@Parlogram That makes sense, sorry. I wish i'd had the Parlophone issued cassettes. I'll check into those. I did have the Heineken Tape (maybe still). Thanks again for fun and informative shows. Brilliant.
So about this deck with dolbly system,I never put my hands yet.This system leave the sound of cassete tape more real with low noise?So I have some cassetes with me and give a good sound,but some tapes need a small opration for playing very well in tape deck.I used today cassete tape,after make it my recording in USB mode,pass for a cd recordable and after this for cassete tape and stayed very good the final reproduction it.So I prefer this last item,because stayed very for me ok.Uchino of Japan.Thank you.
I bought the Giles Martin White Album yesterday. I'm not a big critic or have any special system: Kilpsch speakers, Not bad made in China knock off 1200, Yamaha amp... Anyway, I also have an og with the numbers on the cover. So the new one is much like all the other recent record represses in my opinion... More bottom end punch and a little less mids. Maybe I'm wrong but that's what my 46 year old ears hear? Do they turn the mids down on purpose or is that because of the age of the masters (if they actually use the master tapes?). Anyway, pardon me if I sound like a newbie. I'm mostly just hear for the music but I am fascinated with the process of making and distributing it.
Its important to note that for dolby to function correctly the tape head must be aligned perfectly to the program, otherwise you will lose more of the top-end than originally intended, Hence why dolby almost always works better on home recorded tapes. This can be fixed by getting a tape deck with an adjustable playback azimuth knob, however i dont believe many decks were manufactured with that feature, I believe nakamichi only did 3?
I bought a Teac cassette deck with Dolby and pitch control in the '80s when I realized I had more than a few cassettes that ran too fast, making the voices sound unusually high pitched and the music tinny and low-fi.
My first complete collection was made of cassettes, including Beatles forever made by EMI Argentina, and an strange Live at Star Club 1962 Hamburg, not by EMI; and the complete recordings with Tony Sheridan, by Polydor if my memory doesn't fail.
About the cassette being more of a format to put music on than to buy prerecorded music, I think there's that very significant exception... Bargain bins! In fact, I have fond memories of getting (among tons of other stuff from other artists) both Goodnight Vienna and Somewhere In England on cassette for a couple of quid (or maybe slightly less) about 30 years ago, not bad in an era when cassettes still held a large part of the record market share. And more recently, like 10-15 years back, I would get tapes from thrift stores for as low as 30-50 cents.
Right. I found the Star Club, Decca audition, Pete Best and Tony Sheridan cassettes in the bargain bins at Woolworth's back in the 80s - all stuff I hadn't heard before.
When pre-recorded cassettes were done properly they were very good.A case in point is the Yardbirds 'Roger The Engineer' bought in 1983 as a double-play eg; both mono and stereo mixes on the Edsel label.I purchased it again on c.d in 1996 and was disappointed to hear a worse sounding album.Maybe the master tapes had deteriorated I just don't know.
Blimey, am binge watching your past videos to catch up. Another interesting video. I have a few Beatles cassettes and some solo projects from the boys as well. Vintage decks are worthy of a second chance, i have two Yamahas, a Technics and a Pioneer all awaiting a service/ refurb ( money is tight at present). *By the way, do you know if any Beatles or solo albums were done on Minidisc or DCC- that would be great. All the best.
Thanks for watching the videos, Nick. McCartney's 'Off The Ground' came out on Minidisc but there were never any official issues of Beatles albums on that or the DCC format.
I have always liked the sound of cassette. And dolby off sounded better for me with headphones on. And yes your description is on the money with that ethereal shimmer to the sound. Great. Andrew how do i sell my Red Parlophone 1962 Love Me Do on your Parlogram auctions site? I just don't know how and what i have to do to ensure it gets to you in good order and your know its mine and his i get paid. Cheers, Craig.
Here In the States, Capitol records dragged their feet on Dolby NR. In the 80s is when I noticed the Dolby logo but not till the 90s did they do any Beatles tapes with Dolby HXpro and clear shells. Thx!
The problem with Dolby on pre-recorded cassettes is that the pre-emphasis of high frequencies gets largely lost in high-speed duplication, something that the engineers of the time never did (and still now don't) admit. This means switching Dolby on, on a pre-recorded tape, is effectively playing a non-Dolby tape WITH Dolby which is why it sounds so dull and lifeless. Using Dolby on your own recordings works much better because nothing has degraded the pre-emphasis that your own deck recorded. No doubt enough remnants of the pre-emphasis could be detected at the factory on initial QA straight out of the duplicator, but it would be very weak and would fade fast. Incidentally the earliest EMI cassette with Dolby appears to be Pink Floyd's Meddle. It was issued as a white top cassette in November 1971 in both Dolby and "Standard" versions, almost TWO YEARS (2 months shy) before the standard adoption of Dolby by EMI.
I love cassettes I love having great blank cassette tapes I don’t like the 90 minute ones I much prefer the 120 minute cassette tapes especially ones like Maxell. I don’t like some of the stereo systems where the sound sounds like thunder I still love blanks that types I also enjoyed doing mixtapes of my own editing them and putting all the songs together.
Dude, the UK made all kinds of crazy releases! Are the copyright laws different in England and Germany and the rest of Europe? I know, dumb question. But it is fascinating. I suppose it's because you also have so many wonderful and beautiful countries all on the same continent practically Texas walking distance to each other! Anyway, your videos are really cool. Forget the 5th Beatle, your the 6th Beatles M8!
@@Parlogram I started listening to the Beatles in the late 70s when I was about 5 or 6. Introducing the Beatles was my first record. I was living on Long Island at the time so I'm sure it was a bootleg but who knows. Unfortunately I didn't treat records well at that age. My brothers had the Orange Capitol label White Album. And then my friend had this magical cassette with the Blue Album 1967 - 1970 compilation on it! I was probably about 7 and the music on that cassette was incredible! I wasn't yet into dabling in psychedelics at the age of 7 but my in my still developing mind and soul, it was incredible! I got that record shortly after and Friends, Family and my mom got me the rest of their records over the years. I was living in Amityville when John Lennon was shot. I want to say my brothers and their friends were watching his funeral or a vigil on TV? Maybe its a false memory. But I do remember a radio dj playing every Beatles song one night. Good stuff. Anyway, cheers
I don't know if it's Dolby but a lot of movies you buy first on tape then DVD it seems they make the high sounds louder and the low sounds lower. So when people are talking it's very hard to hear them and you have to raise the volume. Then the music or explosions kick in and it blows your ears out.
I love the sound of cassettes creating my own mixes which is great I much prefer cassette players that didn’t have that thunderous noise sound which I think made it worse because you didn’t hear the fade out clearly. I much prefer a cassette decks that don’t have that real thunderous noise of some kind but I do like that a piss and I also love listening to some cassettes which if you listen to some of them I think that they are they are the more you can hear the music backwards which is very fascinating I have to check out some Beatles cassette and solo work.
The only pre recorded cassete i bought back in the days was McCartneys Tripping The Live Fantastic Highlights cause it had much more songs than the LP version and I didnt have a CD player back then yet. Interesting about the A hard day's night german cassete. Does it sound better than the german LP? The german blue odeon i have sounds terrible, all muffled.
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Almost felt like we were heading for a Techmoan crossover at the start there!
Lol
My thoughts too Pete , it’s only a matter of time before the Frankenstein creation of a Techmoan/Parlogram monster is birthed for us to enjoy , oh man what a collab that would be.
Andy and Matt together in Electric Dreams
Well, they are brothers.
@@enricosanchez894 no they’re not.
@@BeAGoodDoga Brothers in sound, anyway.
Wow!! Very emotional video Andrew!
Cassettes are still in our hearts, for us guys of the pre-digital era...sigh!
Great job... Beatles for Ever!!!
Cheers!
Amazing Andrew! Dolby off makes it more alive. Wider, Clearer, Brighter. Made thousands of cassettecompilations for lovers and friends through the 80´s and 90´s always with a selfdesigned inlay. That shaped me into a top DJ and designer. Cheers!
Thousands of lovers... eek!
These videos paired with licensed Beatles sound would be Netflix series stream worthy. So so SO good. I don’t won’t to own any of these, but learning about them is just so great. Thank you again!
I record cassettes constantly, Andrew. When recording I always keep the Dolby B on. When playing back however, I treat both the Dolby switch and the tape selector switch (normal/chrome/metal) like tone controls. I set them to whatever position sounds best for me at the moment, especially when listening to the cassette deck through headphones. Having watched this video I realized that I do not have a Beatles cassette mixtape! I'm off now to fire up the cassette deck and make one.
Like you, I had very few pre-recorded cassettes in my collection. I also preferred making my own (and I, too, used to tape the Top 40 from the radio 😁). I never was a fan of Dolby NR either. My Dad had an equalizer that I would use for noise reduction. It is interesting that we've gone from "eliminate all noise" to "some noise is good." Fascinating video. Thanks!
Very enjoyable video! I collected cassettes back in the 1980s . My first copy of the white album was a double cassette. To this day, one of the best sounding Beatles cassettes I have heard was an early 1980s cassette of Please Please Me which I bought as an import. It did feature the Dolby noise reduction. I owned a Teac tape deck which did have Dolby function but I never played cassettes with it turned on because it made it sound dull and canned. Seeing you do that demonstration brought back memories of that! While I don’t think I will go back to collecting cassettes I did purchase Paul’s newest release on cassette in addition to CD and vinyl but the cassette was more of a novelty to me. Thanks again for sharing!
The best way to tell how the Dolby NR process is works is to compare the Dolby On/Off recordings to the original at the start of the video. The ON Dolby version keeps the bottom end of the original recording solid (with added tape compression) while losing some top end air that would have occupied the same frequencies as the tape hiss. The Dolby OFF version is a little bass shy compared to the original and has some additional sweeten top end not found on the original recording at the start.
This is because of how Dolby NR works. The principal of Dolby NR is to boost the top end frequencies onto the recording. When the tape is played back with Dolby NR on, not only will the Dolby NR bring down the frequencies hiss, but because the recorded music has been top end boosted, the added top end of the playback will be reduced to the same level as it was before being encoded. The idea being that playback is now “neutral”.
When a Dolby encoded cassette is played with Dolby NR, you will hear more treble than the original recording, because Dolby has given the recording a treble boost.
With a Dolby B encoded, its a choose your poison deal: ON - its overall closer to the original recording, but you lose top end sparkle. OFF - you have artificially added top end imprinted on the recording AND tape hiss. If tape hiss doesn’t bother you, just use good quality tapes and record with Dolby off.
When I got my first all-in-one stereo system in 1990, it had a Dolby B feature which I didn't know what it was. I soon realised that if I had it "on", the recordings sounded much more detailed when played back on portable cassette players or other players altogether! For many many years, I thought Dolby meant clearer recordings and I've recorded hundreds of cassettes that way!! Even today, 30 years later, they still sound terrific!!! Great video, as always!!!
P. S. German (Warner) cassettes from the late 80s - early 90s sound great, even with the Dolby on! Great Job those Germans!!!
Definitely more cymbal and high hat with the dolby off. The music seems to breathe more. The 12 string (I think?) Guitar definitely has more chime.
I only ever bought one cassette with Beatles music. And that was in 1976, a cheap anonymous cover versions one bought from a motorway service station on the M6, that I bought with my meagre pocket money. I don't have it now, but I think it might have been from Pickwick Records. I still remember the day, we were travelling from Bristol to Liverpool to see grandma, and my sister bought a similar cheap cassette with ABBA songs. And we were playing them on a mono battery operated cassette recorder, because the car didn't have a cassette player in it.
Great times, Michael.
@@Parlogram Yeh it was great times. :) Like I still remember in 1977 me and my sister borrowed the neighbour's Beatles Red and Blue double album records, and we recorded them onto C90 cassettes, using my dad's music centre.
"Only The Beatles" was the first album (compilation) I remember of The Beatles in my life, as my mother (whose beer of choice was Heineken) sent off for it. I was 6 years old but listening to it on holiday that year in 1986 brings back great memories. Especially the featuring of "This Boy" and Yes, It Is". It was probably the first time I had ever heard 3 part harmonies in pop music. To this day, I always see them as "twin" songs. Oh and also, you are totally right about Dolby. OK. It would cut off the hiss but made the top (especially the drums) sound lifeless.
Yeah... I always recorded with Dolby on, and then played with it off - made it come alive!
And I have a copy of that "Only The Beatles" tape too...sounds OK, but sometimes struggles to play through properly!
The Heineken tape was actually what led the Beatles to gain creative control with compilations
You nailed the Dolby conundrum right on the head. Record with it on, off for playback. It worked very well, until I found myself in a cassette recording marathon and realized that I didn't turn it back on to record. This would lead to wasted hours of dubbing time. CD dubbing removes that headache. Thanks for posting this.
I recall discovering the method of recording music with Dolby ‘on’ and then playing it back with Dolby ‘off’ and your demonstration here brought in all back. Some Labels started putting two back catalogue albums onto one cassette. Rock band ‘Rainbow’ did that and quite a few others too. Great for long car journeys but their was always a danger of the cassette getting chewed up. Not good if you were changing lanes on the motorway. A front passenger was helpful in such circumstances. I recall my friend’s Datsun 240Z which he had a graphic equalizer.. memories come flooding back!
Fantastic once again Andrew! Cassettes bring back so many memories for me too especially Beatles ones, many of my blank cassettes where made up of radio documentary's, In my life Lennon remembered, Mccartney on Mccartney, Beatles at the beeb and many more, now I've watched your video I'm going to have to dig them out. Superb Andrew and thanks for sharing....
Cheers Brian. Dig them out and have fun!
Interestingly, when the UK albums finally came out here stateside on tape, they used the dusty gold/brown covers for Please, Please Me through Revolver.
Great video!
I recall when Rush's Moving Picture first came out on cassette. They were trying to mimic the album format in a beautiful box. My regret is that I did not get a copy and save it for posterity...
I wish I had held on to my Beatles cassettes now - had Sgt Pepper, Hard Days Night, Rock and Roll, Blue album. Fond memories of playing them over and over. Great video Andrew, fascinating information about this format!
Thanks for watching, Stephen!
Your the ultimate pro Andrew. I remember playing my Beatles cassettes through Dolby B & C after a while I just left it off as they sounded brighter without it. Still have the same Denon deck.
I purchased a vintage french copy of "Ringo" on cassette for 50 cents the other day, and it's in good shape, it plays very well. The cassette is blue and there's an advertisement for (non music related) a primitive device of slides and matching audio cassettes inside, one of these experimental formats that never went anywhere. Very 1973! :)
As for cassingles, I'll never understand how France was so late on the format, as pre-recorded cassettes pf albums were a big market here too. They only appeared in the early 90s here and were, understandably, short-lived. I'm 100% they would have been successful had they been marketed in the 80s, the way they were in the US and the UK.
This Christmas I got Live At The BBC on cassette. Thanks for the great video!
Thanks for watching!
I never got on with cassettes but they were useful when I left home and to University. I always found that putting the Dolby on would muffle the sound. As for tapes being eaten. . . I obviously had a very hungry player!
Making compilation tapes was a fantastic way to spend a spare afternoon. As you said, a real art!
You mean "reel" art. Haha!
Tapes get eaten for 2 reasons. They've been played too much or the player hasn't been cleaned in a long time.
I need that Foxtrot cassette!!
Some fascinating releases there, cheers old chap.
That Heineken one was funny, and the ring pulls. Ah the good ole days when you could rip your skin off when quenching ones' thirst.
Lou Ottens was also part of the team at Philips that developed the compact disc.
My parents bought the Technics SC-2020D Package system in 1982 2 years before I came along
It has the
SL-D212 Direct drive Turn table (fitted with Technics EPC-U25 Cartridge)
SU-V16 Stereo Integrated Amplifier
RS-M16 Quartz Radio Tuner
and
RS-M16 Cassette Player (Something not included in the SD-2020 Package system only included in the D version of the box)
All stored in an SH-523 Audio rack and connected to SB-2020 Speakers
When my parents "Upgraded" to a smaller system that just did CD and Digital in the mid 2000's I got to take this off their hands and use it for all my music needs.
Great clip as usual! I prefered the non dolby version of the theme song. It had more clarity and almost has a beautiful harpsichord sound coming from the guitars.
Hi Andrew Heard the White Album on the issued double cassette first.Sure that all the fast forwarding and rewinding locating my favourite tracks hastened it's demise a few years on.Great Video again Ian
Great point, Ian. Thanks for watching.
I was waiting all day for this to be posted, and great video!
Hope you enjoyed it!
Wore out (from new) a 90s Sony deck that had Dolby B C & S, bias calibration, 3-motor transport, 3-head "playback during recording", tape time counter, just to name a few features...
With both Dolby settings, tape saturation made your theme sound much nicer coming from my phone.
I still make mix tapes. I use an Onkyo I bought brand new in 1998 and have babied all my life. The first Beatles solo album was George Harrison's Wonderwall Music in 1968. A full 2 years before Ringo.
Really enjoyed this video, I still collect cassettes and they may not be as hi-fi as vinyl, they are a lot warmer than some CDs I own. Keep up the good work.
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching.
I bought the 20th Anniversary 3X Cassette BoxSet Version of Derek And The Dominoes Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs last week and Oh My God it's sound is Astounding. Much Much Better, clearer brighter, Warner than ANY of the CDs. I don't know about any of the vinyl versions because I don't have them. But man is that cassette box good.
I spot king crimson!
Oh wow Andrew thank you so much for this awesome video.
I started buying blank cassette tapes I do not like the 90 minute ones because you don’t have any room to put more music on I still love doing mixed tapes and my own compilation that’s why I love the longer cut the text I recently bought the max sales 120 minute blank tapes
I loved hearing that will be sound switched off it sounds great.
I love all recorded formats 78 4533’s cassette tapes of yet to see and hear wax cylinders but I still love them.
I’ll be buying more because that type so I can get my own mixes including the Beatles.
I would also listen to cassettes with the music played forwards and backwards I still love listening to music backwards and forwards.
Hi Andrew, once again, this was another very interesting and informative video from you! Like you, I was more into vinyl over the years and never paid too much attention to pre-recorded tapes by the Beatles. I also was more or less a mixed tape maker during the late 70's and early to late 80''s. So , with a history like this, pre-recorded Beatles cassettes from Germany only recently cought my interest, because I found out, unlike with the U.K. or the tapes from the U.S. , there isn't very much information about them to be found anywhere on the net. About a year and a half I began to make a collection of mostly german made early Beatles cassettes, beginning with the first two ever to be released over here back by EMI back in 1969, which were "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" on the Hör Zu label (cat. # 89 077) & "Abbey Road" on Apple (cat. # 89 101) inside a grey/white cassette shell and with orange paper labels, housed in standard black and clear Norelco plastic boxes. Although they are both now over 50 years old, they still sound superb and pristine like new, with just very little tape hiss, that adds to their charming character. Even though most of them were manufactured without DOLBY B, most of the german cassette tapes from the late 60's and the first half of the 70's all sound great. I now have most of the first releases together, including the the two bookclub releases you've shown. The only thing that has to be fixed from time to time are the missing or damaged pressure felt-pads of the cassettes.
I’m your age Andrew but unlike you, I only bought vinyl in the 70s abs 80s, but like you made loads of mix tapes of which 90% were Beatles. It was great fun trying to fit everything onto the cassette to time nicely with the end of the tape and not cut short or have too much empty tape. I used a music centre which always made the first second extra load, which was usually the vinyl noise. I bought another from my uncle only to discover it played cassettes a boy too slow which meant cassettes recorded on it played back a bit too fast in the car. One of the reasons we never bought pre recorded cassettes was the car: if you left one in the car the heat and moisture killed it. Much better to buy vinyl and copy it to cassette.
My grandfather used to own a cassette manufacturing facility. He manufactured cassette shells to ship to EMI. I have lots of brand new cassettes from EMI in storage, including plenty of Beatles ones.
I'd be love to hear more about that. Please email me if you'd like to tell me: andrew@parlogramauctions.com
@@Parlogram ok, i wrote you an email
Great video; hugely informative as usual. Like you I was a vinyl fan and rarely bought pre-recorded cassettes, but often made mixtapes for myself and others, etc. I only moved to Cd in 1993. Although no expert, I suspect the key variables for superior sounding German and Dutch tapes was probably higher quality tape. There was a story, possibly an urban myth, that pre-recorded tapes often used low grade, recycled computer tape. They looked pale brown I remember that, and nothing like the high quality chrome tapes that could be bought. EMI may have used low grade source material in their copying factory. Who knows?
Fantastic video, and thanks for making it! I've got myself a smashing Gold Inlay Beatle cassette collection and often enjoy listening to them (including their strange running orders) via my high quality digital transfers. Take care and all the best from the UK.
Good to hear you're still enjoying your cassettes. Those early gold ones have a special sound. Thanks for watching & all the best from Austria!
9:00 I’d love to get a hold of that Geordie cassette! Their first album is their best!
As a BX-300 owner I waa pleased to see that was your deck of choice. In addition to the idler tyre, keep an eye on the back tension belt on the supply reel. If that goes, it will eat tapes. However if you want to see what this deck will do, record some tapes in it.
Thanks for the tips, Kevin.
Thanks for another great video (yeah, I know I'm a year late to the party...). Listening to the Dolby on/off demo through my old and admittedly damaged hearing I found that turning off the noise reduction made the bass very slightly muddier and the highs "bigger" (if that makes sense). So little, though, that I probably wouldn't have noticed if I weren't actually listening for it.
I have managed to gather all the first UK Beatles cassette prints, including the white album (impossible to find) as well as the first Beatles cassette released in the UK (Sgt. Pepper green label) which incredibly includes an advertising brochure. After in perfect condition. Very proud... 😊
Congratulations, Juan Luis!
Yeah, really interesting, Andrew. Absolutely, re making a compilation for someone you liked and wanted to impress.
I too have recently become interested in tapes again. I never bought pre recorded much. Only if I wanted something to play in the car while on holiday somewhere and couldn't do my own tape version. Tape stretch was my biggest irritation with pre rec tapes. I usually bought tapes for recording my own music on 4 track recorders like Tascams Porta 1&2 or 244 machines.
TDK SA90 being my default cassette of choice.
New Type IV tapes, especially the best quality ones, are fetching very high prices. In the hundreds of dollars for TDK MA-R, MA-XG and Metal Masters from Sony. Kinda crazy given they were mass produced for only a few dollars back in the day!
Anyway, I'm really just collecting a few still in their wrappers for the fun of it, not so much for recording onto.
Re play back machines...the Teac's aren't too bad. After trying to pick up a reasonably priced second hand machine for my aging mother, so she could hear her music, I gave up after 4 duds arrived. As you said, often the descriptions on auction sites leave a lot to be desired re their truthfulness. Repairing can be more costly than it's worth.
She bought one (Teac W1200) and is very happy with it. At the very least it is reliable, and sounds fine to her ears.
I'm feeling that I'm near the end of my Beatles vinyl collecting journey, so tapes could be something to get enthusiastic about. I like finding rare suff from 80's bands that only made a few hundred/thousand copies.
Tapes... could be the next format revival. This will never happen with streaming.
Tapes are back.
I have some of the later US Dolby XDR Beatles tapes with the UK versions and they sound really good.
HI Andrew, in the early 2000s, I owned a high speed audio cassette manufacturing plant in Sydney, we had the contract for the background store music for most of the retail chains in Aust. Every Friday we delivered 6500+ music cassettes to a mailing house. We only used German BASF cassette tape, it never varied in quality, shipment to shipment. We didn’t master with Dolby B because the music was played through the store roof speakers, but for albums we did. Today all the stores music comes via a satellite dish on the store roof.
In your demo I Iiked the Dolby B on, for me, the off version plays overdone high frequencies, eg: the splash in the end cymbal. Not saying yours are, but I know worn cassette heads can mis-track Dolby B.
Great story, Allan, Many thanks for sharing it.
Wow that's an amazing cassette collection. Lots of stuff from the collectable pink Island years and the progressive subsidiary labels - even rarer to find in cassette format!
Thanks for the video! I got back into tape when Paul released Egypt Station in the format in 2018.. and then proceeded to collect his entire catalog on cassette (US/UK/CA releases). The only studio album not to be released on tape is 2013's 'NEW" as far as I can tell. The major labels stopped releasing on tape in 2003 in the US/UK but EMI continued to release albums on cassette at least until 2007 in some Asian countries and Russia. I have a (long sought after) copy of that OG 1970 UK 'McCarney' tape, yet mine was manufactured in the USA (printed in England) and has an open, single window. After buying a lot of the UK tapes in large lots, sometimes to get an elusive tape, I wound up with a lot of duplicates. From 1970 to 1976 (basically the paper label era) the actual cassettes themselves could be either tan, black or white with three different window configurations and sometimes different typeset on the labels themselves. Trying to figure out what was what and what was released when has been a bit of an adventure. Does anyone know if 'Wild Life' was re-released in the UK with the dusky gold J-card?
Thanks for your comments. 'Wild Life' was re-released with the gold J-card in 1976.
@@Parlogram Thanks for confirming that - I'll be on the lookout!
Another very interesting and informative video and well produced-Thanks for posting- Salute !
Glad you enjoyed it, Giovanni. Thank again for watching!
At 0.07 seconds - George Harrison's " All Things Must Pass ". We got that on pre-recorded cassette in 1975. I got to playing both cassettes quite often. That image of it there looks exactly like it. I quite liked that triple album. And next to it is McCartney's " Red Rose Speedway. . I bought that on vinyl the year before that for $ 6.25 Australian. I held that for 4 years, played it a few times, before trading it off to a kid in my year seriously wanting that. Whilst not regretting that at all, its probably worth 50 bucks or more now with the glossy lift out and all, but I'm not into the market thing.
Always great stuff Andrew! Best from another Andrew in Japan!
Thanks Tyrone, glad you enjoyed it!
Fascinating as always, Andrew. Always excited to see a new video from you. Maybe a video on the Beatles on 8-Track might be forthcoming? ;) I used to have the red and blue albums on 8-Track. While they can sound good, I found you really needed a lot of stars to align for that to happen, so I no longer have 8-Tracks.
Thanks for watching, Matt. I don't have any 8-tracks and don't have any plans to go there.
@@Parlogram Fair enough...they are a very niche format nowadays anyway! And in the UK at lease, they were never that popular to begin with.
Very interesting video. Congrats Andrew.
Many thanks, Miguel.
Nice Nakamichi Cassette Player. So hard to believe that the Teac Deck available for around £400.00 new uses the same cheap mechanism as all other new players. Thankfully, I have a Technics from around 91/92 that works fine. Never used Dolby because of the dullness. Loved making compilations in the day. Remember the slogan "Home Taping is Killing Music".
I am really enjoying these videos keep them up!
Thanks, will do!
I remember buying John and Yoko, s STINYC on double cass in the early 70s(. Playing it on a mono Record /Play little Sony beast) After the last track had finished, faintly in the background I could here some The Supremes songs! All so was the original cass cover of 'The concert for Bangla Desh' white?
Brilliant as always Andrew, concise and coherent as always! Would it be possible to have some solo Beatles vinyl videos too please. No doubt you have a copy Rotogravure with magnifying glass!
Thanks Robin. I will eventually get around to some videos on the solo vinyl.
It's of course Beatles cassettes that educated me throughout my young life as to the likely timeline of EMI cassette styles. Like many, I spent all my teenage years thinking that the earliest EMI cassettes of any artist were the "all gold" style. I used to think an all-gold copy of Please Please Me was one that was actually manufactured in 1963! Of course this belief was corrected before not too long, especially having realised when 'direct print' ink on cassettes started (November 1977) and that what I thought were 60s copies were really late 70s or early 80s ones. It wasn't until 1993 when I discovered, languishing in a wire bin just inside the front door of "Records & Relics" in Blackpool, copies of Pepper and Oldies, in a style I wasn't familiar with, that I picked up for a quid each. I thought they were probably foreign copies or counterfeits. However a few years later I started to see other examples of the "white top" cassettes and reasoned they must have come before the gold ones because gold were all that had been seen afterwards until the XDR re-issues. Also I put two-and-two together with the label styles when I recollected the old Musicway cassettes my dad used to have in the 70s when I was small that had the same black shell, yellow labels and block-printed text. I particularly remembered the curvy, narrow number '2' on Side 2 and the 'single stilt' number 1 on Side 1 (but it was the shape of the 2 that intrigued me most). Of course throughout the 2000s I finally got to see nearly all of the white-top Beatles cassettes and in time got them all (except the White Album). I used to contribute to a website called "The Beatles UK Tape Cassettes" (since closed) to which I had previously promised any Beatles scans I could provide. Any non-Beatles ones (and eventually, Beatles 8-Tracks), I kept for my own website, "Soundhog" (since also closed).
From that point on I began my hunt for as many early EMI cassettes as possible, both white-top and the hallowed "spot colour" 66-69 issues manufactured by Philips (all of which, I have found so far, have amazing sound quality). And once having a goodly selection of those, moving on to early Philips cassettes (which they made not just for EMI on their behalf but also for Pye, Reprise, Warner Brothers, plus their own range of labels like Fontana and Mercury - and more) for which I've managed to get quite a few firsts - and again, the sound quality of them is astonishing.
One surprise that I discovered whilst undertaking all this collecting is that Pink Floyd's "Meddle", in its October 1971 cassette incarnation (white top) came in both Dolby and non-Dolby. Unusual for EMI at that time, as Dolby wasn't standard for their cassettes until August 1973.
I really enjoyed your 'Soundhog' site, Mark. I'm sorry it has closed. Any chance of doing another one?
My eye was immediately drawn to that Fotheringay cassette on the Island label. That has to be a real rarity, as it wasn’t exactly a huge seller on LP. A quick look at Discogs shows no record of one having been sold on that site… and none are currently available for sale either. Some of those late 60s and early 70s Island titles by Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, Sandy Denny, etc are among my personal favorites.
Amazing investigation job as always my friend! Cheers from Mexico City 🇲🇽
Thanks Paul. All the best from Austria!
Great Video as always! Any plans to do a video on the Saudi import’747’ import cassettes? I picked up a lot of these during the 80’s on markets etc.. I know they’re not strictly official releases though
I have a rare cassette I bought in the early 2000s. It’s Elliott Smiths “Air Check”. It predates at least his self titled album.. I think they made 500? It’s mentioned it a biography I bought later but I can’t find any pricing information. Any insights?
Great video as always! Keep it up
Thanks! Will do!
In New Zealand in the 1980's pre- recorded cassettes were considerably cheaper than vinyl records
Thanks Andrew, very informative as ever. Anybody know anything about the withdrawn Mccartney cassette single pretty little head?
I used to buy tapes back in the day. I still own plenty of them. I don't play them though. I switched to CD's many years ago. It's a matter of quality. Also the tape tends to get stuck in the mechanism or around the main rubber roller. The tape may be even destroyed or partially destroyed by the mechanism. You pay good money play the tape once and it happens. The good thing about the stardard cassette tape is, that it's analogue. In a CD player laser sometimes loses track, it's impossible to happen in a cassette player.
Nice, High Llamas tape!
Dee-liteful! And always informative!
I loved the Capitol cassettes. I did transfer them to cd years ago using a pro Tascam cassette deck and they transferred wonderfully. Will you do a show on them perchance?
Thanks again for watching. I'm unlikely to do the U.S. cassettes as I don't have any.
@@Parlogram That makes sense, sorry. I wish i'd had the Parlophone issued cassettes. I'll check into those. I did have the Heineken Tape (maybe still). Thanks again for fun and informative shows. Brilliant.
I used to playback with the Dolby off and turn the treble down or use a graphic equaliser on it.
So about this deck with dolbly system,I never put my hands yet.This system leave the sound of cassete tape more real with low noise?So I have some cassetes with me and give a good sound,but some tapes need a small opration for playing very well in tape deck.I used today cassete tape,after make it my recording in USB mode,pass for a cd recordable and after this for cassete tape and stayed very good the final reproduction it.So I prefer this last item,because stayed very for me ok.Uchino of Japan.Thank you.
I bought the Giles Martin White Album yesterday. I'm not a big critic or have any special system: Kilpsch speakers, Not bad made in China knock off 1200, Yamaha amp... Anyway, I also have an og with the numbers on the cover. So the new one is much like all the other recent record represses in my opinion... More bottom end punch and a little less mids. Maybe I'm wrong but that's what my 46 year old ears hear? Do they turn the mids down on purpose or is that because of the age of the masters (if they actually use the master tapes?). Anyway, pardon me if I sound like a newbie. I'm mostly just hear for the music but I am fascinated with the process of making and distributing it.
17:08 Oh my, I have that exact Dutch (EMI Uden) 1962-1966 tape, and would you know that, I trash picked it a couple of years (or three) ago!
Its important to note that for dolby to function correctly the tape head must be aligned perfectly to the program, otherwise you will lose more of the top-end than originally intended, Hence why dolby almost always works better on home recorded tapes. This can be fixed by getting a tape deck with an adjustable playback azimuth knob, however i dont believe many decks were manufactured with that feature, I believe nakamichi only did 3?
Nice selection of rare prog on tape,,Hmm any hawkwind ?
I bought a Teac cassette deck with Dolby and pitch control in the '80s when I realized I had more than a few cassettes that ran too fast, making the voices sound unusually high pitched and the music tinny and low-fi.
Dolby off is my preference. I have some old 8 track Beatles in my garage. Can't remember how they sounded now and don't have a player anymore.
My first complete collection was made of cassettes, including Beatles forever made by EMI Argentina, and an strange Live at Star Club 1962 Hamburg, not by EMI; and the complete recordings with Tony Sheridan, by Polydor if my memory doesn't fail.
About the cassette being more of a format to put music on than to buy prerecorded music, I think there's that very significant exception... Bargain bins! In fact, I have fond memories of getting (among tons of other stuff from other artists) both Goodnight Vienna and Somewhere In England on cassette for a couple of quid (or maybe slightly less) about 30 years ago, not bad in an era when cassettes still held a large part of the record market share. And more recently, like 10-15 years back, I would get tapes from thrift stores for as low as 30-50 cents.
Right. I found the Star Club, Decca audition, Pete Best and Tony Sheridan cassettes in the bargain bins at Woolworth's back in the 80s - all stuff I hadn't heard before.
The drums sound better with Dolby off. Also, I need that Heineken promo cassette!
When pre-recorded cassettes were done properly they were very good.A case in point is the Yardbirds 'Roger The Engineer' bought in 1983 as a double-play eg; both mono and stereo mixes on the Edsel label.I purchased it again on c.d in 1996 and was disappointed to hear a worse sounding album.Maybe the master tapes had deteriorated I just don't know.
Blimey, am binge watching your past videos to catch up. Another interesting video. I have a few Beatles cassettes and some solo projects from the boys as well. Vintage decks are worthy of a second chance, i have two Yamahas, a Technics and a Pioneer all awaiting a service/ refurb ( money is tight at present). *By the way, do you know if any Beatles or solo albums were done on Minidisc or DCC- that would be great. All the best.
Thanks for watching the videos, Nick. McCartney's 'Off The Ground' came out on Minidisc but there were never any official issues of Beatles albums on that or the DCC format.
@@Parlogram - many thanks for the info. Will await 8-tracks Part 2 with interest.
I have always liked the sound of cassette. And dolby off sounded better for me with headphones on. And yes your description is on the money with that ethereal shimmer to the sound. Great. Andrew how do i sell my Red Parlophone 1962 Love Me Do on your Parlogram auctions site? I just don't know how and what i have to do to ensure it gets to you in good order and your know its mine and his i get paid. Cheers, Craig.
Here In the States, Capitol records dragged their feet on Dolby NR. In the 80s is when I noticed the Dolby logo but not till the 90s did they do any Beatles tapes with Dolby HXpro and clear shells. Thx!
I always had my Cassette player Dolby turned off during play back too. It had much better high treble.
That dragon was a super bargain
The problem with Dolby on pre-recorded cassettes is that the pre-emphasis of high frequencies gets largely lost in high-speed duplication, something that the engineers of the time never did (and still now don't) admit. This means switching Dolby on, on a pre-recorded tape, is effectively playing a non-Dolby tape WITH Dolby which is why it sounds so dull and lifeless. Using Dolby on your own recordings works much better because nothing has degraded the pre-emphasis that your own deck recorded.
No doubt enough remnants of the pre-emphasis could be detected at the factory on initial QA straight out of the duplicator, but it would be very weak and would fade fast.
Incidentally the earliest EMI cassette with Dolby appears to be Pink Floyd's Meddle. It was issued as a white top cassette in November 1971 in both Dolby and "Standard" versions, almost TWO YEARS (2 months shy) before the standard adoption of Dolby by EMI.
i can definitely hear the difference, even at 480p
I love your channel! Just found out about it. Subbed.
Welcome aboard!
Wasn’t the first solo Beatles album wonderwall music by George?
What about Paul's soundtrack to 'The Family Way'? Neither that or 'Wonderwall' came out on cassette.
Crazy I'd never seen a lot of these 🤪
I love cassettes I love having great blank cassette tapes I don’t like the 90 minute ones I much prefer the 120 minute cassette tapes especially ones like Maxell.
I don’t like some of the stereo systems where the sound sounds like thunder I still love blanks that types I also enjoyed doing mixtapes of my own editing them and putting all the songs together.
Dude, the UK made all kinds of crazy releases! Are the copyright laws different in England and Germany and the rest of Europe? I know, dumb question. But it is fascinating. I suppose it's because you also have so many wonderful and beautiful countries all on the same continent practically Texas walking distance to each other! Anyway, your videos are really cool. Forget the 5th Beatle, your the 6th Beatles M8!
Erik, Every country had different arrangement back then - very different to now. Thanks for watching!
@@Parlogram I started listening to the Beatles in the late 70s when I was about 5 or 6. Introducing the Beatles was my first record. I was living on Long Island at the time so I'm sure it was a bootleg but who knows. Unfortunately I didn't treat records well at that age. My brothers had the Orange Capitol label White Album. And then my friend had this magical cassette with the Blue Album 1967 - 1970 compilation on it! I was probably about 7 and the music on that cassette was incredible! I wasn't yet into dabling in psychedelics at the age of 7 but my in my still developing mind and soul, it was incredible! I got that record shortly after and Friends, Family and my mom got me the rest of their records over the years. I was living in Amityville when John Lennon was shot. I want to say my brothers and their friends were watching his funeral or a vigil on TV? Maybe its a false memory. But I do remember a radio dj playing every Beatles song one night. Good stuff. Anyway, cheers
I don't know if it's Dolby but a lot of movies you buy first on tape then DVD it seems they make the high sounds louder and the low sounds lower. So when people are talking it's very hard to hear them and you have to raise the volume. Then the music or explosions kick in and it blows your ears out.
I like it sounds good on the music
TOP Episode 👍🎶
Thank you!
I love the sound of cassettes creating my own mixes which is great
I much prefer cassette players that didn’t have that thunderous noise sound which I think made it worse because you didn’t hear the fade out clearly.
I much prefer a cassette decks that don’t have that real thunderous noise of some kind but I do like that a piss and I also love listening to some cassettes which if you listen to some of them I think that they are they are the more you can hear the music backwards which is very fascinating I have to check out some Beatles cassette and solo work.
would be great to hear your experience about Laser Discs videos. thanks
I've never heard any.
@@Parlogram i have 4 so i thought you might as well. Will you be doing any Beatles Singles analysis?
I made a tape: Hardline double eclipse on a metal tape
The only pre recorded cassete i bought back in the days was McCartneys Tripping The Live Fantastic Highlights cause it had much more songs than the LP version and I didnt have a CD player back then yet.
Interesting about the A hard day's night german cassete. Does it sound better than the german LP? The german blue odeon i have sounds terrible, all muffled.
To me, the German cassette does sound better than that German blue labelled pressing.