Happy 50th birthday, humble audio cassette!

[AnitaPeterson]

The Register has put together a nice tribute for the technology that made the first real step towards giving music to the masses:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/30/50_years_of_the_compact_cassette/

Ahh... the memories of childhood... the yearnings for bias control, the happiness at using a metal tape.

Quick test: How many of you - without using Google! - know what Type III stood for, in audio tape parlance?

 

[techietechnics]

Sweet! Happy Birthday Audio Cassette! I don't have any idea what Type III stood for, but all i can remember was using a pen or pencil to rewind the cassette tape! good times!

 

[vshah]

Spoiler

Type III were dual layer tapes with 2 different metal layers

 

[Gintaras]

My childhood was not Cassette Tapes...my childhood were LP's and Reel-to-reel tapes...Cassette Tapes came little later...when I was 18-20...

LPs still my main music collection, still have some original cassette tapes...and a Technics Cassette Tape Deck...
As for home recording, I did prefer Type II, favored brands were BASF, Denon, TDK...

Type IV didn't sounded much better than Type II and Metal Tapes weren't that friendly to magnetic heads....

Remember song: "Video Killed A Radio Star"...

I think, MP3's killed Music, not just Sound...I would listen Cassette Tapes on a good stereo than crappy MP3s - MP3s - like listening to casstee tape that were recorded from radio with bad reception....

 

[mmntech]

I grew up on the tail end of the cassette's popularity. Most people had a DiscMan when I was in high school. I had a Panasonic Shockwave, a beastly portable cassette player. It was the coolest thing when I got it. Mine was camo. Still have it, but it's really too bulky to walk around with. Even at the time it came out. Everything was unnecessarily huge in the 90s come to think of it.
http://shop.panasonic.com/shop/model/RQ-SW44V

I used to dub CDs onto tapes when I was a kid. Never got into making mix tapes though.

My dad still has this bad boy from the early 80s, in perfect working condition.
http://www.walkmancentral.com/products/wm-f15

He has a pretty extensive music collection on LP, cassette, and CD. Which is where I got a lot of my music. I rip them to Apple Lossless.

 

[Oyeve]

Ferri-Chrome was the best balance! I still have 100s of cassettes and my sony ES tapedeck is still connected to my main hi-fi system. I havent used it in years tho. man, so many good memories with mix-tapes!

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

The cassette really did play an important part in my childhood, between us kids recording ourselves on one of those big mono cassette recorders the size of a shoebox, and making mix tapes in high school. That being said, once CDs and particularly CD-Rs became readily available, that technology appropriate died off, and I don't miss it one iota. I'm glad my 2002 car managed to JUST miss being equipped with a cassette player.

 

[olds]

My Mustang had an 8 track player in it. Then Radio Shack was selling a unit that played 8 tracks and cassettes so I got that.

 

[mmntech]

The cassette really did play an important part in my childhood, between us kids recording ourselves on one of those big mono cassette recorders the size of a shoebox, and making mix tapes in high school. That being said, once CDs and particularly CD-Rs became readily available, that technology appropriate died off, and I don't miss it one iota. I'm glad my 2002 car managed to JUST miss being equipped with a cassette player.

I went back and listened to some tapes and I forgot how poor the audio quality was on them. And people talk about the stuff off iTunes being bad. Either that or the mighty Shockwave didn't like being woken from its 12 year slumber. Tape will not be missed.

CD-R really did kill them. Especially once the Discman got better at anti-skip and started supporting MP3. I was one of the few kids in my high school to have a burner at home. Was so easy to make mix CDs. Still have a few of them.

 

[olds]

The cassette really did play an important part in my childhood, between us kids recording ourselves on one of those big mono cassette recorders the size of a shoebox, and making mix tapes in high school. That being said, once CDs and particularly CD-Rs became readily available, that technology appropriate died off, and I don't miss it one iota. I'm glad my 2002 car managed to JUST miss being equipped with a cassette player.

I just replaced the head unit in my Toyota. It had a CD and cassette slots. The unit I replaced it with has a slot for a CD but I don't use it. Just wanted USB and AUX for my MP3 player.

 

[poofyhairguy]

The cassette really did play an important part in my childhood, between us kids recording ourselves on one of those big mono cassette recorders the size of a shoebox, and making mix tapes in high school. That being said, once CDs and particularly CD-Rs became readily available, that technology appropriate died off, and I don't miss it one iota. I'm glad my 2002 car managed to JUST miss being equipped with a cassette player.

I would prefer a tape deck nowadays because then you can get one of those aux adaptors and use something modern like a smartphone.

 

[vshah]

I would prefer a tape deck nowadays because then you can get one of those aux adaptors and use something modern like a smartphone.

those cassette tape aux adapters provide such terrible quality audio though.

even many older car stereos supported cd changers as factory option, and this lets you use newer adapters that mimic cd changers & let you connect via AUX or USB. granted they're a bit more expensive than cassette adapters.

 

[bolinder]

My dad still has this bad boy from the early 80s, in perfect working condition.
http://www.walkmancentral.com/products/wm-f15

That reminds me of my dad's Walkman, too. His was one of the first with auto-reverse. I was so jealous. I remember saving all summer to be able to buy one with auto-reverse...and a digital tuner. Now that was cool.

I am down to about a show box of cassettes, slowly replacing with MP3 or CD. I sold my Infiniti a few months ago and that was my last cassette player. It didn't work that great, but it was something. The day my stereo with dual cassette died was a very, very sad day.

I was given my first CD in high school. Sadly have a growing box of those dinosaurs, too.

Happy Birthday Cassette! I miss you, but think of you often.

 

[Matt1970]

My childhood was not Cassette Tapes...my childhood were LP's and Reel-to-reel tapes...Cassette Tapes came little later...when I was 18-20...

LPs still my main music collection, still have some original cassette tapes...and a Technics Cassette Tape Deck...
As for home recording, I did prefer Type II, favored brands were BASF, Denon, TDK...

Type IV didn't sounded much better than Type II and Metal Tapes weren't that friendly to magnetic heads....

Remember song: "Video Killed A Radio Star"...

I think, MP3's killed Music, not just Sound...I would listen Cassette Tapes on a good stereo than crappy MP3s - MP3s - like listening to casstee tape that were recorded from radio with bad reception....

I don't think you remember how crappy cassettes really were.

 

[Matt1970]

those cassette tape aux adapters provide such terrible quality audio though.
.

Not to mention you always had to wedge the in there just right to get them to work right.

 

[Kaido]

I would prefer a tape deck nowadays because then you can get one of those aux adaptors and use something modern like a smartphone.

404 error - music not found:

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18zlueq871rsnjpg/original.jpg

:awe:

 

[marincounty]

Too bad a lot of those mp3s you guys listen to sound like.....cassettes!
BTW my Nakamichi sounded awesome, switching between source and the tape reveals a difference, but you can't tell which is which. I haven't listened to a tape in years, though.

 

[bolinder]

Too bad a lot of those mp3s you guys listen to sound like.....cassettes!

Sadly, that is so true. I played my iPhone through the car on the way home and all the songs sounded bad. I hadn't noticed it that much before, but it was rough tonight. I need to go back to the CDs and maybe try the lossless format.

That said, I don't want cassettes back, just nostalgic for the good ol' days.

 

[RandomFool]

Not to mention you always had to wedge the in there just right to get them to work right.

I used to wedge a fork into the top of my car stereo so the aux thing worked correctly. Only smelled burning once. Good times.

I've always wanted to find an boombox at goodwill and listen to my old mixtapes. I spend hours making those things back in the day.