1993 PMD Magnetics Professional Audiocassette C15

Here’s a cracker from the 1990s – a PMD Magnetics Professional Audiocassette, which I think would probably have been manufactured in 1993 – the year I bought it. The ‘Professional’ designation hints at something fairly magnificent, so you’d expect at least a high bias Type 2 tape – if not a Type 4 metal job. However, this is in fact a normal bias Type 1, with a ferric formulation.

1987 Maxell UD II 46 Audio Cassette

After buying my first proper home multi-tracking system in 1987 (a Tascam Porta One), I asked around for recommendations as to the best value high bias CrO2 tapes. The Maxell UDII was mentioned, and I gave it a try. I wasn’t disappointed. These were really nice products, with great high frequency reproduction and what I felt at the time was superb resilience. Now 25 years old, my first batch of Maxell UDIIs haven’t noticeably degraded with age, and have preserved my initial experiments with 4-track recording extremely well. The content of the recordings, however, is another matter.

1985 Rich Bitch Studios Audio Cassette Case

This is going to be pretty localised in its interest, but it may perhaps conjure memories of similar practices used by various commercial recording studios in the 1980s.