I decided to have a ‘DCC September’: record 31 DCC tapes in one month, one per day. So far I already recorded 20, and here are my findings in no particular order. Consider them ‘DCC fun facts’, and if they spark a discussion, that would be great.
The primary purpose of recording DCC tapes for me is to listen to them at home and in a car, where I have a Philips DCC822 installed. I recorded tapes on three machines: DCC900, DCC951 and on a DCC175 from a PC. On decks I used a modern digital audio player with an SPDIF out as a source. On to the findings:
- I mostly recorded on used tapes. The main challenge (apart from random glitches of Philips decks) is the fact that these used tapes are dirty. I now understand that this is thanks to a previous owner mixing analog cassettes and DCC tapes. The state of these used tapes varies, and I struggled a lot with a few of them.
It’s not difficult to clean the felt pad, however, the problem is sticky goo that attaches to random spots on a tape and results in ‘squeaky noises’ (and inability to record properly) even after I cleaned the pad. My approach is to listen to tapes one, two or even three times, looking for squealing, dropouts, especially sticky areas that force the machine to reverse to the other side. When these dirty areas are found, I clean the pad, gently clean the tape and run it again until there are no symptoms anymore. The majority of tapes I was able to revive, except for one, where the sticky syndrome apparently happened to the internal felt pad. I dedicated a separate deck that lost capability to record the 9th track for these cleaning actions.
- I noticed that the DCC175 (and also the DCC170) cannot often properly erase the service track of some used tapes. This results in a perfect recording, but no timer. This is a particularly bad outcome for a Philips DCC822 car stereo: I noticed that when it loses the timer, it forces the fast forward action until it finds it again, anywhere on the tape. This renders the tape unusable.
I don’t know what is the cause of this (head wear, but the same on two different portables? capacitors? wrong recording current? it affects only Side A, by the way), but I noticed that on a virgin tape the DCC175 records well. So (thanks to the advice from a fellow DCC user) I purchased a rather bulky demagnetizer from Aliexpress. 2-3 minutes of demagnetizing, and the tape loses all recorded content. The service menu of the DCC951 indicates that there is no recording, apart from tiny ‘blips’ of data on random tracks every 10-20 seconds. This erased tape records perfectly now on a DCC175. I apply this method to all tapes, after cleaning, so that there is no previous recording left anywhere.
- To prepare tapes for recording from a PC I use the stock DCC2WAV utility from Philips. I run it in a Windows XP 32bit virtual machine on a modern computer. I prepare the tracks for it by converting them to WAV (44Khz/16bit only), turn on ‘Adaptive Encoding’ and start bulk conversion. This method processes an hour of data in roughly 10-15 minutes, which is fast enough.
After that, I copy the output to a Windows 98 machine via network, create a new compilation in DCC Studio where I manually enter tags. I then save the compilation and start the recording on a DCC175.
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I did not find a proper way to record DCC tapes from a PC, where content on side B is longer than on Side A. There are two approaches to recording on a DCC: “Start new side” and “Continue B”. The former winds the tape to the beginning of Side B and starts from there. The latter changes to Side B immediately. Apparently, DCC Studio knows only the “Continue B” method. There is an option of recording a set of tracks, starting from a previous marker on a tape with an existing recording, but I decided to only record tapes where “Continue B” is applicable. When the “Start new side” is necessary, I record manually on a DCC951.
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I suspect that the DCC Studio somewhat breaks compatibility with the DCC900 with the timing track. After I record a tape with DCC Studio and insert it into DCC900, there is no timer. The timer is only displayed when the track marker is present, and even then it is displayed for 2-3 seconds and then vanishes. The same tape on a DCC951 behaves differently: it always displays an absolute time and also displays track time when the marker has been read. Could this be a flaw in a DCC175? A change in approach? A mistake in software? I don’t know.
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The small fact that I especially enjoy is that a DCC822 car stereo displays track titles recorded via DCC Studio or on a DCC951. Unlike the portables, or 1st gen decks, it can read those tags.
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After recording on a DCC175 via DCC Studio one extra step is required. At the end of the recording on side B DCC Studio records a simple stop marker. Using a DCC951 I change it to ‘Goto Start A’, so that during playback the device automatically winds the tape to the beginning.
Overall, this recording experience is a bit of a struggle. I ran into some issues, but regardless of that, I could record quite a few tapes with reliable results. Thanks for reading!
