For some time now I have heard people talking about type 0 blank cassettes. What exactly are these?
Of course, I always knew about type 1 tapes (normal bias), type II (chrome) and type 4 (metal). But I wasn't exactly sure what type 0 meant. Was this a term that referred to all those super cheap, ultra poor quality tapes that used to be so common back in the day?
In this video, I take a close look at type 0 cassettes, and what exactly the term means. I am sure many of the low quality tapes that I used in my childhood could probably be referred to as type 0.
As I mention in the video, when I was a kid I had very little money, so all that I could afford were super cheap and very poor quality blank tapes. These cassettes were manufactured by companies with names like Protek, Recoton, Cycles, Compucassette, Audio Magnetics, and many others. I still have many of these old tapes. Funny enough, many of them have actually held up quite well, and still sound pretty good, considering they were recorded 40 years ago!
Of course, it goes without saying that many of these cheap type 0 cassettes may be okay for voice recordings, or recording stuff off the radio, but f you want to make any recordings that sound the slightest bit decent, I would certainly avoid them and use chrome tapes.
Did you buy these cheap tapes back in the day? What did you think of them? Have you recently spotted any three packs of blank tapes for sale? Did you have a brand that you frequently bought back in the day? Feel free to leave a comment!
On this channel I post videos relating to retro and vintage technology. Things like cassettes, CDs, old cameras, laser disc, radios, TVs, DVDs, vinyl, VCRs, home recording gear, microphones, mixers, synthesizers, drum machines, video games, and so much more. If this is your thing, please subscribe!