As I mentioned previously, I started recording again this past week. Nothing official, just demoing songs to see if anything works.

But I came upon a major glitch today.

Basically, for the past ten years or so, I've been using Maxell XL-II high bias tapes for pretty much all of my blank tape needs. During the middle 90's, they were the de-facto standard in the tape trading world. (Anything else might earn you a nice stern response from your fellow taper.) Mainly, it was because they were reliable and had a nice fidelity response.

Before then, I used TDK SA-90s for the same purpose. But that didn't last very long. An early mix tape that I made broke within the first month of play, and another mix recorded not long after suddenly came up with massive drop-outs. I was not at all reluctant to accept the recommendation of a friend and switch to the Maxells.

For probably the last eight years, I've been buying the Maxells at Sam's Club, where they've been dirt cheap. Only, a few months ago, they decided to stop carrying the high-bias tapes, and now only have the cheaper normal bias tapes.

I mentioned this problem in passing to my mother (since she bought them occasionally, too) some time ago. And, being the kind soul that she is, she picked up a block of TDK SA-90's for me the next time she needed tapes for herself. I set them aside for a while, figuring I'd use them when I ran out of the Maxells.

Well, that day finally arrived last week as I started recording again. Figuring that they had to have improved after ten years, I opted to go with the TDKs rather than use the last two Maxells that I had. So I cracked open the pack, threw in a tape, and recorded several songs back-to-back. A couple of songs in, it seemed like everything was as usual.

A couple of days later, while working on second guitar parts, I noticed that the guitar tracks had little wavering at certain points. Almost as if the tape was dragging. At first, I ignored it, and assumed that it was just a fault in the way I had miked the guitar - that it would be covered up by the reverb when I did the final mix.

That was, until today. When I recorded the second guitar part to a certain song and played it back, it was a complete mess. It sounded like it had been recorded on a cheap boombox circa 1986.

Terrified that something might be wrong with my four-track, I grabbed a TDK D-90 (normal bias) that I'd been screwing around with on the four-track and threw down a scratch take of the same song. And it sounded clean, exactly as it was supposed to. (Strangely, that D-90 is about eight years old, yet produced a better quality result than a new high-bias tape from the same company. Go figure.)

I tried every old-school trick in the book to make those SA-90s usable, but nothing worked. I think they're just wound too tight. But it basically means that everything I recorded since last Monday is worthless. (I'm going to stash the remainder of the pack in my parents' "tape drawer". Well, it's either that or huck them out the window.)

Then came the adventure - finding more Maxells.

I know that the world has basically become a CD-R haven in the last few years, but it hadn't really dawned on me the impact that it would have on tape availability. I figured that it would be just as easy as running to Best Buy and buying a pack. Let's just say, I was wrong.

At Best Buy, they only had two packages of audio tape. One was a set of 60-minute Sony normal-bias, the other was a pack of TDK D-120s. For the record, D-120s were the Top Ramen of the tape world ten years ago, and I can't imagine them being any better now. And, seriously, what they had was a twenty pack. (You shouldn't pay more than two bucks for a twenty pack of D-120s. Yep, they're that bad.)

Next stop, Circuit City. All they had were two packs of Memorex tapes. And I'd had less success with Memorex (though, admittedly, more than ten years ago) than with the SA-90s. I had no intention of trying that again.

Media Play saved my slowly dissolving day. Not that their supply was much better, but at least they had XL-IIs. I bought one pack, figuring that's all I'll need. (I have a feeling I'll regret that in a few months.)

So I get to start over recording tomorrow. Yay.

Anyway, the next time you wonder who the heck is still buying tapes (and, believe me, I've asked myself that question repeatedly in the last five years), think of me. Cause I might be the last one.