1981 Sony CHF 60 Audio Cassette

Sony CHF tapes were among the very first I used for my own recordings after I hit my teens. They were good, if basic, normal bias cassettes with quite a warm sound, but also an acceptable amount of definition for a Type I range-propper. Pretty noisy though.

The two other cassette models in the 1981 Sony Type I range were the Sony BHF, and the Sony AHF. The BHF was a noticeable upgrade on the quality of this CHF. And the AHF was a hugely improved, essentially pro-grade product of very high quality – coming with a much higher price tag.

I’ve got a fair old few Sony CHFs, and the material on them ranges quite widely. At one end of the scale there are some all-too-clear renditions of my own instrumental tracks, played on a Bontempi B370 organ. At the other, performances by chart bands of the day, recorded from the TV, with a cheapish tape recorder placed in front of the set’s speaker, and my family jabbering away in the background.

1994 Maxell MX-S 46 Metal Bias Audio Cassette

In the mid 1990s I started to make the switch from analogue to digital recording. However, the process of transition was slow, and actually took some years. It was 1998 before I completed the transition and for the first time began creating multi-tracked home recordings entirely on a computer. Between 1994 and 1998 I was still mastering my songs to audio tape, mostly using a combination of vocals and guitars recorded to tape on a Portastudio, and electronic MIDI instruments synthesizing various parts (including drums) on a live sync-up.

1988 TDK MA-X 46 Audio Cassette

Classy look, classy tape. This is TDK‘s MA-X Type 4 metal bias audio cassette, from 1988. Metal tapes as a breed reproduced the best frequency range of all the four types, as well as accepting high volume levels without running into distortion. This tape has certainly made a great job of preserving an ‘album’ of my own songs, as recorded on a home multi-tracker in 1988. The multitracker (a Tascam Portastudio – see HERE and HERE for more details) would not allow the use of metal tapes, so the track-building itself would have to be done on a chrome (CrO2) cassette. However, the final stereo master would be recorded from the Portastudio onto a separate stereo cassette deck, which did allow the use of metal tapes – hence the option to employ this TDK MA-X 46.