Luddite corner - who's still using compact cassette?
Discussion
Just spent a happy hour dusting off and recommissioning my old Teac V5000, that has been in the loft for at least 5 years and was probably unused for 5 years prior to that but taking up valuable rack space (now in a secondary office system feeding a nice little Icon 'stereo 20' valve amp alongside other vintage goodies comprising a Teac T-R450 tuner, and a Sony CDP761E CD player via a Creek OBH-22 passive pre-amp the gives me remote volume for all sources) - why did we ever give up on cassette? Sounds great with some dodgy Candy Dulfer 90's euro-jazz sax blasting out! 
Boxes of stuff I recorded to work through and no idea on what's on lots of 'em...
Boxes of stuff I recorded to work through and no idea on what's on lots of 'em...
Why did we ever give up with cassette.......... jamming, stretched, having to manually respole them ...... never liked beer spilt on them, deteriated with time left in glove box or seat of car....the list goes on.....
BUT ...fond memories of making mix tapes for diffrent occassions, looked at is an art form..... getting the mix right for parties, common room, holidays, cars....... I was a superstar dj in bedroom, guessing how people would react and how long my tape would stay in the player before someone would take it out and put theirs in with backing of others around...... digital killed that.
BUT ...fond memories of making mix tapes for diffrent occassions, looked at is an art form..... getting the mix right for parties, common room, holidays, cars....... I was a superstar dj in bedroom, guessing how people would react and how long my tape would stay in the player before someone would take it out and put theirs in with backing of others around...... digital killed that.
I think I played my Depeche Mode: The Singles 81>85 until the tape snapped 
But the annoying search mode on car decks that worked on the silent part and always missed it so you spent hours going forward/back to find it.
Then the stupid deck would reverse so you could not remember if forward was actually reverse and if the tape was tight they would reverse anyhow.
And when it was really cold the tape used to stick/jam in the car! You would eject and you just knew it would all come streaming out
But I do miss them. Somehow CD just does not have that magic.
But the annoying search mode on car decks that worked on the silent part and always missed it so you spent hours going forward/back to find it.
Then the stupid deck would reverse so you could not remember if forward was actually reverse and if the tape was tight they would reverse anyhow.
And when it was really cold the tape used to stick/jam in the car! You would eject and you just knew it would all come streaming out
But I do miss them. Somehow CD just does not have that magic.
NDA said:
The HOURS that I spent putting every album on TDK SA90's.
And then mini disc.
And then mini disc.
I have a Sony car 10 CD multichange with a minidisc on the head unit. I also have a minidisc recorder as well.Rather died a death didnt it?
Anyone tried/owned/own a DAT recorder? Are they any good?
Pupp said:
Creek OBH-22 passive pre-amp
I've got the OBH-12 - just the same except with only 2 line-ins rather than 3. Absolutely brilliant bit of kit! 
I run mine with a Cyrus 7 Cd player an old Bowers and Wilkins Active1 speakers (from before they became B&W). Simple setup, but great sound!
Morningside said:
Anyone tried/owned/own a DAT recorder? Are they any good?
My old man's got one, a Sony, although I don't know what exact model. I'll get back to you on this!It is very very good though, even though it's getting on a bit now and getting hold of tapes for it can be difficult.
Back O/T, having grown up with cassette tapes, I do kinda miss them. There was something about them, fairly hard to describe, how you load them up and then have to engage them by closing the door. Something about the sound that made, and the feel of pressing the door home. More physical than just dropping a CD onto a tray I guess.
They could be horribly infuriating though, long periods of FF/RW to get to a song you liked, then having to jockey back and forth to find the start. And you lived in dread of the day when it would chew up your favourite tape!
I still use my tape recorder. But mainly for quick dubbing of something off the radio. If I'm doing stuff and the radio is on and I can hit record and carry on what I'm doing instead of looking for a pen and paper or firing up the laptop or shazamming it on the phone.
Got a DAT machine from my old studio days. It was ok for that but never used it for anything else.
Got a R2R as well. Hardly ever used it but it looked pretty cool in the studio and it did add a nice warmth to certain recordings.
Had a MD player as well but I found that to be more trouble than it was worth. I don't know if it was me but mine would constantly corrupt. I didn't like the way it compressed the audio either. With CD and tape you could usually within reason anticipate what to expect when recording to those mediums but with MD it just sounded off. I liked the idea but it just never really worked for me.
Got a DAT machine from my old studio days. It was ok for that but never used it for anything else.
Got a R2R as well. Hardly ever used it but it looked pretty cool in the studio and it did add a nice warmth to certain recordings.
Had a MD player as well but I found that to be more trouble than it was worth. I don't know if it was me but mine would constantly corrupt. I didn't like the way it compressed the audio either. With CD and tape you could usually within reason anticipate what to expect when recording to those mediums but with MD it just sounded off. I liked the idea but it just never really worked for me.
Well I have just sorted through a load of cassettes and found some real treasure; long forgotten. Including a Radio One outside broadcast recording of Massive Attack touring Mezzanine at the Royal Albert Hall; probably one of the best gigs I have ever attended.
Amazed at how acceptable most of the stuff I've tried sounds too
Amazed at how acceptable most of the stuff I've tried sounds too
Pupp said:
Morningside said:
Sounds like a good collection. Are you now going to transfer them to computer or CD?
Probably not; quite like the act of using the Teac player as it's a quality bit of kit. Much 'woodier' than an i-pod! 
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