The resurgence of cassette tapes

Bear said:
I am willing to bet that if I dug out my old tape deck and tapes, it would sound better than the vast majority of the turd CD systems people have in their homes. If anyone lives in Bucks and wants me to prove it, they are welcome.

Note at no point am I championing tapes to make a come back, just that they can sound great.
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Tapes can sound better depending on one's listening preferences, which of course is very subjective. For example, many people prefer the softer sound and the detail roll off at the high end, but this doesn't necessarily mean tapes equal or superior in any way.

If something on tape sounds better than it does on CD/digital, it's probably because the mastering on the source is poor to begin with or some other part of the audio chain is not good enough.
 
All I remember from tapes is the constant hiss and winding the bloody things back up.

Just another case of emperor's new clothes. There's always those who think they are 'hip' by being retro.
 
It will be 8 track cassette next.
Even now when I hear some old songs I think of them with clicking in them eg
"Me and you and a dog <click click click> named Boo" etc
"Gypsies Tramps & Thieves <click click click> We'd hear it from the people of the town"etc

8 tracks would switch sides half way through a song.
 
titaniumx3 said:
Tapes can sound better depending on one's listening preferences, which of course is very subjective. For example, many people prefer the softer sound and the detail roll off at the high end, but this doesn't necessarily mean tapes equal or superior in any way.

If something on tape sounds better than it does on CD/digital, it's probably because the mastering on the source is poor to begin with or some other part of the audio chain is not good enough.
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At no point did I ever say tapes sound better than any other format. What I did say was my old Nakamichi would sound better than many crap CD systems around today.
 
Lysander said:
Right, I've got a few minutes over lunch and I'd like to discuss this.

Some of you may not be aware that tapes are starting to make a big comeback. OK, not starting to, they already have. It started in the underground with noise, black metal and neofolk acts getting in on it and now it's starting to creep into the bigger labels.

Now, I've always been an outspoken dissenter on this one. Cassette tapes are, in my opinion, the worst sound medium. Sound quality is terrible, and you have to forwardwind and rewind to get to where you want to get it. And cassette players have the ability to mangle the tapes. The reasons WHY this happened in the underground are threefold: firstly, black metal and noise music sounds 'better' on cassette because both demand a thin, noisy atmosphere for enhancement and secondly because it's cheap for the label to do a tape run. Oh, and there's the nostalgia value as well.

Now I'm starting to see them edging their way onto the larger labels. Not for any other reason than it's trendy. What are people's thoughts on this? Good thing or pointless fad?
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Thin, noisy atmosphere is better? Hmmmm, ok :confused::rolleyes:
 
THMRK said:
Tapes were terrible quality. These hipsters and hardcore kids have a lot to answer for. They should stay in the past. Horrible, horrible things. My label will NEVER release a tape. I'd sooner go mini disc or even bloody floppy disk than release a tape.
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Who are these people? I haven't heard anybody locally mention tapes since the early 90s and most households were getting disc players back then as they told each other. Or came over for visits. Then it was the rave of multiple disc players.

Marsman said:
Some people do, but it's getting less and less it would seem. The general public buy whatever the marketing tells them to. Plenty of advertising for visual products, but not much for audio, save Bose. Sonos are advertising quite a bit now, but it's still audio products that are fairly discreet. I don't watch a lot of TV these days, but I can't remember the last time I saw quality hi-fi products being advertised.

People want bigger and bigger TVs, and smaller and smaller sound systems. Maybe women have something do with that as well. Bigger TVs are seen as desirable, whereas larger sound systems are seen as ugly or undesirable. How many women say to their other half that they want a nice big TV, then tell him to get rid of his floor standing speakers in favour of something small and discreet? At one point, men used to impress women with quality hi-fi systems, now it's TV size. :p
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Heh.

 
As someone who 20-25 years ago used to spend a fortune on blank tapes and could always be found hooked up to the hi-fi recording another tape to play in my car that week - long before I was paying for dull stuff like mortgages and pensions I thought nothing of splurging £500-odd on a JVC radio/cassette for my Rover Metro - I couldn't now imagine stepping back from the digital age we find ourselves in.

My current car has a tape player, but on the rare occasion it gets used it's by the adaptor that lets me play stuff off my iPhone through it!
 
Some people seem to think that the tinny hiss of mobile loudspeakers is acceptable, so why not cassettes too? :p
 
V F said:
Who are these people? I haven't heard anybody locally mention tapes since the early 90s and most households were getting disc players back then as they told each other. Or came over for visits. Then it was the rave of multiple disc players.
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I can only really speak for punk music, but there's an increasing amount of hardcore bands releasing stuff on tape only.

In fact, pop punk band Man Overboard started a (mainly) tape only record label called Lost Tape Collective. I mean, there's more but that's the only one I can think of from the top of my head.
 
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If you had a good hi-fi tape recorder, chrome or metal tape, spent time to set the bias and dubbing level up, then there is almost no noticeable difference to CD quality in most listening situations. I had tapes if I switched the amp source between CD and tape most would struggle to tell any difference. Only issue it was a lot of expense and time setting the recording up correctly, I even use to go to trouble to play the tape first so tape was perfectly aligned to record head when recording!
 
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Lysander said:
. The reasons WHY this happened in the underground are threefold: firstly, black metal and noise music sounds 'better' on cassette because both demand a thin, noisy atmosphere for enhancement and secondly because it's cheap for the label to do a tape run. Oh, and there's the nostalgia value as well.
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Ignoring all of the other valid reasons why this medium should go back to the whole that spawned it, in what world is it cheaper to create cassettes than cds?
 
Haggisman said:
Ignoring all of the other valid reasons why this medium should go back to the whole that spawned it, in what world is it cheaper to create cassettes than cds?
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To get CDs made to a fairly professional standard is not cheap, where as you can make tapes yourself that are of "professional" quality without having to go through a third party.

Oh and quantity too.
 
Lysander said:
Right, I've got a few minutes over lunch and I'd like to discuss this.

Some of you may not be aware that tapes are starting to make a big comeback. OK, not starting to, they already have. It started in the underground with noise, black metal and neofolk acts getting in on it and now it's starting to creep into the bigger labels.

Now, I've always been an outspoken dissenter on this one. Cassette tapes are, in my opinion, the worst sound medium. Sound quality is terrible, and you have to forwardwind and rewind to get to where you want to get it. And cassette players have the ability to mangle the tapes. The reasons WHY this happened in the underground are threefold: firstly, black metal and noise music sounds 'better' on cassette because both demand a thin, noisy atmosphere for enhancement and secondly because it's cheap for the label to do a tape run. Oh, and there's the nostalgia value as well.

Now I'm starting to see them edging their way onto the larger labels. Not for any other reason than it's trendy. What are people's thoughts on this? Good thing or pointless fad?
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LOL

Ah the memories of minutes lost fast forwarding tapes won't even want to think about the hours lost due to tape jam.
Thank the lord every day for the digital revolution.
 
Well that explains why my spare Technics tape deck sold for quite a lot more than I paid for it on ebay recently. :D

I've nearly finished copying all my tapes to my server, so then this one will go on the bay too.
 
THMRK said:
To get CDs made to a fairly professional standard is not cheap, where as you can make tapes yourself that are of "professional" quality without having to go through a third party.

Oh and quantity too.
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I'm guessing that's because the "professional" quality of tapes is far below that of CD? :p
 
being a black metal fan i've seen this
they never went away really, same with records within the underground, but they have come back in a big way along with vinyl

it'll stay contained to the specialist/underground

i personally won't be buying any cassettes , and was even thinking of selling what ones i have as they are just gathering dust
vinyl on the other hand, i have bought one record recently and would get a few more for their superior artwork and design. but it won't be a regular thing
cds are my preferred format
 
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