Anyone still into audio casettes?

norton9478

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I get Vinyl, I get flac flawless rips... but tape? That shit is just nostalga surely. Horrible sound quality.

Not a reason not to collect them, album covers and rare releases, sure I get that. Just a bit confused people would choose to listen to tape in 2018 if there was an alternative.

All those classic albums weren't recorded onto vinyl or "flac", they were recorded onto magnetic tape.
 

fake

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All those classic albums weren't recorded onto vinyl or "flac", they were recorded onto magnetic tape.

Yeah, but...

Tracking tape is 2". Mastering is 1/2". Cassette tape is 3.8mm? Plus, reel-to-reels travel 2 to 4 times faster than cassette tape, so more tape is used but more information can be stored on the medium.

That said, good cassettes that use metal instead of trash oxides sound excellent provided you have a good, tight player that doesn't flutter.

Why would you listen to tape today? Because music is your hobby. Because it's not the same sound as vinyl or digital. Because there are plenty of exclusives still being released to cassette. I hate that it's a lulzy, scenester-y thing now, but there's nothing wrong with tape. It's just rare to have a proper set-up. I'd argue it's just as hard to find a proper vinyl set-up. Most people have shit turntables, arms, needles, amps, and speakers. Nothing sounds "better"; different media just sound different, with the caveat of digital being the closest to what was recorded in the studio. Whether that's what the artist wants you to hear or not is another topic.
 

norton9478

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I wasn't sure if he was dissing tape or cassette tape.

But for the record, Two iconic albums that were recorded or mixed on Cassette:
Bruce Springsteen Nebraska
Wu Tang: 36 Chambers

It took an engineering marvel to get Nebraska to track on Vinyl and not sound like crap. 36 Chambers has never had a good Vinyl Release.
 

norton9478

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Of course, the stuff that was recorded Digitally is probably best listened to on a High Resolution Digital format.
The one thing I don't understand is High Resolution "Rips" of vinyl releases. If you want analog sound, copy it to an analog format. You'd be better off with a high end cassette copy.

But for stuff that was recorded onto tape, 7.5 ips open reel tape will always be the best commercially available analog format. And hell, it could even handle 4 discrete channels at the same time. It is my dream to own the Quadraphonic Reel to Reel release of Paranoid.
 
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fake

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A lot of producers who track digital still print to tape for mastering, so you still get the compression.

Yeah, I don't really get the FLAC rips of vinyl, unless you don't have a good vinyl setup. Then again, it's just a different sound.
 

madman

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Well in fairness, Nebraska was a tape of demo songs, it wasn't intended to be released as is.
 

Tripredacus

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There’s a couple of good Techmoan videos on audio tapes and tape quality, well worth watching.

You'll find out that most people's memories of something being bad with old formats is usually because they had shit equipment. Now that those days are long past, you can find good stuff for very cheap and when you finally get something put together you will hear a big difference. Then again, the comparisons between different formats are not fair, even if it is analog to digital, tape to CD or VHS to DVD or BluRay. The fact of the matter is that it is sometimes easier to find things on one format vs the other. Or you have one and you want to play it. The elitist argument doesn't work for this because the elitist view approaches from the angle of only using one format and no others.

It is not saying that people who are buying cassettes or VHS tapes are saying they are the best and would never use a CD or a DVD. I have some tapes and want to listen to them and don't want them to sound like crap... aka how they sounded when I was buying cheap players, cheap headphones and shit speakers.
 

Lets Gekiga In

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There’s a couple of good Techmoan videos on audio tapes and tape quality, well worth watching.

I used to have the slim rechargeable Walkmans with the remote on the headphone lead... it came everywhere with me during my late teens to early 20s. I went through a couple of them over the years, the new one was just the updated model of the previous one.

I always wanted a Minidisc Walkman but that never happened...
He really has a fantastic YouTube channel. I enjoyed his one video on MQS format.
 

Late

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I still am. In the genres in which I buy them, mostly metal, punk/hardcore and noise, they never went anywhere. I don't really look at it from any sort of sound quality, original sound or nostalgia point of view, just a creature of habit, plus they are cheap, if I happen to like the album I can always get the record or cd later. Here are some of my latest scores:
155nc7k.jpg

The Coil one is a bootleg :emb:
 
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F4U57

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I still am. In the genres in which I buy them, mostly metal, punk/hardcore and noise, they never went anywhere.

I knew you’d be into tapes ;)

This arrived yesterday

2ai3l2b.jpg
 

sylvie

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I still am. In the genres in which I buy them, mostly metal, punk/hardcore and noise, they never went anywhere. I don't really look at it from any sort of sound quality, original sound or nostalgia point of view, just a creature of habit, plus they are cheap, if I happen to like the album I can always get the record or cd later. Here are some of my latest scores:
155nc7k.jpg

The Coil one is a bootleg :emb:

groovy, i kinda always wanted the CD version of Constant Shallowness in the pink clam shell case. Neat bootleg.
 

oldschool

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I knew you’d be into tapes ;)

This arrived yesterday
Is this a one and done project, or are there other releases in this 'tiny vhs' format? I would love to own something like this! :-J
 

F4U57

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Is this a one and done project, or are there other releases in this 'tiny vhs' format? I would love to own something like this! :-J

Yeah, for this release only as far as I am aware. They only made 50 or so copies.

 

norton9478

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I've been humping blank cassettes.

This is just the sealed gold. I've got scads of used Type II and sealed Type I tape.
 

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madman

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C110s are garbage. Those later Maxell MIC XLIIs aren't worth much. Sad that you show off garbage tapes.
 

norton9478

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C110s are garbage. Those later Maxell MIC XLIIs aren't worth much. Sad that you show off garbage tapes.

If I were to sell one Brick of the 110's (I actually may keep them), I would get back more than I paid for all the tapes in the picture.

Yeah, 110 tapes (or even 100's) tend to run thin. But people still use them.

Now all I have to do is replace the belts in my 3 head Sony "S" deck.
 
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madman

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I give away my 110s, but then again I'm not the Fred Sanford of NG.com who digs through peoples' trash with his kids in tow.
 

norton9478

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Moar Gold
 

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Setherial

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My bands demo is released on tape, so only tape is real!
 

SouthtownKid

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Cassettes are garbage. For idiots.

I don't need a daily abject reminder of entropy. I am already well aware of how temporary life and everything in it is.
 
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