n2qfd wrote to All <=-
While cassettes have their drawbacks, I do think there's some level
of control I might reassert with the medium in my music collection and
my ability to sample new tracks that are quickly removed from digital platforms.
I was thinking about how I want direct control of my music again and returned to the idea of tapes. While not as convenient as digital media I've seen that there is a new generation of tape recorders out there with blue tooth for connectivity built in and interfacing for digital modes so that one could "rip" audio from any digital source.
People don't listen to CDs from start to finish anymore, nor are they designed to be listened to that way.
New experiment here,
I was thinking about how I want direct control of my music again and returned to the idea of tapes. While not as convenient as digital media
What I liked about cassettes, especially, was the sequential aspect of listening to music on them. It made more sense to rewind it, put it in, and listen to music in the order it was on the LP.
If you want to digitize music/audio from a cassette tape, I'm not sure that bluetooth would be the best way to connect it to your PC to do so. Maybe the audio quality from a cassette tape is such that it would be
Has the print-through and degregation issues of tape been mitigated with the newer systems?
k9zw wrote to n2qfd <=-
Has the print-through and degregation issues of tape been mitigated
with the newer systems?
I listen to MP3 versions of songs I had on tape, and they don't "feel" right without that one part where the tape crumpled when it ejected and the tape snagged, or where the tape did that mobius loop thing where you'd hear the B side in reverse where the tape was folded, or the skip/noise on the record I recorded it from.
I listen to MP3 versions of songs I had on tape, and they
don't "feel" right without that one part where the tape
crumpled when it ejected and the tape snagged, or where
the tape did that mobius loop thing where you'd hear the
B side in reverse where the tape was folded, or the skip/
noise on the record I recorded it from.
I never had a self-mixed tape go bad like that. I tended to
always play on good home equipment. Mind you, some of the
orignal tapes of albums tended to wear quicker than the self-
mix tapes using TDK or Maxell or Sony.
I have a bunch of tapes here, some are in unopened shrink
wrap packets of 5 that have yet to be used.. to be fair I
don't use them much these days but it's nice to still have
tapes and cassette playing gear here at home.
People don't listen to CDs from start to finish anymore, nor are they designed to be listened to that way. What started off as an LP with 2
sides and 40 minutes of music set in a specific flow has now become 70 minutes of tracks assembled on a CD.
Avon wrote to Ogg <=-
I have a bunch of tapes here, some are in unopened shrink wrap packets
of 5 that have yet to be used.. to be fair I don't use them much these days but it's nice to still have tapes and cassette playing gear here
at home.
Arelor wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
People making thematic albums disagree. Many metal releases only make sense if you listen to the album in order since the music tells a
coherent story.
9/10 the law they can't steal my music back when I sync.
Apple overwrote songs I paid for and took back tracks that
were no longer available at the artists request the last
time I sync'd my iPod. No more. I lost unique music I had
on that device I added by ripping CD's on iTunes. I still
have the CD's... I think... So I'll have to sample them
again but I'm not using iTunes anymore.
went missing. But, did iTunes truly delete those previous
copies? ..or was just the XML library code adjusted to point to
the iCloud version?
I have a bunch of tapes here, some are in unopened shrink wrap packet of 5 that have yet to be used.. to be fair I don't use them much thes days but it's nice to still have tapes and cassette playing gear here at home.
I wonder if you should open them and rotate the spindles every so often?
No they are gone. In some cases the bands broke up and I
assume it came down to intellectual property disputes
forcing a modified version be listed. In other cases they
were never in the iTunes catalog so they were just scrubbed
off my device. There's a fine print disclaimer when you
sync that you might lose things and I did so I'm done.
I played with tape again here but I found that the gear at
a price point I think is reasonable is just not up to the
level of quality we enjoyed when it was the only way to go.
So, now I'm using Audacity to make my own digital tapes and
storing them as MP3 on my server. My truck has a nice built
in MP3 player anyhow and I can make albums up on memory
sticks that you just need to put in the slot in the dash.
I find I'll be listing to someone's mix on YouTube, while I
work and at work when I'm in the office I can't have any of
that for security reasons. We have no WiFi allowed on
personal devices either. So, there I'm using an old smart
phone that had a built in FM receiver and tuning into the
college stations or I have to pack it in.
On top of the work site restrictions I've got an hour drive
one way across a radio poor landscape. So I think I'm
finding modern applications of late 20c thinking to be my
answer.
Sounds like the wifi in your work facility is not isolated for
"guest" use.
I note that most recent smartphones do not have built-in FM
radios anymore. I still use a BlackBerry Q10 with FM, but it
only works if there is a headset plugged into it - and, often
the headset is never with me when I need it.
I wonder if you should open them and rotate the spindles every so oft
I figure they are going to either work or fail badly when I do ... so
for now they look minty fresh... but looks can be deceiving.
Avon wrote to All <=-
As an aside I saw a clip on YouTube tonight, it was a CBS news story
about the resurgence of cassette tape sales in the USA, big upswing in sales to Gen Z since 2015... it was about 5 mins long and an interest watch.
As an aside I saw a clip on YouTube tonight, it was a CBS news story about the resurgence of cassette tape sales in the USA, big upswing in sales to Gen Z since 2015... it was about 5 mins long and an interest watch.
As an aside I saw a clip on YouTube tonight, it was a CBS news story
about the resurgence of cassette tape sales in the USA, big upswing in
sales to Gen Z since 2015... it was about 5 mins long and an interest
watch.
Really? I'm in the USA, and haven't seen a cassette tape since I was a kid. :)
The last cassette manufacturer closed down a couple of years ago, now they're going to use scarcity and demand to drive the price of tapes up. Smart. Time to stock up and start an eBay store.
Really? I'm in the USA, and haven't seen a cassette tape since I was a
kid. :)
A couple years ago, Amazon sent me something by mistake which must have been someone else's order (but was addressed to me), and it was a cassette tape of a fairly recent album that an independent artist had released. So apparently there is indeed some recent demand for cassette tapes.
As an aside I saw a clip on YouTube tonight, it was a CBS newsstory about
the resurgence of cassette tape sales in the USA, big upswing insales to
Gen Z since 2015... it was about 5 mins long and an interestwatch.
Really? I'm in the USA, and haven't seen a cassette tape since I was a
kid. :)
I wonder if it is a nostalgia thing where the Gen Z kids find their parents old cassettes & players and then start wanting some of their own.
In the late 1980s, I for a brief while got back into 8-tracks. Not so much because I thought they were better (by any means!) but because I still my parents' working player, that I could plug into my stereo, and could find the tapes at garage sales, flea markets, etc., for 25-50 cents vs. $12-15 for the CD.
More recently, I have purchased old albums for between 50 cents and $2 from a local flea market store vs. more expensive CDs. Then again, they are mostly CDs I'd not gone looking for otherwise so I probably wasn't saving as much $$$ as I thought. ;)
That's cool, I guess. I just haven't seen or had one (or anything to actually play it on) in over a quarter of a century. Honestly, I don't really have an urge to, either. I remember the difference in sound quality when we moved on to CDs. Or winding up a cassette tape that got murdered/unraveled by the cassette player, etc. No thanks. :)
Yeah, I don't really have an urge to either, for the same reasons. But one thing I'm somewhat interested in is digitizing rare music that was available on cassette but not made available on newer media. I have a few such cassettes, and several years ago, I bought a cassette deck (which looks like a walkman) with a USB interface, for digitizing cassette tapes. I recorded a few that I have, then cleaned the audio up a bit, and split them into the separate audio tracks.
Is there really that much that was released on cassette and *not* re-released on CD over the years though? Or are you just not willing to spend the money on said CDs when you can just do it yourself?
Hell, I don't even buy CDs any more. I want to listen to music I just stream it. Much less clutter. :)
More recently, I have purchased old albums for between 50 centsand $2
from a local flea market store vs. more expensive CDs. Thenagain, they
are mostly CDs I'd not gone looking for otherwise so I probablywasn't
saving as much $$$ as I thought. ;)
Sounds about right. At that point it probably becomes more of an
impulse buy than anything. I can attest I've been guilty of that many
times, just not in retro music playback, is all.
Is there really that much that was released on cassette and *not* re-released on CD over the years though? Or are you just not willing
to spend the money on said CDs when you can just do it yourself?
I was thinking about how I want direct control of my music again and
They aren't? I always thought the songs on a CD were ordered the same
way as they are on the casette and LP versions (though in some cases, I think they ordered the songs differently for each side of the record,
Wnen iTunes first offered that "replace your library with
(better) iTunes versions) I was skeptical. Then, I started
hearing stories from people that their favorite local copies
went missing. But, did iTunes truly delete those previous
copies? ..or was just the XML library code adjusted to point to
the iCloud version?
I also entertained using an iPod loaded with material. The iPod
would be powered by a dual cigarette-lighter charger/cradle.
That worked extremely well since the iPod had greater storage
than a 700/800MB CD could provide.
In the late 1980s, I for a brief while got back into 8-tracks. Not so much because I thought they were better (by any means!) but because I still my parents' working player, that I could plug into my stereo, and could find the tapes at garage sales, flea markets, etc., for 25-50 cents vs. $12-15 for the CD.
Streaming music is one thing I don't really like to do.. I often listen to music in my car, and there are a lot of areas where there's no signal (especially if I'm on a long road trip), and I wouldn't want my music cutting out. I know some streaming services let you save music locally though, but if it's music I really like, I generally prefer to buy a
copy and have my own that I can play anywhere. I don't directly play
CDs anymore, but I'll rip them to FLAC and MP3. I have the MP3s on my phone, as well as on a USB flash drive that I can play in my car. I also have them on my media server, so I could stream it if I wanted to.. And
I have my CDs in a closet so they aren't making clutter elsewhere.
hollowone wrote to n2qfd <=-
Then I came back to the number of CDs I already have and digitalized
them all into FLAC. I keep downloading albums for offline use than anything streaming (legal or illegal, doesn't matter technically
doesn't matter).
I use VOX on my computer, Winamp on my iPhone and listen to all the
albums I have in an old fashioned way, from 1st to last tune as it was designed originally.
hollowone wrote to Nightfox <=-
They aren't? I always thought the songs on a CD were ordered the same
way as they are on the casette and LP versions (though in some cases, I think they ordered the songs differently for each side of the record,
I only heard that when recorded they are much more louder and lose all
the audiowave dynamics comparing to the past. I usually normalize
against loudness when I rip CDs.
Another warning for purchasing audio online.. unless you have ability to have un-DRMed version to be downloaded for offline maintenance, then there is no buy from my side.
My hearing is getting worse, MP3s at 192kbps seems fine. :(
My first record listened thusly? Moving Pictures, by Rush.
In the late 1980s, I for a brief while got back into 8-tracks. Not so
much
because I thought they were better (by any means!) but because I still my
parents' working player, that I could plug into my stereo, and could find
the tapes at garage sales, flea markets, etc., for 25-50 cents vs. $12-15
for the CD.
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