Mine only has NR encoding “in/out.” If I have the NR set to “out” while recording, it’s all messed up. Not sure if that might be an issue for you as well.
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Hmm, I’ll try that.
Sorry, I know this isn’t a lofi house thread, but this is the last of my archived b-sides remixed to tape project, and I just wanted to share some thoughts about it.
It can be pretty challenging to mix for tape, but also really fun and rewarding. When you overload tape (not the inputs necessarily), the frequency response seems to change a bit and areas without much frequency conflicts can be really open with unexpected volume changes. Little tweaks and lots of re-recording can get it just right.
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Hey man!
I’m really looking forward to listening to this! Thank you for sharing it here. You are right, this isn’t a thread to promote our own music so I liked what you said about the processes. I too have been thinking the same thing about sharing processes and the music printed to our beloved cassette.
I think a new thread sharing music put on tape, processes we’ve gone through, and also and open place for people to expand there awareness of this format. I will start a new thread dedicated to this so there isn’t any overlap. While the ‘our music’ thread is great, I like many others, are particularly interested in music printed to tape. How the music sounds and the processes we go through would be better suited to a new thread. I will endeavour to make little to no overlap for this thread and a new thread.
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Yes! 
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Some good stuff up in here!!!
Hey there folks ! There is a new cassette available from my label Concrete Collage. Proper mind bending mix of Braindance / Synthwave / Space Disco :
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Believe it or not, if it were not for some online lunatic, corrupt cops, solicitors, and judges screwing up my life, there would be a very fine 3-Head Cassette Deck on the market soon, if not already.
I spent over five years developing one, taking quality, proven designs and making my own adjustments in areas I thought could be done better. The whole machine (not just the front panel) was to be CNC cut, literally, every part of it right from transport to the chassis to every single panel front, back, top, bottom and sides.
I used Open Source software for everything from PCB work, right up to exterior design work and renderings of the finished product (which were done in blender). At the time things really took a turn, I was in the middle of designing a new transport, something that would sound particularly gorgeous when the logic triggered the solenoids. I lost everything, or at least as far as I’m aware, I’m still in a battle to try and retrieve my stuff.
It’s a small world, too, very small. He’s not aware of it since I’ve not contacted him yet, but I live just a couple of streets away from Tony of cassettecomeback.com Being a tape worshipper, I have a very interesting tape-based machine I want to lend him for a video. I’m guessing his viewers would either throw something at the screen or break-down in nostalgic tears if they saw it 
I’m also guessing he’d have a proverbial fit as well if he knew that a new 3-Head deck failed to hit the market for the reasons it did. But yeah, my life’s in quite a mess right now which is why I’ve not invited him round yet. When I do though, he’s more than welcome to borrow the 80s relic I have here and make a video about it, that should be fun!
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Would @HisMostDarxxxellent and anyone else mind to give any tips on setting up a cassette label? Any recommended decks for duplication? Any other considerations (special mastering I guess?)?
What! Are you under legal restrictions to say anything more?
Does anyone have any experience with the quality or worth of some of the new cassette decks on sale currently, such as TEAC W1200? My NAD 6325, which I have loved for years has died on me and it’s not worth the effort to repair I suspect.
I sense from ebay sales that most units on offer are either knackered or on their last legs: rubber perishes after all! And most are now knocking on 30 years+. I’ve got a stack of old tapes that don’t get listened to that often but it would be sad not to have a machine when the urge takes to listen to some 1990 jungle bootlegs.
Depending on your tape type you technically should master a bit differently, I would say just go for music grade type 1 these days, its still being made and sounds very nice. I generally just trial and error EQ settings until I get something that feels right (type 1 tends to cut highs especially if using noise reduction), you can also drive the signal a bit harder and get some tape compression if you are looking to have the tapes give a different experience than the digital, I personally think driving type 1 sounds quite nice. Quality wise it is usually best to record off of a digital master as well.
As far as a decent deck for duplication I would recommend just any three head deck will likely do, most likely a single cassette deck, as many of the double units are of poor quality. You can also take a look at the manual and go for one with very little wow/flutter. Actual duplication units are usually of really poor quality and realtime duplication on a decent deck will be your best bet. Pretty much anything you get that hasn’t been serviced will need service so that is good to keep in mind. No need to worry about feature that deal with type 3 or 4 unless you are wanted to recording things for your own listening pleasure.
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Sadly all new decks are pretty terrible, they basically all use components from the cheapest voice memo recorders as those are the only tape heads that continued to be made through out the years. Might be worth trying to learn to fix your NAD yourself, its generally just the belts that go first and that is an easy cheap repair. I would question how worth it, it is to bring to bring any deck that isn’t a 3 head into a repair shop though.
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Thanks a lot for that. It’s something I’ve had in mind for years, but still in the early planning stage. Any brands / models of tape deck to look out for? And any favoured cassette sources in the EU? Cheers.
Nakamichi are kind of the gold standard, but you could also keep your eyes peeled for some of the akai units, marantz, tascam, denon but yeah 3 head is mostly what you want to focus on.
Edit
@kairos as far as suppliers go I’ve only used a few in North America, duplication.ca is what I use to get the stickers for printing and blank tapes cut to length. But I’m sure there are equivalents in Europe.
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Sadly, that’s as I thought. Such a gamble on old machines, I’ll keep looking, but so is everyone else. There are more faulty or “Looks OK, but not tested” listings than working ones.
They go for silly money too.
I’ve actually had a go at repair, thinking it was the belt but it sounds mechanical.
Belts are mechanical.
Hens’ teeth springs to mind. Unless you have one down the back of your sofa that you’re wining to sell? 