Cassette Tapes

[beanbag]

I read this article in BBC News this morning and thought this was merely a piece of marketing for the company in question.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22533522

I haven't used a tape in years. 8 track yes, but I don't think I've used crappy cassette tapes for over 15 years. Probably more.

Tapes are rubbish. They always were. They sound crap and I don't know of a single "purist" that uses them. Vinyl yes. They sound wonderful. Tapes. Never.

......or maybe I'm completely wrong?

[qube_TA]

They were never designed to sound good, they eventually sounded quite good with the later high-end decks and tapes.

I have loads of music still on them that I occasionally play for nostalgic purposes but they do sound a lot less good than I remember.

[captainzep]

It was more what they enabled you to do at the time i.e. record with a push of one solitary button. There was no iPlayer in the 80's.

A cheapy midi hi-fi allowed you to put vinyl onto a cassette to play in the car, pirate all your mates' cassettes, share your own, make mix tapes, instantly tape a show or just a single song from the radio.

Yes they'd unravel into your new Alpine head unit or melt into funny shapes on a hot day, but they did an important job in the absence of better technology.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

In their day they were brill! As said, borrow others' music, tape it & play it in your car. (Car was so noisy full fidelity was not required!)

[GAjon]

They did do one thing though more than any other type of format.
You were kind of forced to listen right through things cos they were such a pain to fast forward and rewind.

But crap all the same.

[AndyNetwork]

GAjon said:

They did do one thing though more than any other type of format.
You were kind of forced to listen right through things cos they were such a pain to fast forward and rewind.

But crap all the same.

Later cassette decks allowed you to fast forward by track, I remember having it in my Vauxhall. I believe it listened for the gap between tracks. It worked ok, until you played something like War of the Worlds or Oxygene where one track runs straight into the next, or something recorded from a scratched record where there was noise recorded between the tracks.

[Prawnboy]

tapes had there place, as with constant playing they would stretch slightly and detune so the music sounded heavier.
nothing like an old tape copy of a great metal album.

didn't really work for other musical genres though.

[captainzep]

AndyNetwork said:

Later cassette decks allowed you to fast forward by track, I remember having it in my Vauxhall. I believe it listened for the gap between tracks. It worked ok, until you played something like War of the Worlds or Oxygene where one track runs straight into the next, or something recorded from a scratched record where there was noise recorded between the tracks.

I had an Aiwa mini-hifi that did that -I even remember reading the instructions to program-in taping a radio show whilst I was out of the house utilising the incredible auto-reverse deck technology.

[beanbag]

Yup, I agree they had their place and that's fine, but it's a little like saying there are VHS video tape purists. VHS had its place but was ultimately st technology. Especially when compared to Betamax.

I find the article annoying as it's clearly a marketing ad from the BBC with no ability to comment.

Still. High-speed dubbing was awesome as a kid growing up.

[qube_TA]

My old deck wasn't bad in its day, a Denon DRM800



Might play some old Friday Rock show tapes tonight now.

"ROCK, WITH TOMMY VANCE!!!!!"

[daveydave7]

I had lots of stuff on cassette
Managed to buy around 40 TDK SA chrome type things and used them in my high end deck making recordings from CD's from the library to be blunt they sounded great then and saved me loads of money. I had a high end Walkman too and that sounded good too.
Items of their time

[beanbag]

qube_TA said:

My old deck wasn't bad in its day, a Denon DRM800



Might play some old Friday Rock show tapes tonight now.

"ROCK, WITH TOMMY VANCE!!!!!"

They were all good back in the day but compare that against even the crappiest MP3 and the MP3 will win hands down.

You should still play your Rock show tapes anyway.....with a beer. And a truckers hat. In 80's gear.

[jmorgan]

Still have my Sony sommitoranother up the attic, might even be a twin deck jobby, been that long since I bothered with it. One or two Walkmans kicking around up there as well keeping the spiders busy. Problem is they were handy for music on the go, record player was for the home, the tape deck was for the mobile stuff (for me anyway). Music on the go now, no matter what the arguments with quality, it is quantity I think. No more 90 min or 120 or ferric oxide or unobtanium etc etc trying to edit out chunks to fit the tape and all that. Just dump it to the player.

Digital has won despite small stuff like this I suppose? Irony is I use the tape player in the car to plug the iPod in.

[qube_TA]

beanbag said:

qube_TA said:

My old deck wasn't bad in its day, a Denon DRM800



Might play some old Friday Rock show tapes tonight now.

"ROCK, WITH TOMMY VANCE!!!!!"

They were all good back in the day but compare that against even the crappiest MP3 and the MP3 will win hands down.

You should still play your Rock show tapes anyway.....with a beer. And a truckers hat. In 80's gear.

Yeah, in its day you could record a CD and be convinced it sounded identical to the original, however doing so now reveals how limited the format was.

Still, miles better than MiniDisc and DCC

[Evangelion]

High-speed dubbing was awful because it removed all the top frequencies resulting in a muddy copy.

A couple of years ago I had a BMW with a cassette player as well as CD, so for the first six months I owned it, I was rediscovering loads of cassettes I hadn't played for twenty or so years. I realised that so many of my older albums were on tape only, that I've now bought a Sony Walkman that I can plug into the mp3 socket on my current car. A case of the new technology rescuing the old.

My brother recently remarked, "Ten years ago we were all busily copying CD's onto cassette so we could play them in the car, now it's the other way round." I can't do that, I've got so many I'd be in my box before I'd finished!

[qube_TA]

I wonder how good these sound now, were very desirable back in t' day:




http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nakamichi-Dragon-Cassett...

Edited by qube_TA on Monday 20th May 17:30

[jmorgan]

That was the ultimate dream when I were lad.... well, 20 something lad.

[daveydave7]

the pigs still use cassettes in the interview rooms don't they ?

[FlossyThePig]

daveydave7 said:

the pigs still use cassettes in the interview rooms don't they ?

Speaking from experience?

[daveydave7]

FlossyThePig said:

Speaking from experience?

listen honk box it is on the telly all the time and not just in reruns of inspector morse ?
So do the porkers still use them
Neac I think they are