Did cd improve tape quality?

[barry123]

I've always preferred treble to bass, and I remember hearing 'Tom Sawyer' on the radio on the way to school in 1984 and being amazed at how the fm radio gave a major boost in the treble response without making everything sound hissy. The walkman I heard it on didn't have an equalizer or "tone" button.

 

In the part "The world is, the world is Love and life are deep", Peart's hi-hat cymbals sounded perfect, as if they had been separately recorded.

 

I am also aware that FM degrades the sound quality, so I'm just wondering how the rock stations of pre-CD 80's were able to beef up the treble and punch in ways that we never could, and still can't, with our cd's and 7-band equalizers.

 

Can we open up a Rush wav file in wavlab and make some changes that will cause the sound to jump out like it once did?

 

For example, make the cymbal crashes and sizzles shine with more billiance without creating hiss?

 

Also, I remember that when listening to my 'moving pictures' tape in 1985, the treble-quality upon turning the treble knob up was much more pleasing sounding than when I do the same on a cd player. For some odd reason, I feel that the tape made things sound more realistic, and the cd sounds too sterile.

[Day of Light]

This might seem like a weird thing, but maybe you've lost the ability to hear higher frequencies as well as you used to.

 

CDs do sound a little more sterile, but that's for reasons other than frequency.

[Ancient Ways]

This might seem like a weird thing, but maybe you've lost the ability to hear higher frequencies as well as you used to.

 

CDs do sound a little more sterile, but that's for reasons other than frequency.

Not weird. Actually very common as we age.

[presto123]

Get off of my lawn with those damn CD's you kids!! :codger:

[blueschica]

I've always preferred treble to bass, and I remember hearing 'Tom Sawyer' on the radio on the way to school in 1984 and being amazed at how the fm radio gave a major boost in the treble response without making everything sound hissy. The walkman I heard it on didn't have an equalizer or "tone" button.

 

In the part "The world is, the world is Love and life are deep", Peart's hi-hat cymbals sounded perfect, as if they had been separately recorded.

 

I am also aware that FM degrades the sound quality, so I'm just wondering how the rock stations of pre-CD 80's were able to beef up the treble and punch in ways that we never could, and still can't, with our cd's and 7-band equalizers.

 

Can we open up a Rush wav file in wavlab and make some changes that will cause the sound to jump out like it once did?

 

For example, make the cymbal crashes and sizzles shine with more billiance without creating hiss?

 

Also, I remember that when listening to my 'moving pictures' tape in 1985, the treble-quality upon turning the treble knob up was much more pleasing sounding than when I do the same on a cd player. For some odd reason, I feel that the tape made things sound more realistic, and the cd sounds too sterile.

 

Welcome to TRF, Barry! If you like wav files, you might like to look around in the Different Stages thread and read about people's different Rush boots.

[taurus]

I remember specifically recording tapes with dolby ON and playing them back with dolby off, to enjoy the enhanced highs. Enhanced highs was what it was all about back then.

[Alph Seeker]

I remember specifically recording tapes with dolby ON and playing them back with dolby off, to enjoy the enhanced highs. Enhanced highs was what it was all about back then.

Dolby destroyed the highs like cymbals. I often wondered how many people noticed that or cared. I always listened with it off and could tolerate the tape hiss, but I was essentially alone in this preference. It's not just music that I can do that with, though. For example, if I am listening to a news radio broadcast in the car, and am driving out of the station range - you know were static and such starts overtaking the signal - I can tune all that out as long as I can still hear the talking. Wife can't. Not even close; thinks I'm a freak. But she also thinks 2112 Overture is unlistenable. I'm sure all of you here know who the real freak is, right?

[Jaminbenb]

Radio stations used a lot of compression in those days...not entirely sure what they do today, I'm sure the frequency range is still compressed, since CD's are a little more BROAD.

[Todem]

I remember specifically recording tapes with dolby ON and playing them back with dolby off, to enjoy the enhanced highs. Enhanced highs was what it was all about back then.

Dolby destroyed the highs like cymbals. I often wondered how many people noticed that or cared. I always listened with it off and could tolerate the tape hiss, but I was essentially alone in this preference. It's not just music that I can do that with, though. For example, if I am listening to a news radio broadcast in the car, and am driving out of the station range - you know were static and such starts overtaking the signal - I can tune all that out as long as I can still hear the talking. Wife can't. Not even close; thinks I'm a freak. But she also thinks 2112 Overture is unlistenable. I'm sure all of you here know who the real freak is, right?

 

Yeah Dolby Noise reduction was really treble reduction for the sake of getting rid of source tape hiss.

 

I prefer the slight hiss and the warmth of the source tape.

 

AAD all day baby (remember those letter on the back of CD's when they first hit the scene?) Analog recording, Analog mix, Digital mastering.

 

Power Windows was the first Rush album recorded all digital. DDD

Edited March 1, 2016 by Todem

[Digital Dad]

I dont like listening to Rush in doubbly.

[Grover]

Dolby did not destroy the high frequencies. It boosted them during the recording if it was turned on and then cut them by the same amount during playback so that the result was the same balance as the original. However since tape his was only present during playback, it was greatly reduced without any loss of high frequency response in the music.

[MMCXII]

Worst thing about tapes is you had to keep them away from magnets!

 

On a lighter note, I just bought an old motor home with an 8-track player.. even came with a couple deep purple tapes (..in Rock and Fireball), so I'm stylin :D

[Mr. JD]

All this tape talk makes me love my 1975 Teac 450 cassette deck even more. Analog bliss!

[ozzy85]

CD's and cassettes were all about bass and a lot of (overly) crisp highs. A lot of albums from the early CD age were remixed due to this bias. Consider it came after all the mid-rangey (warm sounding) LP's and those cruddy muffled sounding 8-tracks.

Anyone from the '80's remember getting into cassettes because they were Chrome or High Metal or such?

[Sky Douglas]

COS sounds better on CD because the songs are in the correct order.

[ytserush]

CD's and cassettes were all about bass and a lot of (overly) crisp highs. A lot of albums from the early CD age were remixed due to this bias. Consider it came after all the mid-rangey (warm sounding) LP's and those cruddy muffled sounding 8-tracks.

Anyone from the '80's remember getting into cassettes because they were Chrome or High Metal or such?

 

Never bought into pre-recorded cassettes, just blanks so I could record on them.

[taurus]

Worst thing about tapes is you had to keep them away from magnets!

 

On a lighter note, I just bought an old motor home with an 8-track player.. even came with a couple deep purple tapes (..in Rock and Fireball), so I'm stylin :D

 

Kool - I still have Kiss Alive II, Max Webster Live Magnetic Air and Caress of Steel on 8-track - just no player. CoS was the dog's breakfast on 8 track - all kinds of songs interrupted when the track changed

[ytserush]

I have most Rush albums through Signals on 8-track and Yessongs.(Still looking for a player) Caress of Steel got butchered.

[Powderfinger]

Radio stations used a lot of compression in those days...not entirely sure what they do today, I'm sure the frequency range is still compressed, since CD's are a little more BROAD.

 

Precisely.

[ytserush]

Radio stations used a lot of compression in those days...not entirely sure what they do today, I'm sure the frequency range is still compressed, since CD's are a little more BROAD.

 

Precisely.

 

I'd have to think it's just as bad today. Even from what I've heard on satellite radio, it doesn't sound great. Big reason why I don't listen to the radio.

 

You can hear the difference if you put a CD on in the car after listening to the radio.

[MMCXII]

I've heard people say the audio on VHS tapes is better than CD

[Todem]

I've heard people say the audio on VHS tapes is better than CD

 

Hell freaking no.

[Mr. JD]

I've heard people say the audio on VHS tapes is better than CD

 

May not be better, but spec wise it was close. VHS Hi-Fi had a freq response of 20 - 20,000 Hz and a dynamic range of around 90 db. The signal to noise and channel separation were also pretty good. The best part was that you could get 2 hours of music on one tape. I had a recorder in the 80s' and used it quite a bit.

[Jaminbenb]

I've heard people say the audio on VHS tapes is better than CD

 

You may be thinking about when they were using the old video tapes as recording media prior to DAT tapes. That PCM F-1 format was similar to DAT, but you had to use the old Betamax tapes IIRC...

[Digital Dad]

If you ever see PCM-1 in a tape lineage from the mid 80's that hasn't gone thru a bunch of DAT generations lap that up like mothers milk. Those are the gold standard of audience tapes from the 80's.