In Praise of Cheapness
Posted on | January 30, 2010 | No Comments
I transferred and restored a 35-year-old recording from a cheap analog cassette today. And although it made me glad to have great restoration software (not to mention a great cassette deck, cables, and converters), it also made me marvel at the resiliency of the analog cassette tape.
This thing — that probably sat in drawers, garages, and cars in a myriad of temperatures and humidities through the years — delivered the goods when I dropped it into my cassette deck and hit “play”.
In my profession, there’s a lot of fixation on the best and most expensive gear. But it’s heartening to grab a piece of audio history from the lower end of the scale and be able to resurrect it. And it wouldn’t be possible if the format of the analog cassette hadn’t stood the test of time.
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From Ohm to Om reflects the opinions of mastering engineer Paul Abbott, owner of San Diego's ZenMastering.
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