The Microcomputer User's Book of Tape Recording

Big K

Tony Tyler

It may come as a surprise to some of you characters, but words can exist in forms other than coalescences of pixels in a tasteful shade of amber. To renew our acquaintance with the olde worlde of vellum, cuttlefish ink and teams of monks labouring on multi-coloured character-sets, we pulled a few recently published books off the shelves. SLINKY BROWN STUFF SPECTRAVIDEO COMPUTING Ian Sinclair Granada £6.95 THE MICRO USER'S BOOK OF TAPE RECORDING Mike Salem Duckworth £2.95 Despite glowing reviews when they first appeared about six months ago, the Spectravideo range of computers (two, actually) have not yet exactly taken off like polecats. Perhaps, as MSX draws near, their time will come. In the meantime Granada, clearly with one eye on MSX, have issued a decent first-user manual for the cheaper Spectra machine, written by the respected Ian Sinclair (no relation). It's an honest and reasonably thorough piece of work, no frills, and I like the way Sinclair owned up to the fact that he'd found no way to re-program the function keys. Assuming tape recording is your thing and the sight of reels rotating sends you into spasms of ecstasy, Mike Salem's lot (geddit?) of knowledge on the subject should fill you with joy. Mysterious sub-topics like Head Azimuth Angle and Cassette Interface Waveforms - all perfectly useful stuff, I'll be bound - grace the 90 pages of this slimline but learned little tome. Scrap that disc! Dump that EPROM! Cassette and all other forms of slinky brown stuff are here to stay. At least, if they're not, then Mike Salem is in bad trouble.

Sinclair User

HILDERBAY AIMING AT TAPE USERS Hilderbay, which specialises in business programs, has produced three products for the tape user. The first and easiest to use is a level meter which allows you to LOAD the programs at a constant level and to identify tape defects. such as sudden changes in level. The second is a book which explains how to get the best from your tape recorder and even hints on which one to buy. It also contains some very good tips on loading "unloadable" tapes. The third is a test tape which can be used to tune your tape recorder to its peak. That means that you may have to use a screwdriver but that is nothing to the confidence it gives you to know that it is not your tape recorder causing the problem. All the products are first-class and very easy to use. The meter costs £5.95, the book £2.90 and the tape £4.90. Hilderbay also sells a tape recorder aligned and tested for £24. All prices include VAT and are post free. Hilderbay is at [redacted].

Aids to good tape use from Hilderbay.