Recording Music on a VHS VCR

[AvSat44]

I purchased a Panasonic NV-H75 stereo VCR in the late 1980’s. It worked well, was easy to program but mostly, I was impressed with it’s sound quality.

A bit of background. I had made numerous small cassette party tapes but even using the Nakamichi deck that I had at the time (a BX something) I was never impressed and reverted to my Akai GX-646 reel to reel (which I still own) running at 7.5”/sec. Cassette tapes and reel to reel were not ideal for parties and DVD burning did not exist in our world.

So I thought, wouldn’t it be great if I could record 4 hours of music on a couple of VHS tapes. Most VCR’s required a video sync signal to record (including music). But the NV-H75 didn’t. This was great. I recorded 3 tapes at around 4 hours in length and had my party tapes. As you can calculate, this took a while. The sound was not as good as my vinyl (which didn’t get destroyed at parties) but better than my cassettes/reel to reel tapes, they were also pretty unbreakable and after a few sherberts (beers for the younger readers), who cared.

Time went by and the tape decks reverted to display pieces and I lost interest in the VHS music tapes as my music tastes changed.

Just recently, I opened the box with the VCR in it (yes I keep almost everything) and decided to do it again but this time using CD’s (played with a Marantz CD-80) to record to the Akai GX-646 and to the NV-H75. The result was the same. The VHS tape sounded better than the reel to reel tape. Neither sounded as good as the CD but that wasn’t the purpose of the exercise. I just wanted to make sure that my memory wasn’t playing tricks on me. By the way, I recorded on brand new tapes.

Has anyone ever tried this? Just getting a VCR that doesn’t require a video sync signal to get it to record audio only is probably an issue. I have a number of VHS and Beta machines ( yes I keep….) and in the near future will see if this works with one of the Beta units. I know a dark grey VCR isn’t the eye candy that a reel to reel deck is, but then most CD players were pretty plain boxes.

I would love to hear if anyone has tried this. Cheers.

 

 

[MLXXX]

3 hours ago, AvSat44 said:

The VHS tape sounded better than the reel to reel tape. Neither sounded as good as the CD but that wasn’t the purpose of the exercise. I just wanted to make sure that my memory wasn’t playing tricks on me. By the way, I recorded on brand new tapes.

Has anyone ever tried this? Just getting a VCR that doesn’t require a video sync signal to get it to record audio only is probably an issue.

 

I recall going out and buying a VHS VCR when they started to be released with hi-fi stereo recording capability utilising frequency modulation.  That would have been in the mid to late 1980s. (Earlier models simply recorded the audio in a similar way to audio cassette recorders and suffered from limited treble and noticeable hiss and distortion.)

 

I found the frequency modulation system a distinct step up in sound quality over audio cassettes. (I recall though there was a faint background buzzing sound on playback with my hi-fi VHS VCR, even when no off-air TV video signal had been recorded.)

 

(That VCR of mine was thrown away many years ago.  We have no VCRs in the house these days.)

Edited October 19, 2022 by MLXXX

[tubularbells]

I did exactly the same and still have a bunch of music recorded onto VHS. Must drag them out and give them a listen someday.

[08Boss302]

I've never tried this, I still have my VHS player hooked up as I have concert VHS which were never released on DVD and I still watch them...

Never thought to try record just audio onto a tape tho.  I've got a a few tapes lying around that I sat up and recorded tracks from RAGE and MTV etc back in the day, there'll be some space on the end of those I might try recording from cd to them....if my player allows for it!

Edited October 19, 2022 by 08Boss302
spelling

[ENIGMA]

You need a HI FI VCR to do this properly.

 

And, it can sound amazing as you are using a 1/2 inch tape across a head that is spinning at around 1800 RPM or 30 rpm per second. Not all the tape surface is for the sound track of course but there are dedicated channels.

 

With tape the higher the speed plus amount of tape surface is the key. RtR 15 IPS is the speed you want - more frequency response & from 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch is more dynamic.

 

A a VCR, is interesting due to head speed and tape exposure to the head, the issue is going to be the quality of the playback amplifier circuit.

 

 

[Ian McP]

Once recorded a Philip Glass concert broadcast live to air on ABC FM on a Sony hifi VHS recorder. Tuner was a Yamaha T1, transferred to cd sound was excellent.

Edited October 20, 2022 by Ian McP

[08Boss302]

8 hours ago, ENIGMA said:

You need a HI FI VCR to do this properly.

 

And, it can sound amazing as you are using a 1/2 inch tape across a head that is spinning at around 1800 RPM or 30 rpm per second. Not all the tape surface is for the sound track of course but there are dedicated channels.

 

With tape the higher the speed plus amount of tape surface is the key. RtR 15 IPS is the speed you want - more frequency response & from 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch is more dynamic.

 

A a VCR, is interesting due to head speed and tape exposure to the head, the issue is going to be the quality of the playback amplifier circuit.

 

 

It's definitely a hifi VCR, 6 head.

[a.dent]

At one stage in the early 80s I recorded most of my music on to a Sanyo HiFi Beta recorder. Having 3 hours of party music without changing a record was great.

I'm  pretty sure it was 1984 and the source was an early technics CD player and the odd vinyl.

The quality was amazing. Basically the same as the source.

I'm pretty sure the HiFi audio was recorded using the full width of the tape (with the spinning head) but because of the differences in audio and video frequency they were recorded on different layers (or depths) on the tape.

The Beta system was really a cut above VHS technologically and it's a shame the marketing was so poor they let VHS dominate and eventually monopolise the market.

[Bugs]

Yes, I concur. I used my Sony HIFI VCR to great effect recording mates records, when the Sony finally died I bought a JVC Super? VHS machine to replace it. The Sony seemed a generation ahead of the VHS in terms of using a far less complicated loading system. I think maybe Sony wanted royalties for the Beta which did not go down well with other VCR companies

[08Boss302]

So to trial this, am I correct in thinking I simply connect my cd player (for example) its "audio out" interconnects "into the auxillary or audio in"  inputs the VHS then just press play on the cd player and record on the VHS?

Edited October 20, 2022 by 08Boss302

[ENIGMA]

30 minutes ago, 08Boss302 said:

So to trial this, am I correct in thinking I simply connect my cd player (for example) its "audio out" interconnects "into the auxillary or audio in"  inputs the VHS then just press play on the cd player and record on the VHS?

You can try this but not quite, the way to go as you need to be able to control the saturation level.

 

You need a VCR that has the ability to adjust input levels and have level meters like a RTR, otherwise, use a pre amp to adjust and listen to the output of the VCR while you record to gauge the level.

 

The appropriate VCR to use is a HI FI one with level controls and a level display. 

[08Boss302]

Thank you, hmm, the unit i still have is not that fancy, its a hifi unit but does not have volume EQ as such.  I might still try it for a bit of fun though.

[stereo coffee]

Of historical interest is that DBX and Sony both viewed the VHS tape medium as capable of  very good recording. 

 

DBX  

DBX built what was touted as the best recording medium bar none,  with a product called the DBX700 it is remembered here: https://www.stereophile.com/content/dbx-700-digital-audio-processor

 

SONY

Not aspiring quite as high Sony offered the PCM507ES

 

 

 

 

[mkaramazov]

On 21/10/2022 at 12:06 PM, stereo coffee said:

 

 

SONY

Not aspiring quite as high Sony offered the PCM507ES

 

 

I had a PCM 501ES 20 years ago - turns your VHS / Beta machine into a digital recorder. 

[cheeksahoy]

I used to record FM radio with my Panasonic NV-F55 VCR in the early 90s, back when they played multi-hour long niche programs late into the night when I had school the next day. Just had the left & right rca outputs from the tuner hooked up to the l&r inputs on the vcr. No video necessary. 

Edited October 26, 2022 by cheeksahoy

[Baggins]

I used to use a JVC HiFi VHS deck from the late 1980s for audio only recordings with excellent results.  I've forgotten it's name now, but I remember that it cost about $1300 in 1988 Australian dollars.  Having such a long record time available and the ability to timer record was a great advantage as I could set it up to record concerts from ABC FM whilst I was away.  In those days ABC FM (before it was renamed "Classic") had a much larger variety of music including Jazz, Folk, "World", and also radio plays and so on, as well as their core classical content.  So there was plenty of stuff worth time shifting to allow it to be listened to at a suitable time.  Regarding quality.  It was pretty good but not quite up the standard of my Nakamichi with the HiCom noise reduction unit.  But that was a real fiddle in comparison and the side length of 45 minutes was an issue.  

[MattyW]

Yeah, dad had mix tapes done for parties on his Sony Betamax. Sounded better than cassettes on his Nakamichi tape deck.

[Nagold]

It's great to hear everyone's stories of the past so I thought I should chip in as well.

I use to have a Lowe HIFi VCR and it sounded brilliant. I purchased from Encel in Melbourne. I recorded a lot of music from CD and music videos and concerts sounded great. I even took into the studio once when I was doing some recording and used it as a master as an experiment. 

Unfortunately thieves broke in one day and stole it as well as my brother's Sony Trinitron TV .

The insurance replaced a brand new Sony TV but said they could not find a LOWE VCR. So they replaced it with some inferior brand (Mietz) which was ok, but  never sounded as good as the Lowe.

I must fire it up and see if it still works one day .