Abstract: Magnetic recording elements which combine low modulation noise with excellent high frequency output and their process of preparation are disclosed. Such elements comprise a support having a surface with a peak-to-peak roughness up to about 0.5 micron, which surface is coated with a magnetic recording medium having a thickness in the range of 4 to about 20 microns. The magnetic recording medium comprises about 8 to 30 percent, by volume, of discrete, non-solid, nonmagnetizable voids that are substantially homogeneously dispersed therein. The magnetic recording medium also contains aligned and oriented acicular magnetizable particles dispersed in a magnetic recording layer which forms an outer surface of the magnetic recording element and has a surface smoothness, determined as percent contact area, of at least 86 percent, the ratio of the thickness of the magnetic recording medium to the peak-to-peak roughness of the support in the elements disclosed is at least 10.