[Technology] Music Cassette Tapes

[BadFish]

I still have my Minidisk portable players and a Tascam MiniDisk recorder. When the world was normal and I travelled to London for work I would still use them. It would confuse young people when I changed the disk

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I've still got my portable minidisc player. They still sound good.

Always preferred them to CD's for my portable music. Records for home.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I genuinely think there's something psychologically satisfying about the whole process. Its so remvoed from clicking a few buttons and adding something to a play list. Recording things off the radio, or copying from another tape to make your playlist is a physical process, you're actually making something. I'm feeling really nostalgic about that.

I still get that thrill from making CDs

 

[zefarelly]

The only cassettes I have kept are a few odd compilations from early days working in Jump the Gun, one I made for the wife when we met, and a special box of band demos and sgig recordings etc . . .which I have been slowly digitising.

I still have a tape deck in my hifi, rarely used TBH, I also have a Sony Walkman which records as well, got it new in '99!

 

[DIFFBROOK]

I used to love making up my own mixes. In my early teens I did not have a music centre that could copy direct from vinyl to tape, but rather separate systems. I even had a mono record player for awhile and would put my tape recorder next to it. All would be well, until my mum shouted upstairs that it was time for dinner. Time to start again.

One of the best Xmas presents I had was an all in one stereo system. Then it was bliss listening to my mixes of my favourite vinyl tracks - copying every hiss, scratch and jump

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I dug out some old tapes recently and started recording them using Garage band. The play button on my deck won't stay on though.

I was looking at those tape to USB things, has anyone used one?

Yes I have one. The 'level' is good but the quality isn't great. I also have some software that is quite good. My recommendation now would be to buy a lead that take signal out of (presumably) an old casette player into a laptop via USB and some software.

However, all the conversion is in real time, so it takes ages. I did a bit, and may try again with my bag of tapes after I have retired, but really I am finding so much rare stuff on youtube that why bother. If you google youtube to mp3, you can find online converters....I won't elaborate for obvious reasons.

For me, John Peel sessions were what I was after and youtube is absolutely awash with them these days.

 

[BadFish]

Yes I have one. The 'level' is good but the quality isn't great. I also have some software that is quite good. My recommendation now would be to buy a lead that take signal out of (presumably) an old casette player into a laptop via USB and some software.

However, all the conversion is in real time, so it takes ages. I did a bit, and may try again with my bag of tapes after I have retired, but really I am finding so much rare stuff on youtube that why bother. If you google youtube to mp3, you can find online converters....I won't elaborate for obvious reasons.

For me, John Peel sessions were what I was after and youtube is absolutely awash with them these days.

Thanks, The quality I was getting through garage band was good. I've inputs from recording bits of music.

The main things I want to record are some old band practices and demos. Obviously can't get them anywhere else.

Thanks for the advice though, I will keep an eye out for a second hand tape deck with a working play button.

 

[Braggfan]

I still get that thrill from making CDs

Yeah in fairness you can still do that with CD's. Probably because it's still a physical process. I imagine a lot of kids would look at cd's and cassettes in much the same way.

This thread got me thinking about my favourite mix tape's from the past. The best one I received was from an ex, who I was so in tune with an dher choices of songs are amazing. I loved listening to that tape.

I was slightly surprised though when I worked out that she gave that to me in 2002. I just assumed it was earlier than that. The more I think about it, the world has changed so much in the last 20 to 25 years. Gradual little steps, that you don't even notice but then suddenly refelcting on something as simple as mix tapes and you realise just how different everything is.

 

[zefarelly]

Thanks, The quality I was getting through garage band was good. I've inputs from recording bits of music.

The main things I want to record are some old band practices and demos. Obviously can't get them anywhere else.

Thanks for the advice though, I will keep an eye out for a second hand tape deck with a working play button.

for recording my tapes, I used a focusrite audio interface, then strasight into garage band . . . . then took all the WAV files to a studio ( yougig.co) and remastered, I was bloody amazed how good some of them are, sound quality wise for gigs in pubs 30 years ago!

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Yeah in fairness you can still do that with CD's. Probably because it's still a physical process. I imagine a lot of kids would look at cd's and cassettes in much the same way.

This thread got me thinking about my favourite mix tape's from the past. The best one I received was from an ex, who I was so in tune with an dher choices of songs are amazing. I loved listening to that tape.

I was slightly surprised though when I worked out that she gave that to me in 2002. I just assumed it was earlier than that. The more I think about it, the world has changed so much in the last 20 to 25 years. Gradual little steps, that you don't even notice but then suddenly refelcting on something as simple as mix tapes and you realise just how different everything is.

Tell me about it!

It's the student generation that brings it home to me. They 'own' no music. My mate's daughter proved to him she could call up any track he wanted on her Alexa. Personally I consider that to be a bridge too far. Part of me thinks that if the balloon goes up and I can somehow find a power source to charge my iPOD, all the MP3s I have made will still be there for me, and meanwhile the Alexa and Spotify generation will be FINISHED

 

[Braggfan]

Tell me about it!

It's the student generation that brings it home to me. They 'own' no music. My mate's daughter proved to him she could call up any track he wanted on her Alexa. Personally I consider that to be a bridge too far. Part of me thinks that if the balloon goes up and I can somehow find a power source to charge my iPOD, all the MP3s I have made will still be there for me, and meanwhile the Alexa and Spotify generation will be FINISHED

There's kind of part of me that wants the world to end for exactly the reason. Spite is very under rated.

 

[zefarelly]

Tell me about it!

It's the student generation that brings it home to me. They 'own' no music. My mate's daughter proved to him she could call up any track he wanted on her Alexa. Personally I consider that to be a bridge too far. Part of me thinks that if the balloon goes up and I can somehow find a power source to charge my iPOD, all the MP3s I have made will still be there for me, and meanwhile the Alexa and Spotify generation will be FINISHED

A what pod ? I just need a bicycle powered generator and whatever happens I can listen to hi-fi and records. What more could you need, apart from an acoustically 'sound' room and good solid flat floor.

 

[Braggfan]

I have to say I'm enjoying reading people's posts on here. This is my favourite thread in while.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

I miss the days of cassette tape wound around the central reservation barriers on motorways and dual carriageways.

 

[zefarelly]

I used to have a collection of tape middles. Upward of 20, all different in design, BASF/TDK etc, all sorts. No idea what ever happened to them, It's not like something you would throw away

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Or the excited anticipation for two hours on a Sunday afternoon listening to the chart rundown with the record, play and pause buttons pressed, fingering hovering over the pause button ready for when the song you wanted played - obviously hoping that the DJ wouldn't talk over too much of the song.

Yup, that was me too in the 70's - my tape deck had sliding faders so I only used the pause key after fade-out plus 5 seconds to create a silent gap between tracks. Nothing was more annoying than being just too late on the fader so you ended up with the DJ voice-over on the end of YOUR recording. Grrrrr

One treasure tape I have in my collection is a C120 that I recorded in 1975 at Longhill school of a mate's band playing a concert to the whole school - obviously the quality is poor but I've managed to digitise it and put it on a CD which I gave to my mates ex who promised to forward it on to him as he now lives in Brazil - no idea if he ever received it.

Happy days ....

 

[maffew]

Yes I used to go to rounder every Saturday for my flyers.
World Dance, Dreamscape as of course Sterns cassettes sold in six packs were the bolloc*s


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We had an awesome shop in worcester for 90s hardcore and house tape packs.

Always 3 or 4 blinders, a couple of crap, and a couple of meh in an 8 pack The Obsession ones were decent. Listening back at them, I could beat match better than a lot of big name djs back then tbh.
Loved the artwork on them too

 

[Hiney]

Got a few still up in the loft from my days as a subscriber to the Britannia Music Club. Also some old NME freebie cassettes that were brilliant.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

I found a stash of old tapes a while back when clearing out. Plenty of stuff taped from other people's albums (gotta love High Speed Dubbing) and an eclectic mix of singles, albums and compilations from the worlds of dance, rock, soul, R&B and all sorts. Also got some comedy shows on there too.

I've got something to play it on, so I should probably get around to sorting it out and getting all nostalgic!

 

[zefarelly]

Back in the early mid 90's a lot of the DJ's/club nights used to do compilation tapes, in fact I we gigged at a Do at the Albert near Christmas a few years ago with a mix of bands and DJ's upstairs and down stairs, and a comp CD was dished out.

 

[AIT76]