![]() The song is "Luma - The M Machine", right past the 1:24 mark you get that super textured synthetic sound, that is one good example of something that will need some under bias to match it on cassette, nowhere near the under bias that would be required for white noise though. I have a good example any of you can test that is an extreme example and how I discovered this, and after discovering I thought back to the white noise and it all made sense to me. I have discovered that some electric music with a lot of high frequencies and textured gritty sound requires you to under bias a little if you want it to sound faithful to the source. But try it with white noise and you will notice it will not, that is unless you under bias (massively, way more than you'd want for any music), which will make most music sound way too bright and distorted. Getting the 1khz and 10khz tone volumes to match at -20db gives a nice flat frequency response which is what I want most of the time, pink noise for example will sound identical to the source, no perceivable difference at all. Not as quick as a three head deck, but still pretty quick. Using this method of outputting from the phone to the deck, then deck to the computer allows me to make adjustments to the bias quickly. The computer gives a far more precise volume comparison as the meters aren't precise enough. Still using the phone to output I record a 1khz tone, then switch to a 10khz, I will then rewind the tape and play that recording into my computer. First I set a 1khz sinewave coming from the phone to the deck and adjust the record volume on the deck down to -20db. ![]() My phone has WAV files with the tones I put on it for this purpose, and I use it to as my output device while adjusting the bias. I adjust bias (I only have two head decks) internally. My post was pretty long, I will try to clarify and explain my methods in better detail. ![]() I type long posts, and here comes another, lol.įirst off, I just mean the the record volume knob, the adjustment on the outside, not the internal gain adjustment. Lower frequencies just saturate tape easier I guess. ![]() Some music will happily hit 0db during recording when you adjusted 400hz at 0db, even if that song is quieter in the digital source compared to something that doesn't never hits 0db. I guess similar to how you'd have to massively under bias to duplicate white noise, certain music (particularly a lot of gritty electric sound) requires you to under bias if you don't want it sounding dull.Īnyway, my question is, is it good practice to just continue setting the recording levels at 0db using the 400hz sinewave or would it make more sense to adjust the recording level to the actual music? I'm curious because when I adjust the bias I do it at -20db comparing a 1khz to a 10khz tone, recording at higher levels you lose the highs even if you don't go past 0db. It took a lot of trial and error adjusting the bias to get this particular music sounding right on cassette, very easy to lose the highs, so I actually had to under bias a little to give the majority of the music a flat and faithful to the source recording. It's funny since the music is so loud and in the digital source it's always hanging around 0db. Using this method I just recorded some heavy synth music and while it was recording and during playback the meters never reached 0db, peaks around -3db at best but generally hangs back around -6db. So recently I have been setting the recording level by using a 0db 400hz sinewave generated in audacity (amplitude set to 1) and then adjusting the recording level to 0db on my meters.
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