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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

#61

Post by flycaliguy »

yarrel wrote: post #24
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.…

I love MiniDiscs. DAT is where it's at, though.

Mini discs actually do have a unique playback feature among physical recordings. A random shuffle setting can be played without any gaps. Aphex Twin released a recording that took advantage of this.

I love art and it's ability to interact with an audience on multiple levels.

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

#62

Post by [deleted] »

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.…

[deleted]

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

#63

Post by joshontheweb »

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.…

Not really much of a counter point but you can actually scratch cassette tapes. This guy shows how cool it can be. Never seen anyone else do it though. I want to build my own at some point.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7nImXd0nxU4

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

#64

Post by legitster »

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.…

Counterpoint: cassettes are between CDs and Vinyls for portability and durability. You can leave them rolling around in your glovebox for eons and still have them play decent music, better than a radio station.

They also degrade in a way that is more pleasing to my ear than a vinyl or a CD. A scratched CD is unplayable, a damaged vinyl sounds bad. But the sound of a distorted tape has a unique sound I find pleasing.

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

#65

Post by guitarbill »

SomeCallMeTim wrote: post #54
zo7 wrote: post #36

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…

>The dominance of digital and streaming services has stolen this experience from us, and we are fighting to get it back. I used to collect books. It was a big part of my life. Now I pretty much only buy books on Kindle. I almost sort-of miss buying books. But only in theory. In practice I much prefer having my current library in my pocket at all times. Same with music. I have my entire library on my hard drive, and I…

> In practice I much prefer having my current library in my pocket at all times.

This. Once I got a Kindle, I actually read more. Because you know it's convenient and has a build in light. Spotify let's you publish/share playlists, so that's also sorted.

The only issue I have is that you don't really own anything. I just de-DRM Kindle books and assume that the availability of songs I like to listen to will increase in the future because royalties will cost less for older songs. Who knows what I'll be listening to in 10 years time?

I'd also say not having a collection of as a proxy for has made my house more welcoming, less pretentious and makes moving easy. Not saying that you can't have a collection for pure enjoyment, or that everybody who has one is compensating, but if you think your collections "says something about you", it probably does but not in the way you want.

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

#66

Post by losteverything »

School to nj one 8-track: Steve Miller's greatest hits. Over and over big ol jet airliner

Rented car in salt lake. Only cassette: Aqua "I'm a Barbie girl" over and over through grand tetons and Yellowstone.

No streaming memories.

Sorry. Cassettes are life recalling and totally cool despite "issues"

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

#67

Post by maloney »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #56
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 good thing about vinyl is the RIAA curve prevents loudness wars. If CDs were mastered correctly without intentional clipping it would be impossible for records to best them in quality.

I don't think that is true, given that digital will always be samples of the original. I worked at a mastering studio that had a laser record player, best sound I have heard.

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

#68

Post by digi_owl »

nizmow wrote: post #31
shams93 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I seem to recall a DAP that was basically a USB stick in a dock.

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

#69

Post by digi_owl »

yarrel wrote: post #24
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.…

I love MiniDiscs. DAT is where it's at, though.

If only Sony Music had not been so copy adverse that they effectively gave the format concrete DRM boots...

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

#70

Post by fsiefken »

nizmow wrote: post #34
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?

You have to put a decoding chip in the cassette device... or but the audio cable in the line-in of a pc and decode it there... but then I think I'd say, why bother. Stick with audio and analog for tapes (except when you are using a C64 and record data from radio or modem). Not sure if a wav decoder has been done for C64... Opus and mp4 are out of it's league (not sure about running it in an emulator on faster hardware).
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