re: Cassette Tapes

Had U2 live from the King Biscuit Flower Hour (did I get that right?) on a cassette that my long distance girlfriend broke and then repaired with tape.

Good times.

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Team TDK SA90 checking in.

I wish I could find a tech to CLA my Nakamichi deck

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Heh, I was team Maxell. Had a BX-300 as a stepping stone to the Dragon I was never able to afford.

But yeah, I don't miss cassettes one bit. The sound quality, even setting aside hiss, was not as full range as vinyl, though I guess at least it didn't suffer from tick/pop issues.

I expect my wife to make a mixtape for me very soon if she loves me

I’ve thrown away hundreds of cassette tapes but I still have a few dozen. I still have a boom box with dual cassette players. And I’m pretty sure that somewhere around here I still have a few blank Maxell XL II-S tapes that are still in their wrappers.

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Cassette's were cool because you could split the cost of one tape with your bros, go home and mass produce copies on your dual cassette deck.

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It was the original Napster. I did the same thing with dual deck vcrs. They were way too greedy back in the days that they were wanting 100 bucks for a freaking movie.

You had to cram some cotton in the holes in the top then tape over it to reproduce the cassette, if I remember correctly.

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You had to cram some cotton in the holes in the top then tape over it to reproduce the cassette, if I remember correctly.

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Yep. Or push the little plastic tab with your finger that would go into the cassette and tape it up.

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You had to cram some cotton in the holes in the top then tape over it to reproduce the cassette, if I remember correctly.

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You broke out the tabs from a cassette after recording it so you couldn’t erase it or record over it. There was never anything preventing you from copying any tape to a blank tape. Unless the target tape had the tabs missing. Then you needed to put Scotch tape over those little holes.

Up until a couple years ago my mom drove a 90s era Nissan and she still listened to cassettes in it. Classical music. Every now and then I'd pop in whatever she had in the cassette deck and was immediately taken back 25 or 30 years with that horrible tape hiss in the background

They’re sorta making a comeback driven by indie musicians and small labels. So, musicians are always looking for cheap and innovative ways to record their music.

A few years ago, underground musicians realized that they could find old analog reel to reel recording equipment designed to produce cassette demos for almost free. So, mostly punk and shoegaze musicians started making demos and passing them out at shows. Some creative aggressive labels started using cassettes to market their fledgling acts.

Kids who grew up in the late 90’s thought the cassettes were nostalgic and kinda fun, so they started buying cassette players at garage sales and thrift stores. Before you know it, there starts being increasing demand for blank cassettes, and the whole thing sorta took off from there.

Cassettes are nothing compared to vinyl, but these underground musicians found a cheaper way to make vintage sounding music, and turned it into a resurgent niche market.