so why do we still have tape decks?? what's your reason?
- Thread starter fabchef
- Start date
I sold off my RTR stuff about a year or two ago as my tube preamp didn't have any tape outs and I decided I had too many formats.
I also gave away most of my cassettes, but kept about a hundred or so as I have nostalgic mixes from college, radio programs and just some really nice mixes on raw tapes i bought for pittances that I like to keep. Plus there are a few unusual titles I have only on cassette and my Nak BX-100 does a fine job in playback.
I also gave away most of my cassettes, but kept about a hundred or so as I have nostalgic mixes from college, radio programs and just some really nice mixes on raw tapes i bought for pittances that I like to keep. Plus there are a few unusual titles I have only on cassette and my Nak BX-100 does a fine job in playback.
goldwax
dozy ming-mong
That is a beaut!
thanks for all the great replies...i think it's like someone mentioned, i think that with the right gear even a tape will sound great! i think this is so true..i remember having tape growing up and it always sounded kinda crappy (the rest of the syteme wasn't that great), but now with my vintage pioneer receiver, technics tape deck through my KLH seventeen speakers..tape sounds really nice...i will post some pics of my setup
fabs
fabs
rotovator
Cassette deck fanatic
nostalgia, I yearned for a good deck back in the 80. I like collecting things, It is fun to make decks work, they are imperfect which adds a level of fun
many reasons mixed together makes me a cassette deck lover
Have you ever thought that if cassette format had been better, maybe it wouldn't draw now our interest so much?? We would have moved from it to new mp3 player as we move from a black and white screen cellphone to a colourfull screen one throwing away the old one
many reasons mixed together makes me a cassette deck lover
Have you ever thought that if cassette format had been better, maybe it wouldn't draw now our interest so much?? We would have moved from it to new mp3 player as we move from a black and white screen cellphone to a colourfull screen one throwing away the old one
Old Busted H
the H is for Hotness
A lot of it is nostalgia. I ran an old wore-out Ampex (641?) back in the day and got addicted to watching the reels go round. Learned a LOT about tape deck repair with that old POS.
A lot of it is because I love mechanical devices, and there's a certain pride in having a 40 year old machine that still runs perfectly.
Part of it is being too damn stubborn to change. There's nothing you can do with an RTR that you can't do digitally, but to my mind computers and iPods are too "black magic". A tape deck, you can see how it works. And I've never had to re-boot a tape deck.
Now that I'm old folks, I have a built-in noise reduction that's more effective than Dolby or dbx, although I'd gladly give it up if I could.
And I'll admit it, I like being weird.
A lot of it is because I love mechanical devices, and there's a certain pride in having a 40 year old machine that still runs perfectly.
Part of it is being too damn stubborn to change. There's nothing you can do with an RTR that you can't do digitally, but to my mind computers and iPods are too "black magic". A tape deck, you can see how it works. And I've never had to re-boot a tape deck.
Now that I'm old folks, I have a built-in noise reduction that's more effective than Dolby or dbx, although I'd gladly give it up if I could.
And I'll admit it, I like being weird.
boonie
Active Member
I still have tape decks cause I listen mainly to experimental music and the majority of experimental music is still released on the humble old cassette, just like these recent purchases:
In fact I recently started my own music label that sells experimental music that I dub using my cassette decks.
But in saying that I just love tape decks too. Growing up I always had more cassettes than anything else and I can still remember lying in bed till all hours with the radio on, blank tape ready with my finger on the pause button waiting for the right song to tape.
And now that I can get my hands on decent decks I truly appreciate them. They seem to be the most temperamental of all the audio gear to keep running at their best but when they do they sound superb and nothing can match them for aesthetics in my opinion. :thmbsp:
In fact I recently started my own music label that sells experimental music that I dub using my cassette decks.
But in saying that I just love tape decks too. Growing up I always had more cassettes than anything else and I can still remember lying in bed till all hours with the radio on, blank tape ready with my finger on the pause button waiting for the right song to tape.
And now that I can get my hands on decent decks I truly appreciate them. They seem to be the most temperamental of all the audio gear to keep running at their best but when they do they sound superb and nothing can match them for aesthetics in my opinion. :thmbsp:
Edriz
AK Member
I've just always been into tape. Open Reel tapes can and do have the sound quality of LPs and I believe cassettes do also. Since as long as I can remember, as soon as I bought new vinyl, they got recorded to cassette. Most often, 2LPs per 90 minute tape. Lately, I been doin the same with 7" reels. One LP per side on the faster speed. With 10.5" I can get 4-5 LPs on a tape on 7-1/2 IPS. The sound is as good as and most times surpasses CDs.
I try to record all 4-5 LPs on a tape that I know Id listen to in a row and that makes the Open Reels just as conveinient as a 5 CD changer. Now I get CD sound and CD convenience with sound quality that in most cases surpasses CD.
I never cared for the sterile sound of CDs, hate MP3 and have no use for Ipod. Guess I'm just an "all analogue...all the time" sort of guy
I try to record all 4-5 LPs on a tape that I know Id listen to in a row and that makes the Open Reels just as conveinient as a 5 CD changer. Now I get CD sound and CD convenience with sound quality that in most cases surpasses CD.
I never cared for the sterile sound of CDs, hate MP3 and have no use for Ipod. Guess I'm just an "all analogue...all the time" sort of guy
KentTeffeteller
Gimpus Stereophilus!
For me, sound quality reasons and for working reasons. I am a broadcaster and archivist. I need older formats since I do a lot of transferring older media. I actually prefer the best analogue over most if not all digital. But I play and record both formats and enjoy better examples of both. Besides, occasionally I want to hear my own tunes in the car and they're mostly on open reel or vinyl. My CD recorder more than earns it's keep and my editing PC systems do as well.
DougMac
Super Member
As many have mentioned, it's the nostalgia thing combined with a fairly extensive collection of RTR and cassette. I have two cars that have cassette players.
I, too, wanted to transcribe my old tapes to digital. My Viking 87 was on its last legs and that lead me to buying a basic Teac. Since then, I've run into three more RTR's, all of which sound better than the Teac. When I play my old tapes on the Teac X-1000R, I can't believe how much information is on the tape that I hadn't heard before.
I, too, wanted to transcribe my old tapes to digital. My Viking 87 was on its last legs and that lead me to buying a basic Teac. Since then, I've run into three more RTR's, all of which sound better than the Teac. When I play my old tapes on the Teac X-1000R, I can't believe how much information is on the tape that I hadn't heard before.
There's magic in making mix tapes on cassette. It's hard to explain. For one thing, it's very hands on--dropping in the tape, fine tuning the bias, getting the recording levels just right. Fits perfectly with my fantasy of being a record producer/engineer!
It's rather indefinable but there's a certain warmth to this medium as opposed to making a CD-R. Maybe it's that you SEE the cassette in the machine and see those wheels going around and around. Maybe it's the size and feel of the cassette itself, which comes in a variety of types and designs.
Ultimately... it just feels right.
And much as I hate to admit it, maybe nostalgia is a factor. Maybe if you didn't cut your teeth making cassettes you'll just never "get it."
It's rather indefinable but there's a certain warmth to this medium as opposed to making a CD-R. Maybe it's that you SEE the cassette in the machine and see those wheels going around and around. Maybe it's the size and feel of the cassette itself, which comes in a variety of types and designs.
Ultimately... it just feels right.
And much as I hate to admit it, maybe nostalgia is a factor. Maybe if you didn't cut your teeth making cassettes you'll just never "get it."
melofelo
Addicted Member
Cassette was my first real audio format way back in 1980..
Aged 10 and armed with a cheap sanyo walkman and a pack of three memorex ferrics for my birthday i began to harrass my older friends who had that holiest of holiest devices...**twin cassette** to make me copies of their late night pirate radio mixes. Back in those days the music scene in London was beginning to respond to the emergence of the quite raw sounding underground electro and rap scene in the usa...and a well developed and sharp sounding jazz funk scene in the UK had already began to put the nails in disco's coffin...
two years later i got my first ever ghetto blaster ..a sharp gf-5454 and my music rebellion against everything mainstream began in earnest... too young to work..too skint to buy records... a wire hanger for an aerial and a blank cassette was all i needed to begin my journey through the airwaves... learning along the way different genres of music from pop to punk to rock to reggae to electro to saturday night pirate radio megamixes..you name it...i gorged on it as much as 90 minutes of editing would allow...
30 years on... i still love the format... sure, minidisc has the edge in terms of editing convenience...
but the art of rolling a 90 minute mix-tape without screwing up the J-card with a badly placed song and the eventual tippex 'deleted' entry...then having to squeeze your bestest, finest handwritten font into those *always- too-few-indexed-lines* on side A and side B...is a ritual that only cassette diehards will ever understand...
true perfectionists of the cassette format can roll a compilation that not only flows impeccably from song to song...but they can pull off that skilled feat of fading the last track on each side so it goes quiet a second before the leader tape passes the record head...knowing that last track will blend seemlessly into the first track on the next side... .i.e... if you stick that cassette in an autoreverse deck as background msuic or at a party.....you only need to change the music every 90 minutes !
yeah...i'll always love tape..:thmbsp:
Aged 10 and armed with a cheap sanyo walkman and a pack of three memorex ferrics for my birthday i began to harrass my older friends who had that holiest of holiest devices...**twin cassette** to make me copies of their late night pirate radio mixes. Back in those days the music scene in London was beginning to respond to the emergence of the quite raw sounding underground electro and rap scene in the usa...and a well developed and sharp sounding jazz funk scene in the UK had already began to put the nails in disco's coffin...
two years later i got my first ever ghetto blaster ..a sharp gf-5454 and my music rebellion against everything mainstream began in earnest... too young to work..too skint to buy records... a wire hanger for an aerial and a blank cassette was all i needed to begin my journey through the airwaves... learning along the way different genres of music from pop to punk to rock to reggae to electro to saturday night pirate radio megamixes..you name it...i gorged on it as much as 90 minutes of editing would allow...
30 years on... i still love the format... sure, minidisc has the edge in terms of editing convenience...
but the art of rolling a 90 minute mix-tape without screwing up the J-card with a badly placed song and the eventual tippex 'deleted' entry...then having to squeeze your bestest, finest handwritten font into those *always- too-few-indexed-lines* on side A and side B...is a ritual that only cassette diehards will ever understand...
true perfectionists of the cassette format can roll a compilation that not only flows impeccably from song to song...but they can pull off that skilled feat of fading the last track on each side so it goes quiet a second before the leader tape passes the record head...knowing that last track will blend seemlessly into the first track on the next side... .i.e... if you stick that cassette in an autoreverse deck as background msuic or at a party.....you only need to change the music every 90 minutes !
yeah...i'll always love tape..:thmbsp:
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Lance Lawson
New Member
In its simplest terms tape when done well sounds better than everything else. We are analog creatures, the world is analog. Our biology and evolution is designed for the analog universe. I'm of the opinion that on some levels the alien nature of digital sound strikes a negative chord in our nervous system. That is to say we sense that something is not on the up and up and we seek to reject this alien contrivance.
On yet another less abstract level the machines and the tape that runs in them give us a far more direct and tactile connection to the sounds they produce. The machines react to our touch and our care which is something not possible with a thumb sized MP3 player.
On yet another less abstract level the machines and the tape that runs in them give us a far more direct and tactile connection to the sounds they produce. The machines react to our touch and our care which is something not possible with a thumb sized MP3 player.
daviddeep
Well-Known Member
Nostalgia here too, but for a slightly different reason. I remember fondly having more time on my hands and being eager to spend it making a mix tape for somebody, or myself. I remember calculating the running times of songs dubbed to cassette from vinyl with pencil and paper so the sides would be mostly filled with music and end up being more or less equal in length.
As mentioned above by a couple of you, I also remember sitting by the radio with finger on pause button just waiting to tape the right song off the radio.
Despite all this, I still probably wouldn't have a cassette deck today however I saw a nice Yamaha K-1020 3-head deck languishing at a yard sale in about 2003. It was fresh from servicing with all new belts and the guy really wanted to sell it to me. I kept trying to walk away knowing I'd barely use it until he lowered his price to an irresistable $15. I wish I'd had this deck when it was new in 1986.
As mentioned above by a couple of you, I also remember sitting by the radio with finger on pause button just waiting to tape the right song off the radio.
Despite all this, I still probably wouldn't have a cassette deck today however I saw a nice Yamaha K-1020 3-head deck languishing at a yard sale in about 2003. It was fresh from servicing with all new belts and the guy really wanted to sell it to me. I kept trying to walk away knowing I'd barely use it until he lowered his price to an irresistable $15. I wish I'd had this deck when it was new in 1986.