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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

#31

Post by nizmow »

shams93 wrote: post #28
everyone wrote: post #13

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.…

Its easy to drop into your pocket when you buy one at a show, try dropping a cd or vinyl record into your back pocket lol

Maybe a 1GB USB stick?

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

#32

Post by jedimastert »

woofyman wrote: post #23
everyone wrote: post #13

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 problem with vinyl is it degrades every time you play it and you have to be very careful handling it so you don't get fingerprints on it.

cassettes degrade as well

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

#33

Post by mrob »

Nav_Panel wrote: post #22
everyone wrote: post #13

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 Disagree. 1. Sometimes the sonic characteristics of tapes DO complement the music. Typically for genres other than popular music or symphonic/classical/orchestral music (where absolute fidelity is king). 2. Physical media as opposed to digital media is, for some/many, inherently gratifying. It is a more multiface…

If the sonic characteristics complement the music then write it to tape during production before transferring it to a medium with accurate sound reproduction. You don't need every listener to have their own tape hardware (which might not suit the music as well as your own).

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

#34

Post by nizmow »

fsiefken wrote: post #17

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-ta…

>You could put around 50 MB data on it, which translates in around an hour of high fidelity music (Opus codec or HE-AAC)

How on earth are you supposed to play that back?

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

#35

Post by oneeyedpigeon »

everyone wrote: post #13

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 fact that you could easily record onto cassette was a BIG bonus. I really liked minidisc for about 2 years, but it was gone in a flash.

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

#36

Post by zo7 »

People don't want to just listen to music, they want to interact with it, own physical objects, and curate their own collection of music. The dominance of digital and streaming has left a gaping void in this, and this is a reason why vinyl has taken off – you can hold it, you have to interact with it to listen to it, it arguably sounds better, you have your own little art collection, and you have to put in much more effort to find and obtain it. CDs offer a similar experience, but it's too similar to digital to be worthwhile, so cassettes have taken off because it's a cheap and easy way for labels and artists to sell something physical. It sounds bad, but it's interesting to listen to and if you want to listen to a higher quality version you can find it online. (and if you can't, the choice of tape as a medium was intentional by the artist)

It's weird to me whenever the move towards analog is written off as some vapid millennial/hipster trend. The dominance of digital and streaming services has stolen this experience from us, and we are fighting to get it back.

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

#37

Post by djrogers »

sandworm101 wrote: post #12
to3m wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> total lack of DRM

Well yeah - there's no D so you can't have DRM. Tapes have a built in mechanism to prevent rampant copying though - they degrade with each generation.

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

#39

Post by djrogers »

AndrewUnmuted wrote: post #25
at-fates-hands wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> 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…

Precisely. Look at all the 60 year old used vinyl records that have survived and are still just as playable to this day. There's tons of them floating around. On the other hand, it's much harder to find even a 30 year old used CD that still plays fully and without error.

The comparison is between CDs and tapes, not vinyl. Pull a 30 year old tape out of your closet and pray it doesn't leave little bits of itself all over your tape player....

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

#40

Post by disordinary »

everyone wrote: post #13

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.…

What you find with vinyl is labels actually mix the album differently, not because the medium is better quality but because the listener expects different things. Digital music often has a "wall of sound" mixing which results in a loss of fidelity and clipping but vinyl is mixed quieter with clear shapes to the waveform.
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