Top Tapes from unexpected places

Now there's a TikTok trend of teens "speed-running" through Scientology buildings to see how far they can get before they're caught and thrown out. Maybe someday they'll find the tape duplication room!

This is just brilliant and I am surprised that my brother and I had not figured some of this out for ourselves as we are both very much tape heads. We have used other religious tapes found at the charity shops. This takes it to another *level*. After seeing this video my wife noticed my ebay viewing history, are you interested in Scientology ? Its not what you think... Proceeds to order a few tape sets. ;-)

Scientology's cassettes aren't metal cassettes, they're mental cassettes

Ah, here it is. Was wondering why I couldn't find it in Grace's playlist!

Aaaaaah, the stupidity of some « groups »… very enjoyable video, and very good tip. Unfortunately, as you said in the description, some people are very picky concerning their beliefs…

I really enjoyed the video and honestly don’t see how it would bother anyone 🤷

I enjoyed that. Thank you Mat. I have to have a tooth removed next week. Or half a tooth. half already broken. I look forward to it. Just part of the long slow car crash of middle age. I was on holiday last week, and fell asleep on the sunbed by the pool. When I woke up, my right foot hurt and I now can't walk on it. That's a new one.

Great video, sad that the general public will never see it 🫤

Hi Mat Love your videos! I thought it was worth sharing some background about the JNH&F music. The keyboard players in Toto had a very close working relationship with Yamaha. When Yamaha came out with their new DX7 Digital Synthesizer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_DX7 they hired the Toto guys to play the DX7 in a small ensemble at a music industry event. The music you played was created as a promo for the capabilities of this new type of synthesizer. Following the music event, this music was recorded for Sheffield Lab, a label that specialized in direct-to-disc recordings. This recording was performed live, one side at a time, as the master was being cut to disc. Back when everything was analog, this was one of the best ways of getting the highest quality recorded sound possible. The music went straight from the microphones to the mastering lathe. Records were then pressed from a copy of that master. So while I agree the music is showing its age (although I have always enjoyed it), I believe the backstory is interesting. And because of this history, it is clear why this music was used as a demo to show off the sound capabilities of the car stereo system. Brent

Thanks Mat! Just bought 56 x 60+ minute tapes from Mr Cruise. Can't wait to erase and sell!!!

15 minutes for a YouTube video is perfectly fine; beyond 20 minutes it starts to feel too long. In my opinion, you can publish the first half of the video without any problems. But the issue could be that the Ford cassettes aren’t necessarily true Metal; they might be Type II cassettes.

I can imagine myself wondering years from now if this video has even happened or it was just a fever dream of mine. It was fun though, but I think you are doing the right thing by pulling the plug.

I trust the tooth fairy adequately compensated you for the loss of YT income. Meanwhile I can cheer you up with the story of my extraction. My no. 7 fractured below the gumline. So a trip to the dental hospital to have the bone cut away from the side, so they could extract it sideways. A group of dental students set to. When they ran out of competence, they called in the surgeon. Judging from his commentary on the job they had done, I am confident he thought I'd opted for the full anaesthetic.

Sadly, I think you’ve made the right decision - I could easily see some people getting rather upset and difficult over the erasure of the tapes. Not worth the hassle. I enjoyed the video for what it’s worth!

I'm more familiar with James Newton Howard through his long association with Elton John. A brilliant orchestral arranger and member of Elton's band.

I’ve just got a set of 6 from eBay UK for a tenner, the listing showed the cassettes too with the metal cutouts on the top - thanks for this video Mat, I’m looking forward to some recording on MA

😕 I think a video related to metal tapes is a great idea. Is it possible to revisit this sort of idea in a future video? Have you ever done a video specifically about the Loran cassette origin and history? It feels like an interesting bit of history IMO. I have so many of them I would be happy to 'donate' them to you. 🙂 I also have some cheesy cassettes that 'introduce you to your new car features' and could be amusing for modern listeners. Edited to add: Scientologists can flippin' fluff off.

Wow. I really liked the video... Unknown sources for metal tapes is a treasure trove.. And I really liked the sarcasm. Why can't you just feel about the music the way you do? To me it was mostly boring.. (the music that is). Finding the tapes in the Netherlands is pretty hard it seems. Mostly cd and dvd here.. But I'd like to try them, so... I still have 3 unused Sony Metal-XR tapes (to have a box full...) and 33 used. I really like these! I also have higher end metals, but they just sound like a CD. The Sony is slightly warm sounding, but still very good. Fun to play around with! Thank you for making the video! I loved it..

I picked up a Scientology tape set on eBay here in the States for $20. This is going to be a neat little find if it turns out well. Mat, it may be better for us that this video didn't go public! 😁

Hopefully the Scientologists won't get upset about you recording over L. Ron Hubbard. Thankfully when I did a video about recording over Bible tapes, I only got a few comments accusing me of heresy.

I have those Ford Loran demo tapes and have used them in some of my videos. "Metal bias" is a little ambiguous because for playback, metal and chrome use the same EQ, and many car radios had a "MTL" button you would push to engage it. Regardless, the Loran tapes do sound excellent.

I emailed Marc Headley (YouTube: Blown for Good) and this is his response: All Scientology tapes made from 1990 forward are TDK MA tape (Metal Alloy). The only exception to this were music cassettes were made on TDK Chrome. I made / checked at least a few million tapes for Scientology between 1990 a 2005. We were making 50,000/week for many years so there are a lot of metals tapes out there.

I thought I found some cheep Metal tapes on our local market place. However, at inspection the Metal-formulation was a bit different: Iron Maiden, Sepultura, Dio, Obituary and others... Come to think of it: I get it Matt didn't make this joke, because I would never have thought about it... (and neither have all the other commenters, as far as I have checked).

This is somewhat related to the questions, and I guess after watching, maybe even more so. I just had to share this link because I found it worth my time. https://www.headphonesty.com/2026/03/saltwater-cassette-tape-debunked-tape-durability-myths/

Would be nice to see you use that fun generation 31-band spectrum analyser

🙂🙂🙂 Did you forget to mention recordings are better preserved on metal tapes?. I read it somewhere, and thought it make sense because you need a stronger signal when recording on metal tapes

Something feels wrong to me about recording over PRCs. I do have two high end type 4 cassettes with the metal frame that look cool that I use as a demo. I record them with Dolby C and people can't hear the tape hiss at all. But to your point, I was pretty surprised at how audible the difference was between those Maxells which are by no means bad, and the type 4 tape. While I have plenty of Type 2, mostly the gold Maxells, I have a BUTT LOAD of Type 1s, all acquired for cheap in bulk. I find Bosch to sound the best with my player, plus I can record them the loudest. I have the adjustment marked on my knob for them. TDK type D are second and they're right in the middle. Anyway I say that to say this: I rarely hear much of a difference between the source and my type 1 cassettes, and I always make sure to flip between them to double check. The most obvious difference I hear is the noise floor, of course, but the high frequencies, at least in my music, are barely lost. If I notice it I'll go back and get it on Type 2, but it's really rare. It was shocking to hear such a difference in your video. So anyway I really appreciated this video even though I knew doing in I wasn't going to take you up on the deal considering my lifetime supply of Type 1s and my squeamishness of recording over PRCs, BUT, had I not already acquired 1500 TDK Ds in bulk I probably would be hitting eBay for these for sure. Great deal. The demo demonstrating the differences was pretty interesting as well. You might find it boring to make, but interesting as a video with some legs (long term) to record the same YouTube audio library song onto Type 1, 2, 4 (maybe even 3?) tapes with Dolby B, C, and S. I believe you have done demos of all of this before, but not all together. People googling might be interested in comprehensive demos, which IMO are shockingly rare.

Hi Mat. I have a book called the story of the walkman. Ive read .ost of it and its ery thorough. I was wondering if you would like me to send it to you. Something to read when the mood takes you. Dont want anything for it. Its 150 pages so theres enough information to make you the worlds leading authority on walkmans!@😀 Andrew.

That was a very enjoyable video. Laughing that the “Techmoan effect” will now occur on L Ron Hubbard content! Incidentally if you are after amazing sound quality give one of the Sheffield Lab direct cut LPs a go.

The music is reminding me of the output of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop circa 1990, long after they'd ditched things like popping bottle tops, or tapping spoons and looping them on tapes stretching halfway down the corridors at Maida Vale. Hope the tooth eases soon. Remember it well from 2018, where I ended up in A&E on Christmas Eve, away from home and my dentist being both 300 miles away and shut that day anyway. They finally took it out... the following July!

i'd like to be the first to start the #releasethejamesnewtonhowardcut movement

I'm the idiot who bought both a sealed TDK MA-R and MA for a pound each from Scope (UK charity shop) in about 2012... and unwrapped them. Actually, if you've not held one, the MA-R is a lovely tactile thing, possibly part-stainless steel, cold to the touch, and with a fair bit of weight to it. Really feels well made.

I wish to make an angry comment. Grrrr. That's better. Thank you, I always enjoy your videos but I particularly enjoyed this one, even though I'm not entirely sure why. All the best.

Although most of them will never know it, for those of a certain age James Newton Howard will be best known for the opening/closing theme to ER. Metal tapes - there's a throwback. Capital Cameras in Crawley was the place for camera film and blank tapes in the 80s; they were one of the pioneers of the pile-it-high-sell-it-cheap A/V retail model Richer Sounds later perfected. I only ever had a couple of TDK MA-XGs (same metal casework as the other TDK MA- tapes); they were great on the right kit but pretty pointless for most folks. No idea what happened to them . . . likely went the same way as the minidisc collection. And never managed to find the cassettes I really wanted - those whose spools were miniature versions of those used on reel-to-reel tapes.

You might find James Newton Howard turning up here, Mat, rolled-up newspaper in-hand. About 30 years ago, I was an internet friend of the musician Andrew Gold. He took a swipe at a song called 'Sometimes When We Touch' by "some one-hit wonder guy", objecting because people often mistook him (Gold) as the writer of that tune, which he hated. Promptly thereafter, said 'one-hit wonder' (Dan Hill) posted on Andrew's message board: "well, gee thanks for the support, Mr 'Lonely Boy'.

James Newton Howard is better known for being a movie music conductor with many award wins and nominations to his name. These particular tracks featured 4 members of the band Toto: David Paich (keyboards), Steve Porcaro (keyboards), Jeff Porcaro (drums), and Joe Porcaro (percussion).

For anyone who'd like to listen to James Newton Howard & Friends in full here's the YouTube link to the playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kM2y3T3cDG-tifOPY0rxzMIhPfPT2rPLM

I used metal tapes all the time.. later 80's when they were a bit cheaper, and would split a box of ten with a friend..worked out to about 4 bucks Canadian. There was a video rental store that had cd rentals.. the metal tape was cheaper than buying the album. I miss the days of disposable income.. the years in my mid teens.

Can anyone tell me why people are paying these insane prices for metal cassette tapes? What is the use case? Are there people interested in premium wax cylinders, too?

The problem with high quality sound systems in cars is that, unless it’s a very expensive car, the background noise from the car drowns out the nuances. Unless you wind the volume right UP.

Remember when JBL didn't make low-end department store junk? Pepperidge Farm remembers.

Collectible Type IV cassettes: Scientology’s greatest contribution to humanity! 😆

It doesn't sound any different to my ears but it might be an age thing with my hearing, great video as always

All the best for your teeth! Aparently, your ears are really getting old, me (almost 45, amateur musician) hear a day/night difference between the Maxwell UR and the (supposedly) TDK MA! Much more clearance in the drums in the latter one! BTW: during "the event" I bought a MA-R 60 tape, non-sealed, for CHF 40 (about the same amount in £ now), just out of curiousity, but I was not that impressed... It might have some wear and/or ageing and/or my deck didn't handle it properly: a lot of wow & flutter, in spite of the metal shell. A 2 factual errors in the video I need to mention: 1) there is no such a thing as a cassette player that is incapable of playing back metal tapes! A common misconception on the internet! The tape formulation is only important when recording, as you said: metal tapes are more difficult to erase so need a much higher erase and bias current for recording. The only difference in playback is an equalisation setting between Type I & III vs Type II and IV (120 µS vs 70 µS). May prerecorded tapes have no indents in the case as they are recorded with 120 µS equalisation, regardless of the tape type used, better ones used chrome dioxide type (you can detect that by smell) but still use 120 µS equalisation and hence need to be played back with exactly the same settings as Type I tape. That's for better compatibility, although, I guess on a cassette player without equalisation setting, the playback quality might anyway be not high enough to hear the difference clearly... Recording onto these tapes (including the Ford one) with an auto-detect tape deck will yield bad results like insufficient erasing and distorted sound. 2) a small error in the erase protection switch on the Ford tape: you're actually saying it the wrong way around, when it came out of the box, you could record it (the tab closed), you turn it open (protected) and then say "I don't want to record on it" and turned it back... You may want to change that before uploading it to YouTube.

Definitely much better quality on the metal tapes, much more of the brushes on the percussion can be heard. Check "tape baking" to see if that can free up your stuck-together tape.

I haven't watched it yet but on the topic of tooth extraction, I need to get the 4 wisdom teeth out. No worries mate, a good pull and out. Yeah. Thanks doc, very reassuring. My parents got a Sony boom box with a cd player in ca. 91. It was to me black magic. I used it to copy tapes from cds, to my potable cassette player for years till I jumped to a portable CD player on oh... 2000 ish. And then I got to drive the hand me down car with a tape player. All the mech I had was cheap bottom of the barrel. So much so that auto reverse was the only feature I was aware of. So while I knew there were metal tapes, it was irrelevant for me. I have some now though

Nothing ever quite prepares you for an adult tooth extraction. You think "Ah yes, they'll fill me up with ALL the injections and drugs." And they do. When I had a tooth out back in 1996, I was shot full of so much stuff that had I been given any more, I would have lost the ability to blink. It was still the most painful thing that has ever happened to me in 50 years. Anyway, metal tapes. I have an unwrapped and unrecorded TDK MA-X 90 that's awaiting the right thing to record on it. It's been waiting for 4 years. I'm sure it'll happen one day.

The Quality of the Type 4 Recordings is much better. Much more Dynamics, much more highs, Smoother Bass. I am very much impressed by the difference in quality even through YouTube. If I had known this when I was still using cassettes. Now for me mixed tapes are recorded on minidiscs. Still or better again. ;) Thanks for your video and all the efforts put into it. And get well soon!

I worked at a radio station from the mid-80s to mid-90s. We played about 10 hours of jazz a day. I have to say I don’t know James Newton Howard by name, but what you shared definitely falls into the lamer end of jazz fusion from the era. Just inoffensive enough to use as a music bed under an announcer or, even better, a car stereo demo.

I had no idea about the different kind off tapes until i started watching this channel. to me it looked like marketing .

Looking through eBay. 1.) Most of the L Ron Hubbard material seems to be in the USA. 2.) Not all the tapes are Metal. You need to specifically check that Clearsound and TDK MA are mentioned on the back cover. I think Matt got the biggest bargain, unless all the bargains were snapped up in the last six hours.

Take care, get plenty of codeine for any trailing pain

I think I might have a sealed metal tape. I'm rich! Gonna get me an Aston Martin now! :P

+1 on the comment that type 2 and type 4 use the same setting for playback, it's just recordings that need something different between 2 and 4. I've had Walkman style devices in the past that had a 2 position switch labelled "normal" in one position and "chrome/metal" for the other position. So you might want to redo the test where you're flicking between type 2 and 4 as they're the same' Great video and an amazing revelation as to the source of metal tapes!

Hello Mat, sorry to hear about your dental problems. I have had some them myself recently. Hopefully that will be the end of them. Really enjoyed your video. I really enjoy cassettes. When I saw all the cassettes I said wow 🙂 great value. All the best Thanks

Getting teeth pulled is very unpleasant or worse for sure.

I haven't seen the full video but I do have one of these JBL packs with Axel F on it. https://postimg.cc/PPCVxrT0 For sale done dirt cheap along with tons of other good junk I don't want to throw away or move with me. 😂

My parents tried Amway for a few months before realizing what's bad about MLMs. They got a bunch of promotional/motivational cassettes when they joined. They were type 2 initially, but became metal when my sister and I bootlegged a bunch of Ozzy records off a friend

Nice find and great deal, or not....? Did you test all remaining tapes? Take a while...

Of course the tape snapped, the seismologists don't want you recording over their content.

Glad it worked out. When the public video is out I'll send it to Marc. I'm sure he'll get a kick out of you recycling the tapes he made.

Completely hilarious that you have L. Ron Hubbard to thank for a treasure trove of metal tapes. My jaw dropped when you opened the case. Maybe Scientology is good for something after all. I worshipped at the altar of BASF back in the day, so I bought many of their chrome tapes, but never a metal tape. Not sure if BASF ever made any. However, I did get metal tapes from TDK, Maxell and Radio Shack which had their own brand. Yes, I did record off FM radio. Yes, it was overkill, but I was the teen in the house recording everything. Mostly, though, I did use metal for LPs. I had done enough dubbing sessions that, even on our modest stereo equipment, my ears could hear the extra special something that metal tapes had. We didn't have a CD player at the time, though. So I missed out on an epic match up between CD and metal.

I recall first reading about metal tapes in the early 80s and wondering why they were considered a new innovation since tape had always been made with something that was (to my mind back then anyway) nothing more than iron dust?🤔 Whose tape is more dreadful to listen to: J. Newton Howard or L. Ron Hubbard? Would it be worth it to obtain a large quantity of Ford demonstration tapes and splice them together? Here's an opportunity to make a movie that's sure to be a hit with the fans of "Back To The Future" and "Stranger Things" in which Biff Tannen goes back to the 1980s and buys up loads of metal tapes which he then brings back to our present day and cashes in bigly. It's up to Doc and Marty McFly to defeat his dastardly scheme! 😉

With you on the teeth thing. (Yes, I’m English and I’ve got rubbish teeth just to confirm that American stereotype - the funniest image I saw bout that was in the Simpsons) My wisdom tooth snapped in half and the remains caused me an absolute nightmare. Anyway look after yourself Mat, so glad I’ve been along for the ride almost since the beginning 👍

Just a note regarding the tape length: If I remember correctly the real time counters on cassette deckes estimates the time based on the speed difference of the two reels, and when changing between different length of cassettes it takes some time for it to give accurate numbers. At least it did on my Technics deck back in the days. Based on that: don't trust the 35 minute number you got while fast forwarding the tape.

It would have been good if you'd recorded some YT audio library music on both a type 1 and those MA tapes at the end so we could hear the difference. It would have been a good way to cap the video off to show how much better it was.

That reminded me, I used to have a Readers Digest French course on tape, which came in a mini plastic briefcase (I never got passed the second tape). Looks like there's some on eBay but I can't see what the type of tape is. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/196446532805

Good video. I’m actually a fan of James Newton Howard, at least I was, but I totally get why you’d say it sounded like video game soundtracks. But cannibalizing some L. Ron Hubbard tapes is absolutely brilliant. Could you follow up on whether any other tapes snapped? I’d be curious. Teeth are the worst to mess with. Hope you feel better.

So do you like James Newton Howard and friends or not? You seem to be on the fence.

Metal (Type IV) tapes are designed to be played back with the same settings as Chrome (Type II). It's only recording that requires different settings (and a more capable record head and electronics that can handle the higher bias and signal levels needed). At least according to Wikipedia.

TDK tapes are the the 1980s.

The only think I used metal tapes for was making duplicating masters - partly for the quality but also there was a suggestion that they were more durable so would stand the repeated playback.

Sorry to hear about your dental palaver. Hope things are getting better. James Newton Howard is most famous for film music - Pretty Woman and The Fugitive being two examples, but he also worked with Hans Zimmer on the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy films. Although that tape you have sounded like horrid smooth jazz. Just needed Kenny G playing saxophone on top. 😬

I've had a root canal on the same tooth this week. I got the distinct feeling she didn't want to do it, she offered to take it out at every opportunity haha

Thanks Matt, there was something about unwrapping those tapes and getting that specific whiff of quality.

I know how you feel, not that that helps! Sorry about your unpleasant dental troubles. Hope that it heals up well and soon. And thanks for the video upload!