'Cross-Eyed Heart' Keith Richards on Cassette

Should be clearly stated on the case Chromium Dioxide. The Dire Straits cassette states this but the sleeves are typical single notch type 1. The bulk loaded tape used is black so your guess is as good as mine. I think it is type II but I don't have a deck to verify with auto detect.

 

Absolutely no identification of tape formulation on cassette shell or j-card.

Be it chromium or ferric formula tape, audio output quality will not match a metal formula tape recording. Best results come from utilizing a superior source like Nipponese SHM-CD version of the album, and recording to something comparable to TDK-MA-EX cassette. Source Marantz CD-67 SE deck and recorded on Nak ZX-9 cassette deck. I did that recording a couple years ago, and it was an excellent outcome.



One of my listening favs on mobile auto cassette gear.....

Cheers,

Bleus de Nakker
MadCity, WI USA

 

Agree. It's why any type IV cassettes that get listed on eBay and don't cost the earth sell quickly. I too am a fan of the Japanese Mini LP I. SHM or K2HD extended formats. They make great recordings on type IV cassettes. If you want the full analog experience though go back to the original pre 80's vinyl source which was probably mastered on 1" ampex tape on a 16 track analog desk.
One of the delights for me anyway in watching the new Bohemian Rhapsody film is the accuracy of the Queen studio segments in the film using initially 4 track desks and later 16 track consoles with Ampex 1" masters. Wow. The producers have actually bothered to get the detail of that analog era right. Also the actors seem to know how to play!!. It's a great story ad well.

 

My impression is that the entire album recorded raw in the studio was done with analogue multi track taping gear. After doing a bit of deep searching via google.com, I found some interesting info in an article posted on an aussie audio maven's web site, audiotechnology.com ......


http://www.audiotechnology.com.au/wp/index.php/richards-rolls-on/

“The songs came into being in different ways. Keith had written some of them before recording, like Robbed Blind, and others he improvised and co-wrote with Steve. They played almost all the basic tracks together, so it has a live feel. After a few takes they’d come into the control room to listen, then either redo it or change sounds and play it again. If a song was taking longer to record, they’d revisit it another day. We faded out or edited down some songs that were played for longer than needed, but there was no editing between different takes.”


O’Donnell recorded everything to 24-track analogue tape — running Pro Tools at 24-bit/96k as a safety — which he said, contributed significantly to the warm sound of the album: “We tracked to a Studer A827, running at 15ips, because we wanted the ‘low end that provides’. While there was no intention to make it sound like the Stones, with Keith Richards in the room you can’t help but be in that vein. Keith and I didn’t really discuss ahead of time how he wanted things to sound, but I know he loves analogue. So does Steve, to a huge degree. We also always ran a two-track tape recorder for tape-slap throughout tracking and mixing. Whenever Keith came in to listen, he would always see one or two tape recorders running, which he clearly enjoyed!


“Tape definitely adds character. For this music it was part of the sound and contributed to creating the right vibe. We would record the kick and snare — and sometimes the drums as a whole — quite hot to get some tape compression, but the guitars didn’t really need that. Steve and Keith would be happy to work 100% in analogue, and so would I, but digital does provide a number of advantages, especially when you’re not specifically trying to make a record but are ‘just putting down ideas’. With tape you always have the panic of, ‘oh, they’re doing a great take, is the tape going to run out?’ and then almost hoping the musicians either stop, or someone makes a mistake! With Pro Tools you can record for as long as you want. Keith overdubbed his bass to tape, but after that we generally transferred everything to Pro Tools to open up more tracks for experimentation during overdubbing.”





So, the studio gear used for live recordings was indeed high-end analogue gear. That's crosseyed cool and probably the way Keith Richards wanted things to be done for good effect. As noted above, "We also always ran a two-track tape recorder for tape-slap throughout tracking and mixing. Whenever Keith came in to listen, he would always see one or two tape recorders running, which he clearly enjoyed! ".

Poetic renaissance for the limited edition Newbury Comics cassette release, and going back to the portable cassette recordings Keefy did way back in 1966, eh ?

Read over the entire article if you are interested in details......

Cheers,

Bleusy