Inventor of the Audio Cassette has Run Out of Tape.

[mawnansmiff]

The invention of the audio cassette revolutionised home entertainment since matey came up with the idea in the 1960,s.

Oddly enough, I recently started throwing out my huge collection of audio cassettes simply because I no longer use them but over the years they have provided me with much joy.....except on those occasions where they mangled themselves in the mechanism.

Audio cassette tape inventor Lou Ottens dies aged 94

The Dutch engineer's invention transformed the way people listened to music in the 20th Century.

www.bbc.co.uk

Regards,

Jay.

 

[Old School 3319]

I still have lots of tapes and still use them as well as records

 

[Zack Miller]

Vinyl records are making a comeback.
During the era of cassette tapes, I found the quality of pre-recorded tapes to be inferior. If I wanted something on tape for my car, I would buy the album and transfer it to quality blank tapes.

 

[STP]

“Mangled” or not, the audio quality by now would be crap. I remember converting all of my cassettes (hundreds) to CDs in the ‘90s, back when Columbia House (or BMG) would give you 10-12 CDs for a penny, then you’d have to but 3 or 4 at full price. While antiquated, I still buy CDs if it’s a band I like with a new LP. Actually, I just purchase Chevelle NIRATIAS this week. My family thinks it’s funny ?

 

[macaroni]

I'm surprised when I think of CD's as being antiquated--which of course, they are! My years do pass quickly like the growing grass, which I need to go cut in a few minutes LOL
kindly
mike

 

[cosmicfolklore]

People rarely listen to the songs in the order they were set on an album in decades now. They don't understand the thought and precision that the artists took to put together an order for the songs. If Pink Floyd or Yes were released today, people would think it was weird just cherry picking songs like Money, or never even downloading the entire album. With Pink Floyd especially, very few of their songs work just by themselves. When I hear Money played in amongst other bands, it comes across as weird to me.
The era of rock operas is finished, because no one would ever just play an entire album by one band these days.

My boxes and boxes of tapes was sent to the attic years ago. Probably destroyed by heat and cold. But, I still keep my albums spinning from time to time.

But, thank goodness the mix tape is dead. My youngest daughter thinks that mix tapes are just random songs sent to someone, in which they play in whatever order their phone puts them in. She doesn't understand the creativity we used to put into them. I used to buy polka albums, workout albums, and childrens albums to have weird little things to add to the message between songs or overlapped songs on a tape. I loved finding snippets like Mr Rogers saying, "I wanna be your friend" or "What a great day," and working those into soundscapes. Just putting songs in an order is bullshit. That's nothing like we used to do back in the day, and requires no creativity.

But, anyways... forward ho... progress... and such...

 

[telescopes]

People rarely listen to the songs in the order they were set on an album in decades now. They don't understand the thought and precision that the artists took to put together an order for the songs. If Pink Floyd or Yes were released today, people would think it was weird just cherry picking songs like Money, or never even downloading the entire album. With Pink Floyd especially, very few of their songs work just by themselves. When I hear Money played in amongst other bands, it comes across as weird to me.
The era of rock operas is finished, because no one would ever just play an entire album by one band these days.

My boxes and boxes of tapes was sent to the attic years ago. Probably destroyed by heat and cold. But, I still keep my albums spinning from time to time.

But, thank goodness the mix tape is dead. My youngest daughter thinks that mix tapes are just random songs sent to someone, in which they play in whatever order their phone puts them in. She doesn't understand the creativity we used to put into them. I used to buy polka albums, workout albums, and childrens albums to have weird little things to add to the message between songs or overlapped songs on a tape. I loved finding snippets like Mr Rogers saying, "I wanna be your friend" or "What a great day," and working those into soundscapes. Just putting songs in an order is bullshit. That's nothing like we used to do back in the day, and requires no creativity.

But, anyways... forward ho... progress... and such...

When I throw dinner parties, something else that has gone out the door, I put a lot of time into the sound and music that will be played, everything from when the guests enter to when dinner starts. Everything is timed like a play at a theater. So much has been lost in way of how people use to get together.

 

[mso489]

The shifting formats for music over the years are deeply annoying. I'm glad to see vinyl is back, reputedly with its warmer sound. I had audio tapes I greatly enjoyed. Eventually I had a car that would play tapes and CD's, both of which I enjoyed, but now my car only plays via Bluetooth, and I am embarrassed to say I don't even bother. A case can be made for each of the improvements, but none of it improves the life experience much -- just one more damned gadget cluttering lives that makes the format we enjoyed inaccessible. It's not really progress at the experiential level. Just something else to sell us, often less enjoyable than the last iteration. That's my downer for the day.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I also miss big speakers. I have a Bose speaker for the TV and blue tooth, but it doesn't sound anything like BIG ass speakers that can move volumes of air in a room and you can feel it in your chest. Bose and the best speakers today are weak, IMO.

 

[fireground_piper]

The cassette tape, for what it provided, was a great product for it's time. The features and portability were great features but the move off of them is such a relief. They never sounded great and using tape as a medium in general is always a hassle with its degradation issues.

I've had to work with tape recordings from as early as the 1940s through the early 2000s and it all sucks to work with once you're the poor soul doing something with it after the fact. I'll always take the flexibility of digital over the headache of tape every single day.

I do usually purchase albums on Vinyl though if there's a vinyl version put out, even for new albums.

 

[mawnansmiff]

Many folks who denigrate tape as a recording medium fail to remember that most of the greatest albums ever sold were recorded on tape in the first instance. Indeed some studios still use tape, albeit 24 track tape.

Regards,

Jay.

 

[fireground_piper]

It has it's pros, but they've run their course for the most part. I don't know what the cost is now, but back in the 2000s you were paying $200 for a 24 track 2" tape that gave you 17 minutes of recording time. If you wanted to go to 48 tracks, $400 for 17 minutes of recording time before you pay for a single second of studio or engineer time. Then you have to store it all in ideal conditions to keep it's quality for as long as possible so it doesn't start shedding off on the machines and if its been stored poorly, need to start baking it so you can get 1 chance at getting a good digital capture from it before it's lost forever.

Then the support of the machines themselves. Alignment and calibration, cleaning, repair, space......its just such a niche market now. You have to be wanting to spend the money for it for a particular reason.

 

[Sloopjohnbee]

There was a good film on this guy on Netflix I think - he was very smart and a good businessman

 

[Old School 3319]

Probably half of my albums were inherited from my father some from me. There is nothing better than Johnny Cash on vinyl. My cassettes are all mine but they bring back alot of memories to me they might not have the best quality but I still listen to them

 

[alaskanpiper]

I remember getting my first "Walkman" as a young lad and I could not have been more excited. Now you couldn't sell one at a garage sale brand new for a dollar, and can hold 40,000 times as many songs in a device no bigger than a matchbook. Amazing how fast this little space rock of ours turns.

Despite that it was certainly an invention that influenced the world for quite some time. Not many of us out there that can claim that.

 

[STP]

I remember getting my first "Walkman" as a young lad and I could not have been more excited. Now you couldn't sell one at a garage sale brand new for a dollar, and can hold 40,000 times as many songs in a device no bigger than a matchbook. Amazing how fast this little space rock of ours turns.

Despite that it was certainly an invention that influenced the world for quite some time. Not many of us out there that can claim that.

Storage is amazing. I have Sandisk 256GB thumb drive (below) in my truck that cost $20 and can hold about 45,000 songs. It’s smaller than the tip of my finger. Kingston makes a 2TB flash stick. It won’t be long before they have a 10+TB... crazy! I remember storing term papers in college on a 3.5” floppy disks w/1.44 MB and thought that was amazing ?

 

[anotherbob]

Probably half of my albums were inherited from my father some from me. There is nothing better than Johnny Cash on vinyl. My cassettes are all mine but they bring back alot of memories to me they might not have the best quality but I still listen to them

I can think of a few things. I'll put it this way if I was on a date and got invited in I'd be disappointed to find out it was just to check out some Cash on vinyl. And yes I am talking about dinner and a drink and yes it's been a long time since I've been on a date, why do you ask.

 

[anotherbob]

I remember getting my first "Walkman" as a young lad and I could not have been more excited. Now you couldn't sell one at a garage sale brand new for a dollar, and can hold 40,000 times as many songs in a device no bigger than a matchbook. Amazing how fast this little space rock of ours turns.

Despite that it was certainly an invention that influenced the world for quite some time. Not many of us out there that can claim that.

It's funny I have an mp3 player for work and it's got hundreds of songs and space for way more. And to think yeah if it was back in the day I'd be using a bulky walkman and probably pick three tapes to bring with me each shift.

 

[jpmcwjr]

No rubber disks, no vinyl, no 8 tracks, no cassettes, no Dolby cassettes, no CD's, no laserdiscs, no DVDs, no BlueRays; all digital now. Still have a big box of CD's to give away.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I'm pretty sure I got a Walkman once that I never even listened to. I hated and still hate listing to music in earphone or ear buds. I'd rather not listen to anything than have it crammed in my ears like that. Screw Apple, and those stupid iPods also. Bah... get out of my yard!

I remember when my favorite record shop started carrying CDs, and some long haired hippie metalheads came in and was like, "woah, Judas Priest on CD! Dude!!" I remember thinking it was so weird that people would buy metal music on CD, the most distorted sounds, made crystal clear with digital technology. Didn't make any sense at all. And, I was pretty sure musicians would eventually turn away from distortion, and it pretty much did with the whole indie music phases.