McAllister
28 June 2001
Hello.
What are the sonic qualities of different sorts of tape (ex. 456, 499, GP9, or others).
I know that you can hit some harder than others but how do they compare/contrast in sound?
I am using a 1/2" 8-track machine at 15 ips; recording music of the rock 'n' roll & pop varieties, with the occasional piano or string section.
My thanks
McAllister
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Comments
Originally posted by Bear's Gone Fission:
The stuff where the recomended bias is at +9 or so is kind-of overkill, as often you don't have the available bias on the deck and if you did the narrow-gauge heads are an invitation to crosstalk. So as it's been stated to me, you'd be paying for headroom you can't use.
I agree with you. I think you're referring to a +9 level not bias. GP9, 499 and BASF 900 are all high output (+9) tapes and generally speaking require about the same amount of overbias as their +6 (456, 911) counterparts (+/- .5db). I think the bigger problem maybe that a machine like that maynot be able to deal with the elevated level tapes without distorting. So you're better off sticking with 456 or 911 because that's most likely what those machines were designed for.