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Music's weird cassette-tape revival is paying off

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Re: Music's weird cassette-tape revival is paying off

#11

Post by at-fates-hands »

sandworm101 wrote: post #2

Cassettes might be fun for young people, but those of us old enough to remember when they were the only real option couldnt care less. They sounded bad. They required complicated mecanical trickery to use. They broke, sometimes taking the player along with them. Good riddance. CDs were better in every single way. Also, the cassette-playing tech today is far better than it was. Listen ro them without noise reduction t…

>> CDs were better in every single way.

Well, not exactly.

Talk about fragile. A slight scratch and its toast. Durable? Hardly. Not sure how many CD's I had to re-buy because of minor chips or the dreaded "pinhole of death" I can't count. Or what about the green marker urban legend (http://www.snopes.com/music/media/marker.asp). They were also anything but "compact" compared to cassettes. And are you old enough to remember those long CD boxes (https://images.eil.com/large_image/Queen_A+Collection+Of+Emp...) that were a total wasted of cardboard?

Or maybe finally being excited to get your favorite artists old recordings on CD, only to buy the CD, rip it open and read on the back, "WARNING: The music on this Compact Disc was originally recorded on analog equipment, prior to modern noise reduction techniques. This Compact Disc preserves, as closely as possible, the sound of the original recording, but its high resolution also reveals the limitations in the master tape, including noise and other distortions."

I agree that CD's were markedly better, but let's not forgot they still had some serious flaws themselves.

Re: Music's weird cassette-tape revival is paying off

#12

Post by sandworm101 »

to3m wrote: post #4
sandworm101 wrote: post #2

Cassettes might be fun for young people, but those of us old enough to remember when they were the only real option couldnt care less. They sounded bad. They required complicated mecanical trickery to use. They broke, sometimes taking the player along with them. Good riddance. CDs were better in every single way. Also, the cassette-playing tech today is far better than it was. Listen ro them without noise reduction t…

Good riddance? Good fucking riddance, more like. Tapes are shit. Hiss, flutter, wow, head misalignment, Dolby NR. "Ah, which Dolby NR?" - well, exactly . And we haven't even got onto Type I vs Type II vs Type IV, and your C120s that snap if you so much as look at them, and the tapes that get tangled and snagged and melted in your car stereo, because they're right next to some air ducts that blow fan-assisted hot air…

The one tiny upside: total lack of DRM. It isn't much, but it is something worth saying.

Re: Music's weird cassette-tape revival is paying off

#13

Post by everyone »

This word gets thrown around a lot but, hipsters! As others have attested there is nothing good about tapes. There are very good reasons why vinyl has survived (You can manipulate it with your hand when djing, and see the music on it, also its technically possible to get better sound quality than digital via high quality, high speed, vinyl and an all analog recording to stamping process) But tapes, no, they are shit. The only reason to use them is some form of conspicuous consumption, signaling how cool and wacky u are.

additional, if u really want a kooky old physical medium go with minidiscs! They were amazing!

Re: Music's weird cassette-tape revival is paying off

#15

Post by beamatronic »

I'm surprised to see no mention here of recording songs from the radio. I used to do this quite a bit. Of course sometimes you would record a little before or a little after the song, getting DJ's talking, callers, ads. Those tapes now have a little bit of historical information that isn't available anywhere else.

Re: Music's weird cassette-tape revival is paying off

#16

Post by [deleted] »

to3m wrote: post #4
sandworm101 wrote: post #2

Cassettes might be fun for young people, but those of us old enough to remember when they were the only real option couldnt care less. They sounded bad. They required complicated mecanical trickery to use. They broke, sometimes taking the player along with them. Good riddance. CDs were better in every single way. Also, the cassette-playing tech today is far better than it was. Listen ro them without noise reduction t…

Good riddance? Good fucking riddance, more like. Tapes are shit. Hiss, flutter, wow, head misalignment, Dolby NR. "Ah, which Dolby NR?" - well, exactly . And we haven't even got onto Type I vs Type II vs Type IV, and your C120s that snap if you so much as look at them, and the tapes that get tangled and snagged and melted in your car stereo, because they're right next to some air ducts that blow fan-assisted hot air…

[deleted]

Re: Music's weird cassette-tape revival is paying off

#17

Post by fsiefken »

Tapes can do 110 minutes and sound just as good to non-audiophiles as cd's. You could put around 50 MB data on it, which translates in around an hour of high fidelity music (Opus codec or HE-AAC). You can't put a CD in your pocket, you can do so with a cassette. They have a much higher nostalgia value... With the fast-forward/backward, pause and record buttons you can more easy copy or record stuff to create a mix-tape. The linear user interface is very simple. My car only has a tape deck and a radio... it didn't have anything else.. so now I use a 3.5 audio jack cable to tape converter thingy to play my podcasts from my phone through the tape adapter to get the audio to my carspeakers. There is a very annoying periodic tick I have no clue were it's coming from but at least I am downward compatible... come to think of it - now I can play all those tapes I have stuffed away somewhere!

Re: Music's weird cassette-tape revival is paying off

#18

Post by robhanlon »

For smaller artists/bands/etc, it's a lot easier to get a small run of tapes than a small run of vinyl. If you're not sure you're going to make any money, then a tape can be a fun way to get some physical product for cheap that has some (perhaps questionable, perhaps nice) character to its sound. You also get more of that "album feel" because they're difficult to seek through.

Re: Music's weird cassette-tape revival is paying off

#20

Post by AndrewUnmuted »

sandworm101 wrote: post #2

Cassettes might be fun for young people, but those of us old enough to remember when they were the only real option couldnt care less. They sounded bad. They required complicated mecanical trickery to use. They broke, sometimes taking the player along with them. Good riddance. CDs were better in every single way. Also, the cassette-playing tech today is far better than it was. Listen ro them without noise reduction t…

I am a young guy, but I'm old enough that when I was a kid my principle form of listening to music was cassette tapes. So I know where you are coming from here. However, I am also an audio engineer, and have mastered a lot of records for bands that have ended up releasing them as cassettes.

In my opinion, your analysis lacks one or two components that are essential to the "cassette" experience:

1. Sonic Artifacts - Some bands dig the warpy, tinny sound. I'm not personally a fan, but I'm a bit biased.

2. Tape Compression - A lot of bands simply cannot, or choose not to, control their dynamics, causing clipping to occur. On an old-school straight-to-tape recording setup, this clipping will sound far better than the harsh, horrible digital clipping found in today's digital setups.

3. Playback Setting - In my experience, the typical consumer of today's cassette tapes is not playing the album through a hi-fi system. They're probably using a portable jambox that they took out of their mom's attic or one they picked up one day at their local Goodwill/pawn shop. Fidelity is nowhere near important to this individual, and they probably wouldn't fret very much if their junky/old equipment got damaged or stopped working.

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