Cassettes may be making a comeback

And here I am, having thrown away all the 3000 cassettes I had - thankfully after digitalizing them onto the hard drive.

Fat Freddy wrote:

^^ I remember reading that when Cheap Trick wanted to release that album on 8-track, they had a hell of a time even finding a duplicator/manufacturer that had the equipment to make 8-tracks anymore! Haha.

Yeah, worst format ever. I hate how song would fade out.... Then the machine would "CLUNK" to the next track and fade back in. My brother had an 8-track player in his car in the early 80's. He joined Columbia House and instead of ordering vinyl he ordered everything on 8 track. Man, what a waste!

I do think my cassettes have a much warmer sound than my CDs and prefer listening to these versions over the albums where I have the CD as well.

I read that Stryper's To Hell With the Devil had a VERY limited number of 8 track pressings somewhere when it was released.

It kind of seems fitting that Tesla would release Reel 2 Reel on 8-track, considering that it was a bunch of 70s cover songs. Surprised they didnt make an actual Reel to Reel version!

Temple of Blood wrote:

I do think my cassettes have a much warmer sound than my CDs and prefer listening to these versions over the albums where I have the CD as well.

I actually believe that as well. to this day I swear Helloween Keeper 1 and 2 sound way better on cassette than on cd and even the vinyl.

I remember jammin' And Justice for All on cassette in the Madden cruiser,and putting scotch tape over the song titles so they wouldn't be erased.It seems that early copies of AJFA on cassette had a tendency for the actual song titles would rub off easily. !BOOM!

Here's a label/distro dedicated almost exclusively to cassettes: http://caligarirecords.storenvy.com/collections/279013-cassettes

All stuff released in the last couple years. Almost all of their own releases have sold out within months.

Century Media, Nuclear Blast and Relapse have all been doing cassettes releases.

Some other labels releasing cassettes:

http://www.dreadrecords.net
http://www.flogarecords.com
http://headsplitrecords.blogspot.com
http://www.shadowkingdomrecords.com
http://tridroid.bandcamp.com

and there are tons more.

Yeah, my AJFA song titles rubbed off on mine too. Annoying!

I have to say, making mix tapes was much more fun than burning mixes on cd.

Temple of Blood wrote:

Yeah, my AJFA song titles rubbed off on mine too.  Annoying!

Yup, me too. I actually took a bottle of Liquid Paper and drew a "1" and "2" on each side of the tape with it so I'd know which side to put in the player first.

The best part of cassettes was leaving them on the dashboard of your car and coming back to this:

Remember when certain cassettes would put the full album (or EP) on both sides of the tape? I have 3 examples of that (the first 2 U2 albums and Slayer's Reign in Blood), but i never really got the point of that.

Hadley wrote:

Remember when certain cassettes would put the full album (or EP) on both sides of the tape? I have 3 examples of that (the first 2 U2 albums and Slayer's Reign in Blood), but i never really got the point of that.

That was strange - I assume it was done because you had to fill up space without a bunch of blank tape?

I liked cassettes that would feature two albums on one cassette. This was my favorite:

I always took double cassette albums like Rush's Chronicles and glued them back to back for one complete package. I thought I was so cool.

corplhicks wrote:

I always took double cassette albums like Rush's Chronicles and glued them back to back for one complete package. I thought I was so cool.

Ha! That was innovation.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Temple of Blood wrote:

Yeah, my AJFA song titles rubbed off on mine too.  Annoying!

Yup, me too. I actually took a bottle of Liquid Paper and drew a "1" and "2" on each side of the tape with it so I'd know which side to put in the player first.

Hilarious! Just made me realize I was OCD about my cassettes. I used to handle them like vinyl. I only touched the edges and NEVER the face of the tape. The inside jackets had to be folded just right and had to be neat. And if the plastic cover had a scratch or a scuff in the trash it went to be replaced with a new one (and to an extent I was even this way with my CD's until good jewel cases became impossible to find).

I had this one and thought I got a steal on it when I paid $6 for it!

I believe this was the only 2 on 1 cassette I had :




And I never liked pre-Steve Perry Journey so I only listened to Next maybe once or twice.

I could understand the appeal of vinyl for sure-bigger artwork, slightly more durable for instance-but tape seems like a relic of the past with no redeeming qualities other than nostalgia. Cassettes are about as useful as a typewriter or rotary phones.

Witchfinder wrote:

Hadley wrote:

Remember when certain cassettes would put the full album (or EP) on both sides of the tape? I have 3 examples of that (the first 2 U2 albums and Slayer's Reign in Blood), but i never really got the point of that.

That was strange - I assume it was done because you had to fill up space without a bunch of blank tape?

I liked cassettes that would feature two albums on one cassette.  This was my favorite:

That reminds me of what Dead Kennedys did for the cassette pressing of one of their albums - they deliberately left the other side of the cassette blank.

Since I was diving the minivan today, I was jammin' a Frank Zappa mixtape that a buddy of mine had given to me YEARS ago. I still find cassettes useful because of the minivan.

Boris2008 wrote:

S.D. wrote:

There's a sucker (moron) born every minute.

I agree but mostly these cassette tapes come with FLAC downloads and are only a buck or two more than a simple download. It's just a fad but I've bought a few as a collector.

Wait... So cassette releases have been faster on the uptake for offering lossless downloads with the physical product than vinyl? So much for vinyl as an audiophile format (and yes, I know it's not, but considering how it's marketed).

John Madden wrote:

I could understand the appeal of vinyl for sure-bigger artwork, slightly more durable for instance-but tape seems like a relic of the past with no redeeming qualities other than nostalgia. Cassettes are about as useful as a typewriter or rotary phones.

Personally, in the age of the ascendance of the thrift store, knowing that I might chance on some pristine cassette versions of albums I''ve always wanted to hear for less than a buck each makes it good policy to keep a working tape deck on hand as a just in case.

Also, lest we forget, there are plenty of albums that never got proper digital releases, OR which got such limited digital releases that you'd need to mortgage the house to track down a quality copy and an awful lot of those do pop up on cassette. A prime example of this is the still-shrinkwrapped copy of "The Deacon" by Steve Hunter I picked up for something like $2 which got immediately ripped to my media server and shall live in perpetuity.

Back in the day, I was the "Cassette Doctor".... Everybody who knew me would bring
me their busted cassettes and I would fix them up to the best of my ability. I would usually
have to change the reels inside to another cassette casing. Some cassettes have the little
mini screws, some were just snapped together.....remember those little square cushions
in the middle that kept falling off? oh yea.....the memories of fixing them with superglue...