That means with prerecorded tapes you can search by title, because the player can retrieve the entire list of titles from everywhere on the tape. By contrast, super-user tapes cannot be searched by title because the recorder can only retrieve the title of each song at the start of that particular song. Also, as far as I know, the tape title and artist name cannot be recorded by any current recorder except the DCC175 (and only if you connect it to a PC, and the DCC175 can't display text data on super user tapes) and most recorders have limitations on the characters you can enter for the song title (for example, only capital A-Z, 0-9, + - and *). The limit of the song title, artist name and tape title is 40 characters each.

If you want to try it yourself in spite of this, here are some tips:

• Use a chrome tape; the Magneto-Resistive heads can't record well on metal tape, how unlikely this may seem. Fuji and TDK SA-X give the best results according to those who have tried.
• Use a new cassette if possible; an old tape may have been damaged or stretched slightly by a bad analog recorder.
• Drill the holes (you need at least two) in such a way that no debris ends up inside the cassette. Use a piercer instead of a drill, and/or hold the cassette upside down while you're doing it.
• Remember that the recording-blocking taps work reversely for DCC: hole=record; tap=protect.
• Don't record anything valuable on a fake DCC: even if you don't get drop-outs right away, the recording may deteriorate rapidly for various reasons: tape quality (mechanical as well as magnetic), cassette quality (mostly the pressure pad behind the tape), recorder state (dirty heads) etc.

If you want to clean the heads of your stationary recorder, you'll have to open it up (unless it's a portable where the heads are easily accessible) and clean them carefully with a soft cloth and a bit of alcohol. Don't use a swab or spirit because that may leave more dirt behind than it cleans up.