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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

#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 tech. Scan for a song without silence detection. Then come back and brag about your vintage sony walkman.

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

#3

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 promise to stay off your lawn :)

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

#4

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 from a big lump of hot metal barely half a metre away.

Also, tapes are a useless size. CDs hold like 70 minutes. So you have a C60, and it's not enough, or a C90, and it's too much - even assuming you don't have any bin-packing problems.

Honest to god. Tapes. TAPES.

If you like the sound (what is wrong with people??), then for God's sake, at least record from your stupid tape deck to the PC, then FLAC it, because then at least you'll avoid that fast forward and rewind nonsense. Battery life on MP3 players is a lot better too.

I don't know what to say.

EDIT: classic quantity/quality tradeoff: exchanged intemperate language for the FLAC suggestion

EDIT 2: I think this is the first time in a long time I've seen the word "weird" used in a link and it's actually appropriate

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

#5
I can't believe they wrote this article without mentioning the Dead Kennedys and their album "In God We Trust, Inc". The cassette version came with all the songs on the A side. The B side says "Home taping is killing record industry profits! We left this side blank so you can help." I still have mine someplace, with some corporate machine music recorded on the B side.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Taping_Is_Killing_Music https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_God_We_Trust,_Inc.

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

#6
post #4

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…

After reading the article I came here to have exactly this rant. Thanks for doing it for me.

Also, I'm not sure where they were trying to go with the "tapes are cheaper and more convenient than vinyl! This is great for small indie bands!". Is this 1970?

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

#7

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…

And millennials wonder why people make fun of them. Cassettes were, and still are, terrible.

They made sense since it was possible to copy from another format, such as vinyl/radio/CD even another cassette. It was the only format you were able to copy to (technically you could with 8-tracks, but you could not easily get blanks). Nowadays, if you really wanted a copy, straight to digital.

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

#9

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…

> They sounded bad.

Cassettes weren't _that_ bad. The problem is that there were essentially different grades of tapes and players that supported different noise reduction techniques, and people tend to remember the ones played back with low end gear.

Here's a great video on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVoSQP2yUYA

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

#10
post #4

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…

They should revive the old reel to reel machines like this: http://www.reeltoreel.de/worldwide/A700.htm. That's bad ass.
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