Datasette Questions

[randolph.pickle]

Hi everyone. This is my first post here.

I just won my new (to me) VIC-20 off of Ebay recently and can't wait to get into to it. However, I'm still not sure whether I'm going to use a datasette and cassette tapes, or an SD2IEC for storage. Supposing that I did decide to get a datasette, I'd like to have a few questions answered first.

- What kind of tape deck would be best for recording to and from my regular desktop computer?

- What's the best program available for Linux that converts TAP to WAV, WAV to TAP, and can extract PRG files from TAP files? Seems TAPir should do the job, though I haven't taken a good look at it.

- Does the datasette really need to be 2 feet away from the TV? I plan to use a pretty sizable analog TV from the early 2000's.

[beamrider]

Hi everyone. This is my first post here.

Welcome

I just won my new (to me) VIC-20 off of Ebay recently and can't wait to get into to it. However, I'm still not sure whether I'm going to use a datasette and cassette tapes, or an SD2IEC for storage. Supposing that I did decide to get a datasette, I'd like to have a few questions answered first.

- What kind of tape deck would be best for recording to and from my regular desktop computer?

Any reasonable quality deck should suffice, if it's stereo just use a single channel. You'll need to expeirment with recording levels.

- What's the best program available for Linux that converts TAP to WAV, WAV to TAP, and can extract PRG files from TAP files? Seems TAPir should do the job, though I haven't taken a good look at it.

I'm not a linux user, but the following page lists a few resources..
http://wav-prg.sourceforge.net/alternatives.html

- Does the datasette really need to be 2 feet away from the TV? I plan to use a pretty sizable analog TV from the early 2000's.

If you have a good quality recording and the tape heads are aligned correctly etc then no, otherwise yes, a large CRT TV can affect it.

[16KVIC20]

Firstly welcome, and well done for getting a VIC - 20.

Secondly, so far as recording .wav files etc from PC to tape I have never had much success. I did get a few titles to work, but there are so many ways it can go wrong. Unless I am much mistaken the VIC tape storage system is digital, whereas a regular tape deck is analogue. So for getting programs from the internet SD2IEC takes some beating.

As for the datasette being two feet away, I don't know if it's essential or not, but it's not difficult to achieve, the cable is pretty long.
These days my datasette is quite far from the TV, but back in the 80s, with my original VIC 20 (I'm on my fourth now!) I often used it with a B&W portable at my desk. I had plenty of LOAD errors, but I think that was more to do with tape azimuth adjustment than anything else.

If you have access to a C64 there is a tape head adjustment program which is pretty good. I used it to adjust both my datasette units (I have a Cream VIC20/C64 version and a black C16/Plus 4 version with adapter for VIC/64).

I like to use a datasette sometimes, it gives that real authentic 80s feel.

[beamrider]

Personally, if I wanted the tape loading experience, I would be inclined to use something like this rather than writing out tapes from the PC.. and keep the datasette for loading original games.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-Retail-Pa ... 1e952500ef

http://www.indieretronews.com/2014/09/u ... r-c64.html

..but most of the time I would still use an SDIEC

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Beige-SD2IEC- ... 4d0c56ddc8

[Misfit]

I bought this for my C16. http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage. ... _Id=424802
wav-prg http://wav-prg.sourceforge.net/
.. and smartphone

[randolph.pickle]

Thanks for the info guys.

I plan to use my VIC more for programming then gaming, so a setup that caters to just loading programs would be insufficient. I'm still pretty tempted though to use just a datasette for a more authentic experience... but, I suppose I need to think it over some more. The way people talk about them makes me think that they're pretty unreliable and just too much of a hassle.

[beamrider]

Not sure from reading your posts if you actually have one but if not I would definitely get a datasette for the sake of completeness of your setup but how much you will use it on a regular basis is another matter. Perhaps looking for a spare Vic setup of EBay with datasette and some original games would present better value than obtaining one standalone. As far as programming is concerned this is more easily done on a PC using an emulator and/or cross-compiler. Very few die-hards still develop on real hardware.

[orion70]

The topic was splitted. If you are interested in Manosoft's new Princess device (SD2IEC and TAP player), jump HERE.

[freshlamb]

Sorry for the lateness of this reply, but making copies of tapes from WAVs is a fickle business. Even if you are sure you have a datasette that is in good working order, there are a few hurdles to overcome. One is finding the right volume. For my old tape deck it seems that the volume must read around 0db at playback (meaning I have to record it at a higher volume). For those who used to record on tapes this goes against all the regular "rules" of recording as your playback is generally clipping and/or distorting. This is fine for Vic programs. Two My own program of choice for converting was AudioTap. The newest version I have doesn't seem to convert properly on Windows System 7 and 8. So used a computer with Windows XP and that worked. Three Because the datasette is mono and your tape player is stereo, you should only record on one track. As the left and right tracks on a tape are slightly out of phase to create nice sounding stereo, your vic does not like this. I tried the left side, but it didn't seem to work, I can only assume it is the outside track. So record on the right side. Four If you are able to get a visual of the waveform (audio programs such as Wavelab or video programs like Vegas) the first peak after the solid tone (approx 9s32) should start on a downswing. I hope I didn't miss any other important points. That princess thing looks pretty tempting!