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Cassette Tones on Lead-in


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Old 01-08-2016, 10:04
wilson500
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When I used to buy pre-recorded cassettes many years ago (1980s) there was always some low frequency tones (sounded more like thumbs) between the end of the leader tape and the start of the first track.

The vu meters on the cassette desk would read quite high and you could only hear them on big speakers or headphones.

Any idea what they were for?
Were they a coded ident or just a marker tone for lining up the master tape and recording machines?
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Old 02-08-2016, 11:36
Mike_1101
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I read a magazine article about this years ago. As I remember cassettes were duplicated (on large reels) using high speed equipment at 32 or 64 times the playing speed. The tones were used by other machines used to identify the start of a recording when winding the tape into individual cassettes.

I never bought many pre-recorded cassettes to be honest the sound quality was pretty poor.
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Old 02-08-2016, 16:21
Inkblot
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I read a magazine article about this years ago. As I remember cassettes were duplicated (on large reels) using high speed equipment at 32 or 64 times the playing speed. The tones were used by other machines used to identify the start of a recording when winding the tape into individual cassettes.
I never knew that. I remember buying a cassette from the Virgin Megastore at Tottenham Court Road and finding that it played backwards. The machine may have identified the start of the recording correctly but then it wound the tape on to the reel back-to-front.
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Old 04-08-2016, 15:15
wilson500
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I read a magazine article about this years ago. As I remember cassettes were duplicated (on large reels) using high speed equipment at 32 or 64 times the playing speed. The tones were used by other machines used to identify the start of a recording when winding the tape into individual cassettes.

I never bought many pre-recorded cassettes to be honest the sound quality was pretty poor.
Ah thanks for that.
Yes, tapes recorded at home, especially with Dolby C on type II tape, were far superior.
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