The Type II Chrome Bias Audio Cassette

A classic blast from the past, in the shape of a mid 1980s BASF CR-E II cassette. A real chromium dioxide formulation, and for many, the epitome of the high bias tape.

The Type II high bias audio cassette is actually much older a development than many people realise. The rise of the Type II tape is generally associated with the 1980s, but in fact, it was introduced, with a chromium dioxide (CrO2) tape formulation, at the dawn of the 1970s.

Chrome tapes were, technically, a big advancement from the start. Du Pont’s chromium dioxide formulation gave an undeniable increase in high frequency response over the often rather muffled tone of the existing Type I ferric cassette. This meant much better definition – a major improvement in fidelity, and an ability to preserve all the zing and sparkle at the treble end of the original sound.

1993 TDK AR60 Type I Audio Cassette

The TDK AR60 was one of the better Type I audio cassettes. The sound from Type I tapes could vary enormously, going from a woolly blob of poorly defined warbling at the low end of the market, up to a frequency-rich and high fidelity experience in the more expensive echelons. Not that Type I cassettes could ever be described as expensive in themselves, but if you used a lot of them and bought in bulk, there’d be a dramatic difference in price between a batch of low end Type Is and the high end alternatives.

Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols Cassette

So who actually did play the bass?… Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols is probably one of the most hotly-debated albums of all time. Much of the confusion probably stems from the insistence by the late Malcolm McLaren (Sex Pistols manager) that the band couldn’t play their instruments. Notions sprang up, in the wake of this, that the songs were recorded with various levels of ‘depping’, right up to a belief that the entire backing track was played by top session musicians and the only band member on the album was vocalist Johnny Rotten.