Lmst

Composition with a cheap direct box which failed horribly in a very short time and a roll of Rosin core solder, deliberately set close to an ancient betamax video recorder.

#Photography #monochromatic #monochrome #Sepia #under_exposure #directBox #XLR #Jack

The photograph composed in medium darkness shows a close-up view of a piece of audio equipment, likely a tape recorder or a similar device. The central focus is a spool of Rosin core solder, which is mounted on a black base, a dual channel direct box with white markings and labels. The spool of solder is labeled with "Chemtronics Inc." and "Made in USA," indicating the manufacturer and origin. The base has various labels and symbols, including "GROUND BALANCED IN/OUT," "ATT," "PARPOUT," and "INPUT," along with a diagram illustrating the connections. The box also features a "50Ω" label, indicating the impedance level. Surrounding the direct box are control buttons and switches, including "F FWD," "STOP," "STILL," "DEW," "POWER," and "TAPE SPEED," suggesting the betamax recording device's functionality for controlling tape playback and recording. The overall color scheme is a sepia tone, giving the photograph a gorgeous vintage appearance.

Ovis2-8B

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@dryak @argv_minus_one @Timpostma

Yes I've seen that horrible concoction where they put + 5 volts somewhere that you can't protect your equipment if you don't know about that

It's not like 48V phantom power on PA & studio 🎙️ hardware, which does nothing to your equipment if it is wired properly

However this is not the case with all PC sound cards
The ones that I used, only have tip sleeve for the mic input, but I made sure that they were wired that way. I could never use those by the way, an XLR microphone just sounds way better, the balanced input is key here

#RetroComputing #RetroAudio #Audio #AnalogTape #demagnetizer #directBox #CompactCassette #TDK #HighBias #Metallica #MasterOfPuppets

@dryak @argv_minus_one

You have pointed it out correctly, the regular XLR microphone input on a mixing console, has a different level of voltage and current in mili amperes, that it expects, than the line level output of a cassette deck
You have to match those with a direct box.

With home equipment it's also not feasible to use the microphone input of a sound card, which is just tip sleeve, thus unbalanced, and sent the high level line output of a cassette deck to it; you would get extreme levels of distortion.

With professional audio, you always have to match the input levels of the channel strip, with the output levels of the device. With home audio you still have to match the input levels of your recorder with the output levels of your device.

For the best results you still have to get a digitizer which is properly matched with its input levels towards the output levels of the tape deck.

@Timpostma

#RetroComputing #RetroAudio #Audio #AnalogTape #demagnetizer #directBox #CompactCassette #TDK #HighBias #Metallica #MasterOfPuppets

A Couple of hours ago somebody asked me how you would go about digitizing a cassette tape.

In the short run it's simple if you are Sound Engineer like me:

* you take a Dual Channel passive direct-box
* you take an output cable which goes from RCA to quarter inch plugs
* you insert those in the direct box
* you pull two XLR cables to your mixing console

From your mixing console you send the analog audio from the subgroups outputs to one of your many digitizers and you're done.

For a home user there's a challenge; the home user first needs to get a working cassette deck, most Engineers who have been in the profession for years have at least one or two of them. Some Engineers even still have Quarter inch tape decks in running condition.

So the home user will need to buy a brand new cassette deck which has a USB output which is in fact a built-in simple digitizer.

I have a check for those, because I do not wish to play my retro cassettes again, even though they are in perfect condition. Compact cassette always sounded low quality to me.

So in conclusion, you need a running cassette deck with demagnetized Heads, new belts, a pre amp and a digitizer, then you can digitize your analog cassette tape

#RetroComputing #RetroAudio #Audio #AnalogTape #demagnetizer #directBox #CompactCassette #TDK #HighBias #Metallica #MasterOfPuppets