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Information about Microcassette

Microcassette

A Microcassette is significantly smaller than a Compact Cassette
Media type:Magnetic tape
Encoding:Analog signal
Capacity:MC60 (30 min per side at 2.4 cm/s)
MC15
MC30
MC90
Read mechanism:Tape head
Write mechanism:Magnetic recording head
Developed by:Olympus
Usage:Dictation, audio storage


A Microcassette (often written generically as microcassette) is an audio storage medium introduced by Olympus in 1969. It uses the same width of magnetic tape as the Compact Cassette but in a much smaller container. By using thinner tape and half or a quarter the tape speed, microcassettes can offer comparable recording time to the compact cassette. The original standard microcassette, the MC60, gives 30 minutes recording per side at its standard speed of 2.4 cm/s, and double that duration at 1.2 cm/s. Unlike the Compact Cassette, a choice of recording speeds was provided on the original recorders and many others; the tape also spools in the opposite direction, from right to left. For transcription purposes, continuously variable speed was provided on many players.

Enlarge picture
Three devices which use microcassettes
Microcassettes have mostly been used for recording voice. In particular, it is commonly used in dictaphones and answering machines. However, it has also been used as a medium for computer data storage, and as a medium for recording music. For the latter purpose, devices for recording microcassettes in stereo were produced in 1982 and, for higher fidelity, microcassettes using metal tape were sold. This was an attempt by Olympus to cash in on the burgeoning Walkman market, but the limited fidelity and high price of the equipment meant that these units were phased out within 24 months. One model, the Olympus SR-11 even had a built-in FM tuner, and a stereo tie-clip stereo microphone was sold as an accessory for it, which was popular with concert-goers who would record the concerts.

Comparable products to the microcassette include the minicassette, produced by Philips, and the picocassette, produced by Dictaphone. Of the three formats, the microcassette was the most common. In 1992, Sony released the NT memo recording system which employs a small cassette, but records digitally.

See also inches per second and audio tape length and thickness for comparisons with other media.

Trivia

  • In the Saw Film Series, Jigsaw and his apprentice Amanda use these audio tapes to deliver messages to their test subjects.
  • In the TV series and toy line The Transformers, the Decepticon Soundwave transforms into a Microcassete recorder. Between 1984 and 1988, as many as 10 Decepticons and 6 Autobots were made to disguise themselves as microcasettes, plus an additional 4 Autobots exclusive to Japan.

External links and references

 •  • [ e]
Audio format
Analog
Phonograph cylinder (1877) • Gramophone record (1895) • Wire recording (1898) • Reel-to-reel tape (1940s) • SoundScriber (1945) • Gray Audograph (1945) • Dictabelt (1947) • Microgroove record (1948) • RCA tape cartridge (1958) • Fidelipac (1959) • Stereo-Pak (1962) • Compact Cassette (1963) and cassette single (1982) • Stereo 8 (1964) • PlayTape (1966) • Mini Cassette (1967) • Microcassette (1969) • Steno-Cassette (1971) • Elcaset (1976) • Picocassette (1985)
Digital
Soundstream (1976) • 3M (1979) • X80/ProDigi (1980) • DASH (1982) • Compact Disc (1982) • Digital Audio Tape (1987) • ADAT (1991) • MiniDisc (1991) • Digital Compact Cassette (1992) • Extended Resolution Compact Disc (1995) • High Definition Compatible Digital (1995) • 5.1 Music Disc (1997) • Super Audio CD (1999) • DVD-Audio (2000)
Compact Cassette

Typical 60-minute Compact Cassette
Media type: magnetic tape
Encoding: analog signal
Capacity: 23 minutes per side (C46)
30 minutes per side (C60)
45 minutes per side (C90)
50 minutes per side (C100)
60 minutes per side (C120)
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Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic recording generally consisting of a thin magnetizable coating on a long and narrow strip of plastic. Nearly all recording tape is of this type, whether used for recording audio or video or for computer data storage.
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Encoding is the process of transforming information from one format into another. The opposite operation is called decoding.

There are a number of more specific meanings that apply in certain contexts:

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An analog or analogue signal is any time continuous signal where some time varying feature of the signal is a representation of some other time varying quantity. It differs from a digital signal in that small fluctuations in the signal are meaningful.
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1 centimetre =
SI units
010−3 m 0 mm
US customary / Imperial units
010−3 ft 0 in
A centimetre (American spelling: centimeter, symbol cm
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second (SI symbol: s), sometimes abbreviated sec., is the name of a unit of time, and is the International System of Units (SI) base unit of time.

SI prefixes are frequently combined with the word second to denote subdivisions of the second, e.g.
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Happy", "Cupid" and "Hate You" and Ty Tabor brought "Ocean" to the Tapehead recording sessions.
  • All other songs were band created during the recording session - a song a day for 14 days.
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    • magnetism is one of the phenomena by which materials exert attractive or repulsive forces on other materials. Some well known materials that exhibit easily detectable magnetic properties (called magnets) are nickel, iron and their alloys; however, all materials are influenced to
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    A recording head is the physical interface between a recording apparatus and a moving recording medium. Recording heads are generally classified according to the physical priniciple that allows them to impress their data upon their medium.
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    Olympus Corporation
    オリンパス株式会社

    Corporation TYO: 7733
    Founded Tokyo, Japan (1919)
    Founder Takeshi Yamashita[1]
    Headquarters Tokyo, Japan
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    Dictation can refer to:
    • Dictation (exercise), when one person speaks while another person transcribes what is spoken.
    • A dictation machine, a device used to record this speech for transcription.

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    Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, usually used for the voice or for music.

    The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording.
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    Olympus Corporation
    オリンパス株式会社

    Corporation TYO: 7733
    Founded Tokyo, Japan (1919)
    Founder Takeshi Yamashita[1]
    Headquarters Tokyo, Japan
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    19th century - 20th century - 21st century
    1930s  1940s  1950s  - 1960s -  1970s  1980s  1990s
    1966 1967 1968 - 1969 - 1970 1971 1972

    Also:
    *:1969 (number)
    *:

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    Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic recording generally consisting of a thin magnetizable coating on a long and narrow strip of plastic. Nearly all recording tape is of this type, whether used for recording audio or video or for computer data storage.
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Compact Cassette

    Typical 60-minute Compact Cassette
    Media type: magnetic tape
    Encoding: analog signal
    Capacity: 23 minutes per side (C46)
    30 minutes per side (C60)
    45 minutes per side (C90)
    50 minutes per side (C100)
    60 minutes per side (C120)
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    human voice consists of sound made by a human using the vocal folds for talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming etc. The vocal folds, in combination with the lips, the tongue, the lower jaw, and the palate, are capable of producing highly intricate arrays of sound.
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    Dictaphone was an American company, a producer of dictation machines —sound recording devices most commonly used to record speech for later playback or to be typed into print.
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    An answering machine, also known as an answerphone, ansaphone or ansafone (especially in UK and British commonwealth countries) or telephone answering device (TAD
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    computer is a machine which manipulates data according to a list of instructions.

    Computers take numerous physical forms. The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century (around 1940 - 1941), although the computer concept and various machines
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    Data storage can refer to:
    • Computer data storage; memory, components, devices and media that retain digital computer data used for computing for some interval of time.

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    Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism.
    If you are prevented from editing this page, and you wish to make a change, please discuss changes on the talk page, request unprotection, log in, or .
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    Stereophonic sound, commonly called stereo, is the reproduction of sound, using two or more independent audio channels, through a symmetrical configuration of loudspeakers, in such a way as to create a pleasant and natural impression of sound heard from various directions,
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    • High fidelity, or hi-fi, is a term which generally refers to high audio quality.
    High Fidelity may also refer to:
    • High Fidelity (magazine), a U.S.

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    Mini Cassette

    Media type: magnetic tape
    Encoding: analog signal
    Capacity: 30 minutes
    Read mechanism: tape head
    Write mechanism: magnetic recording head
    Developed by: Philips
    Usage: dictation
    The Mini Cassette, often written minicassette
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    Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Royal Philips Electronics)

    Public (Euronext: PHIA , NYSE:  PHG )
    Founded 1891 Eindhoven
    Headquarters Amsterdam, the Netherlands

    Key people Gerard Kleisterlee, CEO
    Industry Electronics
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    Picocassette is an audio storage medium introduced by Dictaphone in collaboration with JVC in 1985. It is approximately half the size of the previous Microcassette, and was intended for highly portable dictation devices.
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Dictaphone was an American company, a producer of dictation machines —sound recording devices most commonly used to record speech for later playback or to be typed into print.
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    19th century - 20th century - 21st century
    1960s  1970s  1980s  - 1990s -  2000s  2010s  2020s
    1989 1990 1991 - 1992 - 1993 1994 1995

    Year 1992 (MCMXCII
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    Sony Corporation
    ソニー株式会?

    Public (TYO: 6758 ; NYSE:  SNE )
    Founded May 7 1946 (adopted current name in 1958) by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita[1]
    Headquarters Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan[1]
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