Many people have held on to our cassette collections, in some circumstances lengthy after our cassette gamers have given up the ghost. Personally, I’ve stored my gig tapes even after changing them to digital type, within the hope that new gear would come alongside that would do an excellent higher job of it.
Once I heard concerning the TASCAM 202MKVII twin cassette deck, which has a USB port for archiving, I used to be fairly stoked. The TASCAM model has a great repute, and I used earlier 202 fashions again within the day.
However the $500 price ticket took me abruptly. TASCAM is TEAC’s professional model, and its product line has all the time been expensive, however this, in any case, is a cassette deck. The value of admission takes the 202MKVII effectively out of the “Hey, let’s digitize these previous tapes” impulse-buy territory.
Excessive-end high quality
There aren’t lot of cassette decks left available on the market to check the 202MKVII to. I’ve used the Ion Audio Cassette 2 PC ($110 at AmazonRemove non-product link), and whereas it’s OK, it’s solely OK. The 202MKVII is in a special league. However I used to be a bit curious as to the place, 25 years after the know-how’s hey-day, TASCAM was getting its elements?
TASCAM assures me the parts used within the 202MKVII’s are new and manufactured to the corporate’s specs. I, in fact, opened the enclosure to verify, and what I noticed was neither scary (i.e., massively low-cost) or significantly spectacular. Each wells are belt pushed, and the principle logic board is labeled TEAC. Two-head mechanisms imply there isn’t a monitoring of what’s being recorded, however that’s by no means been a characteristic of the 202.
With nothing radical to see on the within, I proceeded to switch the quilt and peruse the entrance panel, which is decidedly extra spectacular. Except for the 2 dampened transport doorways with their eject buttons, every deck has cease, play, document, pause-record, record-mute, fast-forward, and rewind buttons. There’s a microphone enter with a rotary acquire management, and a headphone jack whose output is managed with the identical kind of management.
The 202MKVII’s entrance panel has all of the bells and whistles you’d anticipate from a top-notch cassette deck, although it omits some that may have an effect on playback high quality, resembling automated rewind.
Up prime there’s the same old LCD readout with buttons for counter reset, return to zero (one for every effectively), dimming the show (a number of ranges), repeat, parallel document (document to each decks directly), and dub begin (copy from one effectively to the opposite). Off to the facet are three two-position switches: Play Mode (Regular or Particular, for monitoring the deck that’s not utilizing the principle outputs), timer (Off/Document/Play), and noise discount (On/Off).
There’s no automated reverse, as was discovered on many shopper decks. The 202 has all the time stored it easy to cut back the complexity of the transport mechanism, restrict failure factors, and improve reliability.
The rear of the 202MKVII is typical, except for the USB port that gives a direct digital audio connection together with your laptop.
On the again of the unit are the same old pairs of RCA inputs and outputs, plus the USB Sort-B port. The port helps as much as 48kHz/16-bit audio, although I recorded at 44.1kHz. The USB interface is output solely, so you may’t document instantly out of your laptop. That’s a little bit of a bummer, as a result of one of many joys of cassette decks is their capability for spur-of-the-moment recording.
The 202MKVII additionally comes with a distant (you may see its buttons to the suitable), which suggests you may couch-potato it whereas looking your combine tapes for that one tune you simply know needs to be there.
No Dolby, however one thing nearly as good
One factor past TASCAM’s management that may disturb old-timers is the shortage of a Dolby label on the 202MKVII. Dolby was synonymous with tape-hiss discount, and that’s the place Dolby first actually impinged upon the general public consciousness. There was B, then C, and S, and HX, HX Professional, and so it went.
Sadly, however understandably, Dolby now not produces built-in circuits for tape noise discount; as a substitute, TEAC makes use of its personal tech, which covers all of the flavors aside from Dolby C. Dolby C noticed restricted use because it’s solely suitable with itself. Personally, I usually keep away from utilizing any type of Dolby noise discount on playback. Examine the alternate options part for the rationale why.
Efficiency
Let’s get one factor straight instantly. Whereas the 202MKVII may induce some sticker shock, it’s undoubtedly an enormous step up from Ion Audio’s Cassette 2 PC when it comes to sound, options, and really feel, and that goes for each different USB cassette deck I’ve checked out as effectively.
I used to be additionally fairly pleased with the noise discount, which certainly appeared to perform like Dolby B, decreasing hiss with out considerably impacting the general frequency response. The sonic high quality was excellent, though to be sincere, I wasn’t as blown away as I used to be by among the final cassette decks that got here to market within the 1990s. Nonetheless, I’d name the 202MKVII’s sound considerably higher than common.
I threw quite a lot of cassettes on the 202MKVII, which dealt with most of them simply nice. It does undergo, nevertheless, an oddity that I bear in mind from again within the day: Pricier decks, and TASCAM’s specifically, deal with iffy cassettes poorly. Certainly, the tapes most affected by warble displayed much less of it on my off-the-street Akai deck than on the 202MKVII. Once I say off the road, I imply I actually picked it up off the road after somebody ditched it. Every thing else sounded higher on the 202MKVII.
I recorded the 202MKVII’s output utilizing each the analog out and the USB port. Each sounded excellent, with the USB sign coming in at unity acquire, which is as scorching as you may go with out clipping or different points. That saves you the difficulty of normalizing the sign.
The 202MKVII carried out admirably besides, as I mentioned, with the poor-quality sorts. Talking of which.
Methods and restore
Once I initially digitized my tapes, the Dolby on my low-cost decks eliminated an excessive amount of high-end together with the hiss. I received higher outcomes recording the uncooked output, after which processing that with Izotope’s $129 RX Elements, which I discover to be the most effective noise-reduction software program when it comes to sustaining constancy.
I discussed the 202MKVII not dealing with iffy tapes effectively. You probably have a tape that’s warbling, fluttering, or exhibiting related sonic anomalies. there’s a very, very costly piece of software program from Celemony known as Capstan that can right the issue remarkably effectively.
If Capstan have been accessible solely at its full $four,500 price ticket, I wouldn’t have talked about it. However you may really lease it for 5 days for simply $199. Clearly, the content material you are trying to rescue have to be fairly darn necessary to warrant the expenditure, however I’ve used Capstan and it really works.
Conclusion
The conundrum I face with the 202MKVII is that whereas it’s completely the most effective USB cassette deck I’m conscious of, it’s exorbitantly costly for merely digitizing a tape assortment. If the worth doesn’t trouble you, it would do the job effectively.
And to be sincere, I merely just like the unit. These of a sure age in all probability will too. It’s new and can seemingly outlast the necessity for such gadgets. And even past the nostalgia side, I had forgotten simply how joyous it’s to easily press a button and document no matter’s enjoying in the intervening time.