Anyone still into audio casettes?

ki_atsushi

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Recently my desire to listen to music on antiquated formats has been rekindled, and I found myself digging out some tapes I had as a kid in the late 80's - early 90's.

They actually sound better than I remembered too... of course, this depends largely on what cassette player you're using.

Anyways, I wanted to record some master quality stuff from my Fiio X3 onto tape for shits and giggles, and I found out my nice system I inherited from my parents is on the fritz (probably needs a new belt but I can't be arsed right now), so I said fuck it and went for the best portable recorder I could find:

s-l1600.jpg
The motherfuckin' Sony WM-D6C!

This is a professional recorder that's only about 25-30% bigger than your average walkman, and both the playback and recording quality is top-notch. This sucker features manually selectable tape types (normal, CrO2, Metal) as well as both Dolby B & C noise reduction. For the time, it was a huge feat of engineering to fit all of the necessary components for Dolby C into a body this small!

This thing even has an led vu meter so you can monitor your recording level.

Been using Sony CD-IT CrO2 tapes and really I can barely tell the difference between the tape and a CD. Of course that changes a bit when I put the tape in my cheaper walkman, but it still sounds great.

So, are any of you guys into this stuff?
 
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ki_atsushi

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RAZO, you've quickly earned your way onto my shit list lately. :mad:
 

FAT$TACKS

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I have a few tapes still.

I used to have a bad ass boom box when I was a kid. Kind of been wanting to find another one like it just to have.

When out at thrift shops and other sales and I see a cool cassette for cheap I'll usually pick it up. But then again I also pick up 8 tracks as well.

I've really been wanting to get a nice reel to reel player.
 

Karou

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Sports!

no not anymore.
for a walkman I really like the 2gb shuffle thats smaller than a zippo, mines got a big dent on one side but still works fine...a walkman would have been toast and given me a much nastier bruise.
the wifes car has a tape player in it though and when I got my gas tank replaced I listened to best of blondie alot(I have a few tapes but it sufficed) It needs a head cleaning bad! horrible screeching noise, is that something head cleaning fixes?
 
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ki_atsushi

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I have a few tapes still.

I used to have a bad ass boom box when I was a kid. Kind of been wanting to find another one like it just to have.

When out at thrift shops and other sales and I see a cool cassette for cheap I'll usually pick it up. But then again I also pick up 8 tracks as well.

I've really been wanting to get a nice reel to reel player.

Yeah, getting a reel to reel would be bad for my bank account. I'm trying not to go there, but the quality of the large tape size is tops.

Never had my own boombox, but I definitely wouldn't mind having a nice giant chrome one like you see in 80's movies.
 

SonGohan

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merc would probably be all over this, unless he's already shacked up with 8-tracks
 

ki_atsushi

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no not anymore.
for a walkman I really like the 2gb shuffle thats smaller than a zippo, mines got a big dent on one side but still works fine...a walkman would have been toast and given me a much nastier bruise.
the wifes car has a tape player in it though and when I got my gas tank replaced I listened to best of blondie alot(I have a few tapes but it sufficed) It needs a head cleaning bad! horrible screeching noise, is that something head cleaning fixes?

No, the screeching is caused by dried out capstans or other moving parts. You'd have to crack it open and lube everything with machine oil.
 

ki_atsushi

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merc would probably be all over this, unless he's already shacked up with 8-tracks

Heh, yeah I already post some shit about tapes on fb with him. Actually haven't told him about this pick up yet, I'll have to do that.
 

RAZO

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Dude, they sound like shit compared to other formats. The worst is when the tape go's off track or gets chewed up and the tape is pretty much done. Hey dude, I'm not mad at you. If it's a nostalgia thing than go for it but I will never ever go back to Casettes, VHS, or 8track format.
 

ki_atsushi

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Dude, they sound like shit compared to other formats. The worst is when the tape go's off track or gets chewed up and the tape is pretty much done. Hey dude, I'm not mad at you. If it's a nostalgia thing than go for it but I will never ever go back to Casettes, VHS, or 8track format.

The fact that it has less fidelity than the other formats is what's charming about it. But believe me when I say, the tapes I'm pumping out right now sound GOOD.

Most commercial tapes are cheap shitty ferrite (normal) tapes mastered to Dolby B spec, which sounds like shit. I'm using Dolby C, and there's almost zero hiss. :cool:

Also, my D6C's drive is quartz controlled, which prevents any speed fluctuations that cause distortion. Shit's good bro.
 

FAT$TACKS

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Never had my own boombox, but I definitely wouldn't mind having a nice giant chrome one like you see in 80's movies.

When I was like in Jr. High I got one for Christmas. It was basically the only thing I got that year and it was bad ass. I was this big old Emerson with a 5inch B/W tv in it. I could record the audio from the TV onto cassette. I would record stuff off of MTV back when they played music videos. Thankfully it could be plugged in when at home, but when outside I had to have shit load of D batteries.

It was a pain in the rear to try and haul it around on a bicycle. I thought it was about the most awesome thing in the world at the time.
 

Karou

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but it comes out the speakers?

ate tapes can simply be super glued, sure you lose a part and theres a pop...
 

RAZO

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The fact that it has less fidelity than the other formats is what's charming about it. But believe me when I say, the tapes I'm pumping out right now sound GOOD.

Most commercial tapes are cheap shitty ferrite (normal) tapes mastered to Dolby B spec, which sounds like shit. I'm using Dolby C, and there's almost zero hiss. :cool:

Also, my D6C's drive is quartz controlled, which prevents any speed fluctuations that cause distortion. Shit's good bro.

Yea, I don't know much about Cassette tape equipment or formats but I'll take your word for it. The only cool thing I remember about tapes back in the days was the ability to just borrow someone Else's tape and just record it on a maxwell record-able joint. As a matter of fact I think I was recording shit on TV and even cd format for a little.
 
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ki_atsushi

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When I was like in Jr. High I got one for Christmas. It was basically the only thing I got that year and it was bad ass. I was this big old Emerson with a 5inch B/W tv in it. I could record the audio from the TV onto cassette. I would record stuff off of MTV back when they played music videos. Thankfully it could be plugged in when at home, but when outside I had to have shit load of D batteries.

It was a pain in the rear to try and haul it around on a bicycle. I thought it was about the most awesome thing in the world at the time.

Dude, that sounds awesome as hell. Recording MTV back in the day sounds sweet.


but it comes out the speakers?

ate tapes can simply be super glued, sure you lose a part and theres a pop...

Oh, if the weird sounds are coming out the speakers, you most likely need to use a demagnetizing tape on it.


Yea, I don't know much about Cassette tape equipment or formats but I'll take your word for it. The only cool thing I remember about tapes back in the days was the ability to just borrow someone Else's tape and just record it on a maxwell record-able joint. As a matter of fact I think I was recording shit on TV and even cd format for a little.

Hell yeah man, when the guys in high school were buying the latest CD's, I was borrowing them and recording them on tape, lol

Still have a good sounding tape of 2pac's 'All Eyez on Me'!
 
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famicommander

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I can get on board with vinyl, LaserDisc, CDs, etc. But fuck magnetic tape media. I never looked back when I was done with VHS, floppy discs, and audio casettes. I have no nostalgia for them and I don't see any advantage they offer versus opticial/vinyl discs, digital formats, cartridges, etc.
 

ki_atsushi

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Of course there is no advantage to them nowadays, but until the minidisc came out, tapes were the most portable thing around.

There's just something about that subtle background noise...
 

Neorebel

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A lot of local-ish punk & HC bands still put out tapes, which I support. I still have a 'Realistic' brand boombox for such purposes.
 

StevenK

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It's funny how you can look at a 20-30 year old piece of technology and be able to tell immediately that back in the day it was a serious piece of kit. That portable recorder oozes quality just off the picture, it reminds me a lot of the solid build that I liked so much of the portable mini disc recorders.
 

ki_atsushi

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A lot of local-ish punk & HC bands still put out tapes, which I support. I still have a 'Realistic' brand boombox for such purposes.

Yup! A lot of metal and vaporwave stuff is still offered on tape too.


It's funny how you can look at a 20-30 year old piece of technology and be able to tell immediately that back in the day it was a serious piece of kit. That portable recorder oozes quality just off the picture, it reminds me a lot of the solid build that I liked so much of the portable mini disc recorders.

Yeah, it's solid metal! The only cheap thing about this thing is the felt-lined pleather case it comes with, lol.
 
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NeoEsZ

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Yep, tapes can still be a viable format, given that you own a decent system and the tapes themselves are of quality. Saying that tapes are shit by default is like saying CDs are shit because you heard a burned CD-R of somebody's practice recordings done with a webcam mic from 2003.

I helped on a project in 2014 where we produced one cassette a month, had them mass produced on high quality tape with full color artwork and had a corresponding monthly event that was both the release show for the new tape and a live recording session for the next. The shows were wildly popular and at the end of the program we amassed ten boxsets of all 12 tapes from the year and sold them off for charity.
 

Dr Shroom

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I'm already invested in another outdated audio format so now.
 

sylvie

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my music gets put out on tapes

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