Or was it just a bit of hype over a mere novelty in the press?

Just curious if anybody dipped their toe in and spent some cash or just dug out an old deck and a box of tapes.

God no.

I got some tapes out of the loft – mainly because one of my sons likes all things retro. He’s currently using my minidisc player. I bought one album on tape – but that was for him too.

Talking of kids and retro stuff…

God no.
I’ve gone straight back to wax cylinders.

Got rid of my tapes back in the late 90’s when i initially moved over to minidisc so no intention of listening to cassette again but im pretty sure i have my old broken walkman dc2 somewhere in the loft

I have a decent NAD cassette player ( separates system) that is 20 years old and never used if anyone wants it

Terrible format. Minidisc was brilliant though

I have a decent NAD cassette player ( separates system) that is 20 years old and never used if anyone wants it

Errrm yes please!

How much for postage TJ?

I had no idea there was one.

In the context of what technology was available at the time it wasn’t terrible* and results on my Nakamichi deck were very good.

Boring fact. King Crimson’s “Earthbound” was recorded on a cassette machine and contains the definitive version of “21st Century Schizoid Man”*.

*Views stated are my own and not my employer’s.

Before writing it off as shite, one should bear in mind it was commercially released in 1963. At that time it was without equal for quality vs the dimensions of the medium. Music became truly portable because of the compact cassette.

PM me Derek

PM sent tj.

They were great in the 80’s as no other option if wanting to carry around music (i.e. on paper round) but they had a lot of weak points.

I thought the reason for them now is that small bands can easily produce many recordings for a low price and not have to involve vinyl pressing or putting onto streaming service.

Some of the music I listen to is being released on limited run cassettes as well as digital. I buy the digital and keep the cassettes because they are quite sought after (runs of only 50 or 100). Must of it is sold on Bandcamp where there seems to be a cassette rivival. They usually sell out in a couple of hours, sometimes quicker!

I have just (this week) finished converting the last of my old cassettes to mp3. I have done well over 100!!

The cassette decks on my stereo have never been used in 24 years so no.

I did sell a few unopened boxes of TDK 90 blanks (think it was 4 packs of 3×90’s) though when it started to kick off. Put them on eBay as a 1p start and they went for well over £60! Thought that was a mad price at the time but a few weeks later saw some being sold for £30 for a pack of 3.

Why can’t you buy super light headphones like the ones you used to get with cheap Walkmans?

Why can’t you buy super light headphones like the ones you used to get with cheap Walkmans?

Because they were crap

As were cassettes

Boring fact. King Crimson’s “Earthbound” was recorded on a cassette machine and contains the definitive version of “21st Century Schizoid Man”*.

*Views stated are my own and not my employer’s.

I would argue with that statement, I’ve got a bunch of different versions of Schizoid Man, and I’ve got the recent remastered version of ‘Earthbound’, and it’s not a great recording; it may be a great performance, but the recording does it no justice.

The album’s sound quality is very poor, because of its being recorded onto cassette tape (a low-fidelity recording medium, even by 1972 standards) by live sound engineer Hunter MacDonald. The liner notes to the original LP cover and recent CD reissues of the album state that it was “captured live on an Ampex stereo cassette fed from a Kelsey Morris custom built mixer … in the rain from the back of a Volkswagen truck.” Atlantic Records, the original distributor for King Crimson in the United States and Canada, declined to release Earthbound because of its poor sound quality. Because of its cassette origins, the sound could not be significantly improved on later CD reissues of the album.

Because they were crap

As were cassettes

No, that’s not entirely true, see above. They were a truly portable medium, and the quality, on a reasonable player, was easily on a par with vinyl, which wasn’t in any way portable.
I used to record mix tapes from my turntable, later a CD player, into chrome or metal tapes on a three-head Aiwa deck, which had bias EQ facilities, and in a car it sounded fantastic, especially tracks recorded from 12” vinyl, and the difference between those tapes and regular Ferric tapes was significant.

They were a truly portable medium, and the quality, on a reasonable player, was easily on a par with vinyl

By some quirk of manufacturing, the Sony WM-D6C provided better sound than many separate cassette decks. A mate of mine had one. I was very jealous!

I loved cassettes but to say it had similar sound quality to vinyl I will not agree with. Much more hiss even using dolby and did it not have a reduced dynamic range?

Given that I remember when they came out and the convenience of being able to record stuff without the hassle of reel to reel was a real step change

my car came with a cassette player with Oxygene in it.
Loved playing it constantly when it came out, but not so much these days

What eskay said. I have bought a few recently. Daveed Diggs released a cassette only purchase, but you got the digital too. I’ve stopped buying US ones off bandcamp as the postage is too high. Got a nice cass only release from a local band. I know I’m weird, and it’s a pretty unusual way of thinking these days, but I believe in supporting the artists.

I found a bag of car mix tapes I made in the 80s in the shed the other day. Tdk SA90s; will they have oxidised to death by now? Still have what was originally quite a fancy Kenwood tape deck in the loft. Although I also still have the albums I recorded the tapes from so a bit of a waste of time recovering the tapes.

Revival? I’ve carried a box of about 100 cassettes through 30 years of house moves. A few 80s albums but mostly cds recorded onto tape for the car. My hifi has always had a cassette deck in it, currently a Nakamichi that I inherited in 2008. I have a few older ones (Aiwas and Sonys) in the loft.

Sound quality is fantastic, if a little hissy sometimes.

I would argue with that statement, I’ve got a bunch of different versions of Schizoid Man, and I’ve got the recent remastered version of ‘Earthbound’, and it’s not a great recording; it may be a great performance, but the recording does it no justice.

Oh I agree. It’s the performance I was referring to.

Revival?

I’d say it’s fair to call it that. I bet there was a long period before the last few years when new releases on cassette were very thin on the ground.

There was a new release on mini disc on bandcamp a few months back. I’m pretty sure there’s no revival in the near future though. I do still use mine occasionally. Made loads of compilations of Breezeblock sessions and Essential mixes.

Another fashion victim landfill revival.

Just wait, as soon as the emperors new new clothes come along charity shops won’t be able to sell them cheap enough.

Having grown up with them they were convenient for portability but that’s about it. Minidiscs were an evolutionary stop gap before solid state took over, why you would go back to something that degrades through use I can’t understand.

I think I’ll wait for the CD revival

Cassettes were only good for pirating commodore 64 games back in the 80s

I had boxes and boxes of them, whenever any of my group of friends bought a new game the rest of us would immediately make a copy of it onto a c90 cassette.

Another fashion victim landfill revival.

Wrong

and

Cassettes were only good for pirating commodore 64 games back in the 80s

Also wrong, but more humorously so

Aye, I still play a few of my old ones from time to time and purchase the odd rarity, sound quality is very indifferent between tapes/manufacturers.

My car tape players destroyed more than I currently own, no real fondness for them compared to vinyl/CDs.

Nostalgia-fuelled nonsense.

Back in the day I loved cassettes. As others have said, I too had hundreds along with C90s stuffed with ZX Spectrum games. It was the first truly portable, recordable format and in that capacity there’s none better. But “I long for that authentic cassette sound” said no-one ever.

It makes even less sense to me than people still buying records – sorry, “vinyl” – at least there you can genuinely say that it sounds noticeably different and for some weird reason some people claim they prefer it, some pseudo-audiophile gibberish about ‘warmth’ or ‘depth’ or ‘eating Rice Krispies’ or something. Joking aside I get that, I do, plus records are Nice Things and there’s the whole ceremony around actually cleaning and queuing up a disc before “listening to an album.” Whereas cassettes brought us small and convenient, in 2020 there’s smaller and convenienter with far better quality to boot so why bother?

Yes. CDs are my favoured medium. Cassette tape for stuff that isn’t, never was, or never will be on CD. Digital files for having a listen before you buy CDs. No interest in vinyl records anymore, but cassettes, yes.

I’ve currently got a well-loved but fully functional (yes, tested) and rather nice Aiwa Walkman on the bay. One careful owner (me). Discovered in box of ‘stuff not used for about 20 years’. PM if interested.

Cassettes were pretty good for when they turned up. Arguably more portable than CDs. But mostly what Cougar said, mp3 for the convenience win.

On a recent clear out,I found a load of old mix tapes,some that I had been given,some that I made up.They will never get played but I can’t bear to throw them out.
Still send people music mixes on CDs #oldweirdo. 🙂

I have this snowboard, but that’s as far as it goes.

Nostalgia for tapes only goes as far as making up albums for friends, which was replaced by CD-R in the 90s.
I demoed a nakamichi deck in 91 and it was surprisingly good, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that tape is rubbish with humidity, awful to find a particular track on, etc, etc.

No ta.

It’s not just nostalgia; an explanation for the narrow minded – say you’re a little bedroom music producer, or maybe even not that little-known, you can sell a few tracks, so you want to release your music as a product, maybe you need to make a bit of cash from it, maybe there’s a demand from your audience for something. Maybe you want it to be a bit different (eg. the tracks should be listened to in a particular order), you want people to see the artwork and you want it to be limited edition, because people like to buy ltd editions…maybe you don’t want the music to be shared around on the web so easily.. Can you think of a cheaper, more cost effective medium?
Probably more reasons, just because you or I can’t think of them, doesn’t mean the reasons don’t exist.

I don’t remember it sounding that bad. Copies of CDs made on my Aiwa deck onto an SA90 tape sounded pretty good. A good quality “Auto Reverse” Sony Walkman sounded better then anything else you could carry around.

I don’t really miss it as a format though. I reserve my nostalgia for Mini-Disc which I loved

Yes. CDs are my favoured medium. Cassette tape for stuff that isn’t, never was, or never will be on CD. Digital files for having a listen before you buy CDs. No interest in vinyl records anymore, but cassettes, yes.

This is exactly me. Although perhaps I’m a little more obsessed with CD not only as a medium but for the engineering, mathematics and science behind it. Ive read too many books on the subject. I love that people love vinyl. It just doesn’t light my laser.