One of these cassettes is a mysterious prerecorded tape without any cover, booklet, inlay or lable. Only a mysterious yellow post-it saying "Master 1 – 9248013” under the plexiglas. See both attachments.
It has no holes drilled in it so it can’t be recorded afterwards. Some investigation learned it is the “Supertramp - Brother where you bound” album with 6 songs with scrolling ITS Lyrics on DCC 730 , title, artist information. Total time album time as shown on display is 42:43. Song layout on the tape:
Side A
“Cannonball” 7:38
“Still in Love” 4:36
“No Inbetween” 4:36
“Better Days” 6:15
Side B
"[Brother Where You Bound] 16:30
“Ever Open Door” 3:06
On the DCC Museum - All DCC collections I learnt there are three demo DCC releases E, J and K. Since I have no idea if this DCC is one of those three releases or a total unknown one I reach out to a Marktplaats (Dutch eBay) seller offering the same kind of tape. He said that his version of the Supertramp Demo DCC has 10 songs, 5 on each side (1-6 are the same as listed above while 7-10 are the same as 1-4). I Also contacted the person from who I bought this mysterious tape. He told me that he got this master tape from a friend who (back then) worked at a studio here in the Netherlands.
So all in all very mysterious and I hope someone can help me out here. As always big thanks in advance for your response, questions, remarks and ideas !
Congratulations on that amazing find, I assume 92 means it is from 1992 which makes it the earliest variant! Would you be willing to lend it at some point when I finished a way to make bit-perfect dumps for comparing the details?
Hi,
The dcc museum has all of these versions. Most common is the English one. If yours is displaying English text on the 730/951 it is the E version. They are official test dcc releases by Philips, showcasing ITTS. Very good find. Congrats.
I did not understand why Max and the person I contacted via MP did refer to the year 1992? But today I noticed the catalog number on the right side of the DCC all releases overview. The three known ones all start with 93xxxxx while on my tape the yellow post it says 92xxxxx. Format is the same so based on that I have some questions (sorry ):
Any idea how I can check if this another version?
Is the catalog number also on the tape visible?
Any idea what the remaining numbers mean if the first two indicate the year?
Some investigation:
The tape has a white vilt pad (not sure if this reveals anything)? Was this common in 1992?
I also checked when post-it sticker hit the EU market, but it was introduced in 1981 (Wikipedia).
Well, I plan to compare it bit by bit with another version as soon as I complete a way to dump DCC tapes.
On a normal prerecorded tape, yes in ITTS currently only visible over the ITTS Videobox and I assume this is where “Brother Where You Bound E” is listed on @drdcc’s copies, right?
It is the English version for sure, otherwise you would not see English text on your display. There might be another language (Dutch), but for the real answer to most of your questions you would need to check it on the itts videobox.
, title, artist information. Total time album time as shown on display is 42:43. Song layout on the tape:
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