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Believe it or not,
cassettes may be having a come-back! If you don't mind some tape
hiss, they actually sound much better than your iPod. When you
put in a cassette, you're listening to an album, not 1,000 songs
shuffled into eternity. Set the cassette deck on auto-reverse and let
the mood fill the evening! So...
1. Think about the order and the length
of the songs ahead of time.
It adds time to your mastering bill
if we sequence your cd, only to find out that Side A of the cassette
will be three minutes longer than Side B. Lots of things can be done if
that happens, and you don't want to change the order on the cassette:
Clone a couple extra chorus' from a couple songs to add to the length
of Side B; Add an instrumental version of one of the songs; Add a
"Bonus" song to Side B; Edit intros, extra chorus', solos, and fades on
Side A; Edit a "single version" of one of the long songs and add it as
a bonus to Side B, etc. The timing differences from Side A to Side B
should be 20 seconds or less, and even that's pushing it.
2. Master just as you would for CD sound,
but be very careful about sibilance! A CD that is mastered for
hot levels will be easy to duplicate because the unexpected peaks will
be leveled for the cd. This will make your cassette relatively
hiss-free because the duplicator can cut the cassette hotter without
fear of distortion. EXCEPT for sibilance (the ss sound) in an upfront
vocal or big cymbal crashes or peaky percussion or drums. Make sure
your mastering engineer is conscientious about using a de-esser if it's
needed.
Key: De-essing is the most commonly
left-out processor for vocals. I can't tell you how many
countless projects I've done that needed de-essing! I don't know why,
but many studios don't have de-essers, or the engineers don't use them.
One of the coolest ways to get more presence in a vocal is to bring up
the high's or upper mids while de-essing those spitty-sounding peaky
ss's! The first frequencies to distort on a cassette are the highs! Use
the best quality grade of duplication tape that you can afford. The
highs will be better, there'll be less tape hiss because it can be cut
louder, and you'll have an edge over the tapes that aren't as well
prepared.
3. If the
total length of your CD is under 45 minutes, consider putting all the
songs on both sides of the cassette. Nothings worse than being
at a party, and your cassette is in the auto-reverse cassette deck, and
there's two minutes of dead air at the end of Side B. Dead air at a
party means someone comes over to the cassette deck and either (1) hits
the reverse button, or (2) puts in another cassette.
What to know: The cost difference
between a C-40 and a C-76 isn't that much. Let's say your
album is sequenced so that Side A is 20 min. and Side B is 18 min. The
duplicator company charges you for C-40 cassettes (20 min. each side).
If you put all your songs on both sides, you'd have 38 minutes each
side for a C-76 tape. The effect of the tape will be better without the
auto-reversing in the middle of the order, the tapes will last longer
for your customers, and since each side will be exactly the same, any
dead air will be minimal.
The "tune-out" factor is less if your album
doesn't switch from A to B in the middle. ESPECIALLY if
you're submitting your tapes to a management company, record company,
or publishing company. Often these people take tapes in their car to
audition. The easiest reason to take the tape out and stop listening to
it is a lot of dead air that happens when the cassette reaches the end
of Side A and is switching over to Side B. Weigh the cost difference to
the tune-out difference and see what will be best for getting your
goals.
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