Recording with Shure VP64 and Pleiades (130Ω,40mH) on portable cassette recorders

The Sanyo TRC-2500 excecutive cassette notebook and the Sony CFS-W301S had been used.


Thanks to grandma Elene who had the Sony CFS-W301S almost little used in her kitchen table, it could be tried too. If Play and Pause are pressed it can reproduce information arriving at mic input in real time, serving as a PA.


Without the Pleiades gentle slope high pass filter, sound is almost horrible with extreme bass and more extreme mid heaviness. A howl feedback can be very easily be excited too.


With the Pleiadss filter the sound is usable or has the quality of a commercial vocal recording.


This is more apparent on Sony as the Sanyo has a built in low cut filter. Even so on Sanyo the sound is much better with the Pleiades filter.


Vocal sound quality as heard reproduced from
Sony TC-D5 Pro II - Sennheiser HD580 is more natural when recording is made on Sanyo TRC-2500 than Sony CFS-W301S. This is possibly due to the less frequency response of the Sanyo TRC-2500 concentrating information capture on vocal and less bass heaviness.


Signal to noise ratio and modulation level is greater on Sony CFS-W301S.


The Shure VP64 is an excellent mic and synergies very well with the above mentioned resistor in series with inductor Pleiades filter.


Signal path:


Male singing voice at 1-2 in - Shure VP64 - Pleiades (130Ω,40mH) - mic in of portable cassette recorder - TDK SAX 60 type II blank cassette


The cassette recorders used are designed for type I normal cassette but for some reason type II worked. Not known yet if this is the reason of tape under modulation or if the reason not connecting a say 1:2 or 1:3 step up transformer between mic and transistor recorders so that the impedance of the mic, typically 200Ω, is transformed to more than say 800Ω.


Thanks Βάβω Βαμπολέιρο, I miss you so.


Later today's addition:


Normal type I FUJI DR 60 cassette has been tried too:


Modulation increased on both recorders.
Less treble and more natural sound.
Lack of bass tape noise modulation rumble hiss.
Sanyo sounds again better without the 1:2 Western Electric transformer adding mid.
Sony sounds much much bigger with the WE 1:2 transformer. Modulation approaches 0VU at soft singing voice.


Summary:

The Pleiades (130Ω,40mH) filter sings with the Shure VP64 microphone.
Big sound with the WE 1:2 transformer on Sony recorder.
More natural or illusion sound, less loud on the Sanyo recorder, and better without WE 1:2 step up transformer.